All Forum Posts by: Rene G.

Why do you ask?

Everyone here will give you their opinion in search for more upvotes. It's always best to do your own experiments and in your case you have a two-year successful case study.

Not sure if you self-manage, but either way, did you get into real estate investing to get a second job with more to-do tasks, or did you get into this for cashflow?

In my case, as a DIY landlord, I'm in this for Cashflow Forever and Real Freedom. That's why I've developed "self-service" property management to simplify my rental management...to make it so easy my kids can take over (and won't sell everything when I die)!

NO! Don't use AI to write your rental listing descriptions... unless you want to miss the mark. Your target audience is renters; they are not homebuyers. If you use ChatGPT you'll get steered into writing a novel about the area they're already interested in with a bunch of fluff.

Think of it this way: the more words in your rental listing, the less likely people will read it.

Why waste time writing about the area when they're already sold on the area (that's why they are looking there)?

Why waste time writing about stuff that GOOD photos SHOULD tell about your property?

Why do you waste time answering the same questions over and over again?

Because you probably have a bad rental listing with bad photos, and the prospects aren't even reading it!

This is why I teach the mom-and-pop landlords in my skool community not to listen to what people say on the forms online. Most people are winging it 😑🫤😐

No problem Hayley, awesome stuff...

I built a Rental Repair Forecaster with automatic formulas that change color depending on the year and depending on the life expectancy of the item. I use that forecaster to anticipate major repairs ($10k+). I'd share the link with you, but BP might block me/remove this post. 

You don't have to worry about the major repairs IF you plan accordingly and know the math. My forecaster makes it really easy so you don't have to think about it. It comes in handy when you have multiple properties. So you can track everything at a glance.

Yeah, I bought all my rentals in Central Florida, from Tampa to Orlando.

I sent you a private message. Let me know if you get it.

Hayley,

Where are you going to live when you get back from your deployment? Also, when are you up for PCS?

When I was stationed in AL, but I didn't want to purchase there. I knew two guys who would buy using their VA loan in AL, they both had the intention to sell for a profit later, but that didn't always work out...

I remember two guys specifically — one profited and the other had a loss. Looking back, I think it was due to the house's location. The one buddy who made a profit was in a really ideal location... Only problem was, that his BAH didn't cover the entire mortgage and had to come out of pocket to afford the mortgage while he lived there. However, that other buddy who got the "deal" (i.e. cheaper house where he made money after his mortgage with his BAH), he had a big loss when he PCS-ed...

The lesson here is location, location, location. It's the most important, I'd almost want to say, it's more than getting a deal/cheap house...

   When, you asked, "Should I have waited for a cheaper house?"

   And again when you asked, "Should I rent my house out for the year lease and then look to immediately sell to buy a cheaper house..."

NO! Cheaper is NOT what you want lol 

When you look to purchase a house, I recommend buy with a "Landlord" perspective. Meaning, you don't buy looking for cheap, you look for what will make a good rental. I also, like to approach things with a Forever Difference perspective. Buy stuff that you want to hold forever...

Kinda like that famous Warren Buffett quote, where he says his favorite holding period is forever. This idea helps you seriously consider what you buy, so you don't end up with cheap crap, asking what to do after the fact. You know?

...I have so much more to say and my heart goes out to you as my fellow military patriot. If you'd like to connect offline, I'd be happy to share how I've been able to manage my rentals from Iraq, I'm actually here in Iraq now.

Jolene,

If I had to bet, I would bet on YOU... No one will ever care more about your financial independence than YOU...

I've managed my rentals from Iraq, on the other side of the world, in a backward timezone, for over ten years. If you have less than ten rentals, I think you can and should manage your own stuff.

If you give away control, you are defenseless and in the end, there will be no one to save you. Unless you micromanage the heck out of your PM...well, until they drop you for being a hassle and you have to find another one... lol

I'll let you in on a little secret, the BEST PMs don't even like small-time landlords because there's not that much money in it for them (e.g. time commitment vs money earned). The good PMs would prefer large apartment buildings for economies of scale. I think the real underlying reason why good PMs don't like small-time landlords, is because a lot of landlords are too cheap and won't invest reinvest back in their rentals...

I think the reason why that happens is because landlords are not taking full responsibility. Mom-and-pop landlords should treat their rental operation like a business and take responsibility for their own success, e.g. do their own management until they grow beyond ten rentals. They don't have to go all out, but they need to build systems. I call this, The Plain Vanilla Business Advantage, e.g. business number/email/website/FAQs/etc...

