All Forum Posts by: Kewei Qu

Wanted to give this thread an update since we've finally resolved the issue and landed a new tenant. REI nation offered to waive all of the 15% premium for the repairs and fixes happened during this period. I also requested 50-50 splitting the 10 months of rent loss which they later agreed to. At the end, I think REI is a workable partner, but some properties are not that passive, at least not for me.

1 Vote

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Drew Sygit:

@Kewei Qu Regarding windows, the options are typically:

1) Board them up with plywood

2) Secure with metal screens http://www.dawgsinc.com/

3) Install a LOUD alarm

Thank you!!!

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Alex Ramirez:

What kind of property is this? I would recommend self managing. I am self Managing a 12 plex and it is a C class property. It wasn’t pretty when we started (had to evict a tenant) but we have full control of our property. We use rentredi and it works great! Reach out if you have any questions

It’s a single family home around 1400 sf. Unfortunately I live in a different state so self manage is not feasible for me. I’m glad that rentredi is working well for you. Best wishes!

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Drew Sygit:

@Kewei Qu we manage a lot of Class B & C properties, so we're familiar with break-ins unfortunately.

Having a property broken into multiple times in a short period of time is usually because of:

1) Neighborhood crackhead keeps coming back

2) Previous tenant is playing games

3) Just a bad area

4) Just bad luck

How did they break in?

What deterrent measures are being taken?

If doors being kicked in, here's a cheap deterrent:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ja...

Thanks for the tip! They broke the window, any suggestions on how to deal with that?

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Ryan Robbins:

Personally their story seems a bit off to me. Depending on the size and type of turn, if a property was trashed I think $3700 would be a great price to get it back rent ready so I can't say I'm shocked to hear of the random 'break ins' which led to additional charges. We typically see full turns on 1300-1800sf homes run between $4-6k. That's what I would consider to be trashed and repairs would include a trash out, full paint, changing carpets, fixing broken fixtures, deep clean, etc.

Also as unfortunate as break-ins are, I think most would love to walk away with having a bunch stolen and it costing less than $500 to get back up and running. I don't know what could be taken from a vacant home that would only cost $488. Maybe a broken window and lock change or a used fridge and stove? Are they providing a line items on invoices showing exactly what was being done, do those prices seem reasonable? Are you being sent before, during and after photos or photos after the break in? Is there police reports to support their claims?

Best of luck on a the second half of 2022.

Hi Ryan, thanks for your well wishing. The $488 comes from a broken window, 3 felling fans, a flush mount light and a vanity light. The second time, they stole a water heater. The property management does have a 15% up charge for fixes (I think this is a common practice tho). The price looks reasonable to me although definitely on the higher side. They did file police reports for both incidents.

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Mike Dymski:

Quote from @Kewei Qu:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Welcome to real estate investing. Those things can just as easily happen in a class A property as well.

I have 3 class A properties in total, 1 with REI Nation and 2 with another company, none of them have breaking ins or stolen things. So that’s definitely new to me. But just as you said things can happen, it’s about how we deal with them. Are we just gonna let the property become a known easy target and have things be stole repeatedly? Probably not.

A-class are the top housing communities, which are million+ dollar properties in most markets.

I would agree that A-class are million+ for places like San Francisco or New York. Even in Florida, a lot of places 300K-500K would land you a pretty good property with good tenants and neighborhood.

I’m also interested to know how would you put medium income into perspective, like what’s the scope are you comparing to. Since a medium income in SF or NYC is gonna be very different rest of the country.

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

Quote from @Kewei Qu:

Want to share my experience doing turnkey with REI Nation.

I started buying my first property with them back in the summer of 2020. The property is great. I was very specific and insisted on a class A property. To date, the property is rented and with very few issues.

With a good start, I decided to purchase a second property with them last summer 2021. And this property has given me more headaches than I want. Ashley recommended this property to me as a class B property and mentioned super low tax rate as a bonus point. Trying to diversify my portfolio and branch into class B properties, I said yes. First, immediately after I purchased the property, tenant stopped paying. They got rental assistance for the last 3 months of 2021, but was not able to get anything for 2022. They secretly moved out without paying 4 months of rent for 2022, and of course trashed the place.

Second, make ready process from PPMG, their property management company. They quoted me $3745.55 (with 15% up charge) for all the things they are going to do. A week later, they told me someone broke in and stole a bunch of things. So they need another $488.75 of contribution(15% up charge). To which I said okay, please try to make the place ready as soon as possible to prevent future damage. Then another week later, the yard service needs another $1150 (15% up charge) because it’s more work than they previously estimated. Today is the day they promised fix up is going to be done, to which they emailed sorry, the house got broken in again, we need another $805 (with 15% up charge).
I’m super disappointed at the property management company, not only is the eviction taking 4 months but also the repeated broken in and damages. If this is a known issue, shouldn’t they do something differently?

Looking back, I think the class B is probably an inflated rating given the tenant issues and petty crimes in the neighborhood. The low property tax should have been an alarm for me. I think I'll continue to build up my portfolio with Turnkeys (have a busy job) but I'll stick with class A in the future and be more careful with property selection. I'm not sure if I'd like to continue with REI Nation and PPMG, given how they handled their class B property.

Nate from REI Nation reached out today and discussed possible ways we can mitigate the issue to go forward. I'll keep the thread posted on the discussion. He did say that this is a pretty unusual situation and they will take a closer look at it.

In addition, want to clarify that REI Nation doesn’t categorize their properties into buckets like ABCD. When considering this property, I asked Ashley if I should worry about this is a B- neighborhood. To which I got the answer that they do extensive research and over the long run the property should generate profits. Apologize for mis-representing that fact.

0 Votes

Houston, Texas