All Forum Posts by: Jon Shoop

If I were looking for a good property management company this is what I would do:

Start with word of mouth of a trusted real estate broker. Then search Google rankings. From there, I would pick a few and compare prices and all that. If they seem equal or close enough, then reach out to them. 

THIS is where it gets interesting. See who is the first to reach back out to you if you submit a request through their website. If it is during normal operating hours they should reach out to you within 60 minutes. Our time is under 5 minutes during normal hours. 

If they aren't reaching out to prospective buyers quickly, how long are maintenance issues going untouched? Rent uncollected? 

• Questions to ask about the organization: 
  
  Is it just a one or two man operation, a single manager and everything else remote? Or is it a team of people with dedicated and separate job duties and responsibilities and run like a normal operating business?
• How many properties do they manage?
• How long has their company been in business?
• How do they conduct maintenance? Staff on hand, Third party, Handyman, They do it themselves?
• Do they inspect the property to check on it?
• How far is the next home they manage from your property? 
• What's their procedure if a tenant reports their HVAC breaking during an emergent time such as temperatures below 30 degrees and above 95 degrees?

@Bruce Lynn and @Ryan Kelly are on the money. One of my client's homes has a decent sized swimming pool. I just got quotes for pool services from a dozen companies around Keller and DFW and they're all $150-200/month for cleaning services. 

Tenants aren't going to take care of a pool - and you don't want them to! Too much that can break. I think it only makes sense if the overall deal makes sense. I don't think a pool should be a deal break or maker. Since this is an investment for you, I think lean towards deal breaker than maker. Here's why:

There's pros and cons of each scenario when it comes to having tenants in there. 

Having a pool Pros:

You have a POOL while you live there.

Attractive to tenants who want it. 

Cons: 

Expensive to maintain - can push tenants away who don't have the extra money and you certainly don't want pool cleaning coming out of your monthly rent. 

Liability - HUGE liability. Write off anyone who has young kids or pets who could drown unless you have a legit pool fence around it and even then... liability.

As much as I LOVE pools, I think the liability and maintenance costs outweigh the marketability of a home with a pool for an investment scenario. 

That's very interesting. I have a client that came to us from a similar type of builder/management company in DFW. They built him some duplexes and then managed the properties for him. We now manage the properties due to a little falling out our client had with that company. 

Couldn't have been too bad of a deal for my client because he's very smart and on  top of things. BUT then he was kind of married to their property management services and that wasn't good for him. 

So to answer your question, I wish I could give a definitive answer. I think most companies are going to be different. But most likely they're not going to be excited if you're wanting to manage it on your own. Whether that kills the deal or not, just depends on the company.

I will say that my company is starting to do these in addition to all the flips and renovations we do for our current owner portfolio. 

Here is a Website for Prop Tax % It's for all of Texas so it'll give you what you want. You just may need to search around for the cities you're within range of. There's more results on Google but I liked how this give more of a breakdown for Dallas, Fort Worth, and DFW.

Yes. We run rental analysis reports for homeowners that are interested in renting out their homes and want PM services in DFW, Dallas, Fort Worth, and North Texas. 

We even have an APP for it for owners and realtors in Texas!  

Hey Nick! Welcome to DFW! I'm in @Hayden Harrington FB meetup group and will also be making it to some meet ups. I look forward to hopefully working with y'all!

Hi @Arta Montero! As the other poster's have said, it may be time to cut ties with your PM. In no way, shape, or form, would I feel comfortable or honest with myself if I sent over a maintenance tech to unplug a shower tub drain and charged one of my client's $500 to do so. 

As @Joseph Firmin said, those don't sound like maintenance issues - stoves get dirty after being used, tubs not draining after a female using them, and preference for length of blinds are all not "maintenance" issues. They are all things that the tenant has been responsible for causing. At the very least if the tenant was going to complain about those types of things, the tenant should have been responsible for the cost of "maintenance" calls since they are not in fact maintenance issues like a broken water pipe or dishwasher. 

This sounds like a huge mess and I'm sorry your PM has put you in it. 

First things first: I would speak with your PM and discuss with them how displeased you are with them. Then I would clarify with them what maintenance issues are tenant related and should be charged to the tenant or for the PM to troubleshoot with them over the phone to fix the issue. 

Depending on how that conversation goes, you will know what you need to do with either keeping or firing them. If it's $1,000 to get out of the contract with them vs. spending thousands more on BS maintenance issues, I think you know what do to. 

In my market, DFW, Dallas, Fort Worth, & North Texas - my company strives in situations like these, which is why I like how stringent our tenant application process is - we get great tenants in for our clients. We do month to month agreements with property owners and we do our best to minimize their out of pocket costs... why? Because we want them to buy more properties and increase their success and they're happy with us so we get to manage their next consecutive properties! Just like you were/are doing with wanting to buy more, we want the same for our clients. 

I hope this helped! 

 Yes this is all very true regarding having a Local Team. 

If you'd like a firm that is dedicated to all of DFW and North Texas with fourteen (14) in-house full-time PM team members based out of their Keller office, look no further than @Kyle Mccaw 

 For investments, I think Duplexes and other multiplexes are where it's at. The nice thing about DFW, Dallas, Fort Worth, is that you can find some nice streets/neighborhoods that have decent to nice MFHs. 

For SFH I would probably look at starting with a rehab job to get closer to the price range and cash flow that you'd want.

 This 100%! With a good property manager teamed with a reliable realtor, you can get the insight you are looking for and have two parties with vested interest in your success. At the end of the day, RE is all about connections and growth. For a good property management company, they want their clients to be making money off their investment properties so they can continue to buy them and the PM can continue to manage them! Win for the owner building their portfolio, win for the realtor who should have their clients pushed back to referral partners (the agent who referred them) to use for the transactions, and PM manages the properties. Everyone wins in this scenario.