All Forum Posts by: Jim Reynante

I have two PMs (for different areas of the country). One charges 9%, the other is 10%. The more expensive fee is for my rentals that generate a lower monthly rent. So in order to make it worth their time, I have found that most PMs want a higher fee if the monthly rent amount is lower.

For example, a rental that charges $500/mo would require paying a PM $50/mo using a 10% fee rate. Compare that to So Cal, where the rents are $3500/mo and the PM would cost me $350/mo. Both PMs perform similar work with similar effort.

Lower rent amount = Higher PM fees 

As owners/landlords, we want the lower fee but we need to balance that against the PM services and quality of their work. So research and shop around. Good luck to you

For me, I hire a professional lawn/landscape service to maintain my properties. The tenant pays for half of the service cost (included in the rent).

The result: Consistently good results every week... week after week. Plus the added curb appeal.

I am thinking that I am in the minority, for me I expect the landscaping of my rentals to be well groomed. So I hire professional gardeners to take of my properties. Not the neighborhood kid, not someone's friend of a relative, etc.

My gardeners are at my properties 1 x week, rain or shine (doesn't rain too often in So Cal). The cost varies depending on the lot size and complexity (small grass patch vs botanical garden.)

For the extra money (the tenant pays half), I get consistency and some good curb appeal. It's worth it to me, but I understand that many landlords don't want to hire a lawn service and expect their tenants to do a decent job of maintaining their property. 

@Zachary Gilula - A few years ago I was in a situation to acquire a property that was an abandoned gas station. After much due diligence and related research of the local county environmental regulations, I discovered that I would’ve had to remove/dispose of the underground storage tanks, perform soils testing, perform leakage cleanup, etc.

It added an extra $30K to my costs and dropped my potential profit so much that it fell below my acceptance. Needless to say, I backed out of the deal.

Sounds promising. Don't forget to factor in the HOA fees when evaluating the marketability to potential buyers. If the fees are too high, it will scare away some buyers.

@Wesley Hood - Here are a few things that I look at when analyzing and deciding on an area:

A - Home Prices

- Are the property values within your acquisition price range?

- Are home prices trending Up, staying Flat, or moving Down? (Could be cyclical)

B - Property Taxes

- Some areas charge a premium to support the county services (I always consider for my calcs)

C - Rental Market

- Be sure to analyze the actual market rents in the area(s) you are interested in

- Don’t forget to apply the “1% Rule”! (Is the monthly rent amount equal to or greater than 1% of the property cost?)

D - Demographics

- Is the area growing in population or declining (year-over-year)?

- Median income (I use this as an indicator for the rental market -> Is it artificially inflated?)

- White collar jobs vs Blue Collar jobs

E - External Influences

- Industry and Job Market (Are there businesses starving for employees?)

- Surrounding area (better, same, or worse?). Maybe I should look elsewhere?

I have 3 SFH's and I pay professional gardeners to maintain the landscaping. I tried to do it myself and I also offered to lower the rent if the tenant maintained the property. Here's what I quickly discovered:

1 ) I don't have the time to maintain the properties myself. One rental is okay, but it just isn't scalable beyond that.

* Consistent results week after week. When the tenant did the yard maintenance, I found that the results were very unpredictable. Sometimes it would get done on the weekend, sometimes on a weekday, and other times the tenant would miss a week. Plus the work was just average or below average.

I have been very satisfied with hiring professionals to maintain the landscaping of my properties. 

Welcome to RE investing, I hope that you stick it to and have much success.

I have done a number of wholesaling deals and the key for me was deal flow. I had to generate 100's of leads in order to eventually find a good property that will work.

Figure out a process/system that will allow you to generate leads like a machine. It could be marketing your interest to motivated homeowners via yellow letters, post cards, cold calling, whisper messages, door knocking, driving for dollars, etc.

Whatever method you select, use it constantly and relentlessly. Because I have found that successful wholesaling comes down to the volume of leads that you can get. It's totally a number game... if you get enough leads, you'll be able to find motivated sellers and get properties under contract. 

Hi @Matt Diebold - I own three rental properties in southern California. The first two SFRs were Buy&Hold, and the third SFR was a build from the ground up.

My wife and I built the 3rd home using some extra land on one of my existing rentals. Fortunately for us, it was already zoned to multi-property so it was easy to divide the lot.

Our plan was to build it and then sell it, using the proceeds to payoff one of our existing rentals. The house we built was a 4/2, 1600 sq ft, 2-story w/ 2-car garage. Nothing fancy, just a basic house. The construction took about a little over one year from 2007-2008 and our cost was around $140/sq ft.

When it was completed, we tried listing the house for sale but the housing market was crashing back then so we ended up having to rent it out. 15 years later we still own it because we love the rental income ($3100/mo) and don't have any regrets about not selling it as we had originally planned. 

Welcome Francisca! I think the BP site is the best place for investors to learn and network with like-minded people.