All Forum Posts by: Nate Smoyer

Hey @Mario Arnone,

If these are for rentals, you'll want to search for landlord insurance vs. homeowners insurance. 

If you search and shop for homeowners insurance, you're not likely to find a service that will be able to cover your properties.

Hope that helps!

WOW—BPCON2021 was a total blast! I think had good discussions with nearly 200 of y'all there. I'm still downloading some notes I took away from the event. 

For those of you who went, what were the highlights for you? What are the big takeaways you're putting to action?

I'll share one of mine. I was talking about my passion for national parks and finding killer locations within certain parks that are not "mainstream" but having been gaining popularity over the years. I already locked in the pre-approval and we're moving to that market so that we can begin building our business in that area. Got to put the thesis to work!

Hey @Adam Benenati, congrats on your duplex—that's exciting!

My strategy for screening tenants:

• List property with great photos and description—this is KEY to attracting your best potentials because it also helps you ask for at/above market.
  When you receive a lead, be sure to pre-screen. Get full name, email, phone, where they work, and find out their intentions before doing any sort of showing.
• During showing get to know them, but be sure to be mindful of fair-housing laws and do not ask questions such as "are you married" and "do you have kids". You can ask about hobbies, how long they've been in the area, how long they want to live at the residence, etc. 
  If no red-flags, offer the application and spell out your exact screening criteria. If you require a clean background, credit score of 700+, and zero eviction history—say so. This is very important. 
  Run the reports. If all is clean, offer the lease and secure with a deposit. If you can, collect rent through a trust online vendor designed for rent collection or a cashier's check. 
  
• You're in the right community for sure. I'm sure you're going to do well as a landlord.
  
• Cheers!

Thanks for starting this thread, @Mindy Jensen!

is very excited to be a sponsor of BPCON2021. I'm a long-time listener, multiple-time poster on BP. I've been a member of this community for a few years and so I'm personally so stoked Avail was able to step up and support this important event.

I'll personally be at the Avail booth along with one of our product managers. We'll be on hand to demo Avail or simply talk shop. Of course, we'll have some incentives reserved for those who swing by the Avail booth, so be sure to do so. I hope to connect with many of you very soon! 

In the meantime, shoot me a connection request here on BP so we can be sure to link up while at BPCON!

Cheers!

@Laura Guy We've been working with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on a program in California. We had this very discussion and settled on Local Rental Owners. 

You can also see this video that CZI put out (not associated with our company directly). It does, I think, a great job at giving an accurate picture of local rental owners or housing providers. https://twitter.com/attn/statu...

I appreciate this effort y'all are undertaking. Communication is so important and terminology matters, greatly.

@Nathan Gesner- I think you misunderstood the post. They were talking about Avail AND NestEgg as a comparison.

Avail does not charge a full month's rent. Avail never takes any amount out of rent collected by landlords. Avail can be used at no cost, for unlimited units or for premium features (customizable lease agreements, rental applications, and expedited payments) it's just $5/month per unit. 
@Nathan Gesner

Originally posted by @Eddie L. :

@Henry Hogeterp I currently use Avail.co. The rent collection and listing options are nice. You can enter maintenance requests through their portal and it costs $5/unit. I have used NestEgg.Rent in the past. NestEgg now has nationwide maintenance scheduling and I may test them with a new tenant I am onboarding next month. I had challenges with their payment setup in the past. However, I do like their vendor management, scheduling and tracking of maintenance through their app. Avail does not have an app and you have to use their web portal. NestEgg charges a full months rent as commissions for filling a listing. Their is an addition fee for Zillow listing through Avail.

@Gary Abner - Trying to only answer the question and not be promotional here. I use Avail. In full disclosure, I now work at Avail as well (got the job after I switched). 

End of the day, there are lots of solutions on the market. It comes down to the type of tool and process that fits your business best that's important. Hope that helps!

@Logan Hartle amazing. Thanks for the response. Would love to exchange notes. I think this could be a doable strategy but I’m only as knowledgeable to know there’s probably a fair amount I don’t know. Lol

I’m curious if anyone has experience converting garage storage units into condo garages.

I’m evaluating a deal I think might make sense to convert the storage garages into condo. Then sell off half and keep half to rent out.

Anyone ever do this? How can you ensure buyers can get financing or banks will finance the units?

I obviously have some blind spots here. Appreciate the response.

A friend and I have different definitions as to exactly what a rent roll is. How do you define rent roll and what info do you include?

I'd love to know what y'all all think. I've seen varying forms being labeled as a rent roll. I'm on the side that there can be variations, but I'd love to know what y'all say a rent roll is, what info is on a rent roll and what is optional to include. 

Cheers!