All Forum Posts by: Mike Ritter

Has anyone used or heard of Investability.com?

It is a site used to search for investment properties and analyze if it is a good deal. It will show you cap rate, cash flow, etc. Just wondering if anyone has used it and found it helpful.  

www.investability.com

Thanks

@Calin Riley

Welcome to BP.  I am in the Raleigh area as well.  If you have any questions about renters I will answer if I can.  Make sure you do a good job screening the tenants.

@Luke Andrew

Turning your previous residence into a rental is a great way to start.  There is a standard NC rental contract out there but you might need to be a member of the Realtor association to use it.  You can find rental contracts online that you could change to fit your needs.  If you do that I would suggest having an attorney with experience in land lording check it out. I am a property manager in the area and we have our own contract that we developed and had vetted by an attorney.  

Make sure to take pictures and a video of the property after you have cleaned and fixed any items.  This is your record of the property prior to someone moving in.  And even after you have spent time and money fixing it up the new tenant will most likely call within the first two weeks about something.  

Keep the security deposit in a separate account as well.  You do not want that comingled with your personal funds.

I am sure you will have lots of other questions so feel free to contact me and I will answer what I can.

@Account Closed

I cannot look over 100's of properties by myself of course.  Other staff members would be needed to make sure needs of the tenants/owners are met.

@Eric Doud

I do not charge an owner anything until the unit is occupied and rent is received.  If it is vacant I do not get paid and I rarely mark up maintenance.  Great to hear that you are growing and maybe we can discuss a few strategies some time.  

@Eric Doud

I do not charge one months rent for the lease up fee as even I think that is too high.  My lease up fee is 50% of one months rent.  The lease renewal fee if $150.  I just dont send out a notice to the tenant to renew.  I research rates in the area to see if rents need to be increased (good for the owner) and I call the tenant and negotiate a higher rent if possible and try to get them to stay.  It would be in my interest to let them leave and then I can get a 50% lease fee again but I am looking out for the owner.

I understand some people do not like PMs and I am not trying to change anyone's mind.  If you can manage the property on your own I would do that and save the money.  I certainly do not want them as a client as they are the owners that cry about everything when I tell them something has to be repaired.  

@Jim Sokoloff   Good post.

I joined BP about a month ago and from what I have read it seems that a majority of the posts feel PMs are out to get everyone and take their money.  Yes, there are some PMs that are not good but there are good ones out there. 

I am a PM myself and strive to treat any property that I manage as if it were my own.  A PM is there is look after your property while you are working, on vacation, looking for more real estate, etc.  I do charge a mgmt fee, a leasing fee and a renewal fee.  Any other fee that is charged is agreed upon when the client signs up with me to manage the property.  So there are no hidden fees.

These fees are necessary to cover the costs associated with managing the properties.  The PM also needs to earn a living since I am sure no one else here works for free.  If you manage your 1 or 2 units it is pretty easy to do.  Once you start managing in the 100's of properties there are some necessary expenses that a 8% monthly management fee is just not going to cover. 

Many might think that a PM just sits back and waits for the rent to come in so we can get our percentage but that is FAR from what happens.  

Remember a good PM is available in some capacity 24 hours a day 7 days a week to look after your property.  Looking at it another way a PM is making pennies per hour to look after your 50k, 100k, etc investment.  I think that is a pretty good deal.  

@Account Closed 

This looks great!  Are you a general contractor or just really handy?  How did you find the property and is this your first flip?  I have been looking for others on BP that are flipping in Raleigh that might be able to provide a sense of the market for this activity.  

@Chuck Hollowell 

I just rented a house for a client around the same area off of Hwy 401 near Garner for $1100 per month.  3bd, 2.5 ba 2 car garage. It is older than the house you are considering and I had to get the interior painted.  Painting really helped and had two applicants right away. I would say we had at least 50 calls and 75 emails about it so there is interest in this area.

@Jon Westrom

Will be interested to see how this goes.  Have a small (30 units) management company in NC and am trying to grow to 100 in the next year.  

@Sandy Spence

Great questions and I am sure that you will have many more as you move along in this process.  BP is a great place to get those answered.

1) Utilities - You should have the utilities turned off on Sept 1st from your name and should have instructed the tenants that they will need to have them switched to them by Sept 1st.  I would add a line item to your lease to that effect so they sign that they understand.

2) Insurance - When they get renters insurance make sure they list you as an additional insured.  That way you will receive a letter if the policy is cancelled or renewed.  

3) Suggestions - Make sure to set the right expectations with them at the beginning.  Rent is due on the 1st, late of the 5th and eviction starts x number of days later.  Maintenance issues will be handled depending on severity.  Emergencies are addressed right away but a minor issue will take a few days.  Make sure you get a copy of any tenant/landlord documents from your Real Estate Commission so you know the laws.  Another option would be to hire a Property Manager to handle all of this for you.  Make sure to interview the Property Manager as they are not all created the same.

Good luck.