All Forum Posts by: Viral Mehta

Hello, I currently live in California and have been successfully managing my multiple properties in the Frisco (Texas) area for the last 3 years. I plan to move back to India soon and was wondering if at all it would be possible to remotely manage my properties from India (12 hour time difference makes real time communication a lot harder). I would prefer to self manage to avoid the high poperty management fees (I think its around 10% + 1 month leasing fee, etc.) and I also worry that the property manager will likely not be as dilligent in finding high quality affordable vendors, etc.

I see 4 major pieces of work
1) Tenant finding: I feel comfortable doing this remotely. I list on Zillow, primarily communicate with them over Zillow messages and then give our remote login code to enter the home.
2) Maintenance between tenants - This one will be tricky as I will have to transfer all utilities to my name and send multiple vendors to the house for getting the house rent ready. Both of this will likely require real time conversations which will be difficult from India
3) Maintenance when tenants are staying - I feel less worried about this as I can have the tenant coordinate with my chosen vendor (that I already have or can potentially find from India by talking to them on phone at night time in India / morning in the US). I can pre-authorize an amount and if the expense is below that, the vendor can do the repairs without talking to me live
4) Urgent maintenance issues - say a pipe breaks, or tenant is locked out. I am not sure how to handle this - can I give them contacts of a plumber and say a locksmith and have them reach out to them and address the urgent issue. I will later reimburse the tenant?

Am I thinking about this the right way? Am i missing anything big? Has anyone self-managed their properties from an international location that would be willing to share their learnings with me?

If I do go the property management route - can i get a limited service option (say in which I find the tenant, collect rent, handle most maitnenance issues) and they primarily are liasoning with my vendors during US business hours and handle any urgent maintenance issues?

Thank you for all your suggestions - I have learned a lot from this forum and all the advice has been invaluable in me having the confidence to remotely buy and self manage my properties thus far.

Hello, I currently live in California and have been successfully managing my multiple properties in the Frisco (Texas) area for the last 3 years. I plan to move back to India soon and was wondering if at all it would be possible to remotely manage my properties from India (12 hour time difference makes real time communication a lot harder). I would prefer to self manage to avoid the high poperty management fees (I think its around 10% + 1 month leasing fee, etc.) and I also worry that the property manager will likely not be as dilligent in finding high quality affordable vendors, etc.

I see 4 major pieces of work
1) Tenant finding: I feel comfortable doing this remotely. I list on Zillow, primarily communicate with them over Zillow messages and then give our remote login code to enter the home. 
2) Maintenance between tenants - This one will be tricky as I will have to transfer all utilities to my name and send multiple vendors to the house for getting the house rent ready. Both of this will likely require real time conversations which will be difficult from India
3) Maintenance when tenants are staying - I feel less worried about this as I can have the tenant coordinate with my chosen vendor (that I already have or can potentially find from India by talking to them on phone at night time in India / morning in the US). I can pre-authorize an amount and if the expense is below that, the vendor can do the repairs without talking to me live
4) Urgent maintenance issues - say a pipe breaks, or tenant is locked out. I am not sure how to handle this - can I give them contacts of a plumber and say a locksmith and have them reach out to them and address the urgent issue. I will later reimburse the tenant?

Am I thinking about this the right way? Am i missing anything big? Has anyone self-managed their properties from an international location that would be willing to share their learnings with me?

If I do go the property management route - can i get a limited service option (say in which I find the tenant, collect rent, handle most maitnenance issues) and they primarily are liasoning with my vendors during US business hours and handle any urgent maintenance issues?

Thank you for all your suggestions - I have learned a lot from this forum and all the advice has been invaluable in me having the confidence to remotely buy and self manage my properties thus far. 

I am looking to buy a franchise and just starting my research on this. Are there some excellent forums for Franchise like Biggerpockets for real estate or boglegeads for Financial advice. Thank you for your help.

I currently own propeties in Texas and will be returining soon to my home country. I am a non-US citizen and recently have been hearing about Canada banning foreigners from buying property and Texas and other US states considering such regulation. Does anyone know if these regulations only apply on a go-forward basis or can congress pass laws that forces existing home owners who are foreigners to sell their property. I know such an occurence is unlikely and a long way out but was just curious. Also any idea if the Canadian ban is on a go-froward basis or do foreigners who already own homes in Canada need to sell. Thank you for all your valuable insights.

