All Forum Posts by: Nelisa Lee

I haven't worked with them personally but I know they can help with this. 

https://www.nixonoutdoorservices.com/

I completely understand your frustration — property management can be a hit or miss depending on the company. My experience with JWB, however, has been different. 

I've worked with several other management companies in the past, and while none are perfect, JWB has stood out in terms of transparency and communication. In addition to their standard updates, I appreciate the regular calls with a supervisor to address any issues with our rep and make sure everything is on track.

They've managed several of my properties, and while there were occasional maintenance costs, I felt they were reasonable and necessary to keep the properties in good shape and avoid bigger issues down the line. Their transparency and communication made a big difference for me. 

Self-managing isn't for everyone, and I respect that it worked better for you. For some investors, especially those juggling multiple properties or a full-time job, a management company like JWB can still be worth it. Just sharing a different experience and perspective!

 Curious about these same questions from Simon for Baseline. We've found for both our flipping business and our rental portfolio that Quickbooks gives us everything we need to see our full financial picture and everything at a property level as well. 

 Agreed, we use QB to save ours. One less extra software to worry about...

If you're purchasing these properties under the same entity, then I would just use one credit card. Unless you only plan to have a few. If your intent is to scale, I agree with many of the others that have mentioned how cumbersome that would be dealing with so many different cards and properties. The most important thing is going to be staying organized with what items are purchased for which property. 

Wholesaling takes a lot of time so if you have more time than money, it could be a great way to start. 

That being said, I don't believe wholesaling is legal in every state so understanding laws surrounding that before you jump in will be important.

There are definitely a lot of bad wholesalers out there! The best wholesalers operate ethically and understand the business. Some of the best ones I know started as flippers or also flip themselves and/or have rentals so they understand the risks to buyers and all the aspects that go into it and aren't just locking up deals and renegotiating sellers. 

I think a lot of people also have issues with how much wholesalers make. But, with the rising cost of everything if you run a legitimate wholesaling business, the end buyers aren't seeing how much money and time was actually spent to acquire the contract. Some wholesalers will work with sellers for years or months before seeing any return. As a buyer and someone who does wholesale when properties that don't fit our buy box come through our pipeline, I don't ever count other people's pockets as long as the deal makes sense to me, than why worry how much someone else is making on it. The relationship is more important than any one transaction. 

Hope that helps! 

 Great point Max! Our team members we have have were formally trained in accounting for real estate before taking on any bookkeeping responsibilities and do still require guidance. I would never trust anyone without proper training and oversight. 

We used VAs for years but they were all referrals from other investors who no longer had enough work to support them. Although based on Drew's response, I think our VA team members would be what he's referring to as "Remote Team Members."

They work on our accounting/bookkeeping/reporting/administrative aspects of our rental portfolio. While they don't necessarily help with asset management directly since we have property management in place. They do help with reviewing our reports from our property management companies to identify spikes in utility usage on vacant properties, reviewing expenses to make sure they were approved, vacancies, etc. Our PM does a lot of that as well but as owners, I want to make sure things don't fall through the cracks. 

The biggest thing I have found is that they are very task oriented and will follow instructions well but you have to coach them up to be able to make their own decisions. So, when they ask a question especially something that doesn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, I often push back to ask them what they think. This helps them create confidence, learn and develop and honestly has made them incredible assets to our team!

Agree with all of the points Drew made as well about understanding cultural differences. Our VAs expect birthdays off and local holidays which we're happy to give them plus they get vacation days as well. We also give full 2.5 weeks off during the holidays because family and Christmas traditions are important to them. It puts us a little behind at the beginning of each new year but honestly, I think it brings everyone back refreshed and more efficient when they do come back and we also take that time off so it's nice to know that I'm not ignoring emails from them.

I've heard good things from other investors that have used Rocket Station and Hire Train VA to find theirs but I can't speak to that experience personally. Hope this helps!

What type of real estate are you looking to get into? If you're purchasing a house to flip vs. rent, then the ideal property might look completely different. I would recommend to buy in your local market for your first property... but I also realize every market is different and might not be affordable or the best solution. 

I chose a market with lower price points for my first rental investment but I also knew the area really well and had help from a realtor navigating the process. The first project we ever flipped was only a couple blocks from our personal home. It made it easy to check up on things and we obviously knew the neighborhood really well. It's not necessary but it does help to be more comfortable with the whole idea of investing. We now have rentals and flips all over NE Florida and aren't so limited but that came with more experience and learning more about those surrounding areas.

Would love to hear more about what you and your husband's goals are with investing!

Hey Sara! As Nathan already mentioned, it's tough to provide guidance without your goals, skillset, etc. I did see you were in Jacksonville, FL which is a great investing community to be in. The wealth of knowledge and transparency that so many successful investors are willing to openly share is great to have that I've heard can be challenging to find in other markets. If you haven't been to any local meetups, I highly recommend it!