All Forum Posts by: Mahmuda L.

@Ryan Moyer That's a very good point. She is 66 years old and knows basic tech at its best. She is very lively though. It feels more like she has been mentoring me given I am very young. So I am trying to be super solid on my decision before I say no to her. Given very low retention at my place, most of her management work goes to handling the showings I would say. But yeah advertising is the biggest piece actually.

I have an individual property manager who does not advertise. So I have to. My place only gets 3 to 4m lease and 9m at best but rare. And I have a very involved work life as an engineer at a big tech company. I could not find individuals who adverse on the side. Renting 5 rooms separately in not allowed in Philly so it’s hard to find companies. I feel cheated when I look for long term candidates and my manager hands them over to her other landlords who have brand new 3b2b without compensating me given candidates often don’t like my place. So even my advertising isn’t benefiting me. The manager has a girl who posts ads on the side, is not too reliable, consistent or pro-active, charges me same for 3m or 9m lease. Should I switch to full service airbnb company? It will be much less profitable. Now I pay 8% management fee but then it will be 20% ish, plus more vacancies so less income. But at least I am not patching tenants on five rooms every 3 to 4 months. I also worry losing trust and business relation with current manager who has been otherwise very reliable to me. Who knows how reliable the airbnb company will be given I am on the other side of the US.

The house is located walking distance to two universities, so I've been targeting mostly university students and young graduate professionals. 

 If I am handling the advertising for Airbnb, it will be even more work than advertising for 3 to 12m lease. With my current work life, it will be practically impossible

Sorry it's too big but I don't post often. And really need some advice.

I bought a big old 5b2b house couple years ago. I had a management company but saw them struggling to find tenant. It's a single family house. Not only that it's hard to find a single family who needs 5 bedrooms, but also it's hard to find group of 5 friends who want to live together. The potential rent would have been 3k/m but the company had to advertise for 2k because 3k is too high for that area for single family with mom, dad, couple kids.

Anyways, very quickly I switched to an individual manager who rents rooms to students or young professionals. Current rent is 3k/m. The business has been profiting but one caveat: she does not advertise. So I, as owner have to. It is a rent per room business, so it's hard to find advertising agent who would legally do that in Philadelphia given 5 strangers are not allowed to live together. Also, all 5 tenants share 1 kitchen which I do not have the money to remodel currently. It's too messy with that many people using common space. I bought shelves for now.

Few dilemas I have:

• I look for long term tenants but people are more interested in 3 to 4 month lease. So I have to constantly find ones who want 9 to 12m.
• Even if I settle for 3m lease, then I have to start advertising again in couple months.
• My manager has one girl who does ad on the side who charges $50 to find tenant per room. What’s frustrating is, I have to give her $50 if she find 12m AND $50 if she finds 3m. And it’s mostly those 3m ones. And she isn’t that regular either. I have to constantly be on the lookout.
• I look for prospective tenants for 12m lease but my manager shows them her other houses too when they don’t like mine. Note, her other houses are brand new. So basically I am transferring tenants to her other landlords without getting paid for it. And I don’t wanna cause any friction so I stay quiet about it even though it does not seem fair to me.
• I really tried to find individuals to advertise on the side but haven't had luck. Even my family members are too busy for this.

If you are still reading, I am contemplating to switch to airbnb and hand it over to an airbnb management company who does full service. But usually companies charge 20% fee and I would have no clue who stays because they will handle advertising and booking. I see they might take advantage of that. And the high fee will cause a huge drop in my net income.

