All Forum Posts by: Mike Buckley

I am a commercial property manager/contractor. As many of you may know in commercial real estate prospective tenants almost always need a renovation. I was wondering who normally pays for the reno and who deals with all the plan work and dealing with zoning of the unit. I am worried that if I start dealing with Ada compliance and accessibility I could lose my shirt on the renovation. How do I work these deals out?

Well it sounds like the tenant is trying to double dip. If they claim the lease is null and void then legally they would have no leg to stand on, especially when claiming for a deposit back. If they go along with the fact they have a lease (as they should) then you should start the eviction process based on your state's laws. Unfortunately it seems like this tenant is going to make you lawyer up and go through a long grueling eviction.

@Nicholas D. yes the management is very hands on. I have a live in manager that we made a deal with. The manager is almost a necessity because there is a lot "babysitting" that is involved. Also, collecting rents on a weekly basis creates more paperwork. As far as screening goes it is like a double edge sword so to say. When you screen and get good tenants they don't stay for very long and move on. The bad tenants tend to stay and not want to leave or go anywhere. 

I would get going as soon as possible with the eviction process. Some states this can take a while. On the other hand, as far as bounced checks go, if someone bounces a check for insufficient funds you should request a bank certified check from now on or a money order. I would also add this to the lease moving foreword.

I am looking into buying a security camera system for one of my properties and I was wondering which system and kind is the best bang for my buck. I have had 16 cameras installed on one of my previous buildings and an electrician charged me close to 7 grand! I'm trying to find a way around this high expense but still having a quality system. Iv tried the 100% wireless and have found that based on battery life and cloud based service the technology is not quite there yet. Any thoughts?

@Mike Hurneyyes definitely, you earn the high return. Running a strict set of rules is key and absentee landlording is almost impossible. It's more of a business than an investment. 

@Mike Hurney I'm currently working with a HUD program that is a master tenant for one of my buildings, kind of like section 8. The other building is a rooming house which is non section 8 just weekly rents etc.

John Tower iv been managing the building for almost two years and commercial leasing has been very difficult. We first had to evict about a third of the building when first getting it because of non paying tenants. Now we have very little showings even on space as cheap as 300 per month.

I manage a commercial office space building in Randolph, Ma and I have been having issues finding business tenants. I have done things like putting ads on Craigslist as well as MLS listings. I have large space listed as well as really small low priced space. I'm starting to wonder if the market is just not here? Any thoughts?

I manage/ invest in Fall River. The market is very strong. I have a 10 unit in the St Anne's neighborhood and a rooming house in the downtown area. The areas really have to do with the returns. I see a lot of high returns in low C to D areas. Then I see lower returns in the A to B range. The highland area is known to be the nicer region. Amazon is building it's facility far north almost in Freetown. This may contribute to some positives.