All Forum Posts by: Joseph Lalia

The question is how involved you want to be with your property. Is the extra income worth the extra work to you? If the answer is yes, do it yourself. If it's no, the arbitrage company sounds like a good fit. 

Hey @Joseph Lalia

I noticed you mentioned the 80221 zip code.  Is it in Adams County?  A Denver mailing address in Adams County is Unincorporated Adams County, which does in fact allow for non-owner-occupied STRs.

If it is in fact city and county of Denver, then yes unfortunately no matter which person or entity holds title, you would need to prove you're living there to get approval for a nightly rental.

As far as companies or individuals offering management services, I can pass along a list.

Hey Joseph, my wife and I are property managers at our Airbnb just outside Phoenix and we are house hacking our primary house basement here in Aurora. I have a couple questions for you. Would the person who would be your PM take care of everything related to your condo, or are there things you are hoping to manage yourself? What % are you looking to pay for someone to do this? What part of Denver is this in?

@Joseph Lalia

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😊

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CO purchase contracts are typically not assignable. You would have needed to add a special clause for that, and the builder probably would not have agreed to it. You could simply close on the condo and then resell it for a quick profit if you wanted to. Prices have gone up considerably in the last year (hence the high appraisal, and most properties are selling for over-ask with appraisal gap coverage, so even if you listed at $445k you might fetch more than that). There's still intense demand in this price point. Or furnish it and go the medium-term rental route like Kevin suggested. That's a great strategy as there's also a lot of demand for furnished MTR's in our market currently, although it would make it a bit harder to manage considering you're remote. 

Who would you assign it to? An investor? You're basically buying at 90% ARV. Not a very good deal. I see wholesalers selling at that kind of ARV but they're well established and have massive buyers lists full of wannabe house flippers.

Luckily for you it's 2022 and you can probably close on it, turn around and resell it right away. 6 months PPP is a bummer, can you shop around for a better loan. This one is pretty bad. Even a hard money lender with a higher interest rate and no PPP would save you money.