All Forum Posts by: Dave Klein

I remember 2008 quite well but at least back then we had the option to cut rates. Of course no one knows for sure but I think this next one may be worse then 08.  No doubt it will be an interesting time to be an investor if you have cash and are nimble.

I was listening to The Real Estate Guys Podcast from 2 weeks ago and they seemed pretty worked up about some treasuries going no bid so the
fed had to step in and buy them for a few days. They're far smarter at that then me so hearing them get worked up over it kind of got me intrigued.

Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered lol

The fed keeps cutting rates in an attempt to keep the economy from going into recession. It's inevitable, at some point we ARE going to have a recession. What weapons do they have to boost the economy if the rates have already been cut to zero?
Negative interest rates??

@Peter K.

Not really

That's crazy to get that many inquiries to only get one qualified tenant. Hopefully that's not the norm. I have this property on a 15 year and it still cash flows nicely even with one vacant so I definitely won't be selling any time soon. I'm actually shopping for many more like this..... just in slightly nicer neighborhoods lol

@Matt Maurice, thanks for the feedback. No delays on my end. An email would come over and each time I would have a reply back to them within an hour. When they needed funds in order to get the contractors in I transferred the funds the next day. So far in 4 months of the unit being open I have gotten one marketing summary report, last week. Heck up until 2 weeks ago they didn't even have any pictures of the inside of the unit.

I have reviewed the rental criteria they're using and it seems pretty straight forward. When I listed the ad on Facebook and got the inquiries I responded back to them all with the following message

"Thank you for your interest in the apartment, it is still available.
We do have a couple pre qualifications for renting this unit which will save both of us some time.
1) Gross monthly income must be at least 2.5 times the monthly rental amount.
2) No evictions filed against you within the past 5 years - regardless of outcome.
3) In order to move in you would need the 1st months rent and the security deposit ($1350 total).
If you meet these qualifications then we’d love to have you apply. If you would like to schedule a viewing, please contact our leasing agent at 262-XXXX his name is XXXXXX. The Property ID is #XXXXXX. You will probably have to leave a voice mail so please include that in your message so he knows what unit you are calling about.
The unit is currently empty so it is very easy to show and a qualified tenant can move in quickly."

I get what you mean about the credit issues in that area since it's a C class neighborhood. I'm hoping my message weeds out some of the non qualifiers. With over 100 inquiries you would think that at least 20 would qualify though.

Thanks for the suggestion @Marcus Auerbach. I checked out their website and I definitely do agree with their pricing model in that it takes just as much effort to manage a $500 per month unit as it does a $1500 a month one so why should a management company get 3X the fees. Unfortunately since my units rent for $675 their flat fee would put my management fee at almost 20% so I don't think they will work out for this property.

Appreciate the feedback though. Who knows, maybe me having to do a lot of the work is actually a good thing. If I can figure out how to do it all from a distance maybe then I just self manage long distance (100miles) and just hire a local leasing agent once I get enough units :)

I've been with them for a year now and I'm less than impressed. I initially chose this management company for my 8 unit in Brown Deer because of all their positive Google reviews but I now strongly suspect that their reviews are fake. They are almost all from people who have only left one review and they are all overly positive.

When we started out things were fine. All 8 units were occupied when I purchased the property so they really didn't have to do to much work. In June one tenant moved out without notice. I said I wanted the unit painted and new carpet installed. It took them forever to get these two things done. It took them 4 weeks to get the unit painted and then my property manager suggested that I contact some carpet installers because I could probably get it done faster and for a better price. Two weeks later and Lowes had my new carpet installed that I completely scheduled and organized.

Two weeks ago I started really grilling my property manager on why the unit was still vacant and she said that there was one person who expressed some interest but never scheduled a showing. I got pissed so I created my own Facebook marketplace add for the unit and in the last 2 weeks I've had over 100 people (seriously not an exaggeration) contact me via FB messenger about the listing. I've been forwarding them to the leasing agent and telling them to schedule a showing.

Am I being unrealistic on what a property manager should be doing?!? I schedule the contractors. I market the unit. Isn't that what I'm paying them for. When I have one of my self managed units come open I have it turned and rented in 2 weeks MAX. Four months and counting for a basic vacancy is way to long in my opinion.

Welcome to Wisconsin. I live in Manitowoc and invest here and also North Milwaukee. We don't get crazy appreciation here like some other places but the CAP rates are solid allowing for very lucrative rentals. De Pere is a great area and I'm sure you'll find a nice house hack there if you don't already have one.

I'm looking to create an direct mail list for owners on the north side of Milwaukee who own buildings of 8-24 units. What's the most efficient way to create a mailing list like this??

So far the best game plan I've come up with is to just manually search a neighborhood on Zillow looking for quality buildings and then search the property the county tax site to find the owner information. Is that really the most efficient way??