All Forum Posts by: Jay T.

In the spirit of "I've finally resigned myself to the fact that AppFolio has me by the balls and I'm trying to do everything that we can directly in AppFolio" I'm embarking on a journey to set up inventory management in our shop storage racks and managed in AppFolio. Does anybody have experience with this? We are not finding the answers we seek on the exact best way to set up the accounting side of things, a couple gaps in the flow from adding inventory items on a Work Order to the billing phase, etc.

I posted some comments in a less active and older thread, will paste here as well. We use Rhino and are generally happy with it though their customer service leaves a LOT to be desired. We have only had issues collecting on a claim once where we submitted a claim wrong and didn't get the correction in before the deadline to submit a claim had expired. Of course, in that case we have the option of collections if the tenant doesn't pay when contacted.

What questions do you have? We had ~110 doors when Rhino took us on. We added a checkbox to the security deposit clause in the lease where the tenant either checks cash security deposit or checks the box for a Rhino policy "in lieu of a traditional cash security deposit."

Other thread where I commented: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

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We use Rhino in our property management portfolio in Grand Junction, Colorado. We have probably placed about 30 renters with Rhino policies in the past year and a half or so and have processed several claims against Rhino policies. The only issue we have had getting the claims paid is when we filed against the renter's old policy and not their renewal policy, however our sister company in Denver (who initially turned us on to Rhino) have stopped using it after a couple of issues collecting.

We have tenants carry 2x the monthly rent in Rhino coverage in lieu of a traditional cash security deposit. Sometimes we approve someone who has disclosed an adverse credit/financial history or has no rental history and we will require 3x coverage. We have tenants add .5x for a pet deposit in lieu of a $500 pet deposit (2.5x or 3.5x respectively) however there are some new pet fee and pet deposit laws coming in Colorado January 1, 2024 and we aren't yet sure how these caps on pet deposits will impact our use of Rhino for this purpose (see below re: legal definition of "Security Deposit").

What questions do you have?

One of the questions that has recently come up for us is whether or not Rhino coverage meets the legal definition of a "Security Deposit" and whether the various security laws apply to these arrangements. Two groups of attorneys we use for evictions and similar matters are surprisingly unfamiliar with Rhino and I am not aware of any case law involving Rhino or other security deposit insurance. We still adhere to the state laws around deadlines to return security deposits and what we have to do to close out a deposit, but if it got messy it could get messy.

We have also been told by our sister company in Denver that this does not work with anyone receiveing a housing voucher/subsidy, which we have also been unable to confirm in our local market including directly with our local housing authority. Seems that we're operating in a gray area.

Hope this is helpful!

We use Rhino in our property management portfolio in Grand Junction, Colorado. We have probably placed about 30 renters with Rhino policies in the past year and a half or so and have processed several claims against Rhino policies. The only issue we have had getting the claims paid is when we filed against the renter's old policy and not their renewal policy, however our sister company in Denver (who initially turned us on to Rhino) have stopped using it after a couple of issues collecting.

We have tenants carry 2x the monthly rent in Rhino coverage in lieu of a traditional cash security deposit. Sometimes we approve someone who has disclosed an adverse credit/financial history or has no rental history and we will require 3x coverage. We have tenants add .5x for a pet deposit in lieu of a $500 pet deposit (2.5x or 3.5x respectively) however there are some new pet fee and pet deposit laws coming in Colorado January 1, 2024 and we aren't yet sure how these caps on pet deposits will impact our use of Rhino for this purpose (see below re: legal definition of "Security Deposit").

What questions do you have?

One of the questions that has recently come up for us is whether or not Rhino coverage meets the legal definition of a "Security Deposit" and whether the various security laws apply to these arrangements. Two groups of attorneys we use for evictions and similar matters are surprisingly unfamiliar with Rhino and I am not aware of any case law involving Rhino or other security deposit insurance. We still adhere to the state laws around deadlines to return security deposits and what we have to do to close out a deposit, but if it got messy it could get messy.

We have also been told by our sister company in Denver that this does not work with anyone receiveing a housing voucher/subsidy, which we have also been unable to confirm in our local market including directly with our local housing authority. Seems that we're operating in a gray area.

Hope this is helpful!

I'm currently asking this same question for my property management operation... we use Quickbooks Online for accounting and payroll and it turns out the inventory module is included in the package we get with our monthly payments. Since it's included, we figure we'll give it a try but am very curious what other folks in my line of work are doing here. We've got about 75 items, ranging from toilets and hot water heaters to light bulbs and CO detectors.

