All Forum Posts by: Brad Larsen

@Annette Radvansky  Annette - you mention the lease agreement being written from a Keller Williams agent....and how loosely it was worded.  This is extremely common and what we would call the most dangerous individual to an investor - the agent acting like a property manager as a hobby.

Those agents have no property management training and simply pull up a lease from Zipforms and start filling out the blanks.  We have seen agents do leases with no late fees, no early termination penalties, no guidelines on showings - essentially giving the tenant a red carpet to walk all over the Landlord.  Not good.

We use a custom lease agreement that my attorney's and I produced ourselves from scratch.  Every paragraph in that lease was forged from experience and a background story....all in the efforts to protect ourselves and the landlord owning the home. 

Any agent can fill out a state approved lease agreement and charge you for it.  Look for the professional management company who knows how to fill one out correctly - or that uses a custom lease.  Since there are few property managers out there with that type of business sense - you may be looking for a unicorn.  

Good luck out there!

@Shane Reese  If you can, message me off line here, and I can send you back a rough pro-forma of the San Antonio Single Family Home market.  It contains three (of many) of the homes we have helped investors purchase and then still manage today.  

This article could also help you: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/757/topics/38...

Good Luck Out There! 

If you have not already, you would / should consider joining SAREIA.  

San Antonio Real Estate Investors Association.  You can find all of the above there with a few choice mentors.  http://www.sareia.com/

Good luck out there!

@Annette Radvansky  In Texas - where you are - Property Management companies do not need to be "bonded" as they say.  We are required to have a real estate broker's license, and use a Trust account when putting security deposits in them.

A security deposit is technically owner's funds according to the state property code.  They are funds of the landlord.  

When hiring a PM company to manage the home, that PM company will often insist on managing those funds and they will simply place them into a trust account.  This is something you may want to inquire upon when doing your research on a PM company.   

Once upon a time, we used to allow owners to hold their own security deposits.....until there were several foreclosures - owners disappeared -  and tenants started coming after us, the PM company, for money that was not even ours.  

After judge Ciro Rodriguez (famous flaming liberal judge here in San Antonio) told me to my face in court that the Property Manager is supposed to hold and account for those funds, we switched policies and now hold 100% of all security deposits in Trust.  

Keep in mind, this is in direct contrast to the LAW - the Texas Property Code - that says those funds are the property of the Landlord.  But, judges don't follow laws in JP court as they are elected officials.

To paraphrase - we have been court ordered to hold all security deposits.  

Take care out there!  

@David Stone When looking at a PM company in your area - check out this past post that may be of some assistance. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/385...

Good luck out there!

For a small company - Buildium would be ideal because of their lower cost.  As you gain momentum, Appfolio is the ideal choice for ease of use.  

However, they all lack in some capacity - you just have to choose the one that lacks the least for you. 

RentManager is also another one we like, but the sheer pain of switching software again has stopped us from making that giant leap.  

Good luck out there.  

It's common and customary for the late fees (NSF fees) to go to the Property Manager.  They are the ones staying on top of the rent being collected and will immediately post notice when rent is late.

It's so common and customary the Texas Association of Realtor's (TAR) management agreement indicates that all late fees go to the management company.  It's not an option is my point.  

We adopt a zero tolerance policy and chase rents vigorously as needed.  Our late fees are very high for a reason - it's a business decision.

I've seen companies intentionally keep late fees low - to collect late fees.  If your late fee if $5.00 - what's the big deal - right?  Pay late, pay the $5.00 - no biggie.  

Take that on the aggregate and it turns into $5.00 times 500 homes.  Serious money (in theory).  

We go the other route on that and charge a 10% per occurrence and $40 per day late fee.  We don't want late fees, we want rent payment compliance.  It works for us and we have less than 1% arrears each month.  

Take care out there!

Good Morning Eduardo;

With your upcoming visit to Military City - the zip codes you mentioned are pretty good.  Moreover than Zip Codes, we would recommend a formula for the home with a price range.  As an example of this, I will send you a few slides off line to review on the San Antonio market.

For some more fun reading - take a look a the post about choosing a Property Management company:   https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/385...

Should you want to stop in during your visit - get in touch with us and we can make arrangements.  

Take care out there!

@Betty Cruz  Great point Betty - but you would be way short.  Property Managers only have about a 30% market penetration into the overall rental market both in San Antonio and Nationwide.  

Add in the 80/20 rule - so 20% of the companies in town (the top 10 perhaps) are doing 80% of the work - throw another 20% into that 30%.  (30% and 20% for a guess of 50%)  

Meaning --- there is another 50% or more out there unaccounted for on any sort of tracking service. 

In summary, the market is good and homes rent.  The aggregate numbers should not scare someone as good homes do well in a good market.

ADVERTISING METHODS:  

Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Realtor.com, Multiple Listing Service, AHRN.com, For Rent By Owner, Military By Owner....and the list goes on.   

Good luck out there!

@Jon Nolen   I would recommend strongly to seek out a professional property management company.  You can do it yourself - but your time is better spent finding more homes to purchase, or working your regular job. 

Sadly, we are not in your market - but maybe this post would help you:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/385...

Good luck out there!