All Forum Posts by: Isabel Yang

 Evernest's model is to rip you off on all maintenance.  I get they need to make money, but charging double of what the contractor would charge?  I am referring to Evernest of Denver.  They quoted me $2500 for move out rehab.  I took the same list to the contractor who would ultimately do the work.  The contractor quoted me $1350.  For anything significant, I don't use Evernest maintenance.  They are just outright ripping property owners off.  I hire my own handyman, he does great work and charge me 50% less than Evernest.  

Looking for recommendations on a good real estate agent familiar with selling multifamily properties in Denver area. 

Hi Kristina,

Would like to know what happened.  I DMed you with a connection request.  I'm still with Evernest, but am seriously thinking about switching.

Isabel

I'm new to this group.  Within the last 1.5 years, I bought 3 small apartment buildings.  They are in pretty good locations.  I'm on my third PM now.  Each building were managed by different PMs, I consolidated them under one PM now.  However, after they got all of my business, they don't seem that responsive anymore.  Furthermore, every time a tenant moves out, they charge me to make the unit ready to market anywhere from $1500-$3000.  This seem very high to me.  They are all small items like patching up nail holes, changing batteries in smoke detector etc.  I know how important having the right PM is to ensure my investments don't end up sucking up a lot of my time and $$.  So far, that has not been the case.  I'm primarily looking for PM who can fill units quickly with qualified tenants, and who don't nickel and dime me to death with every little thing, and actually spend time on my properties once in a while to ensure they are in good shape.  I have a total of 23 units among three buildings.  I'd appreciate any recommendations.

thanks

Isabel

Ian,

Are you using a property manager now?

Hi Tina,

I am currently using Evernest in the Denver area.  They are managing 3 multifamily properties for me.  I would say I have very mixed feelings about them.  They really courted me to hand my properties over to them.  Depending the location of the property, they can get them in about 2 weeks or so.  I have another property near university of Denver (which I would think should be pretty good), they have trouble filling that one.  The third property is in a blue collar area near a very busy medical center (I thought the location is pretty good).  They cannot rent out the empty units.  Lastly, I feel like the rehab after moving out to make ready for putting the unit on the market is VERY expensive.  They have required fixes which they nickel and dime me to death.  I have not had any make ready less than $1000, most of them are $1500-$3000.  I'm on here trying to see if I should find another property manager.

Hope this is helpful.

Isabel

I own 7 residential condos as part of a mix use property with 11 condominiums. There are 7 residential units and 4 commercial units on this property. I own all the residential units. The water and sewer are shared. 3 of my residential condos are on the second level of two commercial units. The other 4 condos are almost stand alone two story building sharing one wall on the first floor with another commercial unit.

My property taxes increased more than 120% after I bought the condos. The seller own all the commercial and residential units and decided to break them into condo and put them up for sale. I submitted a tax protest to the assessors office. The assessor recommended that I recombine the units into an apartment and my taxes my be lower because the valuation would be lower for the apartment.

The condo declaration allows me to recombine the units if I have first mortgagee agreement in writing. I actually have two first mortgagees, one portfolio loan for the 3 condos on the second floor on top of the commercial units, and a second loan for the almost stand alone 4 units.

My question is has anyone done this before, and what are the pros and cons from property taxes and mortgage refinancing perspective?

Thanks for any insights.

Isabel