All Forum Posts by: Ian Hoover

Almost every state you need to be a broker to own a property management company, however there are other ways you can do this:

#1 You can hire a broker to be broker of record but you will probably need to be licensed as an agent if you are doing any of the management side of the business.

#2 You can get your license as an agent and simply do property management with the blessing of your broker, I know Keller Williams & RE/MAX in my area will allow you to do such things and they will let you keep the majority of the profit.

In my state you would only need to be a property manager for about 3 years before you could be a broker (you would have to provide proof that you assisted in management and did leasing), so if you are motivated and take your brokers classes right after getting your licenses you could be a property manager in a few years depending on your state and in the mean time you could build up a book of business to take with you.

When it comes to answering the actual questions you asked here are a few tips for building the business:

You can pay for leads, company's like all property management will give you leads for a price.. Typically it ends up being $25-50 for good quality leads that will make you that money back in the first month.

You can call expired listings and listings that have been on the market for a while

You can market to agents (most agents want nothing to do with the business of property management)

You can be a vendor at local real estate clubs like REIA or ACRE

If you join a large company you can ask your broker for 5 minutes in your meetings to talk about property management to the other agents in the brokerage.

As for the other question I have never used that software, I have heard good things.. The only software I have used is propertyware but that is for larger businesses.

Good luck!

It really depends on the property, if it has been on the market almost or over a year and they have not dropped the price much it could be because they owe more than what it is worth.

Your agent needs to have a talk with their agent to see what the deal is, more than likely if the place is cash flowing $2k per month the owner is not going to go anywhere near your price even if it needs work because he is making money.

I have had decent luck with lower offers by negotiating verbally and be upfront "Hey I like the property but you and I are not on the same page with pricing, I am interested in the "$XX,XXX" ball park and I know you are probably not but my offer is here is you ever decide you need to sell.

I still don't get it for that price but a good amount of the time I get a reply back that the lowest they are willing to go is...

I just helped a client get a beat up tri-plex $30k under asking price with this method and last year I helped one of my clients get $45k off a property in a very hot area of town using the same strategy, I also set reminders on my calendar to go back to them every 2-3 weeks just to touch base and let them know my offer still stands.

Hope this helps.

@Megan Hirlehey We should talk, feel free to reach out to me.

Hi Blair,

I might be able to help you here, depending on what are of town and what scope of work you are looking to do.

Feel free to email me or PM me.

BTW just installed Lifeproof in my basement, while it was hard to work with once it is down I really like the look and feel of it.

Stainmaster is still a laminate product, lifeproof is vinyl so if the place is going to get wet at all I would use Lifeproof or Allure.

Congrats! It is always exciting to get a rental but it is the most when it is #1, keep up the hard work!

Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders, I wish I had started earlier.

Feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions.

Just like most areas in the greater Pittsburgh area, rents and values is very street specific. Make sure you are dealing with an agent that knows that area really well when it comes to rentals. Your best bet is to keep an eye on the market and see what other rentals are listed for nearby and compare them, once those disappear you know they probably rented around that price. I think you should be able to get the price to rent ratio you are looking for if you are patient.

@Greg Thibeaux welcome to BP! I think as long as you analyze the deal and have the right team around you then you will be happy with your results at the end of the day. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.