All Forum Posts by: Jim Shonts

PM companies are typically anxious to help, especially when the possibility of ongoing management is on the table. Rentrange costs the manager to run each report, so as long as you do not abuse it or send the PM 30 properties I would help you. If you asked me to run a ton of properties, I would still be happy to do it, I may just charge a service fee at some point.

As for the other sources, I use MLS, Zillow sometime craigslist to see what else is on the market and how long it has sat and for the pictures to comp out my property. I also talk to other managers and network a lot.

@Brian Chen I use rentometer and rentrange nearly every day. Here is what i see as the difference. Rentrange uses data from large property management companies just like mine. So they used the actual rented data of these companies to compare what rentals should go for in your market. It is often much lower than rent O meter because rent O meter is pulling data from the advertised price, not the rented price. Since rent range is pulling from property managers the data is cleaner, because so many self managed property investors market their property way too expensive and they will never get that rent, it is just hopes and dreams. But on that note I do use about 4 different data sources for comp'ing the property's rental price estimate for my clients.

@Pierce Fonville There is always property management franchises. That is the route I took. You can work with a broker that is experienced and focused on property management and can help you get started.

@Jian Lin The One Thing. You can use it in business, life, investing or anything in life you want to focus on and improve.

@Russell Caraotta you have lot of good stuff on this post. Maybe I missed it but I get a lot of leads from Zumper too. Zillow is by far #1, but Zumper is sometimes #2 and sometimes #3. We hit about 20 syndicated sites, but the Zillow group produces the most leads

@Bryson Cox C class apartments take a lot of property managing. The 10% may be high if it was a A class as the property is probably in better shape and there is less overall work and the tenants are often easy to work with. These C class buildings seem to need more repairs, the tenant is more difficult to work with, they are less tech savvy and have a more difficult time paying rent each month on time. All of that spells more time a manager needs to dedicate to managing. All the extra time and the low rents mean they have to charge a bit higher rate. I dont charge 10% personally, but I also dont take on those C class units. As for the leasing fee, it may be fair for the amount of time it takes to rent out. My lower end properties have way more showings and more calls about people asking if we take 400- credit scores or if we take section 8. I do more showings where people just dont show up or call. Instead of charging more, I just decided to not manage those units anymore and stay in A and B class. Those fees sound fair to me. Maybe you can work a bonus system with the manager for hitting metrics that you mutually establish. Shift the motivation and compensation to something that you want to be rewarded.

@Jim Shonts asking=adding; tragedy=texting

@Ethan Lieber you thinking of asking this on top of the services we already use for the 24/7 call center? Would this be a tragedy message version instead of having the tenant call in? And would this be connected to our contractor network like you have now?

Joe Atha with PMI Indy is amazing. He has so many programs for the RE Investor to work with. He can do the simple stuff as tenant placement, leasing and rent collection, but he also works with out of state investors for Project Management as well for Renos and upgrades. I highly recommend. I look up to Joe and what he has done as a property manager...for whatever that is worth.

Joe Atha with PMI Indy is amazing. He has so many programs for the RE Investor to work with. He can do the simple stuff as tenant placement, leasing and rent collection, but he also works with out of state investors for Project Management as well for Renos and upgrades. I highly recommend. I look up to Joe and what he has built to help investors in that area.