All Forum Posts by: John Roesler

Late to the party, but I would not recommend. In my naivety I went with them given the low cost. I've since learned that the insurance policy I was setup with (through Lloyd's of London) is not good coverage and there were significant policy changes made on the first year of renewal that were not communicated to me by Ross and I am only just now finding out about them while going through a claim and getting less coverage than I expected.  

Hi! I've got a couple of properties in St. Paul and am looking for recommendations on handymen. A few things I'm looking for help with currently:

- general turnover fix up work

- appliance installs

- window installation

I appreciate any recommendations! 

Since getting connected with the right property management it's been smooth sailing and easy cash flow $$

My property manager called me today to say they’re not sure my tenant who is 4mo behind on rent is going to catch up.

They suggested I could send to their collection agency, or once the tenant leaves, file in court for a judgement against them.

Do I have other options? Any ideas for this situation?

@Jeff Betschart

I have also had a bad experience with them. I purchased a property in Kansas City Missouri. This was from July 2019 and I stopped service with them in January 2020. They also used the name USREEB. No communication. Tenant left and they didn’t tell me it was vacant for two months. The tenant was horrible and repairs cost me five grand.

I am now with key realty (John Wheeler). They have been great!

I completely agree with everything that has been said by the others. Avoid!

@Zach Lemaster

I definitely didn’t give enough context in my comment. I personally do still think highly of you Zach and your team. Thanks for the clarification on your business model. And yes, I really appreciate that you made the connection to John for me - they’re a great team. And I think you having a team doing the full scope will allow you to ensure better customer experience in the end as you remove the risk of bad management teams.

I’ve definitely learned a lot! One thing for myself if is that I want to be a local investor only, which thankfully my market makes sense!

All the best!

I am working with Key Realty with John Wheeler now and the management experience has been significantly better than who I was working with. 

I wouldn't buy through RtR again - I didn't realize that they're essentially an aggregation / marketing layer for a bunch of turnkey companies. And the company who I ended up purchasing from was not great - terrible management and got me very bad tenant. 

@Cody Pauly small world! I am in North Saint Paul and have been doing the same for the past 7 months since I finished my basement into a mother in law suite back in June 2020.

I called the city and they informed me that since it was a single family home and not technically a duplex (which it sounds like it's the same for you with the tenant having access to the whole house), that I would not need a rental license. We did put a door in between the units, so technically it's locked and they can't come up into my space - but because it's a door and not a wall, they're not "separate" units. Their primary concerns were whether or not I would have enough parking space to be able to keep cars off the road in the winter. That is a non-issue for us. 

@Olivia Evans I purchased my first property out of state and my second property in state. I'll share some of my learnings.

Out of state (KC Missouri):

- The good: it was significantly cheaper than my home state - almost 1/3 the price. It's cash flowing now, nothing major, but I'm playing the long game and not looking for huge cash influxes each month. And I spend less than 2 hours a month doing anything related to the property. My new property managers are excellent! Communication is great, and they actually look for things that need / could be improved on the property and suggest them for me to add to my property backlog.

- The bad: The first management company I had was terrible. Communication was almost non existent. They got me a horrible tenant that trashed the place and cost me $5K to repair. I'm sure others have had success with section 8, but I am wary to rent to a section 8 tenant again.

In state (St. Paul Minnesota):

- The good: I am close by, so if something goes wrong and it makes sense for me to handle it, I have the opportunity. It's been rented since day one and cash flowing quite nicely. Property management is good and handles most everything. 

- The bad: It's close by, so honestly I have a harder time staying away. And my goal is passive real estate - because I have a full time job that I love that pays well and small children at home who are my top priority.

Overall, the only thing I wish i would have done differently is spent more time vetting property managers on my out of state property so that I could have avoided all the expense of the bad one and the bad tenant. I bought from a flipping group and I think they just tried to fill it with a body so it could be rented and cash flowing for the sale. The group I have now is also a real estate agency, so I would consider buying additional properties in the KC market with them now that we have trust built up! 

Best of luck to you! I have been very inspired by BiggerPockets community and that's what pushed me to just do it and get buying properties. That's also my personality to dive in head first and learn by doing! There are things I would have done different, but I don't regret where i've ended up. 

I am 29 and have three properties all of which I purchased or finished in the last year. One SFH not in my home city, one duplex in my home area St. Paul MN, and my own home which I have house hacked (finished the basement with separate entry) into a duplex and rent the lower level.

I don't know what my future holds and if real estate will become more than a side hustle / hobby, but I do enjoy it quite a bit. I also enjoy my day job as a Software Engineer - and it will certainly take me a substantial number of properties to replace my W2 income. 

This is an interesting thread to read. Thank you for starting it!