All Forum Posts by: Tom Kaider

We had a few frustrated mobile home park owner come to us as managers to ask how to improve the process.  I usually offer the same advice at the outset, which is to force a paperless system.  All rent payments, work orders, everything needs to be electronic.  Then they usually try to say it's not possible with their demographic, and then we prove them wrong.  Anyone can get a routing number and account number, there are even internet banks now... banks without physical branches.  Just be someone who only does business by electronic means (other than networking and relationship building).  You'll thank me for it.  Think of it as an additional screen measure.  Why would you want to work with a tenant or a vendor who wasn't modern enough or established enough to have a checking account?  

Buy a management software program and commit to paperless.  I'll help you for free, no biggie.  Send me a message. 

@Matt Schelberg  Our management firm has evolved to be exactly what you describe, a la cart pricing.  We record the water bill for a lot of clients.  What they have done is put our email address as the contact email address with the city.  So, our bookkeeper get it, records it as a utility chargeback to the tenant, the tenant pays for it, etc.  Easy. 

@Ray Lai We use Buildium for rent-collection, bookkeeping and online work orders for repair techs, and we use ShowMojo to pre-screen potential tenants and to schedule the showings. We partner with local realtors, home inspectors, etc. for showings, anyone who has to have a license. Most investors have a favorite repair person anyway, so our job is then to simply coordinate repairs. We were sitting around a few years ago talking about how 95% of what we do, we do by phone and email. That was the beginning of a push to expand into other markets. We are so efficient, that we can pass that cost-savings onto our clients and boost their ROI. Part of that efficiency is that we are an early adopter of new tech and new strategies, like internet lockbox/self-showings, etc. The more doors we add, the more we become cost-effective for ALL our clients. So even the single family home clients get to benefit from our business model.

Please do not use paper checks.  You can do so much better!  If you require direct debit, that requirement functions another screening measure.  Various electronic rent payments can be set up and they are much more cost-effective than spending, time, fuel, and brain power dealing with paper.  

@Art Ritter  We are over 1,000 doors, and that is broken up into single-family homes, multi-unit, and also homeowners association clients.  But, we also have some unique clients plugged into our system like storage facilities and boat rental docks, like for friends who need a way to track income/expense of spaces.  Most property management programs are set up to manage units, and the software doesn't care what type of unit it is. 

Of what we do, we best manage multi-unit buildings, or medium-sized portfolios, of investors who already have trusted repair techs in place. Meaning, we will still take the call from the tenant and create a work order, but it is better if our client has someone they trust to whom we can assign the work order. Our magic sauce is that we answer our own phones, that we have a true team we are bringing to the relationship, and that we love what we do. Investors see how that can boot their ROI, and so investors make our best clients. Any investor with 10+ units and who presently just has their spouse or niece or someone doing the books in Excel or Quickbooks, and is still dealing with paper rent checks, needs to call me immediately. I can change their life.

We started in Chicago, then started picking up clients in Milwaukee & Madison, so we are creating an entirely separate brand for Milwaukee, which is called Checkbox Property Management (like, we have everything under control, checking all the tasks as completed... you have peace of mind... go analyze your next big deal and have fun, etc.).  Then from networking and getting into deals with others, we expanded into Orlando & Seattle.  Next up is Dallas & Vegas because of deals there and strategic partnerships with investors, realtors, home inspectors, etc.

My light-bulb moment was realizing that expert management doesn't happen with me literally sitting on someone's front lawn. The boost in ROI for my client comes from: our responsiveness, expert bookkeeping, detailed documentation, crack the whip on the vendors, etc. Most of that was happening by email and phone, so we started looking for clients all over the country. If they are a big enough potential client, we either fly out or fly them to Chicago and we simply convince them of our business model.

Coincidentally, Vegas just got a lot more active because of a few realtor friends in that market who tell me that management out there is expensive, and so we have been working hard to push our a la cart pricing options.  I have plenty to say on the topic, but I type fast, and I'll end up writing a novel on here.  It would be better for you to send me an email, and then I can have one of our Vegas partners meet with you to go over it.   [email protected] 

@Alex Hamilton  It would depend on the city, but generally speaking, we are on the low end of the spectrum in any market, because our core office staff is dealing with repair coordination & bookkeeping 24/7.  Meaning, all matters for all our clients are looked at by multiple people.  Hire us isn't the same as just having one realtor, converted bookkeeper, or converted handyman (converted to property management).  I own properties, and the problem with that setup is that if that one person leaves the industry, or is ill, or just lets me down, then there is no infrastructure backing them up.  

We have clients in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  Our pricing decreases based on volume.  Single family home clients pay 100% of one-month as a leasing fee + 8% monthly.  But investors with ten or more units pay 25% leasing fee + 6% monthly.  

However, like you may have seen in my other ad, we offer a la cart pricing as well.  Some investors don't want to turn over every single aspect to us, and we like that.  We want to grow with them, so we can take on very specific categories of management, and then only charge a fee for those aspects.  It is a way to build a great long-term relationship, and then the client can sort of level up over the years on their investments because they know they have support staff.  

Calls from my clients sound like this, "Hey Tom, can we now add phone support?  We just don't want to deal with any calls at all, so if we bundle that with bookkeeping, how does that affect the fee?"

If you send me an email, and let me know where your pain points are, like what you don't like doing or what you see as your bottleneck in your operations, then I can tell you how we can take on those specific aspects and a more-specific fee structure.

[email protected] 

My management firm is often hired to help out-of-state investors, so we look at our job as to over-inform them, but they make all the final decisions.  We do live video-walkthroughs and use other technology in interesting ways so that the feel like they are there anyway.  The investor makes the important decisions and gives approvals, based on the information we provide.  If you have any interest in deals near Chicago or Milwaukee, send me a message. 

We use management software, and simply send tenants a link for their online tenant login portal.  They pay rent either by typing in their check info, or by credit card, and then that is automatically imported into the management software to track the financials of that unit.  Similar for vendors.  It saves time because there is not double-entry of bookkeeping: pulling data from PayPal and then having to port it into software that tracks the financials of the rental properties.

I have a lot of client for whom we only do the bookkeeping.  It's a niche in the management industry, and I'm the only one I've come across doing it.  You could call it "rental property specific bookkeeping".   Send me message if you have any questions about using management software for all rent collection. 

Our fees decrease as we manage more of your properties. We want to grow with you from your first rental, to your first multi-unit, to when you are buying up large buildings and complexes. We are expanding rapidly because investors love our core team of winners. We operate using a true team approach...

...which means we can offer you an à la carte pricing structure!

For example, you may just want some help plugging all your units into management software and for us to function more as an advanced tech support for you because we are experts utilizing management software.  So, then that's all we do for you and only charge for that aspect. 

You may already have a realtor you like to use to full units.  You may already have a handyman for repairs. The point is that you can hire our team of expert, honest, go-getters as your office support staff. You can offload specific aspects of your operations as you grow.  You are not faced with having to turn all the management functions over at once for your entire portfolio.  We want to grow with you and stay on as your trusted team, forever. 

Call me 24/7 or send me an email.  We will work for your for free, starting today; get you set up in our software as a demo.

-Tom

847-315-0222         [email protected] 

We manage both apartment builidings and mobile home parks.  From a processes perspective, there are not any significant differences.  The computers sees a unit as a unit.  If a repair request comes in, then we assign the work order to the maintenance tech, and expect them to handle it in a professional way.  I think the key to any multi-unit property is to have trusted maintenance solutions set up, and make sure they can work with your management software for the sake of reporting and record-keeping.