Hello,

I am a remote investor and I own 3 investment single family homes in North Dallas (Frisco, Little Elm and Van Alstyne) that i have purchased withing the last 12 months. Compared to the prior year's assessment, the tax assessed values have increased between 30 - 50%.
1) Can you please let me know the names of property tax protest companies that you have used and like in North Dallas.
2) They seem to charge 40% of tax savings - does this sound reasonable?

Also, my home in Van Alstyne has the tax assessed value below my purchase price. However the tax assessed value has increased from $200K in the prior year to $302K this year. Though I paid $305K, is there a chance I can successfully protest the 50%+ increase? 
3) Van Alstyne does not allow remote protesting for non-homestead investors and I cant find tax protest companies that service Grayson county - does this mean I am out of luck? 

Thank you for your help. 

Hello,

I have someone who wants to rent my 3/2 SFR property so that they can then Airbnb it. They will pay me higher than market rent for doing it. Clearly there are a lot of pros and cons of this.

I have one specific question around homeowners insurance. My insurance broker has said that if I allow my tenants to Airbnb, then my standard homeowners insurance will become invalid. He can add short term rental riders to my insurance but that is for me to Airbnb the property -not my tenant. Once I allow a tenant to Airbnb the insurance company has no idea how good my tenant will be at managing this process and hence they do not allow this. I am aware of Airbnb insurance and my tenant would carry some insurance (and add me to it) - but of these will only be applicable if the Airbnb guest causes some issue. 

My problem is I have no way (that I am aware of) to get home owners insurance in this model (say there is fire in my home not caused by the tenant - I want some insurance to cover me in this case). If someone is in a similar situation and has researched about homeowners insurance - I would love to know how you have done this. 

Thank you very much for your help. 

Thanks for your response Marci. Tenant is saying that they would like to post the rental with a move in date of asap (implying they can move out in a week if required). Is this normal or do I need a clean move out date from them. 
The issue is they want to stay as long as a new tenant is found so they dont have to double pay rent - at my home as well as the next home they go to.

Yes, they are okay with my screening process and approval. I still am not sure if i should let them do the tenant finding or just use my broker instead.

Hey guys, 

I have a rental in Dallas and our tenants want to break the lease and move out early. I have communicated to them that I could accomodate their request by listing the house back on the market (for rent) and they would be liable for rent till the time a new tenant moves in as well as the associated marketing costs. 
The tenant is now not sure on their move out date. They want to move out once we find a new tenant so they dont have to pay for days when the house is sitting empty. Also, they want to list the house and find a new tenant. I have a few questions

1) Is it normal to list the house without knowing when the tenants will actually move out. They have commited to moving asap, once we find the new tenant but what if they cant move due to some unforeseen circumstance

2) I am leaning towards listing my house likely using my broker as opposed to having the tenant do the listing and coordination. Would you guys suggest otherwise? 

Thank you for your help. 

Hey Henry,

Thanks for your response. Yes, both policies are the same to the best of my understanding.
Little Elm: Dwelling: $246K, Deductibe: $2.46K, Fair rental value: $49K, Personal liability: $300K
Frisco: Dwelling: $253K, Deductibe: $2.53K, Fair rental value: $50K, Personal liability: $300K

Asumming the 2 policies are indeed the same (its the same insurance broker that got me these) - would it be true that age is the biggest determinator of the insurance cost difference. Have other people seen this as well?

Thank you.

Hello everyone,

I am very curious to learn more about the relationship between home insurance and house age. I have a couple of investment properties in Dallas. One is 2013 built, 2151 sq feet in Little Elm (on the border of Frisco) and the one is 2000 built in Frisco. The insurance cost on the Little Elm (newer) property is $800 annually, whereas the insurance on the Frisco (older property) is $1,800. I am looking to buy one more property and the quote on that one too is around $1,800 and it is built in 2002. 

I was wondering if there was a co-relation between age of the house and a significant price difference in insurance costs. If yes, I might be better off paying an extra $100 / month in mortgage as opposed to insurance as this will get me a nicer house. Please let me know if I am not thinking about this correctly, thank you.