Then, YOU play the "Property Manager" role and YOU are just and employee, NOT the greedy landlord and sole decision maker...

Also, I recommend doing a little something I call "Self-Service Management" ...basically, I groom my tenants to have an ownership mentality and I provide them with the tools and resources to resolve things on their own because I'm a long-distance self-managing landlord, therefore, I have to be proactive vs reactive. Anyways, that's my 2 cents...

--

I do have to admit, I'm so tired of all the property manager bias out here misleading small-time landlords! Think about it, we are on a real estate investing forum, and all the PM have alerts to stuff like you posted; they swoop in looking for business. I don't have a problem with that, BUT when they make it seem like hiring the "right" PM will solve all your problems that's wrong!

...I'd think the three most important things, in order, are: The Property, The Tenants, then... The Management. So, that means, when problems come up, first look at the property and its location, and consider the quality of tenants it attracts, then, look at the management. NO matter how good the PM is, if you have a bad property with bad tenants, there will always be problems. But who am I? I could be wrong, don't listen to me.

Lara,

IMHO I think your question is a bit too broad. Everyone is going to give you their own "personal" preference. Some people actually like wasting time driving to a bank in person; I hate it. I should NEVER have to go inside a bank in person EVER. I actually don't like middleman banks almost as much as I don't like middleman property managers. lol

In this day in age, I should be able to have access to my money whenever I want, without jumping through hoops: two-factor authentication, giving my SSN, DOB, address, verifying over the phone, etc. Stupid!... I should not have to pay a bunch of nuisance fees to move my own money. I should not have to wait a bunch of business days for my funds to settle. Anyways...

I'd like to know what you're really asking. Why do you want to know? In your mind, what is "best" when it comes to banking? Why didn't you ask about "business" banking?

For me, as a landlord, I take a hands-off approach to many things. I like simple, automation, hands-off, less, no fees, etc. Just like how I manage my rentals, I call my property management style "Self-Service Management," where I do less, and just provide the tools and resources to my tenants so they can do things on their own.

Well, I've actually tested out many "business" banks (Regions, BofI/Axos, Azlo, Novo, Bluevine, Kabbage, etc.) and eventually, I found the best, for me and my style. Come to find out, they don't even consider themselves a bank, they are a technology company. Who figured that, I wasn't happy because what I really wanted was a technology company? lol If you message me directly, I'll tell you what I use.

This is like the art of war... pick and choose your battles... The goal is to win the war, right?

You are constrained, we all are... we all only have so much time and energy. Why waste your effort fighting backwards? If you lost that one tenant battle, and knowing the goal is to win the financial freedom war... then, let's charge forward! lol

How do you prevent this from happening again? And don't say, "better screening" I'm so tired of everyone blaming screening instead of taking REAL responsibility. 

Reactive actions (i.e. reporting bad tenants) is like treating the symptoms instead of finding a cure.

I'd like to know more details how and why this happened?...

Who was doing the management? What type of property are we talking about? Rent amount? Location? Tenant info? etc. etc.

...Get to the root cause and be proactive, e.g. implementing REAL preventative actions. This is a valuable learning lesson for you. Dissect it! 

The time and effort you put into truly learning and preventing it will be 3x better for YOU than trying to punish the tenants, they're sunk cost lost cause—forget em!

Anyone see this story? I saw this guy on Fox News: 

It's hilarious how he took matters into his own hands and out-squatted his squatters. lol Has anyone ever done something like this? I've heard of cash for keys and going through the legal system, but never out-squatting squatters. 

No property management company will take care of your rentals or ensure your livelihood better than you! If you have less than ten single-family rentals, you do not need a property manager.

In my opinion, property managers are best for the big guys. If one property manager can manage over 100 units, you can handle one. Plus, the really good property managers don't even like doing business with most small mom-and-pop landlords.

Not to mention, if you end up with a crappy 'middleman' property manager, you'll constantly question why you pay them when you don't feel that you're getting enough value for what you pay...and, it sucks they're always charging you fees for every little bit of extra work they do.

Who is that third-party company you are using? I'd like to see the link because I think that company is the problem. I'm been requiring pre-screening surveys for years and never had that issue. There is a big difference between a rental application and a "pre" screening survey. You do not want to make it overwhelming to the prospective tenants, but you want it to have logic built in to disqualify bad leads automatically. If you're using a free survey platform, you will be limited. Here...  

I made a video about this that might help you a bit—something to consider. Check it out and let me know what you think: