All Forum Posts by: Joseph Walsh

I don't know about you, but one thing I plan to do as look at the reaction(or over reaction, etc.) to this by local communities and how they treated landlords.  Some places flat out panicked, and screwed us in the process, with little concern of the consequences and a bit of "they can afford it" attitude.  Fortunately, the Senate and Administration pushed through "small business" help, and landlords qualified in many cases.  I plan to take stock of those communities, and avoid them permanently going forward, at least for rentals.

Yes, my one problem tenant in the past had already been "retrained" by the PM company, or I suspect he would of been a headache in these times.  Fortunately he's on a fixed income that's guaranteed, so he really has no excuse, but establishing those expectations a few years ago I suspect have made all the difference.

Sounds like the classic "too good to be true"  Most will say they can't stay in business at that rate, mostly experienced PM's will say that, they know the score, there must be SOMETHING else they are doing to make money.  But maybe they are a unicorn, maybe they are truly as good as others, and have reasons they can charge less.  maybe the top guy is retired and bored, and just wants to "break even".  Or they are really good, but new, and will eventually raise rates over time once getting established, etc.  and if so, and in the market for a PM anyway, maybe give them a try.  but I would come in with the "whats the catch" mentality until you find out they really have a good reason to be less,and still quality.  Also, I am pretty sure from a commercial valuation, management isn't a cost you can reduce to impact value.  you'd need to reduced hard costs, like taxes, utilities, other mandatory recurring fees (licensing, for example) since professional management is "optional"

hi @Hazel Aquino the PM I use in Milwaukee is also an agent that focuses on the investor market.   They also can facilitate handymen/contractors. depending on how hands off you want to be. I've never used them for contractors, but they hold escrow for my properties to handle minor repairs, etc.  message me if you still need a PM and want the contact info.  

I'm sure there are better options, but you could build, in a new development, especially if you get in early.  that 100k  (or portion of it) would go a long way toward a construction loan, which gets automatically converted to a tradition mortgage at the end.  The builders usually have a relationship with the lender to help smooth that process.  It's not ideal form a "buy low, sell high" perspective, but if you get in early, typically there is an early bump in property values in a new development,  you can often get hoa rules waved as an early investor, and often get a bit of a discount for being early.  then you have a mortgage to show for your next loan, a history of payments, etc.  You can sell after a year or two and make a marginal profit, but hopefully by then you have the bank relationship needed going forward and have acquired your next property already.

Since, as you noted, it's a private page, and not a public review site, etc.  I'd stay quiet, she's actually doing you a service, now instead of recruiting those friends of hers joining in with their like mob - mentality to your properties, she's actually deterring them, resulting in a free layer of tenant screening. but do continue to monitor/document if you are so inclined in case this escalates.

Wow, learned a lot from this one, my list was simple before reading it.  HOAs, landlord hostile cities (or states in the case of california), and foundation issues.  Recently I added in: stupid rental license zoning rules, like no more than 2 un-realted tenants (so I can have 10 in a 2 bd place, as long as 9 are relatives?, but only 2 people in my 4 bd. place?) or 2x parking spots per bedroom.(although I do try to mine those for the gems in the "green" zones)

  Or course the obvious, over priced, negative cash flow, high crime, etc.

Wow, based on those numbers, have you considered selling it and rolling the profit into a couple other properties with better cashflow?  And nice job, the after pics looks great.  thanks for sharing, pretty cool financing angle to look into.

Do we think this will result in more people electing to rent instead of own on the residential side?  I can't guess at it.  On one side, a scare like this might make people thing twice about a mortgage.  On the other side, rates are so low, and this might reinforce the need for some more fiscal responsibility, so a year from now, people may be in a much better position to own.  Housing prices around here seem relatively unaffected.  There are less on the market, so it seems to be balancing out fairly evenly.  One trend I think we'll see, much tighter tenant qualification process, but that's a guess.

I think it will depend on the results of the September elections.  If the status quo remains, then business will have a measure of "certainty" for 3 more years, consumer confidence will return, and the economy will return to how well it was humming along prior to the panic of COVID-19. I think if there is significant turnover, that instantly adds uncertainty, and business is universally adverse to uncertainty (it doesn't really matter the politics, change is change, either way).  Compounded by the fact that at that level the "change" that is expected takes a while to come into focus, until then it is speculation, and the business world has to make worst case assumptions.  So businesses will stock cash, stop re-investing, and maybe even cut back until the uncertainty is gone.  Now the real question, either way, will there be a HOUSING recession?  I suspect there will be a home buying downturn, which would increase rental needs, so, Win-Win?, unless you are banking on appreciation of course.