All Forum Posts by: Pete Woelfel

I have property that has met that criteria in Nash Park (which Matt mentioned above) and Kops Park (they're basically right next to each other).  Also looking into some property in Bluemound Heights that I think will fit it as well.

Hi @Morris Vides and welcome to BP!  I have a couple rentals in Milwaukee and am looking for more.  One thing I would watch out for however is being too general when you say "Milwaukee" - there's quite a large spread in terms of the quality of different neighborhoods.  Prices can be cheap, but often times when you guy in the cheaper areas they throw in the headaches for free.  My suggestion would be to find an agent that knows which areas to focus on.  Good luck!

@Matthew Lawrence - check out the Brew City REI facebook page and look into the Milwaukee REIA. There are others, but those two both have quality events that I've attended fairly recently.

@Benjamin Mann - on our SFR, tenants pay everything and the utilities are in their names. This hasn't been a problem to this point - though after the comments from @Marcus Auerbach and @Rebecca Knox I might have to rethink that.  I only have one duplex and tenants pay electrical there but there is only one water meter (which I think is common on duplexes) so its easier for me to just pay that and I budget that into my expenses when setting rents.  Water bills for my 2/1 duplex is usually $60-75/mo total for the building.  Hope that helps.

Welcome @Brian Martin. Best of luck on your REI journey! I'll probably see you at one of the local meetups. Not sure I'll be able to make it this Tuesday, but those meetings are definitely valuable.

Talk to @Matt Maurice

@Deangelo McKinley Malone - I have never done a flip or any sort of heavy rehab, but I do have a couple rentals in Milwaukee that we purchased fairly turnkey with the help of @Marcus Auerbach.  Happy to talk more if you're interested.

Hi @Shannon Persha - good luck as you start your business.  If you're looking for a property manager I'd start with @Matt Maurice.

Thanks for the replies @Maya Roberts, @CJ M., @Kenny Dahill and @Cassi Justiz!

I like Cassi's approach that they need to be home for maintenance.  To answer CJs question, we do have one tenant who uses a kennel for this but also agree with Kenny that dogs won't hesitate to trash a room if they're scarred/worried a stranger is in their house.  We have other tenants that do use a doggy day care, but the problem for me is that I still find myself in the middle coordinating it.  The contractor tells me a time, I tell them that I'll get back to them after checking with tenants, then I call tenant who has to call me back after coordinating with the doggy daycare, I call the contractor back, etc.

I guess I'm trying to put a system in place to get myself out of the coordination/scheduling.

I have a number of units (SFH and duplex) where the tenants have dogs. This is allowed in their lease and they pay extra for them so I like that they have them. The problem I run into is with maintenance. Most of these tenants have normal 8-5 jobs and so the dogs are home alone during the day. The problem I'm running into is when maintenance is needed. Most of the handymen/repair companies in my area are standard rates 8-5 and will do night/weekend calls but only for an extra fee.

My question is for others that allow tenants to have dogs - how do you handle this when you need to send someone else over to the property, especially if the tenant isn't home?  These are nice dogs, but I feel like sending a stranger that the dog has never met over there, with potentially loud equipment is a recipe for disaster.  Anyone have methods they've used successfully to deal with this?

Thanks in advance!