All Forum Posts by: Rafael Floresta

Thanks for letting me know. Basic math is a big deal. If they are missing on that, what else are they missing?

Luckily I got out of their "implementation phase" with a refund for my 400 bucks. At first they wanted to take my 400 and half of year of fees (1200 bucks) and I wasnt online yet. 

I wish best of luck for them...

I dont own anything there, but I know people who are moving to those areas. Single people looking for affordable but still middle class. I'd buy there if it wasnt 45 min from where I live.

auction.com still uses realtors, btw.

@Dawn Brenengen can you download your transactions from the bank, like one normally do with quickbooks? 

I think if your property is going stable is no problem. There arent that many charges.

My issue is that we do a lot of work when we bring the properties online, and I don't want to manually import 100 transactions from home depot manually. 

@Monte Cole which property management do you use? and do you like that owner package/report that you receive every month? 

I am glad I am not alone. Maybe not glad, but I was surprised not many people have complained.

I wanted to pitch in my two cents. I own 10 properties. I am a tech guy and use a ghetto setup between quickbooks, hellofax, typeform and podio to manage my rentals. 

I thought it would be a good idea to roll that all into a connected system, and appfolio seemed to fit the bill. 

I have to say, they have a lot of cool things, but their accounting system is awful. That alone was a deal breaker. They told me that I would have to manually enter every single charge I do on the credit card for the business manually. If you use quickbooks and download the transactions from your bank, you know how much time that saves you every month. They also force you into working in their molds and expect you to adapt to their software. Most of the time are small compromises, but still annoyances.

The worst part of the experience was after signing up, and realizing it wouldnt work, they wanted to charge me for the setup and some of the months I havent even used. Be aware, there is a reason they don't let you test the software like buildium does. 

Stay away, unless you are 100% sure it will work for you. 

New Jersey is quite big, and there are many times of contractors. Maybe specify a trade, a location and explain what you need a bit more. 

thumbtack.com and porch.com are good ways to find contractors, if you dont know where to start.

Hey Eric, I do rehabs in Delco. 

I think the bandit sign idea might not work out so much. Bandit signs work great for real estate purchase because they are transactional deals. You have a lot of control on a deal that you can hit the fund/not fund button. With a remodel, it is a trust and business relationship that you will develop with the contractor. 

You ask for a reliable contractor, and at the same time you want to gather contractors from bandit signs. My question to you is; How will you screen a contractor reliability? References lie. I'd take a good recommendation from someone I know personally over a spoon fed reference.

I have been there, and used some creative ways to find contractors that will give  a lower price. Most of the time it didnt work out well. I am going on my 8th rehab, and the contrators I keep were not the cheapest, but the ones who keep their promises. 

Most people hire a contractor for a job based on their skill to complete the job, and rarely fire a contractor because they don't have the skills to execute the job. Usually it is because of issues with completing the job on time and communication issues. 

I work with a handful of contractors, but they seem to be pretty busy for at least another month. Fall/Winter is approaching, and that is the slow season for them, because most people don't want to do a big remodel over the holidays. 

As far as keeping it under the budget, my best advice is to make a very detailed scope of work and put it up here and help others verify you didnt forget anything. Again, the more detail the better. Feel free to reach out to me if you need some specific trade contractor or if you are stuck and need to bounce some ideas.

Here is a scan of my closing costs. 

I know a lot of those are legit, but the settlement charge seems really high, and also the survey. And the Document preparation fee, seems BS. I am already paying for real estate agent and mortgage broker, isn't it their job?