All Forum Posts by: Phillip Austin

@Brett Riemensnider Following @Caleb Brown's advice, you need to contact a local eviction attorney asap and let them know you have demands for nonpayment of rent that have expired and you'd like to start the eviction process. Do not continue on your own.

For your next tenant, be sure you have strict screening requirements and do not waiver from those standards. A delinquent tenant on month one is indicative of poor screening. 

@Antoine Fields Use the BiggerPockets tool to find local PMs!

You should also go online to your local NARPM chapter website; national association of residential property managers. You may not have a local chapter for a smaller town or community. But find the chapter closest to you. All of the professional and licensed PMs worth their weight will be active members. 

If all else fails, start calling local real estate agents and inquiring about PM services. 

Good luck!

@Fareen E. You’ll want to start the lease on your closing day. But following @Kim Meredith Hampton’s advice, do not countersign the lease until you actually close. 

If closing gets pushed, adjust the lease start date accordingly. 

LOL it's against fair housing for a landlord and tenant to mutually exit an eviction case? I can see the angle they're going for but, no, it's not against fair housing.

Your PM is most likely looking to get paid and/or their own attorney is also looking to get paid.

Regardless of when your PMA is expiring, you should be able to request them to close the case. They represent you.

A quick call to a local real estate attorney may be helpful. They may want to review your PMA. But they should be able to quickly answer your fair housing question.

@Rose White Your listing is your first opportunity to vet prospective tenants. Make sure your listing clearly outlines your screening criteria as well as your "house rules" if you're renting out a single room in your home. @Nathan Gesner gave you a great screening guide. 

After they've had an opportunity to tour the property, then you send them the rental application. That's when you run their background check.

@Dustin Horner It does not make sense to make any hires for one 10 unit building, PT or FT. Instead, build a solid bench of 3rd party vendors; HVAC, plumber, handyman, etc..

When considering whether or not to make a hire, most of it depends on how many hours you can dedicate to that individual each week, at least when hiring a maintenance tech. You need a lot of units under management to pay a maintenance tech 40 hours per week.

When determining when to hire a PM or ops team member, that greatly depends on how much revenue your units generate. Unlike a maintenance tech, a PM or assistant does not generate revenue. So it's a pure expense. How much revenue does your portfolio generate? Can you afford to pay someone $40k per year to manage part of the business?

It's a loaded question you're asking but that's a start.

 Agreed. Agents who generally take on small portfolios to manage are only doing so because they're not great agents to begin with.

First thing first, I would consider either driving by the properties or contacting the tenants and asking them if they know what's going on with the agent. Their tenants may be able to tell them what's going on.

I would follow that up with a visit to the agent's office. Then notify the real estate commission and file a complaint.

 Chad makes a great point. You need to be extremely organized and create processes and systems. Otherwise, you will have no days off. You'll be on call 24/7.

This is a controversial statement but the average property manager who has proven systems in place can most likely manage around 80-100 properties on their own, maybe more or less depending on how many hours they want to work. This is you and you only; no support staff. It's heavily dependent on the types of properties and the effectiveness your processes and systems.

If you don't have systems and processes in place, you may struggle to manage 30 on your own.

I second Mark Cunningham's podcast recommendation. It's called PM Build. Marc and his family started their PM business in the 70s or 80s in Denver and their team is one of the best around. 

@John Matthew Johnston It's a great time to start a PM business! A slump in the RE market usually means an uptick in our PM world. People can't afford to buy so they continue renting (and stay longer!). Sellers cannot sell so they convert them to rentals. Short-term rentals are becoming oversaturated in certain markets plus anti-STR legislation is resulting in some of those properties also converting to long-term rentals.

You already have the operations experience by self-managing. You know how to manage a property.

To get started, your first steps should be getting licensed then meeting with a local RE attorney so they can help you get set up with your contracts, management and lease agreements, etc. They'll also help ensure everything is in compliance. 

Follow economic trends and determine which areas have the best opportunity for economic development and prosperity.

At the end of the day, you're looking for investments with the highest returns. 

Investing in a single-family home in LA and expecting a good cash-on-cash return will be very difficult. 

However, investing in a single-family home in Raleigh, NC, presents better opportunity for higher returns. Home values are much more affordable and the local economy is trending upward. Large corporations are moving to the area which is very promising long-term for REI.