All Forum Posts by: Gi'angelo Bautista

You should at least create your SOW with your finish material costs because the GC's/investors/builder's experience may be different than what you are envisioning. The costs can be found online and your local building supply stores. Generally, some items shouldn't be bought from Home Depot/Lowes like kitchen cabinets. Just go to the cabinet store. 

You should build up your rolodex of building supply stores and you can even ask on Facebook groups for recommendations. You have to do this in the future anyways because the GC is going to ask you.

It's recommended to hire a GC for your first project. Make sure you have your SOW done with all material costs and all appropriate contracts signed with the GC.

Do you have the set of architectural plans in hand? 

Did you speak to the architect directly?

Did you verify that the plans were submitted? 

Did you get approval from the planning department?
Did you go over the plans to see what the reason was for engineers to reject the plans?

Did you ask how many engineers the GC talked to?

It sounds to me that the GC doesn't know what he is doing and he is inexperienced. He also might be robbing peter to pay paul. He also started the relationship with a lie by borrowing another person's license.  Full gut renos generally need a more experienced GC than someone who does a regular rehab and usually cost more than you expect. Terminate him immediately and file a complaint with your state board. 

@Michael Baum we have 70 listings so we are moving away from excel. 

Hi all, I was wondering what Trust Accounting software that you are using? This only applies to short term rental property managers. 

Don't say quick books as CPA's say it doesn't do well with Trust accounting.

@Holly Hudson

We are still happy with Hostfully, but we need a better PMS that has more features and integrations. We don’t like how there is not enough payment processor integrations. We got cancelled by Stripe and we only have VRP and PayPal left but they are more expensive compared to other apps that other PMS’s have integrations with. We ended up going with VRP. Also, accounting/ metrics are a BIG DEAL because we have a property management company so we need more features to customize reports and look at accurate revenue data.

For us, we started with a small PMS (PMS was bought by Guesty) and it seems that it’s natural to keep learning and needing more features. Also, we are competing against other PM’s so we need a competitive advantage.

Also, to address other replies this is how we rank the software for us as a Property manager. This doesn’t apply for people who do arbitrage or who manage their own properties.

Top

Track

Streamline

Hostaway (~$40-45)

OwnerRez (cheap but doesn’t have Wheelhouse)

Middle

Hostfully (cheap)

AirGMS

Bottom

Hospitable (cheap)

*although we rank this low, it is still a very good app.

We still just use AirDNA here and there when it's difficult to do an analysis on a property because it's a low season or there aren't enough comps. 

We can also do comps on Wheelhouse. 

I liked the revenue calculator feature on AllTheRooms, which I could use on the free version, but it doesn't seem accurate. 

AirDNA did a better job at calculating our own listings revenue versus AllTheRooms.

@Grant Villeneuve

I didn’t end up buying it. I was helping a buyer evaluate it. Construction would cost too much and the returns were too low. It would take years to get through entitlement in this area. A variance would’ve been needed and the property would have to go through CEQA.

A ~30 unit development nearby in the downtown area took 7 years. I’m not sure if they made money but the developer did sell to a local buyer.

@Gi'angelo Bautista

Just update: We found that we had to use commercial insurance instead of residential insurance.

I noticed that condos have a higher price per sq ft than multifamily units in the San Francisco Bay Area. I.e Multifamily would trade at $500-$700/sq ft, but condos trade at $1,000/sq ft. Is it better to build condos or multifamily for rent? Are there problems with refinancing? Also, is the construction different with multifamily vs multifamily (aside from the finishes)?

One of my old brokers (he is very wealthy) would build low rise, mid rise, and high rise condo buildings to keep. I heard he kept it for at least 10 years to get passed the liability.