All Forum Posts by: John Milius

@Adam Fansler, If you don't mind, I'd like to get your input as well. Could you PM me any experience you have had with Property Management in Columbus, OH?

@Mark Welp, @Ryan Blake, Thank you both! Looking forward to being involved in the community! 

Hey all! I'm a new member from Columbus Ohio. My wife and I currently have one rental property which we previously owned and converted to a rental when we had to move (I'm in the military). Without any real-estate experience we were lucky enough to have a good property that cash flows and meets the 1% rule to boot.  I came across the podcast back in January about the same time as finding ChooseFI and the FIRE community. Since we had good fortune with our first rental, I am even more excited to use real-estate to build up a cash flow empire on our way to FIRE! 

Thanks all for your input. I've reached out to the broker and let them know that in the future I am to be contacted prior to any financial decisions/ price increases. I've also addressed the lack of response.

Like I mentioned, I'm new to the whole rental property thing as this wasn't originally intended for this purpose (I used to live there and moved out of state for awhile). However, it is cash flowing and would like to keep it that way :). Also, I'm hoping to obtain some more properties in the future as I learn more about this community and will definitely do better in interviewing property managers in the future!

Thank you both for your insight. This is our first rental property so we are new to what all to expect/demand from a property management. I understand what you are saying about holding them accountable and expecting what you accept.

My only concern about firing them right now is that we don't have infrastructure in place for someone to take over. I could do it in the interim but what all does that require? I could get an umbrella policy quick enough but I don't have an LLC set up. What happens to the lease agreement? They are listed as our representative on the current lease, so would that become void? Do I need to make an addendum or something that has me taking over as the landlord? We don't have any contract set up with the management company so we aren't bound to anything with them. Its more of, how to make the transition in the middle of a lease.

Thanks again for the input!

At the beginning of the month I reached out to my management company to see if they had a renewal plan for our current tenants (They are set to renew/move out at the start of May). I received a response the next day that they had already sent them a renewal offer of:

12 Months @ $1599 - which is no increase in rent

18 Months @ $1599

or Month to Month @ $1629.

I followed up and mentioned that I wanted to increase rent about $50 (~3%) minimum. If they were to move out I'd then like to increase rent a considerably amount more since the market rent in this area has grown.

I sent a follow up on the 7th to no response and today received a response as well as a signed renewal agreement that included no rental increase for 12 months.

My question is this: Is it still possible to increase the rent now that they have signed a renewal agreement and should I still try to do so? Also, how do you deal with the management company who ignored my requests until it was to late? They have been starting to lack in the response time area lately but otherwise have made this a hands off passive income property.