All Forum Posts by: Andrew Syrios

Poor quality tenants rarely stay long. You will probably have to evict them and repair the house in a few months. You should anticipate these costs as your rehab, or in other words what your all in price will be. Given that, it sounds too thin to purchase.

Bad property management is a killer and unfortunately, not uncommon. We set up our own management company so we could control everything and do it right (we only manage our own stuff). If you're really going for buy and hold and have enough units to make it make sense, that may be something you want to consider.

It's very unique and I like the creativity, although I would have two concerns: 1) it requires two steps and most people don't follow through on that from solicitations and 2) a lot of people might think the website on the postcard is loaded with viruses.

That being said, it wouldn't be a bad system to test and see if you get good results.

Of course I did say my opinion was "very biased." Adrian is right, it comes down to what you're passionate about. I do think that real estate, generally speaking, has a higher upside and has much lower barriers to entry.

Real estate is better than law in my (very biased) opinion. But I guess I would say it depends on how sure you are that you want to do real estate. I am really against investing on the side. You have to treat it as a full time job or more aptly as your vocation for it to really work. I have met a lot of real estate attorney's but never an active real estate investor who was also an active attorney.

How familiar are you with the area? Rentals in bad areas can look good on paper but be a nightmare in reality. You can check crime statistics here: clrsearch.com or at homefair.com by zip code. But I would also ask around unless you know the area really well. Best of luck!

The two big things I don't see are 1) rehab estimates and 2) the quality of the area. If the rehab is minimal and the area is at least decent, it sounds like a good deal.

@David Jiang I may be a bit paranoid as I haven't had a good experience with property managers. But in my opinion, first, make sure to interview them extensively and get some references and talk to them too. And Google their company too. Then I would watch your financials very carefully and ask them about any maintenance expenses that seem too high. Make sure they are screening diligently (it's probably even a good idea to ask for the background report of the tenant before they accept).

If possible, it would be good to visit the city and your property too, at least once. And when buying, make sure you aren't being led into a warzone. They can sometimes be deceptive. Use CLRSearch.com to find the crime rates by zip code or City-Data.com to look at the average income by subdivision to make sure it's an OK area.

Don't be afraid to get a bit chippy with them. They should know that you mean business and expect a quality result. And if it comes to it, don't be afraid to switch companies.

Best of luck!

That is a fantastic marketing idea! We once offered free pizza coupons each month to rent our student rentals and I think it helped quite a bit. That kind of marketing seems to be really effective.

Self insuring is an option as long as you carry sizeable cash reserves, but banks will have none of that (nor will private lenders generally speaking). There is also a risk of something catastrophic happening to the entire area (think Joplin or New Orleans) that could ruin your whole business.