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All Forum Posts by: Sheena R Roth

Sheena R Roth has started 7 posts and replied 58 times.

Post: Podcast about raising rents?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

Anyone remember the podcast from a couple of years ago where the guest talked about how he goes about raising rents when he inherits tenants who are paying well below market value

He talked about making up a folder of his expenses as well rental comps and meeting with the tenants and having a two-way conversation about where to set the rent. 

It was on the OG podcast back when it was David and Brandon hosting. 

I’d like to listen to the episode again but I can’t seem to find it! 

Thanks!

Post: Anyone in need of a Virtual Assistant for $5/hr?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

We have a VA who has been working for us the last 9 months for 10 hours / week.

She’s looking to add 20 hours to her work week but we’re pretty small and not looking for acquisitions at the moment, so we don’t really have enough to keep her busy for the extra hours.

I told her I’d ask around to see if someone else in the community might have a need for her skill set.

She lives in the Philippines (VA work for USA companies is a super common career there) and she charges $5/hr USD. We pay her weekly via Wise.com.

This is what she does for us:

- Categorizes our expenses in Stessa based on our notes on the scanned receipts

- Uploads the corresponding receipts/invoices to Stessa

- researches market rents when needed

- Tracks pass-thru utility billing

- Reconciliation of our books in Stessa vs. Bank account each month

- Notifies us of missing invoices

- follows up on maintenance requests

- makes calls to utility companies to start or stop service (we use Google voice which allows her to make calls over the web)

In the past she's worked for other REI companies and dealt with contractors, scheduling repairs and clean outs, etc.

She’s kind and trustworthy but not very assertive which is typical of Filipino culture. As with most VAs, especially Fillipinos, she will work best with well-defined systems and clear instruction… we use Loom videos for training and Monday.com along with Google Calendar to keep track of activities and recurring tasks. We use Google Drive to share and organize files with her.

If you have a need for this type of support please send me a message and I can answer any questions and/or put you in touch with her directly!

Post: My VA is looking for more hours

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

We have a VA who has been working for us the last 9 months for 10 hours / week.

She’s looking to add 20 hours to her work week but we’re pretty small and not looking for acquisitions at the moment, so we don’t really have enough to keep her busy for the extra hours. 

I told her I’d ask around to see if someone else in the community might have a need for her skill set.

She lives in the Philippines (VA work for USA companies is a super common career there) and she charges $5/hr USD. We pay her weekly via Wise.com.

This is what she does for us:

- Categorizes our expenses in Stessa based on our notes on the scanned receipts

- Uploads the coresponding receipts/invoices to Stessa  

- researches market rents when needed 

- Tracks pass-thru utility billing 

- Reconciliation of our books in Stessa vs. Bank account each month 

- Notifies us of missing invoices 

- follows up on maintenance requests 

- makes calls to utility companies to start or stop service (we use Google voice which allows her to make calls over the web)

In the past she's worked for other REI companies and dealt with contractors, scheduling repairs and clean outs, etc.

She’s kind and trustworthy but not very assertive which is typical of Filipino culture. As with most VAs, especially Fillipinos, she will work best with well-defined systems and clear instruction… we use Loom videos for training and Monday.com along with Google Calnedar to keep track of activities and recurring tasks. We use Google Drive to share and organize files with her.

If you have a need for this type of support please send me a message and I can answer any questions and/or put you in touch with her directly!


Post: Is Canton, OH a good city to invest in for rental investment?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

@Matt Slease said it. I grew up nearby and invest in Canton and I still struggle to discern where the good pockets are in Canton City. 

Feel free to DM me if you would like to chat or review any potential properties

Post: Alternative to STESSA?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77
Quote from @Mose Gebremeskel:

Innago is a great alternative! It helps me keep everything organized and keep track of all payments. 

And @Tommy Parker  I also use Innago as a tenant portal (ie. I accept rent payments, manage and store leases, send invoices, and accept and track maintenance requests on there) I never considered that it could replace Stessa for bookkeeping and tax prep. I know that they have an “Expenses” tab in Innago, but I have never noticed a way to import transactions or link to a bank account. Are you guys manually inputting your bank transactions into Innago one at a time? 

Post: Stessa Pro -- Pay for features

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

If anyone switches and is happier with another software, I'd welcome suggestions!

Post: Alternative to STESSA?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77

Our automatic imports don't work either. Same experience... the "ticket" has been open for more than a year.

But now Stessa moved from 100% free and added an optional paid subscription level. One of the features you have to pay for is the ability to assign a transaction to the portfolio level. This isn't an optional feature for anyone with more than one door... its super basic and definitely a necessity.  

So basically if you have more than one door, Stessa is no longer free. 

I'm looking for alternatives... would appreciate any suggestions from you folks who have migrated to something else!

Post: Modular and manufactured homes for short-term rental investment

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77
Quote from @Valentine Smith:

@Sheena R Roth this is exactly what we’re planning to do! We’d love to replace the old mobile homes with little pre fab cabins and rent them as short term rentals. Have you done any more research on this possibility?


 We renovated one of the homes and have had it listed on Airbnb since March 2021. It has performed better than we excepted! We got a lot of tourist traffic over the summer and this winter we rented it out to a couple of nurses who took a 13 week contract in our area just to give ourselves a break during the slow season. 
The other homes in the park are still occupied by long-term tenants, but as they move out, we will give serious consideration to switching out the trailers for small cabins, or just continuing to renovate them to nice mobile homes and keep renting them out an Airbnb :)

Post: Real Estate Professional Status/Time Tracking

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77
Quote from @J.C. Martel:

I use the RESPtracker app. You can break it out by general RE activities and material participation. It also has a dashboard where you can see how far along you are with meeting the 750 hours requirement with at least 500 hours in material participation and 250 hours in general participation. I like the app, but wish I could upload a CSV rather than manually enter time for each day.


 JC - I just got the app today after coming across it in this discussion and noticed that (although it's not on the mobile app) the desktop website has a tab to upload a csv file to import entries. Hope that helps! 

Post: House Hacking a Duplex or Triplex ?

Sheena R RothPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Canton, OH
  • Posts 59
  • Votes 77
Quote from @Preston Donahue:
Quote from @Sheena R Roth:

We have 6 duplexes in the Canton area, I stick to 4 school districts: Perry, Plain, North Canton and Jackson. The latter two are definitely out of your price range. You can probably find an up/down duplex in Perry or Plain townships for $150k or less, especially now that the market is softening. My advice would be to stay out of Canton LSD even though it will look extremely affordable, you probably won’t want to live there. 


 Are you confusing Canton Local schools with Canton City schools? If not, how does Canton South differ from Perry Local?

Yes I should have differentiated between Canton LSD vs Canton city. I never have, but I would at least consider investing in Canton South… whereas I don’t see myself ever investing in Canton City unless there are significant changes in the area. 

As for the difference between Perry and Canton South, I consider Perry schools a little higher caliber and I would probably want at least a little bit of a discount for an equal property in Canton South vs. if it were in Perry. Also, I haven’t researched this, but when I started investing, a realtor told me that Canton South has open enrollment, where as Perry Plain North Canton and Jackson require students to live in the district so it keeps both home values and rent a little higher since those are all desirable districts. 

Do you live or invest in Canton South? I’d love to hear your opinion on this, you have me interested in exploring potential opportunities there.