All Forum Posts by: Keith K.

@Jeremy Baker thanks so much for your response.  Your advice is just what I needed.  Thanks also to @Account Closed and @Al Williamson for the additional perspective.  I am crafting my email to the PM right now.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Hi All,

We recently signed on with a new property manager for our vacation rental.  We're generally happy with the performance EXCEPT with the quality of cleaning.  Currently, I've been making surprise inspections of the property just before vacationers are scheduled to arrive. I've only done this twice so far, but both times found cleaning to not pass my inspection.  On the first instance, I emailed the property management representative and let them know specifically what wasn't cleaned properly.  They replied saying that they would address the issue with their cleaning staff.  On the second instance, I found that the cleaning level was not improved.

I am, by no means a perfectionist and my partners would consider me to be the least picky about cleanliness.  I am not interested in dropping our PM for this one problem, but would instead like to get the issue addressed without me nagging about it regularly and not having to drive there and check on things all the time. 

Any advice about how to address this with our PM in a way that actually gets results?  Thanks for your time.

Hi Folks,

After reading @ Tom V. 's post:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/1093...

I am wondering... is an investor shielded from these kinds of horror stories at all when good property management is in place?  Or will some of this craziness filter back to the investor either emotionally or financially or both?  Or does good PM prevent it from happening in the first place?

Thanks @Matthew Adelman for reprinting the numbers on the deal, but for due diligence I am talking soft stuff, not hard numbers.  Things that must be qualified instead of quantified -- this is more challenging to do long distance.  That's the kind of due diligence I am really wondering about for this deal.  Although @Seth B. did answer it previously by saying he got lucky.  Would like to know what he'll do differently or not differently on his second deal.

Hi Seth,

Thanks for mentioning me so I could see your reply.  What a roller coaster of a year for you.  The cash flow is definitely good, but I wonder if you think the due diligence you conducted was adequate prior to your purchase or if maybe you got lucky.  Do you have a list of things you'll do differently for finding your second rental based on this first experience?  Could you share?  Also, do you feel like you have any additional risk in buying long distance?  Folks on BP often recommend newbies buying local to start, but it sounds like you found a good PM... is that enough to cover your butt?  Thanks again for mentioning.

Thanks Elizabeth.  BTW great job on the BP podcast!  Can you explain 'cannot use owner financing'?  Do you mean if part of funds were to come from an owner and the rest from a commercial loan?  I would think if it was all owner financed along with down payment with my cash that it wouldn't matter, right?

Hi Folks, I just would like some clarity about the differences in deals when going from, say a fourplex to 5+ unit buildings. I hear anecdotes that the loan type becomes 'commercial', but would appreciate some explanation and how it would affect me as an investor wanting to get into the MFR space from scratch. If this has already been answered, would appreciate a link. Thanks.

Thanks, Jennifer, for that interesting perspective.  I haven't considered the percent of population as renters, but you're right: a small town might still make a big pool of potential renters (or employees, as Butler calls them!).  I'll see if I can track this data point down for my areas of interest.  Is that sort of thing on city-data.com or did you have to look more local?  

@Jon Holdman  thanks so much for the insightful response.  Zoning, codes, tenant expectations... that's exactly what I wanted to know.  -Keith

Hi Everyone,

I was scanning deals today and noticed a single family property that I thought might be a good candidate to have a seemingly redundant living room converted to a studio apartment.  Can anyone provide some advice about this kind of conversion and how cheaply/simply it can be accomplished?  For example, I imagine I could go as far as creating an entirely separate kitchen and bathroom for the studio unit and its own exterior door, but could I do as little as locking off the living room as separate quarters with the existing living spaces, kitchen and bathrooms as shared areas?  And does a studio space like this need to have a separate exterior door?  

Are there established rules about what constitutes a real studio apartment versus just advertising rooms available in a house?  Or is this all grey area and up to the comfort level of tenants?

Just trying to get creative with maximizing rental income possibilities without being a slumlord.  

Thanks!