All Forum Posts by: Michael Seeker

Quote from @Rob Bergeron:

@Michael Seeker was it you who said they were going? Someone told me they were! 

 Nope, I unfortunately already filled up my conference quota for the year - must have been somebody else!

About Us
Seeker Property Group owns and operates a well-maintained apartment portfolio in Old Louisville. As a result of our growth, we are looking to add a full-time Leasing Agent who can provide residents and prospects with excellent customer service. The ideal candidate will play an active role in all aspects of our business but primary responsibilities are centered around showing and leasing apartments. This position requires most work to be performed in Old Louisville and availability to show apartments and communicate with residents and prospects outside of normal weekday business hours.

Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Oversee and coordinate all leasing activities

• Attract and educate new residents

• Ensure each listing has up-to-date property information and high quality photos

• Show and lease apartments to prospective residents

• Review applications and elevate to Property Manager for further review if necessary

• Handle existing resident renewals

• Review rental rates and recommend/implement changes based on market demand

• Schedule and complete intro and exit walkthroughs with residents

• Identify turnover repairs, cleaning, and improvements ahead of all scheduled move-outs

• Coordinate turnovers with Property Manager and Maintenance to ensure work is completed with minimal downtime

• Determine deposit deductions and submit deposit refunds to Property Manager for review

• Answer incoming phone calls and text messages in a professional manner and handle according to the type of inquiry

• Investigate and resolve resident complaints

• Assist with make-ready duties such as light cleaning, to ensure a positive new resident experience

• Identify maintenance issues and needed common area improvements and work with Property Manager and maintenance team to execute

• Communicate with residents about late rent

• Expense entry for Property Manager and Maintenance Technician

• Help resolve tenant issues related to maintenance tickets, leasing, payments, etc.

• Assist the Property Manager with various property and administrative duties

• Turnover/make-ready punch-out's (hang blinds, light fixtures, light cleaning, etc.)

• Schedule and coordinate repairs with 3rd party vendors

• Review and approve work from subcontractors

• Material pickup and purchasing

• Status updates and oversight of apartment renovations

Requirements

• Great communication skills

• Organized and detail oriented

• Reliable transportation

• Reliable computer and/or phone for PM Software access

• Highly responsive to texts, email, and phone calls

• Ability to troubleshoot and solve unique problems

​​​​​​​• Able to lift 50+ lbs

Why work here?

Working at SPG means joining a team that goes above and beyond for our residents and properties. We love what we do and you should too!

Quote from @Jason Solley:

Or better yet a Buildium consultant that maybe could streamline my inefficiencies.

Hey Jason, we were in a similar situation as you and ended up using AppFolio for all of our property management EXCEPT for finance/expense tracking.  We built out our own portal and accounting database for that functionality because we were not finding good software that could handle a higher volume of receipts AND tie it in with the rental property accounting.  I'd be open to some consulting to see if I can help streamline what you're working with, however I know when we were at ~15 units, there was no way to justify the cost for something that wasn't lower-end, off-the-shelf software.  Message me if I can help!

About Us
Seeker Property Group owns and operates a well-maintained apartment portfolio in Old Louisville. As a result of our growth, we are looking to add a full-time Assistant Property Manager. We offer competitive compensation and can be flexible with the scope of the role and hours if needed. This role offers opportunities for advancement and/or bonuses depending on performance.

Job Duties & Responsibilities
•Market upcoming available units and cultivate prospects for future leasing opportunities
• Ensure each listing has up-to-date property information and high quality photos
• Show and lease apartments to prospective residents
• Review applications to see if they meet qualification criteria set by the company, elevating questionable applications to the Property Manager for further review
• Handle renewal offers and renewal signings
• Review rental rates and recommend/implement changes based on market demand
• Schedule and complete intro and exit walkthroughs with residents
• Identify turnover repairs, cleaning, and improvements ahead of all scheduled move-outs
• Coordinate turnovers with Property Manager and Maintenance to ensure work is completed with minimal downtime
• Determine deposit deductions and submit deposit refunds to Property Manager for review
• Answer incoming phone calls and text messages in a professional manner and handle according to the type of inquiry
• Assist with make-ready duties such as light cleaning, to ensure a positive new resident experience
• Identify potential maintenance issues and needed common area improvements (weed trimming, mulching, light fixture replacement, etc.) and work with Property Manager and maintenance team to execute
• Communicate with residents about late rent
• Expense entry for Property Manager and Maintenance Technician
• Help resolve tenant issues related to maintenance tickets, leasing, payments, etc.
• Assist Property Manager with ad-hoc property and administrative duties
• Turnover/make-ready punch-out's
• Schedule and coordinate repairs with 3rd party vendors
• Review and approve work from subcontractors
• Material pickup and purchasing
• Status updates and oversight of apartment renovations

Requirements
• Great communication skills
• Organized and detail oriented
• Reliable transportation
• Reliable computer and/or phone for PM Software access
• Highly responsive to texts, email, and phone calls
• Ability to troubleshoot and solve unique problems
• Able to lift 50+ lbs

Please message through BiggerPockets or email me directly at [email protected] if interested!

Quote from @Clark Spalding:

Hello all you amazing people,

I’m in need of advice for finding private money lenders in order to create relationships with them to fund deals. 

Is there a good way to track down private money lenders? 

Or does anyone know of a good one that works in KY?

We used Mike Fallot with Mortgage Man LLC for several years when we were doing rehabs. They are not cheap, but great to work with: https://mmlending.com/louisville/

Quote from @Joseph Nance:

I would like to thank everyone ahead of time for your insights and help.

