All Forum Posts by: Michael Garofalo

@Sara Zelkovic congrats on getting started! Pittsburgh is an amazing city and fantastic market for residential buy-and-hold. I actually started purchasing multifamily in Pittsburgh about 7 years ago, and manage all of my units remotely from Washington DC (currently 32 in total). 

For what its worth, I interviewed over a dozen property managers and went through 3 of them over the course of almost 5 years before deciding I had had enough and made the switch to self-management. 

Happy to connect more offline if you would like more specifics. I can also give you my thoughts on specific neighborhoods (including the ones you mentioned) and answer any other questions you might have involving out-of-state ownership and management for properties in the city. 

@Calvin Stewart congrats on getting started so early, I can assure it will pay off down the line and you will look back and be so glad you started all of this now rather than waiting until later on in life.

I would 100% recommend starting with a house hack. Your housing (once you are fully out on your own) will always be your biggest expense so figuring out a way to minimize or eliminate that will be your quickest path to success because it will allow you to save money much more quickly than your peers. 

I started my investing journey by saving up money living at home for a year (after college, when I started my first job) to cover a 20% down payment on my first home which is a 1BR condo. I lived in that for 6 years before purchasing a new primary residence, but I still own that condo to this day (9 years later) and it cash flows quite well. I obtained a HELOC and used the equity acquired t purchase my first investment property, then took cash flow and equity from that 2nd deal to continue to grow, and the rest is history.

Happy to chat more offline in more detail, please feel free to shoot me a direct message!

Hi Aaron, congrats on taking action toward securing your first rental property! I have been investing out of state for over 7 years and switched to self-managing everything about 2 years ago. I would agree with @Randall Alan that you do not need a property manager but there are several things to keep in mind. Happy to chat with you more over a call sometime to share my thoughts.

You're most welcome!

@Patrick Elias I don't think it's fair to say if the property needs 300k then you should just automatically lower your offer by that amount. It's not black and white with MF and even though you think it will only be $300k, I can almost guarantee that number will be higher once you get into the thick of the projects should you close on this property. Over the past 8 years, I have purchased smaller multifamily (duplex) all the way up to an 11-unit complex and every single one of them had surprises even after I did all of my detailed due diligence. That has never bothered me because I am planning to hold everything for a very long time, but if you have a shorter-term exit strategy, I think you need to get a bit more granular as @Jaycee Greene has suggested and also look at overall cash flow and NOI with respect to raised rents and the level of vacancy you may experience.

Hi Carli, 

I self-manage 35 units (mostly residential homes/apartments, and a few storage units) and use Buildium for all of my property management, including applications, background checks, and electronic document signings. It's extremely customizable, easy to use, and seamless. I think you should try to make the process as easy as possible for prospective tenants. No one in this day and age wants to do more work, and filling out duplicative applications/forms would be unnecessary. 

How many units are you currently doing this for and what are your plans for growth over the next year? Buildium isn't too expensive but would be overkill if you just have 1 or 2 units and don't think you are going to scale up in the near future. RentRedi is a good management software which has application/lease signing functionality at a fraction of the cost. I started on that before I graduated to Buildium. 

All, 

I am looking to sell an investment condo located in Washington, DC. I just made a larger acquisition and am looking to free up some capital to support the new acquisition. 

The property is currently occupied with a respectful tenant who pays on time (lease runs through the end of July 2025). I purchased this asset in 2018 and completed a full renovation, which included: new hot water heater; all new appliances (fridge-which was just replaced again in 2024), stove, dishwasher; all new flooring (mixture of tile in kitchen and laminate plank flooring in all other areas); HVAC tune up; new 100 amp electrical panel; new bathroom including all plumbing fixtures, wall tile, and floor tile. The entire apartment was also repainted in 2024. 

Monthly rent is $1,495 and the monthly HOA fee is $451 which includes water/sewer, trash, building maintenance, landscaping, and everything else pertaining to the building and common area upkeep. Electricity is separately metered and in tenant's name.

 Asking $125,000 - please message me directly for more info and if you have more specific questions. 

I purchased a 9-unit apartment complex in 2020 (closed on it in February weeks before Covid hit and everything shut down). All but 1 tenant had to be evicted, was arrested, or went missing due to mental illness. I got a very good price on the building (about $25k per door), but it was a ton of work as in addition to tenant issues, there was TONS of physical distress (foundation repairs, sewer line and water line repairs, electrical upgrades, new roof, and apartment renovations needed for all units). 

That being said, if I could do it all over again I wouldn't change anything because I learned more about real estate investing and property management over the past several years from that deal alone than most people will learn in a lifetime. I also wouldn't be where I am today in terms of my contacts and relationships with vendors, to be in a position to self-manage confidently out of state.

All that being said, if another deal with the same amount of hair on it presented itself to me today, I would pass simply because my risk profile has changed. My due diligence process was certainly tightened up after that deal and analyzing properties and understanding what things will cost is now 2nd nature to me. 

@Mike Sfera as I said originally, if it won't cash flow at 25% down, I would personally not buy it. That's just my criteria.

I agree with what everyone else has said, those figures seem extremely high. For what it's worth, I went through 5 different property managers in 2 different markets (one local, one out of state) over a period of 5 years, before deciding I would self-manage everything across both geographies beginning last year. I found similar patterns between all 5 companies: namely, they had taken on too many units, were over-charging me for things I didn't need, and weren't handling issues correctly (they would send out vendors who didn't know what they were doing, mis-diagnose issues etc.)

No disrespect to the PMs on this chain or BP in general, but any third-party manager won't perform exactly the way you would like them to simply because of the constraints they are faced with as far as having so many units and owners to keep tabs on. 

For me personally, it was worth making the switch because of how much money I stood to save and the flexibility to run things the way I saw best fit. Now if you have say 75+ doors and the economics make sense, you could hire someone on salary to be your dedicated property manager and specify exactly how you want things done, vendors to use etc.