All Forum Posts by: Yishi Garrard

there's a Tucson MeetUp group for real estate investors. I just joined so I don't have much experience with this particular group. There appears to be a meetup planned for July 28th at 6pm. Link to the group is http://www.meetup.com/Tucson-Real-Estate-Investor-networking-club/?a=wr1_2

My thought is to feel out the tenant the best you can. There are some tenants that will try to squeeze every dollar possible out of their landlord, and if they sense that you are quick to give credit, they will take full advantage of that. Oftentimes, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to just say "no" to their unreasonable requests, and if you stand firm with that, they won't push it much. No need to back up your "no" with a lengthy explanation. Since you've already given some credit to her, just say "I've given you more than a fair amount of compensation for the inconvenience, and I'm making every reasonable effort to resolve the issue, so your patience will be appreciated." or something along those lines. 

Key when dealing with difficult tenants is being able to be firm and sticking to your guns and making it clear that you run the show, not them. 

@Justin Kaye, Tucson as a whole is looking pretty good. Its home ownership rate is below the national average, so that lends itself to a healthy rental market. 

As you mentioned, the UA is the city's largest employer. Our investors who have properties in the UA market have all done very well, for the most part. As such, I think that investing in the UA area is a pretty solid strategy. There are also other rental properties in Central Tucson that produce pretty decent returns. One area to avoid would be downtown rentals, as those prices have appreciated so much in recent years that the cap rates have fallen below the market standard. 

Hi Justin

Welcome to BP, it's a great place and there's a decent Tucson presence. It's great to hear that you're taking the next step from education to action. I work with investors down here in Tucson, and know the area pretty well, so if you want any advice or a starting point for discussions on how to make your move into real estate investing down here, let me know and I'd be happy to chat. Best of luck, and see you around BP!

Send a notice right away, and make sure to charge them the late fee so that they learn the hard way that they need to pay on time. Our late fee policy is $10 per day after the 4th, retroactive to the 1st day of the month. Rent paid on the 5th incurs $50 late fee, 6th is $60, etc. You wouldn't believe how many tenants pay late even with this rule in place, and we end up making quite a bit of money off the late fees every month. 

I happen to own a property management company in Tucson, and we have about 380 units and about 150 owners, so I'm pretty familiar with how the owner disbursements should work. 

It sounds like this PM company is insolvent. There are a ton of small time unlicensed (and some licensed) PMs that don't have any real idea of what they're doing. PM accounting is one of the most difficult and complicated types of bookkeeping out there, and that is one of the number one reasons that you see PM companies fail. Here in Tucson, there was a big PM company that folded last year because it turned out that their accountant or internal bookkeeper or one of the partners had over time stolen several hundred thousand dollars in owner reserves, prepaid rents, tenant security deposits, etc. Lots of owners lost thousands of dollars that they had in owner reserves or prepaid rents that the PM company was holding. 

As far as your situation, I would immediately contact your state's department of real estate, and file a complaint. You should also contact the local Association of Realtors office, if they are members of it, and file a complaint there as well.

possibly. Can you message me with more details. Thanks 

@Verna M.Sounds like you've got quite the first hand experience and knowledge about this. Was living in those areas as dangerous as the media portrays it to be? Would you say that the demographics of those gang neighborhoods are that they consist primarily of regular, non-gang members who just can't afford anything nicer, but the reason those areas become "gang territories" is because of certain gangs that choose to hang out and conduct business there? In other words, not every house and apartment is filled with gang members, rather, a small minority of those inhabitants give the area a bad rep? 

This whole gang neighborhood dynamic has always intrigued me. I have no desire to invest or go anywhere near those areas, but I've always wondered how the true economics of those areas worked on the street level. 

Same here. We've been having a heck of a time finding high cash flowing houses for our investors here in Tucson. Most properties on the MLS here are being listed at a 7.5 cap or below, and not much cash flow, if any.

I don't know how many properties you're managing, but look into property management software like Propertyware or Buildum. My company manages over 300 units, and we use Propertyware. I know some small time landlords that use Propertyware as well.

With PW, we pay $.35 per online payment that we receive from tenants. However, we charge them $2.50 for each payment, so that's a nice extra bit of money we make. PW also does tenant screening for $16.95, including a full credit report with FICO score.

PW is a great tool, and worth every penny.