All Forum Posts by: Jeff Zimmerman

Hey @Abhishek Joshi, good questions. 

I think managing at a distance is fine, as long as you can get to the property once a month to check on it.  Sometimes issues can go unnoticed and get much more expensive if you can’t see the property physically for long periods of time.  If you have all your vendors ready to go ahead of time and ways for them to get into the home if the tenant isn’t there you should be ok. 

It may be hard to find a management company that will rent out the property without doing the management, so I’d try and find one before you make the decision to self manage at a distance. That seems like an ideal situation if you are going to manage at a distance but it could be hard to find since managers like to do full management not all-a-cart. 

It’s good to screen tenants with all the standard checks, however I put the most stock in rental history.  For instance if someone has a really low credit score but their previous landlord said they were an ideal tenant and they passed income requirements I may take them.  But someone with a high credit score without previous landlord rec’s or bad rental history may not make the cut for me. 
good luck!  Feel free to DM me if there is anything else I can help with. 

hey Jerome, we've had a lot of great success on Facebook marketplace, lots of people are using that for all kinds of things, it's pretty much the new craigslist.  Speaking of that, I'd probably try craiglist as well since it's free.   Because we use Buildium it shoots our vacancies out to all the big sites like Apartments.com, Zillow, etc.  We don't like to leave any stone unturned. 

I'd probably try FB marketplace first and see how it goes, then if that doesn't help look for a good advertising platform like buildium (which is probably too robust of a tool for what you need right now, but something with just that advertising feature).  But I think that considering the area you are in FB marketplace will likely get it done. 

Good luck! I'm always happy to help, feel free to shoot me a message if you have other questions. 

what's up mike, we have quite a few in our office that may be able to help you out.  feel free to message me with what you are looking for and maybe we have a fit for you.  Have a great day!

@Anthony Ingua, good luck!  always happy to help

good luck @Anthony Ingua, I'd be tempted to use a more professional screening process at first, only because you are a first time landlord.  Once you get a little experience and have learned a few things from using tenant cloud, etc... it may be easier to screen without paying extra fees, but that's just me, I like infrastructure when I'm new at something.  

Above all, in my opinion, rental history is the best indicator for finding a good tenant so don't forget to ask for previous landlords numbers and get references from them.  Good luck! 

hi @Neetu Patil, that's unfortunately more common in CA these days, many companies have stopped quoting new business and/or are dropping certain types of homes.  I'll message you some referrals that have been able to get tougher deals done for me recently, good luck! 

hey @Ryan Louz, There are options in the central valley sub $120k.  Some condo's, but mostly mobile homes.  Mobile homes can cash flow pretty well as long as the park fees aren't too high.

In the Central Valley nice mobile homes sell for $60k and up, and section 8 can fund it, in Fresno a section 8 voucher for a 2 bed unit will pay up to $1604/month.  

They don't get high appreciation, largely due to the fact that the loans for them have a high interest rate and require a larger down payment as well.  But if the home is taken care of it will appreciate, just not as much as a single family or condo.  With the appreciation you get plus the cash flow it could set you up for a larger purchase in cash a few years down the road.  Just an idea.

hi @Hyeonji Oh, getting started is the hardest part, congrats on moving forward!  We were all new once. Books, podcasts, blogs are all great ways to get started learning.  The best first step you can do is get pre-qualified with a good lender, then start looking at and analyzing potential properties.  You learn a lot by going through the motions.  Eventually you will find a property you are ready to buy and then you start the land lording process which is your next adventure.  Just keep moving forward and you will do great! 

you are welcome Dennis, I'm glad that was helpful. Long term rentals are going to be really good in Fresno because of how much we are growing and because of our lack of housing.  But because of that appreciation is great and cash flow is minimal, that's the downside to it.  

You can do well in any part of Fresno as I have clients and friends that are successful everywhere. If you are looking for areas that you are more likely get high quality long term tenants you'd probably want to look within the Clovis Unified School District as well as homes that are in Fresno but fall within the Sanger Unified School District.  Those are the most desired for families and are all in pretty good areas. Sunnyside is one of the areas that has a lot of homes within Sanger unified. 

Hey Alex, you aren't wrong.  Deals have been much harder to find recently, especially after interest rates started to climb.  It sounds like a too simplistic of an answer but the reality is that you will find one, it's just going to be harder to find and may take some creativity in how you use it.  I.e. finding someone who doesn't mind selling you half of their multi family and you can work on it and improve the rents, then buy the seller out of it fully.  

Good luck!