All Forum Posts by: Kyle McKiernan

Theres so many different ways to start. I'm not sure what market you are in but if you are looking for a rental you could maybe find a duplex in your local market. Buy one, live in one side and rent out the other. I have out of state rentals and Im currently closing on a house remodel flip, and a house with duplex behind it all on one lot. 

I'm curious as to how you are only putting 15 and 20% down on these investment properties. Generally its always 25% as far as I know? Also are you being asked to show proof of reserve funds for up to 6 months of mortgage payments for each property? 

Well, let's move forward a few months after I parted with Advantage. They found me my most recent tenant before switching to a new PM. I first will say I did approve this tenant to be placed. I only was able to choose what I thought was the best tenant from a poor selection provided to me each time. Here we are a couple months after we parted ways and another eviction was setup because the tenant stopped paying rent after the 2nd month. Do not use this company for lack of communication and horrible tenant selection. 14 months of a complete mess with next to no income, thousands in damage from the first tenant they placed in 2018 and thousands and thousands of dollars in lost rent from them in 2018 and now 2019. Stay as far away from them as humanly possibly. Its been going on almost a year waiting for the court to serve the prior tenant who destroyed our place. I assume I will never get those documents or hear from Advantage again. 

So now that the chapter of my previous PM has come to a close I don't mind mentioning them. I too was with Advantage Property Management. I would give Advantage an F for a grade. Having them manage our property was a galactic disaster. The communication was pretty poor from the start. The last 5 months things got better because I voiced my concern countless times from calling in to email. After the eviction finally went through January 8th my property was left trashed and vacant for a month. Then the remodel that was suppose to take 3-4 days took a few weeks. They told me the property would be rent ready after they do their remodels. Day 1 of the tenant moving in. There is a complaint that there are no garage door openers so she is having a difficult time moving her stuff into the house. (The front door is on the side of the property, garage faces the street). I immediately take care of the garage door opener. How the crew didn't know this, I am clueless because working and bringing supplies/materials in through the garage would be much easier than constantly walking everything around the side of the house. It was the second day, maybe 3rd day?......Another call. All the toilets are clogged with cardboard material being flushed down the pipes. The garbage disposal is busted as well. Once again, I take care of it right away but Advantage and their crew did nothing to check and see if it was rent ready. Less than a month ago the HVAC unit had an issue where it could only be plugged in to run, unplugged to turn off. I paid to have that repaired. Three weeks later is broken again. Advantage tells me because it hasn't been 30 days they can fix it free of charge and get someone out there "today". That was last Wednesday. I was told an invoice would be emailed over to me. Once again nothing has been done. Now I know they aren't managing it anymore and told them I appreciate them trying to fix it. I haven't received anything yet and don't plan on it. The list goes on and on. From a hole in the underside of my roof that needed patching to keep rodents out and it taking them 5 1/2 to 6 months to repair with lousy excuse after excuse of why it flat out ignoring me for weeks on end. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. During this transaction the agent warned me about them and highly recommended me going with a different company. Because they were already managing it, and this was going to be a clean slate for us, I chose to give them a chance. Unfortunately it was a complete nightmare. 

Thanks for the replies. I also sent a request @Chris Clothier. Thanks for the reply too.

Does anyone have any thoughts on consolidating some threads with questions that are frequently asked at the top of each forum? Maybe its fine the way it is? 

I'm currently in the process of looking for a new PM to manage my duplex in the Memphis/Bartlett area. Before I get into that I thought I would ask other users their thoughts and opinions on an idea I had. We all have been on other forums non real estate based, at least I have. Something thats common is a FAQ or a few subjects/threads at the top of a forum that are "stickies". They permanently stay at the top of the thread because they are very common questions. I feel the city forum's within the Regional Forum have so many similar questions asked all the time. Searching all of the forum is fine but I think it would be great if 2-4 threads/subjects were permanently stuck at the top of the forum for people to have easy access to in their particular city of interest. For example, "Property Management Companies", "General Contractors", "Real Estate Agents", etc.....could be always at the top and constantly updated as people asked and answered questions. I think being able to search within those threads would greatly cut down on the clutter of the rest of the forum. Sorry for that long post. 

Now for my question. Since I've seen many of these posts with just a couple replies, I'm looking for a new PM for my duplex thats right in the Bartlett/Memphis area. My current PM has been terrible. They hardly communicate and its not until I reach out repeatedly, I get the information I need. Sometimes its weeks before I hear anything. One tenant has been great and always paid on time. The other, not so much. I've had numerous issues with my property because of the tenant that was placed by them and is now finally evicted. I've basically managed my property from 2000 miles away. One small example were rats chewed a hole in the underside of the roof and got into the attic. I got an email saying the tenant was hearing pests. The next day I told them to go ahead and take care of it immediately, which the PM did. (great) No big deal. Well, the hole looked to be the size of a soft ball. I asked them to patch/repair the hole immediately so the problem wouldn't happen and continue and cost me $200+ to send out pest control again. It took them 5 months to patch the hole that turned into two softball size holes from he rats eating away the wood. I won't get into the other details that are much worse. 

Do any of you out there have at least a couple years experience with the same PM? I keep reading great things about Crestcore. Personally, my #1 choice for a property manager is Memphis Invest. I've heard nothing but good things about them from many many people. They also have a sister company called Premier Property management. I bought into a real estate program several years ago who partners with Memphis Invest and they encourage you to go through them. Now that I'm actively purchasing rentals it appears that they have a system that is setup to influence people in that program as well as outside using their turnkey process. If you have a property that you want managed by them, but did not purchase it through them, they won't give you the time of day. Last year I tried multiple times to connect and now this year I've tried to get a hold of both companies also stating Im a student of the real estate program and they do not care. Your always told, "we will get back to you" or "look into it" and they're never heard from again. Its very frustrating and very disappointing. I believe they should just be forward with saying this is our business model. We don't manage any rentals other than the properties we fix and sell to investors. I apologize for the very very very long points. Looking forward to feedback. 

I was thinking about starting a thread but this question seems like a good place for it. 

Does anyone have an idea what it cost to remodel a property out there. This is paint, carpet/flooring, kitchen, baths, roof (if needed) etc. A whole house remodel. I know numbers can vary, and contractors charge differently, but I'm wondering what the average costs are by contractors if you lumped all those repairs together. It doesn't need to be a breakdown of each item. What it is per sqft.  $17, $20?, $25/sqft? more? I have to imagine its in the $20/sqft range judging by the home prices out their. I know in my market and in a lot of the North Bay, contractors charge roughly $55+/- sqft on average for medium grade finishes on single family homes. Thanks for all and any help!

We have multiple pictures of the property, comps, a detailed repair estimate. 

You can also email me at [email protected]

The normal in the area is low end/rental grade.

• Had a plumber do a quick walk through of the property estimated 3-4k in new plumbing.
• Painting interior/exterior 
• Fridge
• Yard clean up
• Vinyl or linoleum flooring
• Carpet 
• 2-3k misc costs