All Forum Posts by: Brendan O'Brien

Thanks Beachbum. It seems to me that Yardi is popular because it's been around forever and people are used to it. Reminds me of my old days building very large applications for corporate clients. In trying to go from in-house solutions to vendor products, they would go for huge, highly complex programs. It was actually good for my employers because they would make a lot of cash - for a while. The problem was that the clients would quickly abandon these efforts.

As for security, web apps are the wave of the future, but yours is a legitimate concern. You don't really know how good our security is - how can you? In the end, I still have to prove myself.

Sorry to say I'm not a skier. I spend all summer playing with my kids on my boat (Portsmouth and Great Bay), then spend all winter working hard to, uh, buy a bigger boat. (Not buying any more kids.)

Brendan O'Brien

I think they're doing reasonably well, that's true. Especially now that the prices have come down. Where are you in NH? Do you go to NHREIA meetings?

Brendan O'Brien
Property Master property management Software

I'm trying to learn more about Yardi's pricing and product. I'm a competitor of theirs and their prices seem ridiculous - is the product worth it? What do you like best about it?

I honestly don't know much about the north country. Are you thinking more about vacation rentals or year-round housing?

Overall, NH is doing better than Massachusetts. I recently saw a report that adults under 40 are net increasing here in NH, which means that more are moving in than moving out. That's obviously a very good trend.

I live in Portsmouth, run Property Master property management software in Seabrook, and own my properties in Somersworth. That's about a half hour away.

If I was looking at properties more than about a half hour away, I think I would look for "where the jobs are" - which is more than ever away from New England. Thinking it over, more than a short distance away from home, you need a property manager anyway, so why not go to the best possible (US) locations for investing?

The good side is that there are some deals in NH with very good cap rates. Prices have fallen. Prospective tenants, I think, have actually gone up a bit. The next thing we need is rent increases and hopefully we'll start to get those soon. NH rents in my area have been pretty steady for about 5 years now.

Mass is losing population. This is usually a very bad trend for propety investors, for understandable reasons. All property values across New England are of course dropping, but in Mass, it's also darned hard to find tenants.

I think Mass would be a good place for somebody who wanted to flip and had the cash to lose money on a property or a few years.

As for NH, it's better than Mass, but still hard to find tenants. We just aren't getting a lot of new tenants.

The good news is, under-40s are net positive (moving in more than they are moving out) in NH now. Not so in Mass.

No doubt like the rest of the country, Arkansas has its bright and dim spots, but I just talked to a very nice Realtor and investor down there (I talk to RE investors around the country because of my property management software business).

Me: "How's the market down there?"

Heather: "Just great! We're building, selling and renting like crazy!"

Me: "How's the local job market?"

Heather: "Super! Our local factories are expanding fast!"

That's not really happening here in NH.

I believe the real estate follows the job market, and the job market in New England is just not that great. Of all six NE states, we are doing best, but still not that great. (That great big sucking sound? It's coming from Massachusetts.)

Thanks for the nice welcome. I do not actively manage any more (I have excellent managers), but did so for many years.

Hey friends, I got into real estate investing in 2003 with my first multi-unit. I now have two, but I'm think I will not buy another property in New Hampshire in the near future. Deals are getting better but the basic economics are not great for here. I'm mostly interested in learning about hot towns in the South - Alabama, Georgia, and so on.

I am an "active" manager, meaning I deal directly with tenants and contractors.

Hi Josh, I just sent you an email. I'm a 42-year-old real estate investor (2 blgs, 13 units) and I own a property management software company. Please do contact me. Really terrific site - thanks for letting me stop by.