All Forum Posts by: Tim VandenToorn

@Paul Volk Exciting stuff!  If you ever have questions or need a second opinion let me know.  We have a sizable management company here in Grand Rapids, and love seeing investors become successful.  There is still alot of opportunity, and Grand Rapids is still predicting growth for the foreseeable furture.

Jake unfortunately there is no way legally to get around this city ordinance.  Make sure you don't sign a lease with all 6 students as this would be a huge liability in the event fire or major event. Ignorance is the best defense, but make sure you are actually ignorant to that fact.  This can be documented with a lease with only 4 adults, and your advertisement.   We manage hundreds of properties and we do run into this on occasion.  The city will make us remove beds and provide a copy of the lease if they suspect this.  In all circumstances we have been able to resolve it successfully. 

I agree with @Chrissy Nelson.  James is a fanatics agent, and very investor minded.  In addition to being a great agent with a good understanding of the market, he is also an investor and works under a brokerage affiliated with a fantastic management company.  Home run in my opinion. =)  Good luck with your search. 

@Noah Stang This is Tim from United Properties.  I would love to talk about what to expect. 

@Ben Durwood is your property a single family or a duplex?  I would be happy to review your cost to see if there is room for improvement or is the cost are standard.  No obligation.  Generally if it is a multi-family the owner is responsible for lawn and snow, but not always. There are alot of factors to consider in who pays what.  

I thought I would take a minute to jump into this discussion, after seeing several people indicate this would be "lazy " of a PM company. I own a management company and recently we have been using these automated boxes more and more. We have a full-time in-house leasing agent on our staff showing properties Monday through Friday 10-6. With these boxes we now have a leasing agent full-time and an option for prospective tenants during extended hours, and 7 days a week. I disagree that using these boxes makes a management company lazy. We started small and when we noticed the success we slowly implemented more and more boxes. On the contrary of being lazy these boxes actually require a great deal of work, yet they allow tenants to virtually view the house 24 hours a day. We have set limits from 7a-7pm, but these restrictions can be customized. Furthermore instead of only showing the properties between business hours, now tenants who are employed can only view after hours, or on weekends at their convenience. This is actually allowing us to rent properties faster. This doesn't just put money in our pockets, but benefits the owners vacancy rates and ultimately his ROI.

Welcome @Tyler Hull.  Happy to help or give advice if needed! 

Thanks for mentioning that! 

@Dan Selleck happy to help if you have specific questions on the GR market!

@Monique H. welcome!  I started with the same  Dave Ramsey philosophy...which has developed into a hybrid since ;)  Obviously it's all about the numbers so be careful and evaluate the property with professionals who know the rental market!  There is tremendous opportunity in Grand Rapids, and a great resource here at Nigger Pockets.  If you need any help please let me know.