All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

You 100% need to call Clinger Gomes. He's the cheapest guy I know, and his work is fantastic. Tell him I sent ya. Buyer beware that he can be hard to communicate with and you may need to baby sit a tiny bit, but it's so worth it. He's done a few thousand SF for us at this point, and has traveled to northern CT and even Western MA (springfield) for us. 

(203) 997-5628

https://www.facebook.com/hgt.f...

I wouldn't ever have to contemplate that because that's not how we charge, but I understand what you're saying. I think you hold our peers in this industry to a very high bar, but I think many of them would fall short of that bar when actually analyzed. It's unfortunate, but that's my perception, even as a property manager.

If it isn't about money, why charge the pm fee on a vacant unit in the first place @Soh Tanaka? 

You may also want to have them read Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people" if they haven't already. It talks a lot about the stuff you are mentioning above @Jason Malabute. Like you said, what do you have to lose?

Oof. Coming in with the heat this morning, are we Patrick? LOL

I agree with your idea to remove the self sufficiency test though. Anyone who has been in real estate for any significant period of time will know that it's more than just about covering the mortgage. There's a whole lot of co$t$ that come up that FHA buyers (with low savings rates) will simply just not have the cash to be able to address.

I always wondered if it made more sense to have a percentage of the property value, or cost to replace critical elements (heating, hot water heater, etc) as a required savings account before closing on the property. That way, if something did come up, the owner already has the money sitting there. A forced cap ex/reserves account, if you will.   

@Tracy Streich I think @Dean C. is concerned about the possibility of the tenant digging their feet in, deciding to not pay rent, and then him having to evict them - which at this time could prove difficult. Those concerns are certainly warranted right now Dean, but at the same time we can't keep living our lives in fear. 

We are going through a similar situation now, and opted to proceed. What we did instead is give literally as much notice as possible and gave the tenant an easy out - move whenever you're ready as long as it's before this date. We won't require proper notice, or even for you to pay every last dollar if you move out a few days into the month. 

Basically just trying to make it as pain free as possible for them, all while giving them as much notice as possible!

I can't comment on REI Nation (besides the fact that it sounds like a super corny name, LOL) or on Memphis Invest, but as a property manager I can say that #4 is a bit pricey for what it is.

First, you want to make sure they are only charging that 10% on COLLECTED rents. If they are charging 10% no matter if the rent is coming in or not, then you have a conflict of interest. The 1 month's rent to fill a vacant unit is typical. 

Secondly, most PM firms who do charge 10% don't typically upcharge repair work on top of that (again, conflict of interest), so I'm surprised to see that here, especially at 15% - that feels steep. 

Lastly, check for lease renewal fees. Lots of PM companies "forget" to tell you about that one, and it can be 1/2 month's rent depending where you go. 

Most cost efficient is probably to do it yourself @William Lackey. Your local home improvement store probably sells a product similar to this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ro... where you could just buy it off the shelf and "DIY" it. 

Another option (one that will take much, much longer) is if your city has a "See-click-fix" program where you can report bad potholes to be patched / repaired. Not all towns do this, but it can be a good option. 

I wouldn't necessarily call them marketing tactics, as it's really just the basics in branding / exposure / recognition, but it's something we are working on. We finally have a website that we are beginning to create more content for in the form of blogs. We also have a pretty well established Google my business page which brings in a decent number of calls, and we have the typical facebook / instagram pages that we post "PM Tips" which is a series of property management tips and tricks for fellow landlords. 

We're going to start diving into SEO in 2021. Is that something you do @Nathan Smith? What other digital marketing tactics do you recommend?

Hi @Mason Scholtes, you may want to find a more recent thread in the Connecticut sub forum. There's been a lot of posts since this one from 4 years ago! You can check it out here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

What you say makes a lot of sense @Charlie MacPherson! Especially about blizzards of paperwork and emotional buyers, lol! It's a big reason that, although I have my CT/MA real estate license, I transact on very little and would rather put it to use through my property management company. 

I'm glad you found something that works. I'll have to reach out to you sometime to learn more about selling / buying business and what that looks like!