The 3 pros of Self-Managing
Together @Amelia McGee and I self-manage 60+ units and have a wealth of experience in landlording. We believe learning how to be a self-managing landlord will be instrumental in starting and scaling your real estate investing portfolio. We have found the biggest benefits of self-managing our rental properties to be:
- 1) Exponentially Higher Cash Flow
- 2) Higher Quality tenants and therefore rentals
- 3) More time freedom from your optimally performing portfolio
Are you self-managing or using a property manager for your rental properties? Please share some of your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a self-managing landlord, and Amelia and I will be here to connect and help think of ways to self-manage efficiently!Want to learn more about self-managing? We have the book for you!
We are extremely proud to launch our book The Self-Managing Landlord and it's officially out!
What tools do you use/recomment for
1 - finding tenants (screening, renting, etc)
2 - Managing vendors/work orders
3 - Evicting tenants
4 - Showing the property
1) TenantCloud but there are a lot of great apps that we list in our book
2) TenantCloud again. Or any solid PM software
3) In general I recommend hiring an attorney to get it done RIGHT the first time.
4) You can use Calendly to schedule showing times, or TenantTurner can also coordinate showing times without you being there.
Quote from @Dale K Poyser:
What tools do you use/recomment for
1 - finding tenants (screening, renting, etc)
2 - Managing vendors/work orders
3 - Evicting tenants
4 - Showing the property
Thanks for the reply, how easy it that to do when you are an out of state investor? The showings and such? Do you leverage your handy man or some other "boots on the ground" person. Or do you use a combination of something like a ring camera and schlage lock?
This is definitely intriguing to me, my two points of contention are showing the property and managing work orders.
I took over the management of our portfolio (now 9 doors) and it’s the best decision we ever made. I get to screen for the most qualified (and nicest) tenants and it makes my job easy and enjoyable. We leverage our Realtor and/or handyman (for a set fee) to open doors we own out of state and they also will complete the move-out inspection for us. We use the tenant’s move-in inspection as a punch list to either fix now, or when they move out. Recently, I started a boots-on-the-ground business where we live in Dothan, AL to help remote investors more easily self-manage their properties here in the Wiregrass area. I’ll be able to do all the things we, as OOS investors, always look for when we have turnover or maintenance issues. I’m so glad you wrote a book about how to self-manage! I think tenants get better quality housing and investors get better returns. (We also invest in Tucson!)
@Grace Gudenkauf I self manage 25 doors and growing. I recently retired from my full time job to focus on real estate. I do still fill in part time as needed at this prior job.
The biggest headache I have right now is having prospective tenants not show up to their showings that have been scheduled where I end up going to the property and sitting and waiting for 30-45 minutes.
It has been suggested to call these people 1hr prior to the showing time to verify they still plan to come.
Do you have any other suggestions for this problem?
Quote from @Alecia Loveless:
@Grace Gudenkauf I self manage 25 doors and growing. I recently retired from my full time job to focus on real estate. I do still fill in part time as needed at this prior job.
The biggest headache I have right now is having prospective tenants not show up to their showings that have been scheduled where I end up going to the property and sitting and waiting for 30-45 minutes.
It has been suggested to call these people 1hr prior to the showing time to verify they still plan to come.
Do you have any other suggestions for this problem?
I know this question was directed at Grace, but I can offer my .02 on this. Most PM companies do self showings. THe prospective tenant provides their driver's license and other info and you can give them a code (if you have a smart lock w/ Wifi) that they can use and you can change afterwards. This is actually very common and something you might want to look into.
Quote from @Alecia Loveless:We require them to show up at our office, then we travel to the showing. It requires a little more time on their part, but it saves time for us. If they don't show up, we just keep on keepin' on.
The biggest headache I have right now is having prospective tenants not show up to their showings that have been scheduled where I end up going to the property and sitting and waiting for 30-45 minutes.It has been suggested to call these people 1hr prior to the showing time to verify they still plan to come.
Do you have any other suggestions for this problem?
As a private Landlord with no office, it's probably best to call them 30-60 minutes prior and confirm their intent to show.
Another trick is to set showing times or have an open house. You sit in the property for a couple hours and show as many people as possible. This cuts down on the back-and-forth driving, which can eat up a lot of time. Bring a book!
Quote from @Niki Simons:
I want to renovate my house flooring in San Jose. Is it true that hardwood floors add to the value of my house?
Yes vs carpet. But I would recommend luxury vinyl plank (SPC - stone composite) with a high wear layer, or wood look ceramic tile. Hardwood flooring is expensive and scratches easily.