February 18, 2025 • 39 mins
Should you hire a property manager for your rental properties? My answer is yes! There are so many benefits of having a property manager versus managing the rentals yourself.
In this episode I go over:
- What is a property manager?
- The legalities of managing your own property
- Property Management fees
- The benefits of hiring a property manager
- How to find a good property manager
- Story of when I dealt with a tenant, that reinforced my decision to hire a property manager.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Violeta (00:00):
I will always have a property manager.
There's so many benefits tohiring a property manager for
your rental properties and a fewweeks ago, I got a taste of
what it would be to manage myown properties and let me tell
you no, me gusto para nada.
Hola, mi gente, welcome to theMoney Chisme Podcast, where we
(00:25):
spill the real chisme onbuilding wealth without the
bullshit.
Whether you're trying to invest, grow that side, hustle finally
, get your money right or, myfavorite, buy rental properties,
you're in the right place.
I'm your host, violeta, afirst-gen Mexican immigrant,
real estate investor,entrepreneur and your financial
(00:48):
hype woman.
Get ready for tips, tricks andexpert advice straight from
nuestra comunidad, porque eldinero es power and we're here
to claim it.
Don't forget.
You can always find helpfulresources down in the show notes
and in descriptions, so makesure you check that out.
Hola, hola, welcome to anotherepisode of the money chisme
(01:11):
podcast.
Esta semana, I want to talkabout the benefits of having a
property manager, why I chooseto have one.
I know a lot of people.
When they get into real estateinvesting, they want to manage
the properties themselves, butfor me, like having a property
manager is so beneficial, and Iwant to share a story of a few
(01:36):
weeks ago that I got a taste ofwhat it would be like to manage
my own properties, and let metell you it was not the vibe.
No, me gusto para nada.
It was stressful and you know,I was so glad that I have a
property manager.
So I'm gonna tell y'all thatstory.
Pero primero, I want to talkabout you know why you should
(01:59):
have a property manager?
First up, what is a propertymanager?
A property manager can be alien, it could be a single person,
or it could be an actual companythat is going to handle all the
day-to-day and stuff for yourrental property.
(02:19):
Uh, they're going to be theones that go out there and look
for a tenant, they screen thetenant, they handle all anything
that any tenant concerns uh,anything to do with the property
, like maintenance, repairs andall that stuff, and so they're
doing all those mundane tasksthat, um, you don't want to
(02:43):
really handle yourself,especially me, and they will
charge you a small fee, and so,depending on the property
manager or company that's goingto determine the fees, each one
has a certain type of fees, butusually they will charge you a
(03:03):
monthly fee between around eightto ten percent of the monthly
rental income.
Now there's other fees thatthey can charge.
For example, with my propertymanagement company, they cobran
about four hundred dollars tocreate a lease for the tenant.
(03:25):
So when they get a tenant there, they charge me an upfront flat
fee of $400 and that is goingto cover their their cost to
find the tenant, screen thetenant, the application fee and
well, not the application feebecause the tenant pays that,
but you know all all theirexpenses for getting a tenant in
(03:47):
there.
And then after that they justcharged me the 8% monthly.
And the other fee that theycharged me is another $400 in
case um of eviction.
So if I have to evict somebody,which I did have to do that I
believe it was last year theycharged me $400 and they handle
(04:08):
everything.
You know I don't have to doanything.
They go to do the stuff withthe court and of course,
additional court fees um applyUh, but they handle everything
getting the, you know notifyingthe tenant, getting the tenant
out of there and you know doingall the whole court process and
everything like that.
And so it was pretty smooth uheviction process.
(04:33):
When I did have to evictsomebody, uh, they took care of
everything, and so you mighthear all these fees and, uh,
might be tempted to like savethat money, because that's
really.
You know, one of the reasonsthat a lot of people want to
(04:53):
manage their own rental propertyis because no quieren pagar the
.
They don't want to pay for the8 to 10% a month of rental
income or the $400 upfront.
But there are a lot of benefitsfor hiring a property manager.
That makes it more than worthit of paying that fee.
(05:15):
One of the benefits is that forthe experience and all their
resources.
So, as a new real estateinvestor, you don't know what,
you know the legalities ofeverything, making sure that
(05:38):
when I'm screening tenants, I'mdoing it the right way, legal
way.
