All Forum Posts by: David Gonzalez

If you need a residential agent you can also search for an agent with a CRS designation (Certified Residential Specialist). People with this designation are required to take classes and have a minimum number of residential sales completed. I have gone to a number of CRS classes/conferences and the agents I meet are top notch!

If you have the credit score you can get a low down payment conventional loan. You will have to pay PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) but it will disappear once you meet the minimum equity and time requirements. Some loan products offer you the opportunity to pay the PMI up front. FHA is great for people who neither have the down payment or the credit score.

@Alyssa Paros I tell people: “I am sorry but we do not participate in that program. “

Investors love fourplex’s because they are easier to finance. When you buy 1 to 4 units you can get loans that are lower down payment, reasonable interest rates and long term (I.e. 30 year loans). When you get to the 5+ unit sizes you have to get commercial loans which tend to have higher down payments and are short term loans (I.e. 10 year 30 year amortization with a ballon payment in 10 years).

If you come from a finance background or have previous real estate investing experience it may be worth it to go the commercial route. If you don’t have either of those experiences I would suggest you go the fourplex route. Less moving parts and it’s easier to find a good PM company that manages “residential” properties than small commercial multifamily properties. When looking at properties don’t just look at your cash on cash return but also look at the potential tenants of your rental home. You want to buy in the B neighbors and maybe the C+ neighbors. Better to pay a slight premium on a property with B tenants than C tenants. Trust me you will thank me later.

I would let them know 60 to 90 days before it expires and give them a deadline to respond to the new terms. If the deadline passes and they haven’t responded I would market the property for a new tenant.

Also next lease term I would have the lease expire at the start of the season so if your tenant leaves you can easily find a new tenant.

@Joshua Paul I agree with @Tim Swierczek. As an agent myself I can say that brokerages are a dime a dozen and they are a commodity business (I.e. they all offer essentially the same services etc.).

If you are serious about making Real Estate a career you should be working under a team in a brokerage that is respected. Also Real Estate is a contact sport so you should be prepared to contact as many people you can as often as you can. Where every you decide to go always keep your own database and work on branding your self.

I use Buildium for the residential properties I manage. The software is a great entry level PM software product but I am personally not a fan of their application/screening. The credit check is done by MySmartMove and I find the information to be okay at best.

Many large apartment communities use On-Site to do their application/screening. I have used them when I was working as a leasing agent and would like to start using them for the residential properties I manage. The information they get is much better and you can customize what you are screening for. Also the reports are easy to read.

https://www.on-site.com/

As for checking references I would never hire a company to do it. This is one of the best ways to verify an applicant is a great tenant. I have received calls from various companies that verify references and they do a horrible job of verifying the tenant and verifying that I am the right person to talk to. Its a pain in the butt to call each rental reference but its more painful to go through an eviction in California.

You are doing great @Matthew Perry! You did a great job following up and building a relationship with a potential seller. Those are the skills that will serve you well when you scale to bigger properties.

There are only four sites you need to be in to cover close to 100% of your potential renters: Zillow Trulia HotPads and Craigslist.

You won’t get many leads directly from Craigslist but you will notice less leads from the other three sources if you don’t continuously renew your posts. Zillow has a posting product I have used for close to 10 years and love! You write your post once and it aggregates to 3/4 of the sites I recommended. They even have a place where you can cut and paste your ad to Craigslist. Also check your property management software product to see if they have a marketing platform you can use.

With $100/month budget I would recommend Square space or Wix.com. If you want to DIY and spend less money I would recommend you buy a domain and get cheap server space from Godaddy. Though it’s competitors are cheaper Godaddy has excellent customer service and TONS of explainer articles.

Set up Wordpress and go to Themeforest.com to purchase a template. You can either customize the theme or hire some one else to do it. Find a theme that is responsive (I.e. fits to the screen size).