All Forum Posts by: Tracy Spencer

@Dan Schwartz, any input on how to best approach this as self employed investor with more than 10 properties? Refi soft money, new loan, LOC? Where did you find lending criteria and costs were most favorable?

Charlie,

I have a call into him.  Do you have a painter you trust too?  What about a property manager?  I really appreciate your help.

Tracy

Looking for tile layer in vegas market to replace carpet/lino in 1000 sq ft rental house in North Las Vegas - any recommendations?

Also, any recommendations on where to buy tile? We have a bunch of haunts in Phoenix where we can generally get good porcelain for $1/ft...

Thanks,

Tracy

I found the pro version of Rentometer to be bang on in the Phoenix market, but now that they are looking for $30/month, I am looking for other more reasonable tools to supplement CL research.  Anyone have any ideas not mentioned above?

Try B2R - they do blanket portfolio loans, but have some hefty reserves and prepay penalties to watch

I second Jeff's recommendation for B-Cool.  They went out same day and installed a temporary fix, and had the new unit installed  and the warranty registered early the next week, all at $1000 less than my property manager had quoted.  Quick, painless and professional, even over the phone from Phoenix, AZ

Fabulous to know that Bigger Pockets is such a great resource for getting things done.

We are in Phoenix too and use a combination of techniques mentioned above.  My personal experience has been that anyone who can't get more information about our house through their kid's smart phone will be a pain in the neck later because they can't pay online, or we can't communicate via email which is how my lease says all notices will be sent. 

I insist all applicants use our online application process (via Buildium, our property management software) since that means I get every blank filled out legibly on the application, and the app fee gets paid via ACH.

We use a google voice number forwarded to our cell on our signs and a web address, and refer everyone to the website for a property video, the application criteria and online application.  We get a surprising number of applications before they have seen the house.  I've been experimenting with the driveby app where people send a text message to a number for more info, but it seems to have limited appeal in our neighborhoods.

The one thing that I want to figure out how to do better is to start collecting a database of prospective tenants so I can market new vacancies to them either via SMS or email, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that, so if anyone has any ideas...

Hi. Can anyone recommend a good accountant for a buy and hold rental business in Arizona and California that won't break the bank?

I use Buildium to collect rents directly from tenants via ACH. Our rents range from $600 to $1400/month, and I worried about whether tenants would use it, but only one tenant insists on depositing it at the bank instead. I love the fact that the rent payment automatically shows up in the tenants account in my Buildium software, and my tenants seem to appreciate the fact that they can pay the rent on their phones at 11:59 pm and not incur late charges. Buildium is $30-$60/month depending on properties managed, and then 50 cents per ACH deposit.

What I haven't figured out yet is how to efficiently use Buildium to track property expenses. It doesn't accept downloads from my Bill payer software, so there is lots of rekeying involved. Is anyone out there using Buildium for income and Quickbooks or something else for the expense side?

Can anyone recommend a good eviction attorney to handle an Orange County eviction?