The fees that I charge them arewithin the legal limits.
You know raising rent and allthat stuff that you know is all
covered with an experiencedproperty manager, and you know
(05:59):
they've been, especially ifthey've been doing it for a long
time.
That's one of the things youwant to look at and I'll get
into, like, what kind of how tofind a good property manager in
a minute.
But that is one of the thingsthat you're paying with that fee
is the experience of themmanaging properties, um,
managing tenants.
(06:19):
They know the drill, they knowthe, the legal stuff for that
city and state and all thatstuff.
They know how to work thesystem, so, like, if they need
to evict somebody like how I didI would have had no clue of
where to start, what to do, thatI had to notify them and wait a
certain amount of days and thenstart the court process or
(06:41):
whatever it is right.
They know all that stuff.
They know the legal stuff.
And then they know the tenantstuff, how to address issues.
They know, uh, the types oftenants that, um, you have to
deal with in the area that I'minvesting in, where I have my
rental property.
They know how to deal with allthat.
(07:02):
And now, even more, um, theyknow how to deal with all that.
And now, even more, um, thatone of my properties that I just
bought is section 8 housing.
I don't know anything aboutsection 8 housing and there's
some legalities with that aswell and how to deal with
section 8 tenants.
Because you know, sometimes, um, the rent is paid in full by
the government, sometimes it's'snot, blah, blah, blah, and so
(07:25):
all of that stuff is handled bythe property manager and that
just takes off.
So much stress and worry andjust like the mental workload of
having to do that Like I ammore than happy to pay the 8%.
I mean I like I get charged 8%a month and so with having the
(07:49):
property manager, like I'm ableto like rest easy and know that
my property is being managed bysomeone that's experienced, that
knows all the stuff of of howto manage a property.
Cause I don't know, even thoughI've been doing it for 10 years
, I've always had a propertymanager and it's just a lot.
(08:11):
It's just a lot to learn.
I just don't have the time andthat's one of the other benefits
of having a property manager isthe time of it.
Like I am in the military so Ihave to do all that stuff with
(08:31):
the military of the career, ofthe trainings, of doing that job
and inspections and all thatstuff.
So that's already mental workfor me.
And then I get home and I havemy daughter and my husband and
then, of course, I do Money,cheesemade, the podcast and
everything like that.
So I have, like so many thingsthat I'm doing I'm in the middle
(08:54):
of.
In four, four and a half monthsI'm moving, I'm getting out the
military, going over to thereserves.
So, like I have a lot to do, soI can't imagine to have to
manage and think about myproperties.
Right now I have six units,that's six tenants.
That's a lot, that's a lot thatthey're going to like call me,
(09:17):
figure out maintenance stuff.
Like that is time, and so howmuch is your time worth?
And I had this conversation inan interview that that I went on
somebody's podcast that willcome out later, but that was one
(09:37):
of the things we talked aboutbecause I know they wanted to,
kind of they were thinking ofmanaging the property themselves
and I'm like, well, you have abusiness and your husband I
think I'm not sure if he did ornot, or you know, I was like,
and you make way more money inone hour and that eight to 10%,
(09:58):
like, for example, with mine, um, monthly it is about one,
probably 145, 145 a month to payfor this property manager.
And on average and I I Googledthis right Cause I was like you
know how, how?
How much time do you on averagespend managing a rental
(10:22):
property?
And so, on average, a personthat's managing their own
property is going to spend aboutfour hours a month.
So 145 divided by the fourgives you $36 an hour, and so
just by that myself, like, Imake more than that.
(10:43):
So if I wasted an hour tomanage this property myself, I'm
losing money.
Uh, because that hour I couldspend um at work or, you know,
with money, cheese, mail orwhatever.
And in this case, um, my friendKay we're talking about if she
wanted a manager or not I waslike, look, you coach people,
(11:10):
you do your business and helppeople and all this stuff.
Like, you make way more thanthat and you're going to lose
money if you use that time tomanage your property, versus
then over here in your business,that makes you way more money.
So like, um, the point ofhaving uh an investment property
(11:32):
is to make money, not losemoney.
So, uh, the time itself is afactor as well of that um, of
that price, of that fee that youpay for a property manager.
