All Forum Posts by: Elise Bickel Tauber

Let me know if you end up with a good management company for short term rentals (air bnb). We get a lot of requests to manage air bnb properties and while we are open to looking into this option, we currently don't have a ton of experience so I would love to have someone we can refer these interested investors to!

I would like to suggest Tony Angotti and Gary Swank if you end up Pittsburgh. Both are on bigger pockets. GREAT agents!!!

I did a lot of research on this before starting my own company. It is pretty standard from what I'm seeing that the "rent a broker" cost was anywhere from $500-$1500. If you are just starting out they may want a flat fee but usually the cost is a percentage of the business. good luck!!

So alex, we do nothing as now? How will we know when to start? I asked my CPA and he was looking into it as well. Thanks!

I recently started my own property management company, but prior to this I was working underneath a large franchise. When I opened my doors to my new company in the last week or two I came to find a new 1099-MISC tax withholding from the beginning of the year that I had never heard of. Apparently we as property managers are required to withhold 3.07% of owner's income for out of state owners and properly file that withholding with the federal government. Am I understanding that correctly? I know for 100% fact the large franchise I just left was not doing this and I was hoping for a little direction as my CPA isn't back for another week.

Please excuse my ignorance and thank you everyone for your help!

I don't know if this is allowed or not (if not please remove). Coldwell Banker does a GREAT study prep class. I'm not a Coldwell Banker agent but I have a lot of colleagues who did their study class and passed the next time they took the test. Good luck!

I agree there are pros and cons. Some investors appreciate having a tenant in place as there will be instant income, but others prefer to put in their own. Maybe list the property yourself through investment groups (like facebook groups) and see if you can sell for sale by owner with the tenant in place. Offer a buyers agent commission if the buyer has an agent. If you can't sell it at a reasonable price, hire an agent to list and sell the property with the tenant out of the property. Good luck!

Pittsburgh is great because you can purchase at very low rates with high cap rates but the potential for high turn overs and tenant damage. There are areas you can purchase at middle range ($80-$180k) and be average rents and then higher areas with lower cap rates but the tenants are longer term, higher income tenants. 

I'm not sure what area you in (I may have missed it skimming the responses) but you can file with the magistrate and TAKE PHOTOS with you. The judge should give the owner 10 days to fix and if not, they will instruct you to put your rent in escrow. 

I haven't done a ton of evictions because we have had a really low number of tenants who default, but in the last decade plus we've probably done about a dozen (or a little less) and almost every time the magistrates just ask if you've provided notice and you can say yes or no. The tenant has the option to deny they received it and then you will have to prove how. However, there are a few magistrates that I have learned (through my experience and others) that will specifically ask if the tenant was served or notice posted per the statue and if you say no they will make you start over by posting and then re-filing.