All Forum Posts by: Marcus Curtis

This something we are doing not only in complete rehab of units but also as a subtle improvement to the property. It is just one more thing to point out to prospective renters during the lead walk. And to answer your question: yes! Most models are expandable to some degree to fit most any shower.

In addition to networking with brokers and other investors I would recommend also networking with management companies. They may have a client eager to sell or may know of properties that they can refer you to. Also, drive the area. Look for properties with poor curb appeal in a good area. Park outside of a property at night and see how it changes versus how it is during the day. Walk properties and see what the common areas look like. If they are poor, ugly and poorly managed properties you likely have a landlord owner who is burnt out.

Elizabeth Blazina personally, I would not call in a air quality test. Point blank, I would tell the tenant to turn on fans, open doors and to always run the fan when cooking or boiling water. I would also recommend to them that they should consider buying a dehumidifier. Document every word in either email follow ups or letters. Most often times what a tenant believes to be mold and is causing them to get "sick" is really just mildew with no correlation to their feelings of sickness.

@Jennifer Johnson most sites cannot sustain the overhead of a full time site manager until you are reaching roughly around 80-90 units depending on the market you are in. I think it is more important to separate the skill sets a PM brings versus what a Site Manager brings.

In general, a property manager or management co oversees the entire operations of the asset from leasing, collections, capital improvement projects and financial planning & budgeting. These folks typically have started on the site level and have worked their way up the property management ladder. You will pay a fee but they will also assign someone to your site whether as a rover leasing agent or a full time site manager- again, depending on size.

As for a site manager, if you have property consisting of say 20 units you would not need a site manager. With that said, it is often times better to have someone onsite to be the eyes and ears. 

In my market with someone being onsite taking care of leasing, tenant relations and cleaning/caretaking we look at a compensation of around $20-30 per door. On average, $13 per unit is dedicated the managerial role for the property and $15 for the caretaking including common area cleaning, vacant cleaning, lawn and snow etc. 

This is usually in the form of a rent credit. I never understood why managers/owners give away an apartment to a caretaker/manager free of charge. 

In my mind a fence offers a couple benefits to a property:

• Security
• Privacy
• and the "intangible"

As mentioned in a previous comment the cost of a fence is a hard to place a value adjustment on for rents. But, at the same time so is having a clean common area, nice curb appeal and responsive management/maintenance team. To many times we are forced to think of the tangible elements such as size, layout and finish of the actual apartment but if you forget to consider these added elements such as a fence and what feeling it brings to the site you could be leaving money and a better tenant profile on the table.

I will double off what Rob noted- your county website will be the best route. There are also some sites online that help you get the names and numbers for people associated to an address.

When looking at the info produced by the county site you might also see addresses for the absentee owners. This is typically the same address that the county send tax documentation to the owners at.

The guy to ask, follow and learn from on this topic is Michael Blank. He specializes in putting apartment deals together with little to no money of your own. Check him out: http://www.biggerpockets.com/users/MichaelBlank

This is discrimination because it creates an "unequal" restriction upon one subgroup of individuals. When you are creating your rental criteria don't try to get creative. Keep it clean and simple and treat all people the same. Every applicant should be put under the same requirements.

Carl Stewart Cap rates in my area vary and most investors ideal Cap rate is dependent on their objectives and the product time they target as their investments. Stabilized and well managed sites in my area (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) are scoring Cap rates of 6% and some investors are willing to invest at even lower cap rates. I would highly recommend not using Cap rates for single family homes. You are better off running a GRM analysis with this product type. Or, simply running the numbers to see if it is going to get you the returns your are looking for. There are many posts and articles here on bigger pockets on how to use GRM and how to calculate the value of a Single family home.

While there are certain sites that give you a rough estimate on the average rent in your area the best place to find accurate, timely information is to network. Speak to realtors, brokers, and property managers. Find other investors in your area. Connect with other landlords and see what they are doing.

Even in the smallest of towns there are usually a handful of rental properties. Find those addresses, see if they are comparable to the product you are interested in investing in and run a comparison analysis to see what you might be able to charge.