All Forum Posts by: Max James

 Try to make sure your residents have it auto pull from their account 4-5 days before the rent is due. The entire transaction takes some time. But it's pretty incredible, no more depositing checks with your phone. This is going to be a mandatory requirement for my next set of residents and all my properties moving forward. Automatic reoccurring payments is the only way to go in my opinion. I highly recommend Cozy. The only thing I dislike is that their UI is somewhat cumbersome. They put in too many features when all I use it for is payments. It would be nice if they could simplify the user experience a little bit. Also, when is the Cozy app coming out??!

I use cozy, free and good

Hey @Nate Dill welcome to the site!

I house hacked a duplex in Oakley and now have house hacked a 4 family in Pleasant Ridge near the Golf Manor side. I like Pleasant Ridge and think it's one of the best options from your list you gave. I'm a young professional and have seen some pretty good movement to PR. Especially now that Oakley along with Hyde Park prices are skyrocketting. I couldn't find any 2-4 fams in Oakley where the numbers made sense. I'd like to find my next deal in Pleasant Ridge that is off market on one of the nicer streets in PR. It seems as though it's really hard to come by MLS deals in these younger professional areas.

Hmm, that's not a bad idea to send that letter on the 1st of the month, if the late fee isn't instituted till the 5th.  My thought was to send that letter on the 5th of the month at 5:01 PM.  So send a warning letter, then after the 5th, a harsher letter with the late fee's and also how you plan to evict if the late fee and rent isn't collected by certain date.

All of this will hopefully be avoidable once I get all of my residents on Cozy payments.  Free website which lets you setup reoccurring payments from resident to landlord.  This will be a mandatory requirement in my future leases.

@Mindy Jensen what would be the downsides of just issuing the late fee/system no matter what?  I think showing any leniency will not do any good in the long run.  Legally and profitably. 

I semi agree as well. I graduated 5 years ago with a degree in engineering and it has definitely helped me along with pretty much every other aspect of life and REI. I learned the great skill of problem solving. I consider myself an expert problem solver. This is my skill I can fall back on at any moment. It is the foundation I built while in school and throughout my W2 job. But that was the main focus of that path, finding a W2 job.

If you listen to Robert Kiyosaki, he thinks that the education system is whack.  However, I have heard him say that going to high school and college does indeed teach you one major thing, and that is how to deal with other people.  I completely agree with this as well.  Although, a $20,000/year degree may not be the best way to learn how to deal with people, it's still a good reason to go to school.

The tough thing, in my opinion, is that 99% of college grads fall into the trap of the comfortable security blanket that a W2 job provides once they graduate. Then before they know it they are getting married, then in a few more years they are having kids, and then they really don't "have the time" to focus on an entrepreneurial aspect of their life, such as REI.

In that sense, if you think you are very serious about committing the rest of your life (or at least the next 10 years of your life) to REI, I agree with the previous comments. Focus on getting into a realtor position or some other aspects of real estate, contracting work, property management, anything really. Then start your investing. Whatever REI vehicle it may be, start learning more about it and connecting with local REI's in that niche.

I know it's super tough to make a decision, since it's probably one of the biggest ones you've made so far.  But whatever one you make, just know that if you keep a positive outlook, it will lead to success.  

I was in the same position last month.  What I did was find a nice template from Google on Late Rent Notice.  My plan was to go to the door of the late payer and tape this to their front door.  It seems awkward, especially to a new landlord, but if you want to be respected, you have to remember you're not friends with your residents, this is a business and legal rules are in place to ensure business flows according to the mutually agreed upon contract.  

I was also semi flying by the seat of my pants when this came up and realized I had no clue to what I would do.  This is why i created this template and have a detailed mapped structure of what I will do when a tenant is late paying rent.  I suggest coming up with a system you like as well.  Takes the angst out of it if a resident pays late.

Here is what the body of my letter looks like, hope this helps!

Dear xxxx:

This is a reminder your rent on the referenced property has not been received as of the date above and is past due. If this was an oversight, please send your total payment immediately in order to avoid further action.

As your lease states, your rent must be received in our possession by the rent payment due date of the 5th of each month before 5:00 PM in order to be on time.

The following is an itemization of the total amount due:

Unpaid Rent $475.00

Late Charges $47.50

TOTAL $522.50

We highly value your tenancy and hope to gain your cooperation in paying your rent by the 5th of each month. Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx if you have any questions. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter in paying your rent and late fee ASAP.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

xxxxx

As I'm looking down the road for once I begin to scale, I am starting to look into property management companies.  However, they all seem like they will perform sub par and not maximize my earning potential in a buy and hold property.  I think when you move to a 50+ unit building where you will have an on-site PM, then it makes sense to hire one.  However, with a handful of 2-4 unit MF's (lets say 25-50 units), I think creating your own PM team is a solid option.

Has anyone that put together their own team that has had success comment on this path?  What does everyone think?  Is it worth it to try and put together your own team, or just throw the hail marry and pray your local PM team will be worth it?

@Stephen DeCastro any luck finding a good PM company in Cinci?  I was looking around Cincy Rents website, looks pretty standard.

As far as value add, I agree, it doesn't seem worth it to bring on someone who's going to charge you 10% of your gross rents, when they biggest thing it seems they are doing is the leasing process.  This is something I can do from my computer/phone, regardless of where I am in location compared to my rentals.

I would eventually like to handle all of the desk work and ideally find a handy man I can rely on in the area.  If the job is too much for the handy man, then I'll subcontract that work out to someone else in my contacts.  

Thanks @Steve Smith