All Forum Posts by: Preston Gealy

@Matt M. How do you handle advertising for vacancies and evictions?

@Jay Hinrichs thanks for the info! I'll give Jim a holler to see where he has rental units!

@John Underwood Thanks, that is how we plan to manage them. I guess it works!

@Adam Endeman I feel that managing my own properties is not very scalable but I know with the few I have now, we are losing money each month...

@John Underwood thanks for the info. Do you use a software to manage tenants or have a website to set up a self self pay or submit maintenance tickets?

In the beginning... my childhood friend introduced me to Biggerpockets and the fire was lit inside me. I had huge aspirations to grow fast and big. I established an LLC and even started paying for a web address, but never made a web page. I dreamed of owning 100 unit apartment complexes and retiring early. Then I bought my first investment. It was a flip and it was a success. My thought was to take the winnings of my flips and buy rentals. I did that with a 4 plex. It was purchased fully rented and the plan was to use a Property Management Company to take care of it. I quickly learned of the limitations of property managers from their service area to limited resources to limited contractors to fix things. The last straw was when they renewed a lease without our knowledge and didn't raise rent. We let them go and tried on 3 more property managers for size. We found things we didn't like like how perfect they wanted units rehabbed in C class areas or charging us $70,000 to rehab a small apartment when we can do a whole house rehab for that much. One property manager even died while servicing our rentals! We are at wits end with property management companies and have decided to manage the rentals ourself. When we get big enough, we will hire our own property manager who will be on our payroll. Does anyone have tips, advice, podcasts that you can share to help us as we gear up for this next chapter in our investment life? We still have big aspirations and have learned the way to NOT get there.

Who was born before 2008 and remembers the negative housing market and gas crisis and recession? I'm fearing history may repeat itself. What are some good tips from those who survived the early 2000s housing crisis?

@Bruce Woodruff I agree but I got a quote for over $10,000 to put a footer drain in where an internal sump system is $5000.

I am ready to list a flip that is an old farmhouse with a stone foundation. There is a water problem where I have puddles almost continually in the basement. I am torn between pointing the rocks with hydraulic cement and dry locking versus having an interior waterproofing system installed. Any suggestions?

@sean rotbart I want to get to GP but it looks like starting at an LP position is best to learn. Do you have any lessons learned for starting as an LP