All Forum Posts by: Phillip Syrios

That's not too crazy, you can make stuff cash flow at 9%. We actually use the exact same business model in the Kansas City market. We look to get 9% interest  only money to 100% finance the deal and repairs and then have a decent  cash flow. Then we refinance it at a lower interest rate with traditional financing and pull out all the investors money.

The three keys to this model working is to have a high rent to cost ratio, have great Managment and get into the deals cheap enough that you can refinance your investor out with a 70% LTV loan a year or two down the road.

Never seen it done, but I feel buying and holding with hard money will get very expensive, very fast and extremely hard to make something cash flow. It seems like it would make more sense to get a money partner and take a percentage of a deal that cash flows rather than all of a deal that loses money.

There is no rule, but there is no good cash flow deal without quality management. Some people buy a 100 unit complex and manage it themselves (not recommended) and others hire property managers for the other side of the duplex they live in.

What we have done is built our own management company in the Kansas City area instead of outsourcing it or doing it ourselves.

I don't know the San Antonio market but elsewhere offsite property management can often cost around 10% (although I don't like the fee structure as it often creates poor incentives.) And onsite managers are usually closer to 6%. 

I would be more concerned about getting a really quality manager and don't be afraid to pay a lot for one as the price you pay for the management is nothing compared to how much money you will miss out on or lose with even mediocre management. I've always felt like good property managers were underpaid for how hard their job is but finding a good one is the hard part.

You need to do a background check before renting to anyone. This is a very expensive mistake many first time landlords make. The best thing to do is charge an application fee of $25 or so and then use that money to do a background and often a credit check on any prospective residents. Background checks should include both criminal offenses and any eviction history.

You should also make sure to check for rental references and make sure to verify their income.

Not in Tulsa but in Kansas City. Our buy and hold investments range everywhere from 1.2% to a little over 2%. Hitting that 2% can be very hard and it all depends on what your goals are. Its a very good, and in my opinion safe, rule of thumb and its always are goal to hit that but there are some places where its not too difficult (usually bad locates we don't want to buy) and there are places your never going to find it where the prices are too expensive.

My advise is to have everyone over 18 on the lease. There is almost no benefit to let him live there and not put him on the lease. Usually when we rent to someone we make sure everyone (or every couple) on the lease can qualify on their own. You may want to see if the friend can get a cosigner. Overall this type of situation would make me nervous and I would not be excited about this rental group.

Then again I don't know your market and that always effects things a lot, but in my situation I would rather wait until I found a renter I had less doubts about.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your systems but I have also learned the most important thing is to have quality people working with you. No amount of systems will make up for incompetence, and a great worker will still do well with less than optimal systems.

I haven't done this myself but I have heard it's one of best ways to get started.

I have tried quite a few things like this. The biggest reason I got rid of them is they can be as much of a pain to manage the reward systems you have put in place as it is to manage the tenants.

The best thing you are doing is thinking innovation about property management which most landlords fail to do. Look into Jeffery Taylor (Mr.Landloard) and some of his books, he has a lot of great creative ways to deal with tenants and create positive incentives.

I feel its best to create clear rules and penalties if they do not follow the rules and then enforce the rules rather then give then money off.

I own a real estate investment company in Kansas City and we do our own management. We have about 170 units 100 of which are houses spread across the metro. We have grown to the point where we need more hands on maintenance help and I have had a very hard time finding people. We are hoping to hire someone full time but any help would be a relief.

My question is where are the best places to find someone like this? I have put job postings on craigslist many times and have not found anybody we feel can get the job done, and I have exhausted my social network in asking for referrals anybody know where I should turn?