All Forum Posts by: Kevin Nichols

The property management firms in my town run the gamut from a few large managers that do a decent job with Appfolio, communication, etc.  to the smaller guys who are still old school.

Am considering prop. management, but want to stand out from the rest.  As a landlord what do you want to see in a PM?  (I have 10 properties and buy/rehab...but I don't use PMs.)

You can look at mashadvisor to get a feel for your market.  It's also good just to go on airbnb, vrbo and look at your competition.  You can get pricing info, get a feel for occupancy rates, etc. just by looking at other homes.

I have a full time airbnb (3bed/2bath), but it's in a smaller market with only about 30 competitors.  

Other revenue can come from "travel nurses."  Look on FB for travel nurse groups.  These nurses sign 13 week contracts and some times the hospitals will pay them a stipend for housing.  

Take good photos, keep your house super clean, and decorate like you would want to live in the space.  Add the extra touches such as snacks or beer/wine for your guests and keep your 5 star rating.  I just saw one competitor who ended up selling her full time airbnb because she was getting mediocre reviews.  (Bad neighborhood...but she had semi-flipped the house...so it looked nice.)

This has happened to me as well in my "C" neighborhood rentals. I typically do a lot of the work myself, which makes it even more personal.

You try to make something nice and the people in the neighborhood bring it down.   That's one of the reasons I sold them. They'll never be more than "C" neighborhoods unless they gentrify.

Price is too high.  When you start talking about electrical problems and issues, you can easily sink $20K or more into fixes.  Holes in walls, etc.

I bought in a "C" neighborhood before.  Bought a duplex for $25K.  Looked like they cooked crack in it.  We pulled out some of the drywall, repainted, new kitchen cabinets on each side, flooring, new windows and that was about $15K.  (Did the work ourselves)

Made it look super nice.  But it still was in a "C" neighborhood.  Put it on zillow and got over 500 inquiries in 2 weeks.  Rented it for 2 years and then sold it last summer for $85K.

Happy day at closing.  You start working in the bad hoods, you are going to work to make your money or become a slum lord.  

@Alex S. My state does require a PM license.  (testing and application)

I don't have the license but considering it.

There are about 10 PM firms in my town. I've dealt with a few and they seem to be really "old school," as far as their functioning. 

Examples:  

• websites are horrific

• one central email address...even with multiple employees

• use of local telcom domain for email...not even tied to their PM website domain

Has anybody started their own PM firm?  If so, thoughts on your processes and start up?  

As a landlord, what would you "love," to see from your PM?  (I have 9 rental properties and self manage)

In your due diligence, you would/should had viewed any outstanding building permits.  In my county, you can pull them up online and view the process, whether they were approved or just not pulled.

How does the electric company even know you have new, unpermitted electrical?

Typically, when I buy a property, there is a meter and meter can leading to an electrical/breaker box.  99% of the time, the when the city turns on power, they will just come out and take a plastic plug off the meter socket and stick it back in the meter can.  Then put a tag/lock on the meter can.  It's against the law to cut the tag off.

The city guys couldn't care less about the rest of the wiring...unless you told them about it.  (rookie mistake)

Your transaction is done with the seller.  It's up to you to get it up and running.  

Establish a baseline early in the landlord/tenant relationship. Basically, I only repair broken items in a rental property during a tenant stay.

Between tenants, I may paint touchup, replace flooring, landscape, etc.

I will actually say, "don't call me unless something is broken.  I will occasionally contact you and drive by an review the property."

This pretty much tells them I'm not going to beautify anything.  If the sewer is clogged, I'll fix it.  If the appliance cord on the stove burns out, I'll fix it.  But I'm not refinishing the hardwood floors.  

The above sentence has worked well for me.  

Over the last few years, we have bought (and sold) rental property.  We have approximately 5 properties worth about $400K with no mortgages.  

I've considered cash out refi's (have done them in the past), but we already have other cash ready for any new rental property deals to come along.

So...what's the best practice when all your rentals are cash flowing well and you don't have mortgages?  Seems stupid to cash out refi.

@Michelle Marie Spearman I am no expert.  We just started an AirBnb for a home in Rock Hill.  It's booked about 50% in Nov. and 20% in Dec.

I did a spreadsheet analysis of Airbnb vs. rental....with gross revenue and expenses. In my sheet, I can change the % of occupancy, nightly rate, and cleaning fee for the Airbnb and compare it to renting it out.

In the beginning, we are all always super optimistic with our numbers..right!  :) 

I anticipated $22K net for Airbnb vs. about $13K for a rental....but being 3 weeks on Airbnb, I'm adjusting my numbers down.  

We told ourselves we would "test" it for 6 months to a year and then revisit.

RE:  TV.  We bout a 49" TCL TV from amazon with Roku on it.  I added Netflix, Hulu, and Prime to it....from our personal accounts.  So no extra expense there.  But, I may end up paying $25/month for Sling TV.

We will see, the issue that you and I both have is that we can't just bank on weekend rentals.  That's not enough occupancy.  So you have to find people who have business in the area or some other reason to stay longer than 2 nights.

I've had Thanksgiving traveler who are staying for 5 nights.  Christmasville (Festival) people who are staying for 4 nights and a local person who has a wedding at the end of December and have family coming in for 7 nights.

I also had a lady from Maryland who wanted the house for 4 weeks in january...because her sister is having a baby and she is coming down to help out.  But that was just an inquiry and it never panned out.  

You'll find that people are flakey.  Just like potential renters, folks are 100% solid....even up to 2 days before the airbnb reservation.