All Forum Posts by: Laticia Braxton

Hi Rocky,

There are several areas of Baltimore City and Baltimore County that are good for a B&H strategy.  I suggest that you connect with a seasoned investor-friendly agent, to explore those areas.  He/she will know where their clients have had the most success.  Keep in mind that investors typically have success when investing in areas within great school districts as that is often times one of the most important factors to renters with school aged children.  

Unless you plan to self-manage, I would also suggest that you ask your agent for local property management company recommendations.  You should also search for and interview PM companies on your own and interview multiple companies and check their references before making a final decision.

Lastly, if you're not using a licensed agent, watch out for "deals" that seem too good to be true.  Run your numbers twice, check the property for damages and repairs needed (if you can) and take your contractor with you for repair cost estimates. Always do your own due diligence and realize that Baltimore is a very competitive market.

Best of luck to you!

Laticia

Hi Lawrence,

Firstly, thank you for your service! I don't know if there are any specific requirements relating to Veterans affairs and being a landlord, but once you have your property ready for rent, you could contact the VA and ask them for guidance on listing your property. They may even have an active list of veterans searching for rental housing. There is a popular website geared towards military personnel. I used to advertise military rental listings on that site and had a lot of luck in finding qualified renters very quickly. The one thing I learned about military people, is that they are quite precise and like to get things done quickly which I greatly appreciated! Perhaps once you have a rental listing, you could try it for yourself.

Being a landlord in general is a very broad topic that includes tons of subtopics and related questions, so if you have specific questions, please reach out and I would be more than happy to help you.

Laticia

Yes, you should definitely self-manage!  Since you're house hacking, it should be a lot easier for you.  Just be sure to set the tone with your tenants immediately.  You are their landlord, not a friend, associate, hangout buddy, etc.  If you get too comfortable with them, it will become that much harder to put your landlord hat on when you get your first lease violation or late rent payment.  I'm not saying you can't be cordial, but if you don't create that barrier from day one, you will regret it.   

The lessons you will gain from managing your property will be invaluable to you throughout your RE investment career.  There are people and tons of resources available to you when you need assistance. Put that management fee you will be saving into your down payment fund :-) You can do this!

Best of luck to you!

Laticia

I totally agree with @Randall Alan.  I also suggest that you start locally, where you can self-manage your property.  The experience will definitely come with challenges, especially if you are not experienced in property management, but the knowledge that you will gain very quickly in addition to the revenue that you will save in doing so, will make it all worthwhile.  

You will also better position yourself to know how your properties should be managed in the event that you hire a PM down the road. A lot of investors are unfortunately learning that they are being scammed by unprofessional and dishonest PM's in more ways than one.  Try it out first, then decide if it is something that you need to outsource.

Best of luck to you!

Laticia

@Alex John Too funny and thank you!  Happy Sunday :-)

It's best to have software handle that for you, to keep all your records in order.  It also presents your current and future tenants with your level of professionalism.  Force them to use your systems and your life will be much easier :-)  To answer your question, I agree with David and recommend Innago to my investor clients with smaller portfolios also.  

Best of luck to you!

Laticia

Congratulations on your flip!  I wish really wish more investors had the time and/or believed in themselves enough to self-manage. I've read post after post on this platform and others and have received call after call from investors with PM horror stories.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of inexperienced, unprofessional and crooked people out here pretending to be PM's and the investors are taking huge financial hits as a result. 

I wish you the best and feel free to reach out to me with any PM questions you may have.  I'm always happy to help!

Laticia

Totally agree with @Josh C..  Hopefully, you were able to pay them through a personal payment processor such as PayPal or Venmo. That guy is something else!  A true professional would NEVER ASK for a bonus even if they had provided stellar service while under contract. 

Congratulations on your sale and welcome to the world of CRE!

Laticia

Hi Rodney,

The majority of the language is pretty standard, but I would definitely strike the sentence eliminating them from errors of judgement. They should have an E&O policy which would, in theory, protect them if necessary.

I see you are a newbie.  Are you an out of state investor? Is there any particular reason why you are hiring a PM instead of managing your first property yourself?

Laticia

The single most important thing that stood out for me from your post is "...but I know I can manage at least some of my properties until I scale higher."  You absolutely can and should.  No one, not even the best PM company in your area, will ever be more invested in your properties than you are.  

Will it take a lot of patience on your part?  Yes.  Will problems arise that frustrate you and make you reconsider?  Yes.  Will you reach a hurdle, or two, or three and need to reach out to other more experienced people for assistance and/or guidance and advice? Probably, but thats's how you learn and grow.

Get started as quickly as you can and before you know it, you will look back at this post and see that you are so much more confident in your management abilities. Your management experience will also help you tremendously when interviewing property managers in the future.  You will be better able to gauge their management style and decision-making skills based upon how you successfully handled your own obstacles. 

You've got this and best of luck to you!

Laticia