Quote from @Jose Remor:
Hi all,
I'm new and found the bigger pockets after reading "How to Invest in real estate" book from Brandon and Josh. Very good book, thank you both for writing it!
I started long ago with no education in real estate. Started with a condo in construction, sold it when done and bought a beach land, sold the beach lend and bought 2 rental townhouses for rental in Greenville. Then got a new better job in Atlanta area and rented the house I was living in Greenville.
Up to here I had no education on real estate. Now I have a little and its time to take actions. First my units are managed by a local company that charge me between 8% and 10% monthly. High price for low quality service. Slow answers. Let one Tennant hanging with defective outlets in the kitchen for 2 weeks when the townhouse was it was under warranty. Lied saying they contacted the warranty.
Managing it myself will save me 500+/ month which is a lot. But I'm somewhat scared. I have some web design skills (I'm an engineer, so easy to learn new programming languages) and I'm currently testing my new system to manage the tenants. Make sure ill share it here with others for testing when fully ready. Maybe one day I can sell this system, but right now is for my use and under testing.
Since the houses are occupied and the first is reaching its contract limit of a year, its time to renew, increase the rent and I don't even know how to.
I would appreciate any ideas on
1) do a smooth prop management transition with proper Tennant communications.
2) I don't want to move all properties all at once, so I can build experience and also allow time for my contract with this prop manager to expire. Is that dangerous?
3) how to manage the contract renewal and define the new rental value. As this was my first rental and was priced really low. I'm thinking a 3% increase is a fair number, knowing this is what companies are giving their employees yearly. Thoughts?
thank you all in advance!
Lots of great responses on this. Many people want to self-manage because they only think about cash flow. It is unfortunate you have had a bad experience with a few PM's there. A few of the best things PM's can provide are marketing, screening tenants, & maintenance. Most self-managers don't want to deal with headaches of maintenance calls at 1 a.m., keeping compliant with local & state laws, & evictions.
Two things I would encourage you to ask yourself & ponder (essentially count the cost):
1. What level of engagement do I really want with my properties?
2. What is my motivation to self-manage?
I am sure you have done some level of this already. Self-managing is a big job. When things are good they are good, but thinking thru all the scenarios (evictions, laws, marketing, maintenance, etc.) you will run into & asking yourself is it worth it will go a long way.
Like so many others said, take your time for sure. And it may be worth spending a few hours deep diving into other PM's - talk to other investors, look at Google reviews...surely there have to be a few quality PM's near you.
Best of luck to you in whatever you choose.
