All Forum Posts by: Phillip Syrios

 How many units do you manage? I feel like this would be very difficult once you get too many different types of properties...

@Josh L. I agree, I guess the most helpful thing about it is that its so quick. It doesn't take a lot of effort to see what results you will get even if the information is not of high quality. I never thought about using Zillow. Are the numbers you get from Zillow any good?

 Agreed! And great point, this is why actual results you have had are better than just looking at what your competing against. Nothing quite trumps experience. If you are your own property manager networking with other property managers to gauge rent prices would be a great way to use actual results and lean on their experience rather than just your own could be very helpful.

You are correct. This works much better in some markets rather than others though, in Kansas city where I am there are only a handful of rentals on the entire MLS.

Single family houses are very different than apartments in many ways. One of the most distinct ways I've found them to be different is that there are rarely two identical houses. This means coming up with the correct rental prices can be very challenging at times because there are no direct comps and you need to come up with a different price for each property rather than one set price for an apartment community. 

This can make coming up with accurate rental prices very important for property managers because if you list a property too high it will sit vacant collecting no money, and if you list it too low you will end up with a lease generating much less cash flow than you could have potentially received.

Here are a few ways I comp out my rental properties, but I am really looking for some advice on how everyone else comps out their properties and how I can improve upon my current methods. 

Previous rental results with the same house - The first thing I base rent prices off of is previous results with that house and others in the area or of similar style and size. If I had trouble renting the house last time I know I was probably at the top of the market, if I rented it in 2 days I was probably a little low.

Previous rental results with my other houses -I've noticed with SFH's location can mean a lot of different things to different renters, sometimes they just want to be on the south side of town on a nice block and sometimes they want to stay in the same 3 block radius so using nearby results is great, but even houses across town can help me understand what the appetite is for people in my city. Often times people are willing to move 20 minutes away from their originally desired suburb to a different one as long as they can find the type of house they want in their budget. Because of this I usually look at what my other properties of similar type are renting for around the city to try and see what type of price I can get is for my current vacancy.

Craigslist - I use Craigslist as my main source of marketing, thus my houses will be competing with everything else on Craigslist. I want to be in line with my competition and if Im too high on my prices everyone will call the other guys ad that is listed right next to mine. If my price is too high (or too low) compared to what I see on craigslist I know I need to make an adjustment. I usually look in the nearby vicinity (the map tool is great for this) for what is in that neighborhood. It can be hard to find comparable properties sometimes, but venturing too far out means you are no longer competing against those ads in the same way. If their are no comparable properties it can be both a good and bad thing. I know anyone looking on craigslist for a house like mine doesn't have very many options which means I either can set the market myself with little competition or there isn't a high demand for my type of property.

HotPads- This website is similar to Craigslist and my second form of advertising. Hotpads takes info from Rentlinx and Postlets to show houses available much like craigslist does. I use it in basically the same way I use Craigslist but can usually find more comparable properties and they are usually better made ads meaning I know if the property on there is similar to mine or in much worse or better condition.

Rent-O-Meter- This website is designed for residents who are looking to see if their rent price on their property is reasonable. It has a lot of false information as people can type in whatever they want and it will create a new result on the site, but its one of the fastest ways to check to see if im in the ballpark with my prices. There is also no way to see if you are comparing against similar properties, a 2 bedroom 600 sqft apartment will look just the same on rent-o-meter as a 2 bedroom 1200 sqft house, but because this site has the most results so you can usually still get some helpful input from it.

Calling Nearby For Rent Signs-I don't really like this method and only did it when I started and didn't know much about rental prices. You can get the most info this way and really nail down the specifics of your competition but I don't like bothering people or being dishonest about my intentions telling them I am looking for a rental when I really just want to know the price, amenities and condition. You also can't actually see inside the property unless you take this tactic way too far and waste a lot of yours and other people's time. Its by far the most time consuming out of all the methods I've used and sometimes there are very few or no rentals in the area.

Again I'm looking for some feedback on ways to price out your rental homes.

This is a very odd zip code. Nowhere in the city does it turn from nice neighborhood to run down as quickly as it does here. Troost is the dividing line in this location, you want to be west of it.

This area has a very interesting, and in my opinion sad history and there are many reasons why the east side of Troost is so much more run down in that neighborhood.  Anyone who has interest in Kansas City and what to learn the history of that area check out the documentary We Are Superman: The Transformation of 31st and Troost. It does a great job talking about race relations and why the area looks the way it does today.

From my understanding you have to make your bid after after the waiting period is over.

I lived in Eugene for 24 years and my Dad owns a lot of Real Estate there. He focused on the campus area and that's where my knowledge is. The campus market has been largely overbuild in the last 3 or 4 years. Thousands of units aimed at students have gone up recently creating a huge increase in supply without a big increase in demand. This has spilled out into the downtown market but Im not sure whats the overall effects are on other parts of the city.

My Father still had a good lease up for the fall students but he gets more and more nervous every year with how much new construction keeps coming onto the market.

Never used Quick books before, but I would suggest a property management software. There are many different ones, some set up for bigger operations and some set up for smaller ones.

I used Building very briefly before I realized it was too small for what we were trying to do but from what I saw it made sense for a smaller operation (although to be honest I can't remember how good its bookkeeping capabilities are.

We had a poor experiences with Property Ware but I don't know if they have improved it in the last 3 years.

We currently use rent manager and I'm sure it would fulfill your needs, but It might be cost prohibitive if you don't have many rentals.

There are hundreds out there but having a property management software that can double as your bookkeeping software can be a very nice set up.

I don't know where this property is or what your local laws are but where I am from in Kansas City you can appeal taxes that seem too high. You should probably have a lot of experience with this in your current market before you ever buy a deal based on thinking you can lower the taxes, but its good to know if you can do it or not.

Overall if something like that is killing your deal it certainly seems that this deal has too small of a margin in it in the first place.