All Forum Posts by: Thomas Talbert

In TX you can have them in an "Interest Bearing Account" To my knowledge it is illegal to use them as equity. But your question made me think of another, if the funds can be in an interest-bearing account does that mean you can loan funds? Food for thought.

Appfolio has partnered with Experian to get a very comprehensive picture for us. I am not quite sure how to handle going straight to Experian and getting results but here is the link https://www.experian.com/connect/tenant-screening

In these situations, we generally give them the option to sign a month-to-month agreement with a huge increase or have them sign a lease for the whole year. If they go month to month you need to be compensated for the risk. Honestly make it high enough so that you are happy either way. 

If you evicted this tenant then most likely they are judgment proof which means you will not see a dime. 

Send it to a collection agency and see what you get. One day you may get a check in the mail for the full amount. If had it happen. 

I use Appfolio in our business for LTR and we really enjoy it. It also has STR capabilities that I have never used but I am sure is good. I think something to look for if you are switching is the ability to integrate with other software. That alone has made our lives so much easier.

We send reminders to every tenant in our system. I believe it is a good practice because in a pinch tenants will pay whichever bill screams the loudest. The automatic emails or text messages are free and easy to set up and I think it's a good practice to let them know that I will be following up on this and will evict you over it without flat-out saying it.

Something to look for that may result in better communication is looking for a company that has a "portfolio" structure. That just means that they will have a single property manager that is in charge of a subsect of the overall portfolio so maybe 1 property manager is in charge of 75 homes. That generally means there is one person whose sole job is to respond to you. My company has a departmental structure however all of our staff members' phone numbers and emails are on our website so people can get in touch with whoever is best suited to tackle a specific issue. Hope this helps!

I agree with what everyone is saying above. You need to have in your process to adjust the rent every year. Even if the market says you are priced correctly no tenant will leave over a 1% increase. There are costs associated with them moving that they do not want to pay. 

I am a Real Estate Professional who bought a Property Management Business a little over 2 years ago. Within that time frame the business's revenue has grown significantly and has outran my tax write-offs from buying the company. My tax bill was sizable this year but 2024 is going to be a doozy. As a Real Estate Professional, I know I have some friendly Tax Laws that can help me but I am unsure where to look. Does anybody have any ideas?

As a property manager, one thing that I have found that helps decipher a good PM from a Bad PM is their processes. Ask questions and drill down on a few big ones and you will find some weak points if the ship is not run tight. 

For example, as most Pm's do I will Secret Santa shop around my market to see what competitors pricing and value propositions are. The cheapest PM in my market when I asked them how they handle evictions said "We don't, we have our owners deal directly with our network of lawyers."

Processes to ask about in detail. 

Rent Collection, Evictions, Leasing, Screening, Make Ready. Ask who what when where and why and if they do not have a solid reason for doing it RUN!