All Forum Posts by: Chris Dawson

@Kevin Drouillard find a new PM company.  While you are doing that, do everything @Karen Rittenhouse suggested.  There should only be 2 reasons why your properties aren't getting rented; either the properties are not being advertised, or the rent is too high for the location/condition of the properties.  The time of the year has nothing to do with it.  October is a great month for renting or selling in our market.

@Austin Petrie, I would recommend areas in Clay or Platte counties which are located north of downtown Kansas City.  The tenant population and school districts are way better than what you will find in Independence, Raytown, or Grandview.

@Michael Stanley what price range are you looking at? That will help determine what areas to look at.

@Jamie Jennings I can help you with finding a contractor.  Send me a PM.

@Lawrence Ryan Basham where are you wanting to invest in Kansas City?  The costs and requirements vary greatly depending on what county and city you are looking at.  I have a full rehab ($45k) going on in Independence that I can show you, if you are interested.

@Larry S., in Missouri, both the company and the broker need to be registered with the Missouri Real Estate Commission.  They should have 2 distinct licenses; one will be in the company's name only and the other one will be in the broker's name showing them as being associated with the company from the first license.

@Griffin D., if you talk to anybody who has been investing in Kansas City for very long, you will hear about at least one PM horror story.  KC is notorious for having a lot of bad/illegal property management companies.  The very first thing you need to do when checking into a PM company is to check with the real estate commission to make sure they are licensed (a.k.a legal to do property management).  

As you probably know by now (if you have been doing your research) Kansas City straddles two states; Kansas and Missouri.  What you might not know yet is that property management is governed very differently in Missouri vs in Kansas.  In Missouri, you are required by law to be a licensed real estate broker to manage property; both residential and commercial.  In Kansas, you only need a license to manage commercial properties.  What happens a lot in Kansas City is that you have a lot of people trying to manage properties on the Missouri side who are not licensed.  Even if you only have residential properties in Kansas, you still want to use a pm company that is licensed with the real estate commission.  

Why use a licensed property management company?  Because you are entrusting these people with your money and your tenant's money!  Licensed and registered property management companies have to disclose their trust accounts to the real estate commissions for the purpose of auditing.  This helps insure that the PM company isn't commingling monies or flat out stealing your money.

By now you should be asking, "How do I verify that the PM company is licensed and registered with the real estate commission?".  The good news is that its easy to verify.  

To search for companies or licensees in Missouri go to:  https://renew.pr.mo.gov/realestate-licensee-search...

To search for Kansas, go to: https://licensing.ks.gov/verification_krec/

Once you have established that they are a legitimate property management company, then you can do everything @Dan Krupa suggested.

Hope this helps.

@Tony Huang you need to spend a lot of time searching through the forums to learn more about the Kansas City markets.  Set up a keyword search for Kansas City so you can see ongoing conversations about the area.  Finds some local investors and/or investor friendly agents and reach out to them for advise.

If you want to know more about specific areas of Kansas City, check out this forum that I posted several years ago: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/276...

Good luck investing!

@Ryan Fox 64132 is an OK rental area.  I would give it a C+ at best.  Good cash flow, but high turnover, crime, and bad schools makes it a high risk.

@John Ross Valderama these numbers seem very tight. You are only looking at 10% equity and that's if everything goes according to plan (which it rarely does). You are going to have a hard time refinancing, unless you plan on putting more money down. How sure are you about the rehab costs and the ARV?

If you are going to use hard money, make sure you use a company that can also secure the refinance loan.  This will insure that the numbers you have on paper will allow for a refinance loan that meets your needs.....BEFORE you purchase the property and potentially get stuck with a high interest loan that you can't refinance.