I am sharing this here to see what your thoughts are. I am a frustrating OUT OF STATE landlord with a full time engineering job and it brothers me to do my own advertisement. But I have been very close to my property manager and found her to be reliable (except transferring prospective tenants to other landlords). I worry, with new airbnb company, I will have these situations (in no order):

• Lose (trust in) my current manager and cause friction in our business relation
• Not sure how much transparent an airbnb company will be with bookings and net profit
• Much much higher management fee. Currently I pay 8%. It will become 20% and I won't have constant stays like rental
• Switching management while I can not be in that place physically adds more communication risk
• Also, my place is furnished. But I might need additional cost to make it airbnb ready
• Not only there will be less money coming in due to short sporadic stays, there will be more money going out

I’ve been contemplating on this for about a year. Please give some advice. I wanted to sell too but with capital gain tax and losing a source of passive income stopped me. I just wanna avoid handling advertisement myself and not pay fortune to have someone do it. And this kind of patching FIVE rooms between tenants for 3m to 4m honestly terrifies me when I have to handle the advertising for that myself. It's simply not sustainable that way. I would really appreciate your advice on this.

Sorry it's too big but I don't post often. And really need some advice.

I bought a big old 5b2b house couple years ago. I had a management company but saw them struggling to find tenant. It's a single family house. Not only that it's hard to find a single family who needs 5 bedrooms, but also it's hard to find group of 5 friends who want to live together. The potential rent would have been 3k/m but the company had to advertise for 2k because 3k is too high for that area for single family with mom, dad, couple kids.

Anyways, very quickly I switched to an individual manager who rents rooms to students or young professionals. Current rent is 3k/m. The business has been profiting but one caveat: she does not advertise. So I, as owner have to. It is a rent per room business, so it's hard to find advertising agent who would legally do that in Philadelphia given 5 strangers are not allowed to live together. Also, all 5 tenants share 1 kitchen which I do not have the money to remodel currently. It's too messy with that many people using common space. I bought shelves for now.

Few dilemas I have:

• I look for long term tenants but people are more interested in 3 to 4 month lease. So I have to constantly find ones who want 9 to 12m.
• Even if I settle for 3m lease, then I have to start advertising again in couple months.
• My manager has one girl who does ad on the side who charges $50 to find tenant per room. What’s frustrating is, I have to give her $50 if she find 12m AND $50 if she finds 3m. And it’s mostly those 3m ones. And she isn’t that regular either. I have to constantly be on the lookout.
• I look for prospective tenants for 12m lease but my manager shows them her other houses too when they don’t like mine. Note, her other houses are brand new. So basically I am transferring tenants to her other landlords without getting paid for it. And I don’t wanna cause any friction so I stay quiet about it even though it does not seem fair to me.
• I really tried to find individuals to advertise on the side but haven't had luck. Even my family members are too busy for this.

If you are still reading, I am contemplating to switch to airbnb and hand it over to an airbnb management company who does full service. But usually companies charge 20% fee and I would have no clue who stays because they will handle advertising and booking. I see they might take advantage of that. And the high fee will cause a huge drop in my net income.

I am sharing this here to see what your thoughts are. I am a frustrating OUT OF STATE landlord with a full time engineering job and it brothers me to do my own advertisement. But I have been very close to my property manager and found her to be reliable (except transferring prospective tenants to other landlords). I worry, with new airbnb company, I will have these situations (in no order):

• Lose (trust in) my current manager and cause friction in our business relation
• Not sure how much transparent an airbnb company will be with bookings and net profit
• Much much higher management fee. Currently I pay 8%. It will become 20% and I won't have constant stays like rental
• Switching management while I can not be in that place physically adds more communication risk
• Also, my place is furnished. But I might need additional cost to make it airbnb ready
• Not only there will be less money coming in due to short sporadic stays, there will be more money going out

I’ve been contemplating on this for about a year. Please give some advice. I wanted to sell too but with capital gain tax and losing a source of passive income stopped me. I just wanna avoid handling advertisement myself and not pay fortune to have someone do it. And this kind of patching FIVE rooms between tenants for 3m to 4m honestly terrifies me when I have to handle the advertising for that myself. It's simply not sustainable that way. I would really appreciate your advice on this.

Sorry it's too big but I don't post often. And really need some advice.

