All Forum Posts by: Amy Verges

I own a property management company (managing close to 200 units, single family and small multi-family complexes) in Baton Rouge and looking to hire someone local F/T to help with "boots on ground" type of work. Excellent introduction to real estate investing and property management. No experience necessary as training will be provided. 

Common Tasks include:

• Schedule and perform property inspections/walk throughs
• Enter rent checks into AppFolio, make bank deposits
• Recruit, communicate with, and organize contractors and vendors
• Organization of keys/key box at office
• Set up/remove lockboxes, for rent signs, new tenant welcome packets, post tenant notices
• File evictions and attend hearings
• Organize and drive vacant unit turnovers
• Check PO Box weekly
• Review & confirm receipt of vendor invoices; follow up with vendors as needed
• Manage physical office (keep up with office supply stock, etc)
• Update/organize information in Appfolio property, tenant, and owner files

Necessary/Preferred Skill Set:

• Organized, positive attitude, reliable, detail-oriented, problem-solving
• Must have basic computer skills and be comfortable and quick to learn new technology and software (we use Appfolio, Tenant Turner, zinspector, and more)
• Must be friendly with appropriate social and communication skills (will be regularly communicating with contractors, tenants, and possibly owners)
  
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  Intro hourly pay with mileage reimbursement provided. Message me here on BiggerPockets for more information. 

@Ben Zimmerman and @Theresa Harris both made great points above: cash flow can only be determined after calculating and deducting ALL expenses, not just the mortgage (including insurance (hazard & flood), taxes, vacancy estimates, maintenance/repairs, and more. Ben made some good points as well that these types of properties typical deal with higher maintenance rates and property management can be an issue. None of this means that this is necessarily a bad deal; it just means that all factors need to be considered in your decision. Good luck!

@Genevieve Anderson My background is in property & casualty insurance and I found the same thing--I couldn't find a company willing to write an umbrella over properties in both Louisiana & NC. Typically the company who writes your personal auto insurance will be willing to write a personal umbrella policy for you, which will go over your auto and any properties under your personal name. Unfortunately since your long term rental is titled under an LLC, it would not be covered under a personal umbrella policy. You can get a commercial umbrella policy, which I believe can cover personal properties as well (you would list both the LLC & yourself as named insureds), but that'll probably be more expensive than a personal umbrella policy. Then obviously you would need a separate umbrella over the PA property. Hope that helps.

Talk to a lawyer and your agent, but it may make more sense just to max out the coverage on your existing policies. Insurance after all is just about risk management which you can analyze to determine how much coverage you really need (i.e. do you have a lot of other assets/wealth someone could come after in a lawsuit? etc). 

Welcome @Lentrick Holloway! I have rentals and a property management company in Baton Rouge--it can be a great place to invest. Be sure to check out the local investor networking groups too. I learned a ton between those and BiggerPockets. Best of luck getting started!

Also just connected the dots and realized we've met before! Happy to chat with you about options or just the market in general. The # listed is my cell so feel free to reach out.

Hi Lucas! I own a property management company here in Baton Rouge, so I may be able to help in terms of offering a better management option. You're welcome to reach out to discuss (contact info is in my signature below). Whether you consider my management company or not, finding a better property management solution would cost you way less in the long term vs. giving up equity to a partner, especially with such a low interest rate. Management issues alone are not enough of a reason to take on a partner in my opinion since this can be solved with outside resources. Are there other reasons you're considering a partnership? If not, avoiding a partner and sticking with even mediocre management will pay off in the long run since you'll keep 100% of the appreciation and equity you're gaining year over year. Just my two cents!

Hey Mark, I have rental properties and a property management company here in Baton Rouge. I bought one (relatively new) house that already had a mini split system installed. It's great in theory and others may have had a good experience with it, but I would never choose to install it in this market. Mostly because despite the plethora of HVAC companies in the area, none of them actually know what they're doing with a mini split system. We've had some minor issues here and there and have gone through a ton of HVAC companies because they're just not experts with them like they are with central AC. Plus, one of the biggest draws is the potential energy savings, which you typically don't even benefit from as a landlord if the tenant's paying the power bill. In my experience, it's a good option until you have an issue.

Depending on the neighborhood, we have a few properties in the BR area that have gotten away with window units, but in the price range you mentioned ($1500-1600), I think tenants here would expect central HVAC. If for no other reason than for liability purposes, you do need to have a heat option. We've already had a couple hard freeze warnings that can open you up to safety issues for tenants left without heat. Like Bill said above, it doesn't cost anything to get a quote to put in central HVAC and weigh your options.

Just my two cents...hope that helps!

If you still haven't found anyone, talk to @Cory J Thornton! Great PM in Raleigh.

@Ahmed Tazi @Cory J Thornton with Raynor really knows his stuff.

I'm in Baton Rouge and I'm guessing this unit is in Live Oak Circle Condominiums. I own a couple duplexes down the street on Southpark that are not a part of the condo association. If I'm right, I highly recommend you do some research on the condo association and have an agent run comps for you. A quick search on the MLS shows 5 units in this specific association sold in 2022-23 at an average price of $83k (although 3 of the 5 sold for less than $80k), so it doesn't sound like a particularly great deal, especially considering the issues that come along with condo associations already. I really like the location and he's right that you can probably rent it easily, so if your #s work, it's not a particularly bad deal either if you know what you're getting into. I just wanted you to know that it sounds like you're paying retail price (or maybe even a bit higher).

Same advice applies even if I'm wrong about the location--research the association and have an agent run comps. Hope that helps!