Hi everyone! Happy New Year. May 2023 bring everyone a year full of health, happiness and fun investing!
The last two years have been an absolute whirlwind, and have learned A LOT about the real estate world, investing and general practices of the industry. I went from no one sort of rented unit in 2020 to a a small portfolio now that consists of 9 rented properties. (Still learning every day and sometimes have mini melt downs rethinking my whole real estate journey ;-). That being said, I am using this quarter as a 'breather' to re evaluate where I can be more efficient, more profitable (maybe drop a condo ?), and more so revaluate my team: and this is where one of my main paint points is - my original property management co.
Short story: I didn't know anything about managing properties, and after some initial research last year I landed on my current one for my IL properties. At the time being, not having to deal with anything and not really knowing much, they seemed great. I like the process of them doing background checks, collecting rent for me and for a while, handling any maintenance issues. They were able to lease the first property I gave to them with minimal work and the process seemed easy. Property 2 was a bit more of a headache, but that was leased after a few months. The third property I ended up having a friend find a tenant for me and they took the Mgmt fee..weird.
Things started getting a little bit more frustrating when I attempted to bring on a duplex for them to list, there was almost 3 months of no applications, and me needing to consistently follow up to get any updates. I ended up running that property on my own and doing a MTR model downstairs. In IL, their response times (and constant change of turn over internally) was leading to a poorer quality service for my tenants. They did not do their semi annual check ins in 2 of my 3 properties, and pretty much stopped responding to maintenance requests to the point where the tenant would just reach out to me to handle stuff. Being that I pride myself on creating a safe and happy home environment, I began dealing with the minor issues on my own. This prompted me to begin learning and sourcing a lot of my own contractors, handy men, plumbers etc and have built an awesome network of support for IL and WI; I also learned how to do the background checks, handle the rental income, write leases and so on.
I have them down to one property that we listed for rent starting in OCTOBER of this year after finding out my current tenants did not renew. They did not want to go with the rent that I had suggested, and only did so after I pushed them and found out that people would be more than willing to pay the market rent suggested. I've had one application and a lot of, this is happening / that is happening with no documentation really. I told them I would begin marketing it myself as well to see what traction I could get and had an instant hit of requests (obviously not all qualified) but was able to do 3 showings the next day. I want to proceed with a potential tenant who makes 4X the rental income, solid rental history and hopefully a clean criminal record (that should be coming back tomorrow when they open up.)
If they refuse this tenant for whatever reason can I just gently tell them I am done working with them, and move solo. They have not yet secured a tenant for this last unit. The listing/PM agreement for them does not have any fines other than the $299 marketing fee that they would take when they stop leasing the property.
I am the one posting, responding to the requests, doing the showings, etc. (Or am I just too nice.)
Any helpful language or ways to do this would be appreciated.
Thanks!
K-Man
