All Forum Posts by: Brian H.

Hey all,

My area has a decent sized university but also plenty of non-student renters as well.  One thing I have picked up from various books and from this forum is that it is important to have a very thorough screening process.  

My question is this:  

Do those of you that rent to students feel like your application/screening process is a little less "intense" than if you were renting to non-students? Do you feel like a rigourous screening process scares off students or do you stick to your guns on that no matter who it is?  

I know students are generally harder on properties but I didn't know if the intensive screening scares students away.

Thanks!

@Rich Thoms While I am very new to all of this I feel like an agent that isn't seeking ways to help you find properties that could work for you both does not understand REI and is just going to be more of a pesimistic agent in the long run anyways. Red flag to me.

@Kyle Lewis Maintenance is part of the "Repairs". Forgot to add that.  Advertising is free on Craigslist at this point because this would be my first buy and hold.  Utilities are generally paid by tenants around here and will be filling the unit(s) myself.  Never heard of city inspection fees but I will look in that. Thanks!

@Andrew Johnson Didn't think about the annual pest/termite inspection. So if 80/20 LTV isn't bringing in good cashflows... what is?

@Jason Cadyle  It's pretty customary here for tenants to take care of lawn care and getting themselves out if it snows.  If I had a property with a long, private driveway I would include snow removal for that. Water and sewer are generally covered by tenants in this area.

Thank you guys for the responses!

Hey everyone.  

So, I am/have been in the process of purchasing my first buy and hold investment.  I am just curious as to whether I am doing my numbers correctly?  What do you all include in your expenses when doing your analysis? I will lay out what I include below, maybe you could let me know if I am setting aside too much for anything or not enough?  Thank you so much!!!

Monthly Buy and Hold Expenses:

• Mortgage & Interest 
• Vacancy (5% of monthly rent)
• Repairs (5% of monthly rent)
• Property Taxes 
• Insurance
• Cap Ex (I had this set at $185 for any property I analyzed. I think I got this out of one of @Brandon Turner books?  What do you guys do for Cap Ex when doing an analysis?)
• I don't include property management because eventually I hope (10+ years down the line) to just manage my properties as my job. If I wanted property management it would be way down the line when I was retired and hopefully a lot of mortgages were paid off so it won't be a big issue.

Just seems like I am really struggling to find good cash flow AFTER all these expenses are taken into account in my area and even a good 50 miles from my area.  What am I doing wrong? Thanks!!!

@Ben Travis   Doesn't look like I can really customize the rental application to match my pdf version though. That's the one thing I really want in a cloud-based option such as this.  Well, that and being able to do the same with my lease.

@Atwan Kwan    I have my own rental application that I use. I want to be able to use that if I move to a cloud-based management system. I cannot use that application with Cozy.co      I was just curious if I could use it with Tenant Cloud. 

@Percy N.   Can you do a customized rental application on tenant cloud or do you have to use their template?

@Brian Phelt  Ah yes. just saw the $250/month base subscription. I hate that. It looks fantastic. 

@Jimmy Murray @Brian Phelt

Is AppFolio good for an owner/manager as well?

@Eddie Werner  @Michele Fischer   Thank you for your responses!! I really appreciate it!