All Forum Posts by: Ryan Hodges

This is why I have an over the phone conversation before I let anyone apply for our rentals.  Here's a couple I got from our last.  First know that this home is advertised and discussed over the phone as a 2 bed 1 bath on septic, and there's only room for 2 cars to park.

Prospect 1.  We have 3 kids, 2 dogs, and a cat and would absolutely love this little home.

Prospect 2.  We've got 2 semi trucks that would fit perfectly on the lawn.

Prospect 3.  Don't need an application.  I talked to your brother last week and he said I'm a shoe in.  The house is perfect, plus the shop would be perfect for my business.  (Brother said the guy was tweaking super hard when he came by the week before and.... there is no shop)

I cant speak to their rental application, but I tried to post an available rental through them and I personally hated it.  All the emailing back and forth was exhausting and almost 100% of the applicants expected to apply before seeing the home which I'm absolutely against.  The local Facebook Marketplace was a slam dunk because it allowed me to quickly connect with everyone through messenger to see first if they might be a good fit. For the application I used Avail.Co and while the initial screening and process was good, they didn't exactly make it easy to set up their auto pay feature.  It was confusing to the tenants and me being new to it, I didn't quite know what to expect.   

Edit - I should have read the post lol.   I plan to be there.  

My name is Ryan Hodges.  I purchased my first home in Olympia, WA when I was 20, moved to Seattle with my wife Rebecca a year later and rather than sell, we decided to become landlords.  Shortly after, we initiated a cash out refinance that ignited our fire for purchasing more rentals.  Now we have 8 homes and we finally got our home equity line of credit that we have been waiting for to begin investing further.  Our full time jobs have become flexible enough to allow us to refocus our energy and we now feel confident to step out of our comfort zone and start investing in potential Flip or Brrrr properties.  Being new to these strategies, we are in need of guidance and have a good friend and mentor who is more than willing to help but is shifting his efforts from Seattle to Arizona (Phoenix and surrounding areas).   This will be our first out of state venture and with the added level of caution, we turn to Bigger Pockets for additional support and guidance.