All Forum Posts by: Joseph Jackson

@Dawn Brenengen Thank you so much for your response.  Very enlightening and helpful.

Just curious - do you both run your own property management company and invest in rentals on your own?  

You nailed it on the head - I went with Miller Valentine Group, which is a large property developer and manager in this region.  I went with them on the recommendation of my realtor, who I trust, and also because they a reputable company that I knew from working at a couple commercial real estate brokerage houses in town, so I felt the risk of them being bad was not very high.  Frankly, I didn't interview other companies or individuals as at the time I  had a lot going on and just needed someone to take over soon, and I just also was too naive to really know what to look for out of a manager to begin with.  I just wanted someone to take it off my hands and let me attend to my life.

But this, just like any experience in life, has been a good way to learn and expand my knowledge on what works and what doesn't, and more importantly what to look for next.  They've done a good job overseeing things, but I've had a couple issues, and then there's the price.  

Dawn, your philosophy, knowledge of how investing works and what landlords are looking for, as well as your pricing model is really very appealing to me.  How would you suggest I find someone like you in my local area?  

I'm thinking that when I buy my next property I'd like to try a new property manager and compare the two to see which I like better.  Long-term my intention is to continue to have managers oversee things for me.

Thanks again!

Hello all.  This is my first question posting on Bigger Pockets, and is a topic I've been wondering about for awhile now.

I bought a duplex while 20 years old in college, and am still holding it 7 years later.  I lived in the house for 2 years, and since then I have been renting it and managing it on my own, until this year when I decided I really would prefer to be arm's length away from the action and would rather hire a property manager full time.  

My house is near a university, and typically the house leases to college students.  Due to this, there tends to be higher-than-normal turnover (once a year or every 2-3 years).  

My concerns are related to the fees payable to the manager and making sure I'm keeping as much of my money as possible.  I paid the company 1-month's rent to lease the place out to new tenants, plus 10% per month to manage.  First of all, is 1-month's rent pretty typical in the industry?  I've asked around and it seems to be somewhat consistent.  What about lease renewals?  Should I expect to pay 1-month rent every time a lease is renewed, or is this typically a lesser one-time charge?  

As a follow-up, if the lease renewal charge is indeed expected to be less, how do you keep the manager incentivized to have the tenants renew, since the manager would earn much less if they stayed, versus if they left and they then were able to sign someone new for the full one-month's rent?

Finally, in a high-turnover neighborhood like mine, has anyone found that a property management company will work with you to lower their leasing fee with this in mind?  It's one thing for a management company to charge 1-month's rent to find a tenant that lives there for 10 years, but it's quite another to get charged 1-month's rent every single year for 10 years.  Quite a difference in cash flow.

Sorry for the long post.  Any thoughts would be extremely helpful.  Thank you!

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to take a moment and post a quick hello.  I'm a new member to Bigger Pockets after stumbling across a forum response to a recent real estate inquiry I did a quick web search on.  Loving the amount of support, community, and resources I'm seeing so far.  Also listened to my first podcast today and found it to be outstanding.  I'll add this to my podcast list for sure.

A little bit about me.  I am a financial planner based out of Cincinnati OH, and concentrate a lot of my time on furthering financial education for myself and others, as well as investing in stocks, bonds, and real estate.  I bought my first property at age 20, right before the mortgage melt-down in 2007.  I was definitely one of the subprime borrowers that were part of the problem as I was a full-time college student with part-time Best Buy income coming in, but somehow the bank still thought I deserved a 100% financed mortgage after getting a few friends to sign a lease for me.  I'm totally glad it worked out though, even though I bought high, as it got me into the game and I have learned an absolute ton ever since.  

I still own that property, as well as the home my wife and I live in.  Currently putting her through her Nurse Practitioner master's degree (this means a good deal of our income is paying for her school currently), after which am seeking to continue investing in passive real estate with the idea of building a large portfolio of residential and perhaps eventually commercial real estate as time goes on.

I'm looking forward to networking with you all and learning as much as I can, and hopefully giving back to others in my own way as well.  Thanks everyone.