All Forum Posts by: Bobby Narinov

If you are out of area (2-3hrs drive) landlord you have two choices:

1. Hire a management company (a whole set of problems)

2. Manage it yourself.

The problems with #2 are numerous like showing the property to the prospective tenants but you can sacrifice and drive 2-3 times to the property over the weekend to show it to the prospective tenants. Preferably after collecting rental applications/online screened them. Or you may have inherited them when you purchased the property.

Now the only problem is that when they are late with the rent someone has to serve them with a 3 day notice. Do you know of any company or a person that provides that type of  service?

For the next stage - filing with the courts you can hire a lawyer that handles the whole process but I cannot think of anyone that does serving the 3 day notice.

To be completely honest with you I am sure that even the lawyer does not file with the courts and instead use a document filer to do all the filings with the courts. I had to wait behind such a lady so she can file 10 different claims with the court. At least she knew what she was doing so they were fast.

Have you used something similar or should i stick with the tried and true approach #1.

P.S. If that was out of state property I would be forced into #1 and if it was small multi-family I can probably elect one of the tenants (for a small fee) to do that for me.

I am trying to evaluate an insurance for an out of state investment property.

My StateFarm agent connected me with another agent in OH who quoted me a $700.00+ per year for a $60,000.00 house. I have multiple investment properties in CA that are appraised at over $200,000.00 for which I am paying less than $300.00 per year. Even my primary residence that is valued at ~$800,000.00 is under $2,000.00/year. I cannot wrap my head around why should I pay for the same amount of insured property 7 times more (the crime rate in both areas are the same according to Trulia/Zillow). Why would people in OH are willing to put up with such high insurance rates?

The agent told me that they cannot give me a multi-policy discount because my 11+ policies (properties, cars, umbrella, etc.) are in CA.

Now I am facing the dilemma: 

- should I look for another insurance provider just for that property in OH, or

- should I look for another insurance provider to replace ALL of policies since the effort would be practically the same.

What would you do in my case?

I think it was at the biggerPockets podcast (or another RE podcast) where they interviewed the owner of http://www.rentprep.com/ where they go beyond the basic credit check by actually calling the current and prevous landlords as well as his place of work. But this is only in their $35 platinum check.

3rd grade error. Thank you for the spell check

If you are afraid of your tenants, then maybe you should buy a property in a better area of the town - where the good people leave.

If a tenant gets pissed at you there are things that are way easier to do than harass you at your home. They have your property in their hands: 24x7.

If you really want to get scared I would recommend a landlording went wrong movie with Melanie Griffith, Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine: 

Pacific Heights (1990) - IMDb

The people in HUD have "their people" too.

I am not sure how it tis with medical facilities but it may require a lot of environmental protection cleanup afterwards.

I remember a gas station lot being sold at $1000 because it required over $250k of cleanup where similar size lots were going for over $300k.

As an out of state investor, I was offered a property that is under management of Flex Realty Property Management in Toledo, OH. It is not a great deal but it is tempting enough for a Californian :).

The seller is the property management company so I am somewhat suspicious. The asking price is $56k (3Bd+1Ba). It is currently rented for $750/month (2 year lease option). Comps are all over the place with the lowest at about 59k but most of them are around $65k.

Have any of the BP used this Management company before? Or have you heard anything (good or bad) about them? They are(claim to be) : 

#1 Real Estate Agents, Living and Working in Toledo, Ohio

In my lease it states that the rent is due on first and late on 3rd. On 4th I serve them with a 3 day to pay or quit notice. When I get called on that, I explain to them that this is a business and as such it is managed as a business and if I don't do it my investors would be mad at me. I believe them that XXX is true and if I receive my rent check by the EoD on 7th I am not going to file for eviction with the court on 8th. 

I explain to them that filing is a very expensive procedure (in 2010 it was $140 + $35 for each of the summons) and they will be charged for that. Usually I get a full rent by EoD on 7th.

This is what your manager should have done instead of waiting over two weeks. I would fire him right away.

This would not happen if the landlord does his job properly. He is supposed to run credit check and check landlord references. If I see that they've had a credit checked by a landlord but they don't list that landlord - their application becomes suspicious. And I ask them for the landlord's phone. If I call you and you don't tell me that you gave them cash-4-keys than you are not honest and the same thing can happen to you too.