So don't think of it of like,oh man, I'm I'm losing 145
dollars per uh per month for aproperty manager, where I could
(11:55):
save that money uh in inmanaging the property myself.
But like, don't think about thetime factor, because time is
money as well and even if, let'ssay, even if you just work and
it's like, okay, whatever, whatis the time with your family to
(12:18):
be able to go to a spa, go get amassage, go work out or
whatever?
What is that value to yourself?
Because you don't want to, likeaqui and I'll get to the story
in a minute, because this iswhat happened to me that you're
over here enjoying time playingwith your kids and then te llama
(12:39):
, a tenant with an issue, right,and now you gotta stop what
you're doing with your kid tohandle this tenant issue.
It's like, what is that worthto you?
Is that $145 a month?
Um, so important, moreimportant than you know.
Making sure that in the evening, when you're, you know, giving
(13:01):
the, your kids, a bath, orplaying with them, or whatever,
or just spending time with yourhusband or just yourself, if you
, if you don't have a family,like being able to just enjoy
your uh, your favorite show, orwhatever.
Like, what is that worth?
And for me, I'm more than happyto pay that one.
45 for the peace of mind, for,uh, my time, like I'm always
(13:29):
going to pay that.
And so a lot of people, whenthey get started, they want to
manage these properties, and Iknow a few.
In matter of fact I'm in likeum, this group where it's uh
real estate investing, uhmilitary women, and one of them,
like she's managing themselvesand she's to the point to where
she's just gonna.
She wants to just like sell allher properties because she's
(13:52):
overwhelmed.
And I'm like, just get aproperty manager, like you're
going to lose cashflow because,uh, you don't want to get a
property manager and that's theother thing.
You're're seeing the, the 145,as a loss, but you're still
getting money.
So maybe instead of 400, you'reonly getting, you know, like um
(14:16):
, three, 300 or whatever,depending what.
How much they charge you on thefee is like you're still making
money monthly and on top of that, that fee gets deducted when
you go do your taxes, so ithelps bring down the, your tax
liability.
So that fee is still, you know,putting in work for you, uh,
(14:39):
not just helping you save timeand making sure that you have
somebody that knows all thelegalities, the experience and
you get their resources.
For example, with mine, when Ihad my section, when I took over
the Section 8 property, again,como dije, I didn't know
anything about Section 8.
(15:00):
So, but they have a section inthis management property.
They have, you know, two peoplethat that's all they do.
They know how to deal with theSection 8 housing authority, how
to do everything and everythinglike that.
Because when I took thisproperty over, it was a little
bit complicated because therewas a little hiccup which I'll
(15:22):
get into.
You know, I keep saying I'llget into in a minute, but I
don't want to to, like you know,uh, get lost in the sauce and
then forget to tell you aboutthis stuff, and so you're,
you're getting those resources.
Uh, they have their maintenancepeople.
They know how to findcontractors and vet them and
(15:43):
everything like that.
Um, they have, like, thelawyers and stuff like that.
So, like, for my eight percent,that 145 a month, mine goes
such a long way, such a long waythat I'm more than happy to pay
that.
And so that brings me into thenext thing is like, how do you
(16:06):
find a good property manager?
Because, uh, I know how it isto find a bad property manager.
Uh, like when I first, with myfirst rental property, my first
house that I turned into arental, that property manager
was not very good and you know,I was inexperienced.
(16:28):
Yo no sabía.
Like you know, this propertymanager was actually an old
supervisor of mine.
And when I was going to leaveVirginia for Texas, I didn't
know what I was going to do withthe house.
I didn't know if to sell it orwhat, or, and you know these.
He told me, like me, like hey,just make it a rental.
(16:49):
I'm a property manager, that'swhat I'm getting into.
And, to be fair, he was juststarting out to be a property
manager, like I think he maybehad been doing it for like maybe
two years or something likethat at that point.
But yo no sabia.
You know, I didn't know.
And then I didn't know anythingeither.
And of course, I also trustedhim because he was a supervisor
(17:13):
of mine and he was a pretty goodsupervisor.
Right, he was a little bit laidback because he was about to
retire from the military, so,but you know, couldn't fault him
for that.
Like even me right now that I'mgetting out, I'm just chilling
at work and um, but yeah, hetold me he charged me 10% and he
(17:33):
was going to handle theproperty for me.
