All Forum Posts by: John Do

@John Do

Even if someone give you a referral, what meets their expectations, may not meet yours.

In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.

It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator.

So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.

EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean? What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.? You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!

This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.

The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!

We have a 14-page management contract that we've added our real experiences to over the years, with the intent of protecting both us AND the landlord. Beyond the Monthly Management, Placement & Maintenance fees, all other fees in our contract are IF EVENT -> THEN fees.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processes

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

P.S. If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general. Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊

We recently changed PMs after 7 years.  I did a lot of research, too, and it wasn't obvious there was a standout.  I interviewed several by phone (we are in MN).  We left Missy McCall's company [aka Dix Road PropertyManagement; Findlay Property Management; Reliable Residential; Bed and Breakfast Property Management; BB Rents; Turnkey Real Estate; Multi-Property Management; Home Property Management] and would definitely NOT recommend them for many reasons.  You can direct message me if you need specifics.  

The PMs I researched were (1) The REllis Group at Key Realty (2) Janice Kemmer with Outside the Box Real Estate (sourced Bigger Pockets) (3) Bob Rothman with Roost (sourced from Bigger Pockets)  (4) Mak Gregor Mgmt  (5) Manco Property Service and (6) RPM Midwest. I interviewed by phone three of them. The two finalists for me were Mak Gregor and RPM Midwest.  On September 1st, we contracted with RPM Midwest. We were comfortable with that decision based on relationships we have with other RPM franchisees in Houston, Huntsville, and Jacksonville/Ocala. We know their systems and can self-serve using their portal for most things which is nice.

We've only been with them for 3 months.  There have been some hiccups which I don't think are necessarily transition issues but rather workflow/workload issues so I'm hesitant at this point to give an enthusiastic recommendation.  There is definitely a need for them to develop a formal onboarding process. I have never once talked to anyone on the phone except in my initial discussions with the salesperson.  They use the now common PM support email address where everything goes into a cue and they respond back via email in "due time".  I don't have a problem with this unless the response time is excessive or the response isn't sufficient.  IMO 5 days on a nonurgent issue and 2 days if marked urgent are reasonable.  I've only had 1 urgent so far and it was not handled properly IMO.

I'd appreciate you sharing your own research.  I'm not saying I'm going to move PMs again but it's always nice to be ready with a backup should things take a turn.

@John Do just keep putting offers I lost out on a house I was super excited about to an offer that was a few thousand dollars less because the other offer was an FHA and the seller wanted to help out a new buyer. I also lost out to a cash offer that was 10K less! Because I only had 3/4 of the cash for the property and had no loan or appraisal contingency. But two weeks before that I bought a different property that had two other equal offers but they chose mine because of the best chance to close and we did just close on it. My point is the (best offer financially or by term or by wanting to help someone or by any other metric can happen) maybe you find someone that loves helping veterans and sells to you because of that or someone that doesn't care about loan type and just wants the best price. Figure out how to bring value and just keep taking good shots some will go in.

@John Do Most of my investors rely on me to minimize the competition. Since bids like this can happen it is important to talk with the host of the silent bid/offer process in order to get insight on other investors/cash buyers. Usually you should come in with a game plane as far as biding prices and check in contract. The more info the better in these cases. What was your escalation clause price increments? 500? 1,000? I am curious to know. Moving forward I would just network with other cash buyers and as well as your agent/property host. Some cash buyers put 10% down if they know it is going to be a heavy rehab/mid-range. I would say having 50k in cash reserves is a good start for dabbling in the market. Specifically Columbus. What market are you currently investing in? Let me know, Happy Investing!