All Forum Posts by: Cody F.

@Matthew Paul

I'm around here quite a bit now, and I can tell he doesn't have the connection with the tenants I thought he had. That was my first thought in the beginning too, but it seems not to be true in this case.

I'm in need of advice and guidance for a pretty tricky situation.

Here's the problem:

We purchased a 41 unit apartment complex, with a live on site property manager. He's been with the complex over 20 years and we kept him on when we took over because we had no experience running an apartment complex.

Now I've learned a majority of his job and can do most of it and actually have automated most of it with an online program. Mostly his job consists of keeping track of the rent roll, and depositing money orders into the bank when they come in. (Will be fully automated soon with the new program). He also posts notices when a tenant is out of compliance with their lease. And all the tenants go to him if they need something. He also mows the grass in the summertime (250 per month value). That pretty much sums up his duties at this point.

In exchange, He gets a 3br apartment, and all his utilities covered except TV and internet. Plus 500 dollars pay.

He's in his 70s, has a pretty good job he works 40hrs a week at, and is involved heavily at his church and other things in the community. Causing him to be absent a lot.

He also has a grown son in his 30s that seems to be running an illegitimate side business out of our Tool Room. He doesn't seem to have a real job and drives a nicer car than me. Which is suspicious. I guess he was given a key by his father the property manager because he helps with lawncare and other odd jobs if needed sometimes.

So, I'm in a precarious situation. The property manager is a good guy, and he's old, and has been running this place 20 something years.

I'm looking for some suggestions on how to handle this delicately.

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We bought an apartment complex that was managed remotely before we bought it. The property now has a mess of cables everywhere that looks like vines growing all over the building. The cable or satellite technicians ran the wires however was easiest for them, up the roof and in through upstairs bedroom windows, drilling into the brick wall exterior, shoving wires into roof vents.

There's wires running in bundles along the steps of the apartments as a trip hazard. They put the satellites anywhere they can, drill right into the fences or dig holes anywhere in the yard. One was even fixed into the ground with concrete.

This is unprofessional of these technicians, and companies. What can I do? Call them and hopefully get them fix it? Would I have grounds to open a law suit against them for destruction of property, endangering tenants, and causing a lawsuit liability for us if they don't fix the situation?

It's bad and something has to be done.

I've considered removing the dangerous cables myself but I don't think the tenants would be thrilled with that.

@Tom S.

Tenants are late on the 5th so on the 6th we put out a 14 day notice to pay or potentially face eviction. The 20th was yesterday so we put out a notice to the 5 tenants to either pay or vacate by Sunday. Otherwise court papers will be filed on Monday morning sharp and they will then be billed the court fees as well.

I'm just not sure they realize how serious an eviction can be on their record. I still don't know if it gets reported automatically through the court system or if we need to report it to someone.

I'm facing some evictions coming up, but I would like to avoid them if they would just pay their rent and be respectful.

I'd like to send out a letter to these tenants reminding them of the consequences of evictions, and that we would like to avoid that as well, but it's our policy to evict if the tenant hasn't paid.

Also, would it be a bad idea to try to talk to them about what the problem is? So that we can maybe fix it if it's on our end? For example if they're unhappy for whatever reason with their apartment that we weren't notified about?

I'm sure they don't want to get evicted, and I don't want to either, but we must have the rent.

How do I hold tenants accountable for the debt they leave owing? Can I sell the debt to a collection agency or credit bureau or something?

And how do I report the eviction so the next landlord will see it?

I'm looking for a good property management software. We have 42 units to manage without plans to manage much more than that for a few years.

Features that are most important to me:

- nearly automated Application processing

- vacancy listing

- affordable background and credit checks

- income insight if possible

- online lease and forms docusign

- ACH payment collection ability.

There are 3 that I've learned about that seem to continually come up.

-Appfolio ( Doesn't have an option for my size of management but seems to be the most thorough. However it's complexity makes it less intuitive to operate from what I hear. )

- Rentec Direct ( Heard this one has stellar customer service and it has most features as well)

- Buildium ( I tried a trial of this one and it seemed interesting but it was kind of expensive, and the application process is with my smart move by transition. If I wanted my smart move by transunion,

I could just pay for it and keep doing the rest in excel how I'm doing. I'm looking for a better application process than smart move offers, so buildium is lacking in that category for me.

@Michael Ealy

Thank you, I'll try that! It already sounds much better than what I'm doing now! Haha

I'm trying to automate and streamline my application process.

Currently I'm posting my available units online through apps like Zillow and social media like Facebook. Driving traffic isn't my problem.

The problem is that my process is too difficult for people to follow through with it. We currently have applicants come to the office to pick up an application, which requires them to take a page to their employer to fill out with their income information. Then they have to bring it back and turn it in. Then if they're approved for income, we send them to an online background check through my smart move by transunion which costs 40 dollars.

This is a mess, and there must be a much easier and simpler way to go about this. I'm also interested in property management software that maybe has this feature built in. We have 42 units to manage right now.

I'm looking for a great CPA that has experience with apartment complexes. Any help or pointing in the right direction is appreciated!