All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

Hey @Sam P.

1.Do you use a real estate agent or do it yourself? We're agents, but that being said, you can totally do it yourself.

2.If you do it yourself, where all do you post? Craig's List? Facebook, zillow/trulia/hotpads (if the owner opps in), cozy, realtor.com, apartments.com

3.Do you use Zillow? If the owner opps in and wants to pay for it.

4.Do you use apartments.com? Basic listing or premium listing Yes, basic

5.Do you put a "For Rent" up front of your place? No. 

6.Do you use rentals.com or any other website? No.

Our typical unit gets rented in 2-3 weeks with a non smoking, never evicted tenant with net income 3x the rent and no pets. 625 credit score or so. 

Hey @Breanne Lancaster, this is something that can be negotiated, @Mason Hickman is spot on. 

I certainly wouldn't trip over dollar bills to pick up pennies. In other words, if this is a good enough deal and you think the relationship is worth paying the fee, pay it and don't sweat it. It will be money well spent. 

When I bought my first MFR here in CT my agent at the time (I'm now licensed myself) was able to find me an off market 4 family in East Hartford for 200K. I wrote him a $5,000 check out of my own pocket. Did I have to? No, not really. Was it worth it? 1000% !

On average, we are raising our rates across our CT and western MA portfolio around 2-2.5% for lease renewals and around 3-5% for any turnovers. Of course there are exceptions and by no means is that a "rule" but it's what we've been able to do with little to no pushback fortunately. All of our tenants are paying at this time, so that really helps. 

We would be inclined to not increase rent on a good tenant if we know they have been hit hard by covid. It's a fine line because we know we don't have the leverage due to eviction moratoriums. 

Good question @Fedor Volkov

Everyone loves numbers and graphs, am I right @Johnny Quilenderino? Here's the graphs for median sales price in Connecticut throughout our entire MLS.

And here is the graph for the number of new listings throughout CT. It's your classic case of supply and demand. Supply went down, demand stayed the same or went up, so prices went up as well. 

Any good deal is going multiple offers above ask right now. It's incredible and frightening at the same time. Looks like people sat out the pandemic until May, then said "screw it" and started buying again. 

What's that quote? "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now".

Get after it bud! Reach out anytime, I'm an open book.

Hi @Claudia Barnes, 

What is your goal with getting access to the MLS? Some want it for personal use as a wholesaler, others are simply trying to do the work of a realtor. Depending on your goal I may be able to recommend a few different brokerages. I am a licensed real estate agent / property manager in the Hartford county area.

Happy to answer any questions I can @Jeff Lamothe. There's not a ton of Connecticut - based action on this forum so I get excited when I find a "local" lol. 

No, my multi was in East Hartford. I love doing property management out there. Most people coming to the area are looking for upgrades from worse towns, so they just seem more appreciative of the nicer rental product that we offer. 

If you're going to have kids in a school system though, I'd take West Hartford CT over East Hartford every day of the week and twice on Sundays. 

Covid is going to affect the market, but it's going to be a long term play and it probably won't be in the way we thought it would. I think COVID primarily changes the market by getting MFRs out of the hands of older folks who have just "had enough" and into the hands of eager younger people who will overpay because of the hype. I'm probably wrong though, let's see! 

We don't have a lease renewal fee at our property management company, and we're already doing inspections throughout the year, so we do not do a specific inspection during a lease renewal unless we have an area of concern @Ann B.

Before offering a lease renewal it's critical to do market research to make sure your rent increase is on par for the market.

You aren't doing anything out of line here. We even run credit / background checks on adult children who will be living at the property. If they are over the age of 18, credit and background checks are required. Sure, we may not be as concerned with their credit as we are about their parents, but we still need to do our due diligence. 

When it's two adults, the credit score and income level of each of them matters. One doesn't "average out" the other.