All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

Thanks for posting. This is too funny. We should create a comic strip of tactics used by the snake oil sellers. Here's the cookie cutter flow I have seen: 1. Free weeknight talk at local REIA. 2. Modestly priced "weekend" Sat/Sun workshop 3. Up sell at weekend event to binder of (choose one): (a) 1-2 long-winded talkers stretching 1-2 hours of material over the course of 15-20 hours of audio packaged in an overly extravagant binder or (b) DVDs of well dressed salesmen and trophy wives walking around luxury homes and fancy cars they rented for the shoot. 4. Pick your poison: weeklong course / mentoring / "exclusive" deal list / etc. All with the with the usual FOMA to get the necessary wallet drops before doors open. Heck, just go on a cruise and watch for similar sales 101 techniques used to up sell shore excursions, on-ship "exclusives," or on-shore VIP jewelry retailers (aka retailers the cruise line gets a kickback on). Seth Godin posted an interesting perspective on marketing 101 recently that's worth a read: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/03/self-awareness-in-the-face-of-marketing.html

Be terribly cautious about covering hotel expenses. This sets up a precedent of tenants seeking reimbursement for expenses you have not agreed to. It puts them in the driver's seat. How many other tenants would like to stay in a nice A/C hotel during the hot months? Look over your local landlord-tenant laws. Most require adherence to fairly basic things: heat, sanity space, "reasonable" response to health and safety issues - all of which you are providing. Equally no landlord can guarantee safety. This is a trap many new landlord fall into. Basic safety like locks on doors/windows are one thing, but it is the tenant's responsibility to choose a place they feel safe living in, not yours. Be very careful in responding to questions from prospective applicants like "is it a safe area? What kind of people life there?" These questions open you up to appearance of potential housing discrimination. Tenants' own the decision on where to live. Don't let them pull you into drama around whether they feel safe enough to open a window. If they don't they should never have signed a lease on the apartment to begin with.

I've found Estately to be hands down best app on iOS for tracking properties. Far cleaner than zillow or trulia, since it was designed from found up for mobile. They do appear to still be building out capabilities though so if you're all about the metrics stick with the kitchen sink approach of zillow.

Linked over to this discussion from a BP post on e-rent collection. To the question of whether you need to accept cash, why not just use a service that allows for an option for tenants to pay in cash via MoneyGram or other 3rd party services? Several of the services listed off the original post allow for that:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/pay-rent-online-p...

I also started a simple spreadsheet that breaks out many of the online services from the article above by price and features. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cQ5NEU7s9i...

Costs of these services has come down quite a bit over last few years, with a couple now offering entirely free or near free pricing for bank transfers. 

Additionally, most break down to either:

1. Tenant-initiated pay portals (tenants must opt-in to start payments)
2. Automatic debit services (tenants must opt out to stop payments)

Depending on your situation you may choose to use a service like NAIL or ClearNow merely because payment is attempted automatically versus bugging tenants to initiate payment on their own. 

58 days average in Manhattan. Some surprising data here: http://www.elliman.com/pdf/02064cc4100afb3d006dcc036ac06b34a298f1c6

+1 Marcia Maynard

Greg, I think you are oversimplifying this question with these answers ( perhaps intentionally to get the convo started). To many money is just a means to an end: freedom or time. It is when it becomes the end in itself that people get lost, forsaking the form for its shadow.

As with any advertising medium the key is understanding cost versus market reach and demographics. While I tend to favor more targeted online media where I can still down to both demographic and predictive metrics ("most likely to buy in near future") Newspapers are highly regional so one size definitely does not fit all. I had a free local paper in a past city that cost < $50 to run an ad for over a month. Blew away any other form of media (online or otherwise) in reaching the local community looking for apartments. And all those we buy houses signs I would just tear down anyway.

Thanks @Justin Silverio and @Ann Bellamy. All sound great. Will check these out. No problem with memberships or paying folks for time, just other REIAs I have seen that build businesses around selling snake oil to new investors who might not have the wherewithal to tell the difference. That is counter to advancing the reputation of our industry. Just not something personally I am willing to support. Looking forward to engaging with others in the community.

Another new Bostonite looking at potential MF buy in coming years. Would love to catch up with other Boston area investor types to get a feel on where the market is headed and trends happening. Rents are increasing at ridiculous rates and starting to think investing may make more sense.

Loaded question, but are there actually local REIs not focused on just pitching speaker-of-the-weeks $1500 weekend seminars? My intent is rather to p connect with real people, learning from others and sharing what I know without an agenda. It sounds like that is a key tenet of these BP forums, which is wonderful.

Background: Managed a bunch of MFs in CT but that was all cash flow, since appreciation was minimal. Working on a startup related to residential leasing.