All Forum Posts by: Josh Sterling

In the past all tenants had to make the deposit into a bank account each month. This has worked well. About 2 months ago I started using paysimple, pretty easy setup and they can give you a page to put up on your website. So far it has been great, 25% of our tenants have decided to use the online payment system instead of going to the bank.
There are a lot of options to generate reports and invoicing if needed, cost is reasonable, $1.00 per ach transaction and $14/month flat fee. Credit card fees are higher (I think about 3.5%) but that is also an option.

I work a full time job with a schedule that fluctuates from day to day. I currently manage our entire portfolio of 22 properties. I have actually found it to got easier as we aquired more properties:
-Less stress: because if one water heater, furnace, whatever breaks, or someone doesn't pay, it is only a small fraction of total income, not 25% or 50%.
-Easier to use the volume to entice subcontractors: plumber, electrician, etc. are quick to respond to our needs because we give them a fair amount of work. Also, at some point you will be able to hire a handyman to take care of all mx requests. Where we are at now, I basically just take phone calls and make a decision on who to call.
-Better systems in place: as you grow you will naturally be forced to put systems in place that will minimize workload.

The next step for us will be to have a full time property manager take all phone calls and complete all showings. I am having a hard time giving up those things right now, but working toward it. Steve L. had a good post about scaling a business up large enough to have a full time employee, he said it took about 60 doors.

I have a commercial policy (maybe the same one as rob k?) It doesn't matter if they are vacant or occupied, I just have to specify for each property, which I can do myself online. I can also change the value on each property and adjust that as I see fit. Premiums are based on the value I place on each property. For 60k it costs about $39.50/ month. Replacement cost on that house was closer to $150k and was costing me about $90/month with my old policy.
I also have a 5k deductible as I don't plan to make a claim unless the property is severely damaged or a total loss. I think raising the deductible helped a lot on the premiums.

We have been very fortunate to have few vacancies, but because of that we don't really have a set procedure for getting them turned around and re-rented.
Ex.
Tenant notifies us at the beginning of the month that she will be moving at the end of feb. (at end of lease term)
-Occasionally we have tried to start showing the property with the tenants cooperation, and working around their schedule. I don't enjoy this at all because I find it much more difficult to work around the tenants schedule, some people don't feel comfortable looking at a house with another persons belongings laying around, and I have even had the current tenants there sometimes as we walk the new potential tenant through.
-If we don't do it this way we are probably going to end up with a month of vacancy because we won't be able to show the unit until the beginning of march and hopefully will find somebody that can move in April 1st.

Just wondering what others do in this situation?

Thanks

-SR

I agree with Michael on all these points. We have had similar results in the SE Michigan area, although it has become more difficult to find good deals since this summer. We will be closing on our 20th property this week, and I find it gets easier the more units you have due to the scale.

Hi Rob,
I may be interested in some of those notes. I sent you a colleague request with my contact info

-Josh

Hi Ron,
I just sent you a colleague request as we also invest downriver. I find that our 2 bedroom properties actually rent a little quicker than the 3 bedrooms because they are in competition with the apartments at the lower rent amounts ~$800-850.
Also, from my stats we tend to have more consistent returns on the 2 bedrooms because we can consistently purchase and rehab them cheaper.

I just did one. Small kitchen, 24 lineal ft (about 50 sq ft granite). Paid ~$1700 installed. About $34/ sq ft. included the sink free.

-I'd try to buy local. Lowes was a lot more expensive.
-Price can vary greatly. The shops that I liked let us walk through the warehouse and pick out our slab. Some were imported from a far away land and cost a lot more. I couldn't really tell the difference so I picked less expensive.
-My turnaround time was about a week from measurement day.
-There are many edge styles to choose from. For us, we had a choice of 5-6 that were included. Ended up going with the full bullnose (which they recommended) because it shows the thickness of the granite. (btw, thickness was not really an option or consideration for us, as far as I know all the slabs are about the same thickness anyway)

Thank you for the RUBS info. Any recommendations on a company to implement the program? Anyone handle it with their own billing?

Thanks for the info on NG prices
. I'm interested in methods to distribute the heat/water bill to tenants. Would there be process to divide up the costs and bill tenants equally? Would you have to individually meter?