I drove by a run down property in a neighborhood I like a few weeks ago and when I got closer to it I realized the place was way worse than it looked from afar and had been deemed "unsafe" by the town and cannot be entered. I contacted the town and learned that:

1. The property is indeed a blight property and the town is moving forward with liens
2. The owner owns another property in town that has accumulated ~$20k in fines
3. The properties have been in the family for years
4. Neither has been occupied for years
5. The owner is emotionally attached to the properties

Besides their name and contact information (phone number and mailing address), that's all I know about the owner. How do you recommend approaching someone in this particular kind of distressed property situation? Not sure if this changes how you'd approach the owner but FWIW I am a total newbie and both properties are likely too far gone to save and will be tear-downs.

Thanks for your insight!

Spent some time living in and around Burlington, Vermont. Seems like a nice place to be during all of this craziness.

Hi @Neil DiMuccio! Also in Boulder, and you inspired me to go ahead and write my intro-post since I wanted to respond to yours but hadn't yet introduced myself anywhere on BP forum.

I'm also very new and also got into this whole thing when I picked up Brandon's book. I'm currently listening through all of the podcasts, highly recommend you do the same if you aren't already!

Also like you, the Boulder market scares the heck out of me and it's hard for me to conceptualize how I could buy a single family home or multi-unit property here and have it cashflow. Because of that, I've been thinking about places "in between" the metro centers. Still very new and in my "learning phase" but excited to see where this takes me!

Just read an intro from another guy in Boulder, Colorado. Wanted to reply but thought my first post should probably be my own intro, so here it goes!

My name is Jay Taylor, and I'm very much a newbie to RE investing but have been investing on my own in stocks for 11 years and working as a freelance investment writer for 7 years (previously full time, now as a side-hustle for one client).

My RE journey began when my brother-in-law sent me a link to a property listing in Boulder, suggesting that we try to find something for him to buy that I can manage (screen/rent/landlord/deal with things that go bump in the night). Realizing I didn't know anything about this segment of investing, I picked up a couple books (including Brandon's "The Book on Rental Property Investing") and have been listening through the Bigger Pockets podcasts from the beginning over the past few weeks. I'm not sure what my next steps are, but I know I'm "ready enough" to pull the trigger on that first property... even though I'm more than willing to learn through doing rather than getting stuck in paralysis by analysis.

I have zero background in real estate, but know enough to know that my particular market (Boulder especially, but Metro Denver as a whole) is a tough one to find a property I can buy at 80% below market and cashflow right away. As such, I've been spending my day-dream time thinking about markets near me that will be "next" areas that aren't even as far along as Louisville/Longmont/etc.

I'd love to know what other investors in my area think about what I just said, especially if they're actively finding deals near me today!

I work in Broomfield (one of those "W2 jobs") for one of the better known travel and leisure companies in the region. I'm in our procurement department, so I spend all day working with our suppliers of both goods and services, helping folks at our resort properties sort through issues, finding strange/large/expensive/hard-to-find items, and bidding out items that we need for various projects to generate savings for the company. I primarily support our building maintenance and property management teams. It's a skill set that I have a feeling will come in handy early on the RE investing journey as I have to think through supplier relationships (i.e. property managers, contractors) and how to get certain goods for re-models, capital improvements, and annual maintenance.

I'm still formulating my RE goals, and I'm still very much enjoying my professional career... so I'd say that my goal is to generate enough cash flow that I don't need my W2 career to survive and I'm free to focus much more on what I'd like to do professionally rather than what I think I have to do to survive. As for the RE itself, I'm most interested in buying and holding single-family and multi-unit properties.

Also, even though I currently rent, I managed to accidentally work my way onto my HOA board. It's been tremendous experience, but now I know I don't want to live (or own) properties with an HOA if I can help it.

As I'm learning, it sounds to me like the hardest part for me early on will be finding the deals. Because of that, I've thought that a wholesaler in my area might be a good ally. If they can buy at 70% below market and I just need to be 80% below market to fit the plan, isn't that 10% spread where the wholesaler makes their money? And I can let them find my deals, and they're happy to do so if I keep buying them? That's the logic, right?

Sorry for the long-winded intro - did I mention I'm a writer on the side??

Really excited to start being active on this forum - I joined 3 weeks ago and have been watching but not posting yet. Thanks for all of the amazing info I've already gleaned from BP, eager to see what comes from actually interacting!