All Forum Posts by: Mark Kelley

@Account Closed thanks for sharing. I'm in a similar situation with one rental I have bear USC medical in Columbia, SC. Grad students tend to be good tenants for me, as they are often more responsible than undergrads and have to work their tails off in school.

@Kathy C. and

@David Vaughn curious if either of you have looked at Pittsboro? I have not. There appears to be some good things happening that way though and some big developments being considered (Chatham Park bankrolled by Goodnight). It also seems reasonably convenient to RTP.

@Kathy C. why are you considering not investing in Raleigh anymore? 

I don't know much about the areas you mentioned, but I often see a heck of a lot of SFH and MFH for sale in Fayetteville, which makes me a bit skeptical if so many are trying to unload.

I've been fortunate to have great tenants. When they finally give notice, I often offer them an incentive of 25% off last month's rent ($300-$500 hundred dollars) if they refer a potential tenant who passes screening and signs a lease. 

It has worked well four or five times, and often the tenants refer an acquaintance, friend or colleague that is similar in employment and financial status. They also help 'sell' the place to the potential new tenant, talking about the lifestyle or conveniences that comes with the house, and it seems to help minimize the vacancy period.

Does anyone else do this? Other ideas? Does this violate a law or some ethic to offer incentive to a tenant? 

@Alan Brown Great thoughts. Thank you for sharing them. I'm beginning to see that I have more options in front of me than I originally thought, which is great news. 

Also, I spent a week in Bozeman a few weeks ago with the wife and kids. What a fantastic town and area. The city parks are great and the fly fishing phenomenal. Out of curiosity, I checked on the pricing of some homes I saw downtown and was blown away by the high price of homes. Must be a lot of people wanting to live in Bozeman, which doesn't surprise me.

In Missoula now before heading to Glacier next week, and it's fantastic as well. Much of Montana seems to be.

@Dana Dunford Thanks for sharing that article. That's quite the scam strangers can run on people. Definitely low risk though if tenants are properly screened. It's a scam I didn't know about though, and I'll be extremely cautious if using Venmo with strangers as described in the article. It would be like accepting a personal check without clearing it before handing over the goods. Thanks!

@Account Closed I can't tell if you are being sarcastic! It sounds like I discovered gravity at a time with NASA was already sending people to the moon. Either way, it's working so far on our travels, and I appreciate the input so I can sharpen the arrangement. 

@Dana Dunford Thanks for your perspective and elevating the risks.

I just reviewed the Venmo user agreement now. They do reserve the right to reverse the payment or place a reserve on funds if personal accounts are used for business purposes, so that is certainly a small risk to consider.

Can you clarify your thoughts on the clawbacks? In my judgement, the risk of a rent dispute and a renter clawing back rent is not heightened using Venmo. Based on Venmo's agreement, it looks like they would punt to the bank to determine if the dispute is valid and money should be refunded, which seems to put the tenant in a similar position of calling their bank to dispute a cashed check. 

I think PayPal is more willing to play the bank, and will decide who is right or wrong, often siding with the buyer. Will Venmo do the same?

Thanks again for raising the risks. 

@Nancy Curran Thanks for the input. I figured many others had a similar backup property management approach, and it's nice to see it's not a brain dead move for some reason. Trust between landlord and handyman is obviously huge in a relationship like this, as well as handyman reliability and competency. Thanks for sharing.

I have several SFH rentals that I own and part-time manage. My wife and I took sabbatical this year to embark on an adventure with our two kids. Without a property management company and without the interest to find or pay for one, we had the challenge of managing our properties while we're traveling, often off the grid.

I wanted to share the solution that I put in place to manage our properties while we're traveling, and I'd love to hear some perspective about its strengths, weaknesses, or alternatives.

This solution was really put to the test and passed when I was unreachable for days in the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon and a hot water tank popped off in one of the houses. 

Here is the synopsis: 

We have a good relationship with a reliable handyman. We pay him to provide landlord support and value where we really need it while traveling.

The handyman has three main responsibilities in our relationship:

1. He is on-call if tenants cannot reach us in an emergency. We continue to be the primary point of contact for our tenants. However, if our phone goes straight to voicemail or we don’t respond immediately, our tenants are instructed to call our handyman directly. We trust him to provide good service, and we empower him to take action in an emergency.
2. He is our trusted set of eyes on the ground if an issue arises, inspecting any problems reported by tenants and making recommendations for repair.
3. He will complete any work required, including coordinating and overseeing skilled trades, at a predetermined rate.

We pay the handyman a $200 per month retainer.

He is paid this money whether or not he has to lift a finger.

In exchange for this money, he is willing to be on-call for our tenants in an emergency and take appropriate action to mitigate the issues.

In non-emergencies, as directed by me, he will inspect issues reported and make recommendations.

If he has to complete any work or coordinate a skilled trade, we pay him $30 per hour for his time plus materials at cost.

We also pay for any skilled trades (i.e. HVAC technicians, plumbers) that have to be hired.

Note that in this arrangement, the handyman only deals with tenant calls in an emergency. In all other situations, we interact with the tenants, and when an inspection or repair is needed, we rely on the handyman to execute at our direction, not the tenant’s. Also, we have no expectation for him to place tenants. We renewed the leases before we left. He also doesn't collect rent. We use Venmo.

Any thoughts on this model? A variation? Alternatives? Any major risks you spot that maybe I haven't considered?