All Forum Posts by: Rose White

hi Tommy, 

congratulations on closing on your duplex! 

while i personally do not own investments yet, i wanted to send you some of my response on your questions. i hope that my perspective can help you go through some additional outlook. 

• Have any investors used property managers early in their investing journey? 
• i mentioned above that i personally dont have any investment, if your portfolio is manageable (1-5 units), i think it would be a good learning experience for you to manage for about 6-12 months. it would help you understand what are really necessary skills/tasks that needs to be handled. it may be tough but it will help you know what abilities you really want your future PM should have. 
• What has been your general experience with property managers?
• If you have used property managers, what questions and criteria should I look for to find a rockstar property manager?
• i think you could potentially look into multiple local PM companies or realtors that also provide PM services and interview them. if they have a PM service they regularly provide, ask them what are some of the tasks they are doing for their clients and how their approach is to situations that could be applicable for scenarios you had to deal with in the previous months of managing your own. i think asking what type of platforms are being used for background check, tenant payment portals, repair/maintenance workflow & how often they visit the property or do they receive inquiries on the weekends/holidays is important questions to be asked. additionally, i would also ask what type of tasks are out of scope and if out of scope, are they willing to manage that for x cost. obviously any type of negotiations could come on the 2nd phone call (after you screen all your potential PM providers). 
• If you have not utilized a property manager, what were your reasons for opting out?
• Share any of your experiences or comments regarding your stance on PMs.

additionally, i am not sure if you are on spotify, but biggerpockets daily has a lot of podcast contents related to property manager (needed or not) or how to manage on your own. eps 460 has "do you need a property manager" & eps 54 "20 questions to ask a prospective property manager" may have some additional information you are looking for. 

whether you decide to manage your own or to hire it out, i wish you best of luck on your portfolio and scaling if that is a part of your roadmap! 

 nice to meet you Trent! :) 

 Hi Brandon! Nice to meet you! 
I am Korean!! LOL omg haha i am bilingual as well.
Is the lender mostly primary residential lender or do they do investment loans as well? Where are they located? I know a few primary residence lenders but i don't know many investment loan officers yet. 
additionally, congrats on being an agent! are you a full time agent in Lakeland? 
I am visiting FL right now in the west coast :) 

Hello BP Community ! 

My name is Rose and I am an agent at Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices office @ Woodstock. 
I had my real estate license for awhile and some audiences on BP may have seen me be more active in the past but I decided that this year would be the year I am taking a leap of faith into new opportunities and be full time agent within this year. 

I am an agent in the greater north area of Georgia and I really am eager to launch my new business. 
If anyone is interested in connecting for networking purposes and if any interests in learning more about investing in the area I am in, I will be more than happy to assist. 

My contact information can be found on my profile and please follow me on social media (instagram) and let me know you found me via BP Forum. 

Excited to meet you all! :D 

Hi David, I usually text but I like any sort of written format because its easy to keep track of where we left off in the conversation and what we expect from each other. 

I text most of the time, but if the client does not respond, i email or send follow up text the next day! 
when using Zillow/Redfin, it might be easier to leave messages on those platform where it says to send messages in a text box and send it. More than likely, they will be able to track those messages than texts coming over from random numbers as they have a listing/lead that brought you to them.

hope it helps to create more bridges to those you've contacted and hope it goes well reaching out to them :) 

Hi Connor, you should let them know when they apply to live in the property. 
No reason to hide your face and it could possibly bring the better side of the tenant since they know the landlord resides right next to them. 

HI Madeleine! 

We all want to welcome you here! 
I actually got a license thinking the same thing to myself with job security, financial freedom.. the whole nine. 
I am an agent now catering investors rather than traditional home buyers, but that's because i want to learn the mindset of investors. I would recommend you to get a license as well, but like everyone said above, its not a guaranteed paycheck. (I do have a full time desk job still) 
I tried to be more "sales" person, but I am really not a sales person either.
Now, I am in a state of "be patient, don't rush, learn, understand, listen". 

Anyways, while you learn about real estate, if you start conversation regarding real estate with your close circle might be a good start. So they know where your mind is, and who knows, they might have been interested in it the whole time, but didn't know who to talk to. Destiny will bring you closer to people of like mind. 
Read a lot of books about real estate, and its kind of unrelated, but read "Rich dad, Poor dad" lol - this helped me get into the mindset of understanding money because i didnt really know about money before this. I still have a lot to learn. 

Try to save money while you study/wander because if you do get license, you wont be a millionaire next day or next year. it will involve a lot of patience. 

don't feel paralyzed and stuck, but keep moving. Get the momentum going! 

Good luck to you and all your endeavors and hope to see you here more often! :) 

Hi JooYung!
Those 3 are a good start!
looking into a way to do tenant screening would be great for you as well. 
Also, make sure to think about the rules and restrictions you'd like to have for your roommate/tenants. 

thinking about going into a neighborhood with HOA or no HOA? Neighbors with HOA usually have a restriction on rental. I am not certain on roommate but could have some regulations so when you are house shopping and want to put an offer, make sure to ask the agent if they can ask the seller for HOA doc and/or check for you on such information.

Regarding mortgage rate and pre-approval, its not late to look for it in Sept/Oct. If you end up finding an agent before lender, (or if you've already gotten approval letter from your current banker) ask the agent for lender recommendation as well

Hope you find the perfect house! 

HI Cody, 

If you have any realtor friends in the area, you could ask them what are the CMA within your neighborhood (or talk to your neighbors) what they have done.

For my property, we had spoken to an appraiser recently for refinancing, and he said we already had most basic things you could already have in the area (granite counter top, new appliances etc. it was a new construction) 
However, we added ceiling fans in master bed + living room, adding back splash, change dining room/kitchen fixture. We also painted our garage. 

I also like your idea of the gardening/landscape renovations!