All Forum Posts by: Joseph DiNardi-Mack

@Sean Newcomb so long as the numbers work where I am cash flowing at least $200 per door per month after all expenses, interest, and taxes are taken out I go for as little down as possible. Reason being is to be able to use my own capital to acquire more deals, like you mentioned.

Hi @Carol Klein,

To be honest, it really depends on the person. Unfortunately there are a lot of bad property managers out there who charge exuberant fees, or you have to spend just as much time managing as you would the property, or both. That being said there are some diamonds in the rough who will take amazing care of you, and make your life ten times easier. 

My advice would be to take your time to hire and be quick to fire. You may have to go through a few before you find one that works best for you, but in the long run it will be well worth it. One thing you should always agree upon before entering into an agreement with any of them is how they will be paid. In my opinion you want to look for whoever has the most straight forward, clear, pricing model so you know exactly what you're paying each month and how they charge for maintenance. A good indicator of their overall character is how they charge you for tenant turnovers, those that charge you more for a turnover I steer clear from because their interests aren't aligned with my own. I prefer working with those who use a bonus model, where they get a bonus if there isn't a turnover, rather than those who are paid EXTRA every time there is one.

I'd be more than happy to answer any other questions you'd like to ask. Feel free to direct message me if you'd like.

P.S. Here is a helpful BP article to reference for some tips on how to pick a great property manager: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2011/02/2...  

Hi everyone,

Has anyone else experienced difficulty listing an apartment unit on Zillow or Apartments.com? I own a unit in a high rise building in New Brunswick NJ that I typically rent out to college students via my own network. This year I decided to try to list it on Zillow and when I did I saw that it only listed to Hotpads and my Zillow and Trulia listings were denied. I got an email with the following message from Zillow "Contact support for advertising rentals in communities of 50 units or more", I am still waiting on a response from them.

I then tried to list it on apartments.com and faced an error saying that subleases were not allowed and to call customer support if this was an error, so I did. The representative informed me that because there was already a paid advertisement for that building on the site I was not allowed to post on my own and I had to contact the property managers for the building.

Has anyone else had to experience this kind of runaround and hassle just to list on either of these sites?

Best,
Joe

@Daniel Rutledge I always go through my accountant, it costs $350 but for that little extra you not only get the peace of mind that it was done right but also someone who will watch your back. For example my accountant always lets me know when renewals and other forms are due, which he typically handles and only costs me $50 a year, as well as answers plenty of questions that I have.

As a word of warning, if you do decide to go through an online company you must be on top of every form filing. My friend used one of them to create an LLC, he later sold the property and notified them to dissolve the property. Long story short something happened with that communication and the company never dissolved the LLC now he is fighting them over $2,000 in late fees and other charges that he just got slapped with for not properly renewing or dissolving it.

@David Acevedo would the end user receiving the message need to have an app installed on their phone in order to receive the message? 

Hi Ryshawn, I use Chase Bank for both my business and my rentals. They have great customer service and their online banking is extremely convenient. They also make it easy to open up several business accounts. Hope this helps. 

@Ryan Knaupp only suggestion I would add is about the rehab. Make sure you don't go overboard on the remodel. As @Wyatt Simon said make sure you check with local agents to see what will actually bring in more rent. It's very easy to go overboard on your first one when you're really excited and make the house look amazing, but unfortunately that won't always raise the rents. Hope this helps. Congrats on your first deal!

@Tom Dagney Looking forward to the meet up! I always learn something new at SJREIA events and with my college rental turning over soon I know my lease could use some fine tuning.  

@Giannina Biala for short term rentals I use Airbnb as well, for the most part. When I have trouble finding a tenant I sometimes use a combination of Craigslist and Facebook to help me find a tenant and than a separate property management platform to collect the payments. 

Also you are right vrbo and homeaway do both charge up front. Fun fact they are also both owned by the same company. I believe they only have annual subscriptions in the $400 range, but they may have monthly I am not positive. I do know that vrbo does offer pay by the booking, but they charge 8% of the booking versus Airbnb's 3%. 

@Giannina Biala Yeah that is a typical rate, and that's only for their services not even including cost of maintenance. Is the unit you are trying to rent a condo? I don't have a team in place, the building I'm in is actually very helpful and allows me to use their maintenance service for a fee. They charge a little more than if I were to go out and find a team, but for sheer convinces it is worth the little extra to have everything I need right in the building. For the buildings requirements I just cannot have anyone stay for under a month, and they must abide by all the buildings posted rules or I am charged with a fine and responsible for getting them out. I find it to be fairly easy to manage out of state, the only real difficult part is tenant turnover. I found an agent down there who handles the showings for a small fee, so long as I am the one who finds the tenant and sets everything up. And you're welcome looking forward to talking with you!