All Forum Posts by: Jeremiah Dunakin

This is absolutely crazy. It’s maddening.

If you count going to store to buy a couple blinds and installing them that’s a couple hour job max. That is with travel time. If the brackets are already there it’s even simpler.

Caulking a tub is even easier. Maybe a little elbow grease if old caulk is nasty. Remove old caulk clean surfaces fill tub with water re caulk. It’s like a 15 min job

Tighten toilet bolts for real. It takes longer to get up and down on floor than it does to tighten bolts same goes for seat. Both can be done in 2 minutes

A deadbolt can be done in an hour. Drill a couple holes with a jig. 

Spackle some nail holes. Even if there are 50 that not hard. Another hour job tops

Tightens door knob is 2 minutes 5 if you have to take it apart.

A light switch replace is 15 minutes. 

Changing light bulbs 1 minute. Take out old bulb put in new bulb

Tightened thermostat 1 minute. 

Screen door can be done at hardware store or u can get kit regardless it’s a very simple job. Not even hour. 
with traveling this is five hours tops. There are a lot of filler items that they are trying to justify time. Tighten bolts on toilets and thermostats are not even worth talking about. They are 1 minute jobs. 
I personally think they are taking you on a ride. 24 hours of labor is insane. A small bathroom can be gutted and drywalled new tile new electrical new shower everything in five days or 40 hours. with two guys. 

 Nope, not saying that all. Not even close.my thought is this.

1. Who sets your rates you or PM. If it is you why pay the PM. If it is the PM what are they doing for the preceding months. They get paid to “Manage the property”

2.Determing market rates for your area is not complicated. We can add all kinds jargon and analysis. However unless things drastically change I know how much my rents will go up or down. A Quick Look around about five minutes of seeing vacancies what’s available,what neighborhoods, bed and bath count, if it’s remodeled how long it’s been available and what’s being charged goes a long way, also I ask the guys at work what they pay. It’s a very informal process. Look at tax bill and insurance factor in inflation and it can tell me how much I can charge or not charge.

3. I ask my wife if there are any changes we need to make in contract changes. We modify the changes and electronically send it. If they accept we usually meet face to face to sign it and go over any changes in contract. That meeting is generally less than 15 minutes.

4. I would think if someone has a decent grasp of thier market and they are fair about increases they can be pretty close to take it or leave it. If landlord is unreasonable and tenant is unhappy then so be it. However if landlord is providing a good service to someone and they do not like it, landlord should have no problem finding someone who does a appreciate a reasonable fair house

I will never understand property managers. If the tenant is staying. Why charge such a fee. Give same contract with any changes. It’s a five minute job. It takes longer for computer to boot up than to do the job. I guess I don’t understand the paying another fee on top of the normal fee. What is that they do. Don’t they get paid to manage a property? Isn’t a lease part of managing it? I just can’t fathom these PMs

 I think it’s the shock of how fast they went up. They have tripled in four years basically. Went from sub 3% I bought house two years ago at 5 now it’s around 7ish. That is a quick climb especially when people still remember sub 3 just a few years ago

A slight change in rates aren’t gonna affect much. Lowering rates from 7.25 to 7 or 6.8 doesn’t really move the needle much in my opinion. I hear buy now and refi when rates drop. I really don’t have an issue with that if u can do good on something with high rates awesome. To depend on the rates to drop substantially to cover refi cost is a gamble. I’m not gonna refi to save .5%. Maybe I’m wrong now if they drop 2/3% different story but is there anything to believe that it will? I don’t know time will tell I guess

I guess my best combat to it was. Well just do it. I had analysis paralysis yes it’s a real thing, even if it’s just an umbrella term for a multitude of factors. I tried to find the best house in the best neighborhood with the best price with the best tenant. If it didn’t meet that criteria and also let me buy at 40% discount with only changing a door handle I didn’t want it. 

I’m not saying to be frivolous and throw caution into the wind. I just think we have so much info with a bunch of influencers that we always pysch ourselves out thinking everything has to be perfect. Maybe we don’t find a unicorn, but maybe we can find some good Clydesdales.

We used rent redi. The background checks are nice but the  actual site is trash. It does not send alert to app when something pops up. I think it sends email when payment is made, however when a maintenance request is made I’m not alerted. It is kinda hard to set up. Not impossible but harder than it should. My tenant had problems with them after 18 months as well and we now don’t use it at all. When it is time to renew we are not going to

I’m not sure who your 401k plan is through. I also don’t know how much you are trying to get. That’s said I have taken a loan from vanguard on my 401k and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. The loan process was easier than ordering a pizza online. No credit check no asking what loan was for nothing. I put in how much I wanted how long to pay back up to 5 years and where to send it. In a couple days it hit my account. I pay back payments from paycheck that is reinvested. All interest is paid back to me. There is a couple small fees. Before ot is said about potential loss on stocks cashed in. I took my loan and the bottom fell out in market. I’m not a genius but lucky. So I loaned out high and and bought back in low. I’m not saying it’s for everyone. What I am saying in my situation I will make way more from a single loan than I ever will from the 25k I took as a loan. It has allowed me to buy my first rental and that will allow me to buy another one and so on and so on.that was my experience best wishes

It seems most want to beat you up, and show thier knowledge and flex about not getting property management not vetting ………

None of that matters now. You own the properties. Will you be able to build back up reserves betweeen all six properties? Not sure the cash flow but are you able to withstand this short term cash drain? Are you taking a profit from any of them? If so an idea would to not take any money out and throw every bit of cash flow into a repair account.While it may be stressful short term will these places make money in near future. Can u financially support these places if another repair comes up till reserves are met.that is what I would ask myself. Am I able to weather this short term storm, or is it to much and have to scale back?