I bought a big old 5b2b house couple years ago. I had a management company but saw them struggling to find tenant. It's a single family house. Not only that it's hard to find a single family who needs 5 bedrooms, but also it's hard to find group of 5 friends who want to live together. The potential rent would have been 3k/m but the company had to advertise for 2k because 3k is too high for that area for single family with mom, dad, couple kids.

Anyways, very quickly I switched to an individual manager who rents rooms to students or young professionals. Current rent is 3k/m. The business has been profiting but one caveat: she does not advertise. So I, as owner have to. It is a rent per room business, so it's hard to find advertising agent who would legally do that in Philadelphia given 5 strangers are not allowed to live together. Also, all 5 tenants share 1 kitchen which I do not have the money to remodel currently. It's too messy with that many people using common space. I bought shelves for now.

Few dilemas I have:

• I look for long term tenants but people are more interested in 3 to 4 month lease. So I have to constantly find ones who want 9 to 12m.
• Even if I settle for 3m lease, then I have to start advertising again in couple months.
• My manager has one girl who does ad on the side who charges $50 to find tenant per room. What’s frustrating is, I have to give her $50 if she find 12m AND $50 if she finds 3m. And it’s mostly those 3m ones. And she isn’t that regular either. I have to constantly be on the lookout.
• I look for prospective tenants for 12m lease but my manager shows them her other houses too when they don’t like mine. Note, her other houses are brand new. So basically I am transferring tenants to her other landlords without getting paid for it. And I don’t wanna cause any friction so I stay quiet about it even though it does not seem fair to me.
• I really tried to find individuals to advertise on the side but haven't had luck. Even my family members are too busy for this.

If you are still reading, I am contemplating to switch to airbnb and hand it over to an airbnb management company who does full service. But usually companies charge 20% fee and I would have no clue who stays because they will handle advertising and booking. I see they might take advantage of that. And the high fee will cause a huge drop in my net income.

I am sharing this here to see what your thoughts are. I am a frustrating OUT OF STATE landlord with a full time engineering job and it brothers me to do my own advertisement. But I have been very close to my property manager and found her to be reliable (except transferring prospective tenants to other landlords). I worry, with new airbnb company, I will have these situations (in no order):

• Lose (trust in) my current manager and cause friction in our business relation
• Not sure how much transparent an airbnb company will be with bookings and net profit
• Much much higher management fee. Currently I pay 8%. It will become 20% and I won't have constant stays like rental
• Switching management while I can not be in that place physically adds more communication risk
• Also, my place is furnished. But I might need additional cost to make it airbnb ready
• Not only there will be less money coming in due to short sporadic stays, there will be more money going out

I’ve been contemplating on this for about a year. Please give some advice. I wanted to sell too but with capital gain tax and losing a source of passive income stopped me. I just wanna avoid handling advertisement myself and not pay fortune to have someone do it. And this kind of patching FIVE rooms between tenants for 3m to 4m honestly terrifies me when I have to handle the advertising for that myself. It's simply not sustainable that way. I would really appreciate your advice on this.

Thank you so much for the feedback. This certainly helps. I want to keep a good relationship with my contractors so it's important not to burn the bridges. This is certainly a relief and I will just share my concern with them for the rest of the work.

@JD Martin I installed roof ventilation. Would that help in letting the vapor out of the wood/sheathing?

There was some light rain for 5 to 15 minutes max. I wasn't on the site. I am not sure if my roof contractor is lying or not at this point. Today he took out the old 14 by 14 feet small roof and put torch down rubber roof with flashing cement. I am not sure if I should ask him to redo the whole thing with no additional cost. I told him not to work if weather shows sign of rain and am pissed that he rushed to get the work done. What should I do? I am not sure if I can trust if he says the water didn't get in the wood or that the sheets were covered when it rained. I went there few hours after rain and saw the roof surface wet. I am not sure if torch down or placing cement can wet the surface. He might just clean the surface with water after work. Best case it would be rain and rain did not get in the wood. Worst case, water actually got in the wood. What can I tell, confront or ask him at this point?