Allow me to start by sharing that my partner and I have acquired two commercial properties, each featuring two units. Both sides of each property are currently under year-long leases. Among the occupants, one unit houses a barber shop and the other a floral shop, while the other two units are leased by a tattoo shop and a clothing store. We made a cash purchase for one of the properties and are currently utilizing seller financing for the other. Having owned these properties for two months, we are now seeking financing from a lender to replace the seller financing arrangement. These properties are situated in Louisville, KY, were collectively purchased for $390,000, and generate an annual income of $41,000.

I am looking for brokers or loan officers in the commercial space.

David Buchanon at Republic Bank is also a great option. We've done over half of our commercial debt in Louisville through them.

Quote from @Isaac Pyle:

@Michael Seeker

That’s awesome! Sounds like you did exactly what I’m looking to do, I might try to pick your brain as I get closer to purchasing something!

I’m a bit nervous (just a cautious person) about getting into some of these huge 4plex homes in old Louisville, as it feels harder for me to estimate the rehab / rent numbers accurately. Any advice there? It’s almost making me want to look for something more like a duplex or triplex with less sqft so my estimates are smaller ranges, if that makes sense.

After talking with people it seems like the general sentiment is that Old Louisville is one of the better areas to be looking right now, so thanks for weighing in on that!

I'm happy to help.  My general sentiment around the smaller properties (up to 4 units) is that the extra unit(s) means a better chance of keeping rent coming in at all times.  If you buy a duplex and your tenant moves out, you're collecting $0.  If you buy a 4-plex and one tenant moves out, you're still collecting roughly 2/3 of the rent.

Owner-occupied loans are good for up to 4 units, and my recommendation for anybody starting out (in any location) is always to buy a 4-plex and live in one unit if possible. 

There are way more triplexes in Old Louisville than duplexes or quads.  Generally when I do see 4-plexes, they are not much more expensive than triplexes (i.e. you tend to get higher rent vs. purchase price on them), but your best bet is to look at a few multifamily properties to get a feel for the neighborhood, then set your parameters around how much you want to spend and what kind of property you want to get.  You can find anything from a complete gut-rehab project to a nicely appointed, completely remodeled property not needing any work.

@Isaac Pyle - my first multifamily deal was a house hack in Old Louisville.  I fixed up the "owner's unit" of a fourplex and then redid the other 3 units over time.  It was a fantastic investment and great way to learn a lot about rehabbing and semi-passive investing.

One thing you'll notice as you look around various neighborhoods is that most homes were built during the same era and in the same general size/style.  Size and style dictate a lot about the ability to split up a space into multiple units.  Because of this, you'll se a lot of converted small multifamily properties in the Highlands and Old Louisville.  These areas are where the massive houses were built around the turn of the century which are conducive to splitting into anywhere from 2-6+ units.  Smoketown and Germantown on the other hand are full of small houses, typically shotguns or bungalows, which are not conducive to splitting.  I originally wanted to find a place in the Highlands, however even during the depressed real estate market of the early 2010's, the numbers didn't really work.  I ended up in Old Louisville, and have continued investing there ever since.  The numbers can still work there (definitely better than the Highlands anyway), and there is a large pool of potential investments to choose from.

@Nolan Winderl, we've been investing in OL multifamily for a decade and what you describe is quite common. When the zoning was switched to TNZD, all multifamily properties were grandfathered in. However if a property sits vacant for a year or more, it loses it's grandfathered status and must conform to TNZD. We often come across properties that are misclassified on PVA as either SFR or duplex when they clearly have 3+ units and most likely never sat vacant for any extended time. This has never been an issue for financing and I've never seen or heard of anybody being cited by the city for it. The only way this might come into play is if you are completely vacating the building and doing a larger scale renovation.

We ran into this issue many years ago where we purchased a triplex that was being used as maybe 6-8 boarding rooms. Our plan was to renovate it as a triplex, but we were forced to go back as SFR or duplex (the size was large enough to allow for that). While the end result was higher rents for us and lower renovation costs (one less kitchen), it achieved the exact opposite affect as the intentions of the zoning. Instead of having 3 nice 1BR apartments (and likely 3-5 tenants) we ended up with 6 bedrooms and a revolving door of college students. Good luck with the project and feel free to reach out if we can help at all!

Quote from @Andrew C.:

Quote from @Bob Stevens:

Quote from @Andrew C.:

I'm an out-of-state investor relatively new to the Louisville area. I recently closed on a tri-plex in the downtown area and one of the tenants moved out and my unit has been sitting vacant for about 3 months now. The unit has been turned and everything has been updated. Is this normal for the Louisville area? Any advice on how to manage the property management company to track leads better? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

No its not normal, You are either asking too much or there is an issue with the property. Take govt tenants, there are all kinds of programs. Just screen well 

Thank you both for replying. It's a 3 bedroom 1 bath located in downtown Louisville and it was listed for $1195 for a month but I reduced it to $1095 and it's still been vacant. It's open for Section 8 so I am accepting govt tenants.

What can I do with the property management company to make sure they're doing everything they can to get a tenant?

What do you mean by "downtown"?  There are lots of neighborhoods in and around the downtown core, each of which has different price points and demand profiles.  Our portfolio is 100% in Old Louisville (though we've owned in other downtown adjacent neighborhoods in the past) and it is common to see extended vacancies in 3 bedroom units in winter months in this neighborhood.

Out of curiosity, what PM company are you using?