All Forum Posts by: Chris Herbert

I believe vacancy is too much of an expense to wait on finding tenants after the current tenant's move out. Many prospective tenants also need to give 30 day notice at their current rental after they find a new place to rent. This can push your vacancy cost to 9% and higher if you wait to list a property until your tenants move. We like to start advertising a unit shortly after we receive notice to vacate and determine a day and time that works for the current tenants each week and limit our showings to one day a week during their desired time. We do this so that we are not disturbing our current tenants with multiple showings at random times. We space showings 15 minutes apart so that we can be with them during the entire showing. When a property is vacant I like to let them walk through on their own but when a current tenant has personal items I make sure I am with the prospects as they walk through to protect the tenant's belongings. Sure, there are going to be messy tenants and tenants that might say inappropriate things about the property and it might take a few extra showings but it is worth it in my opinion to get that new lease started right away.

North of Sacramento you should be able to find duplexes for around $100k in the small towns surrounding Chico: Oroville, Orland, Corning. Maybe Paradise and Magalia. Tough to find one for that price that might not need some work but they are definitely out there. 

Hi Mark,

I think as long as you are prepared for the busy season and the leases are spread out through that time it makes a lot of sense to do it that way; mostly because of the higher rents and lower vacancy you can get with the higher demand. Issues may arise however if the vendors you prefer to use are also busy during that time - things can get delayed or rushed. Also, if you are involved in the management and work and you are not able to be around during that time it can cause a lot of problems.

Welcome Dylan, if you ever want to talk Chico investment properties shoot me a message.

Hi Michael, just a quick note, depending on where the property is located I think you may be able to get substantially higher rents than $900-$1000 per unit. Reach out with more details if you would like to discuss further.

 Hi Jonathan, check out Blue Oak Property Management, we started Blue Oak 6 years ago and have worked hard to become one of the top companies in the area. We have a track record of increasing profits for owners while being fair and honest with tenants. Check us out online (our website, Yelp, Google etc). Feel free to reach out to discuss management or investment properties. 

 Which electronic locks are you using and how have they worked for you so far?

I should have prefaced that with the properties that we own and manage are mostly single family, duplexes through 16-unit spread all over the city. Larger apartment communities can be a different animal in regards to keys as they are generally stored on-site, though one lost, stolen or copied master key at an apartment  community can still cause loads of problems. Regarding Kwikset Smartkey not viable for large properties, is it just the cost of initial changing them all out or another reason? They have dropped in cost and the Smartkey feature seems to come standard with most Kwikset locks now.

We put Kwikset Smartkey locks on all our properties and then can rekey in seconds on tenant move out to any other key on hand. I don't believe in using a master key - I feel it is too much liability if someone ever gets their hands on it. I would also strongly recommend not keeping keys in your car that have an address associated with them in any way. One car break in and you have to contact all tenants to let them know and then go out immediately to all properties to rekey. If that happens how do you think your tenants are going to feel about their safety and their trust in you going forward? If you do keep keys in your car, or anywhere for that matter, code them and keep the key code log on your phone or somewhere separate. Store all keys in off-site locked key boxes and keep them coded. There's not many other more convenient options In my opinion that protect your tenants if a key is stolen. Your tenant's safety should always be a top priority even if it comes at an inconvenience to you.

Hi Rich,

Welcome! I am with a Blue Oak Property Management here in Chico and have personal experience with buy and holds and plenty of experience with management. Let me know if you have any questions about the market here in Chico, investment properties or anything else.

Chris