All Forum Posts by: Travis Bohling

Hi Sandy, give Richard a call at AZ Flat Fee. He will take great care of you.

www.azflatfee.com

The free money bonanza of the past 20 years is over, at least until the next pivot. It will be interesting to see how investors adjust their portfolio allocations now that the risk-free rate is so generous. 

Rent Perfect is a great screening tool with comprehensive reports. https://www.rentperfect.com/

Zillow dominates the search volume by prospective tenants.

Section 8 tenants can be great, awful, or somewhere in between just like non-subsidized residents. Careful investigation of credit, criminal, and rental history during the application process is the best way to minimize the risks of any tenant placement. I would also consider which section 8 agency you will be dealing with. Some are responsive, proactive, and care about their participants. Other agencies are slow, incompetent, and painful to deal with. 

On-site managers can be a blessing or a curse. If you have the right person, you have eyes on the property and hopefully a better resident experience for the other tenants. If you have the wrong person, you could deal with embezzlement, fair housing complaints, labor law claims, and community drama. 

Hey Dan, welcome to the valley! I agree with Nathan's comments above regarding the saturation of PM companies. Out of the 27 markets I have experience in, Phx is by far the most competitive. We have a great mix of national roll-up brands but also plenty of Realtors running the boutique PM strategy. Phx is also one of the most attractive markets for investors so there is plenty of market share for each of the strategies. Are you a current member of NARPM? Any interest in joining? We have 2 local chapters with excellent engagement. Let me know if I can help you with anything or answer any other questions.   

A load of laundry takes between 7 and 19 gallons of water per load. That would equate to a lot of loads of laundry to triple the bill. You may have an active leak or running toilet. 

We strongly discourage landlords from possessing a key so there can never be an unauthorized access complaint from a resident. This is 1 of the many ways we reduce liability for our landlords.  

Denise,

Thanks for the post. I am interested in the communities thoughts on landlord verifications. Here is my experience and thoughts:

1. For most of my career I have viewed the feedback from previous landlords as some of the most predictive of future resident performance. I would spend time on the front end to verify the landlord's contact info was accurate and not a friend or family member. Next, I would follow up continuously with the landlord until my questions were answered. This process consumed a lot of time but I always felt it was worth the investment to avoid a problem tenant.

2. The process changed when my property management firm was acquired by a large venture-backed firm. They had the policy to screen prospects based on credit profiles, income verification, and criminal screening.  The founders of this firm had come from the institutional world and the director in charge of leasing had come from the multi-family industry which had largely given up on landlord verfications a decade ago. I was hesitant about this approach but watched the delinquency and eviction rates stay the same throughout the process change.

3. Now that I have launched a new firm, we have decided to go back to basics and collect rental verifications on every applicant. Am I being too old-school and wasting time? 

To Denise's original post, can and should we rely on landlord verifications to make approval decisions? 

I hope as more landlords adopt online payment systems there will be an unbiased source of truth of tenant performance so we can see payment history with the click of a button.