And the thing with, uh, when youfind out that something isn't
good, is that sometimes, likeyou know, something has to
happen for you to figure outthat that's not a good property
manager because at the beginningit was smooth sailing, right,
(17:53):
he got somebody in there and itwas easy peasy, uh.
But there's a few things that,in hindsight, I should have
looked for and made sure that hewas doing and um.
So, with that, whenever you arelooking for a property manager,
like I said, he had only beendoing it for like a year or two.
He was starting now, which,okay, whatever, um, but he was
(18:18):
inexperienced, right.
So when you're looking for aproperty manager, check how long
they've been um in the industry, right, how long they've been
in a property as a propertymanager.
How many properties do theymanage?
Because you want to make surethat they're not over stretching
(18:42):
themselves, like if it's justone person and they're managing
like 20 properties with no team,um, that that's going to be
difficult to do, like, um,things are going to fall through
the cracks and you know it'sgoing to um, not be good for you
.
So you want to make sure thatyour property manager is
experienced, that, uh, they arenot over, don't have way too
(19:05):
many properties for themselves,that they have a team, they have
over a certain amount orwhatever.
Look at reviews, especiallyfrom the tenants, because the
last thing you want to do ishire a property manager that has
a bad reputation and the tenantdoesn't treat tenants well, and
(19:25):
then you're going to losetenants and you're going to have
a high turnover rate, and youdon't want that.
You want to try to keep yourtenants long-term and keep them
happy and, um, make sure thatthey're taken care of, because,
um, that's important to me too.
It's like, yeah, I want to makemoney, um, with real estate,
but I don't want to, you know,take advantage of people and
(19:47):
just be like a slumlord, right?
I want to have a good balance.
So whenever I interviewed thisproperty management, I asked
them, like you know, how didthey handle tenants?
Um, you know how often did theyraise rents and they go off of
they?
They raise rents at certainrates, but they also go off of.
(20:08):
Like, for example, with me, Itold them not to raise rents
last year because they weregoing to raise rents.
They send an email out like,hey, we're planning to raise by.
I forgot what the percentagewas.
It was a small percentage, sothat's another good thing.
They don't raise like by a hugepercent, but they were just.
I think they just stay on trackwith inflation, um, but they
(20:30):
also asked the property owners,like for feedback, like, do you
want to raise rents, yes or no?
And I said no cause at thattime I was good, right, and so
that's what I want they a goodrelationship.
Um, how often do they uh relayinformation for you?
What does it include?
So with my property management,they do again.
(20:51):
They find the tenant, theyscreen the tenant, they do the
evictions, they handle basicallyA to Z with the property.
Like I don't have to doanything, I don't even have to
do the bookkeeping, like thatwas another thing with the other
property manager.
He didn't do proper bookkeeping.
I never knew, like you know,like if a maintenance thing
(21:12):
happened or whatever, uh, hewould tell me like eventually,
uh, for big ticket items, whichis kind of the norm, is that for
anything?
I think mine is like 200dollars, is the threshold,
anything 200 and below theydon't have to ask for my
permission, because that'susually like, maybe they need to
(21:34):
come fix a leak, they need toreplace a doorknob or whatever.
Anything above that is biggermaintenance things that they
want to get approval from me,and then that's when they had to
get a contractor or whatever.
So, um, make sure that that?
What kind of process is that?
What's the threshold?
Is it $200, $300?
(21:56):
Of where they have to ask forapproval?
You know how do they handlemaintenance.
How do they find theircontractors?
Uh, how fast are they good atmaintenance?
Uh, with mine they're prettyquick.
As soon as a tenant submitssomething, the turnaround is
pretty much 24 hours.
So, unless it's the weekend, ofcourse, unless it's an
(22:18):
emergency right, which would beheat and water type stuff or AC,
those are emergencies.
So how often they do that?
How often do they go check theproperty?
That was one of the things withthat property manager is that
he wouldn't go check my propertyand so there was a few things
(22:38):
that he could have caught thatwould have prevented the damage
to the property.
For example, the deck startedrotting because there was leaves
.
If he would have done hisinspections yearly or twice a
year is a good.
It's a good frequency, I wouldsay, depending, and because you
(22:59):
want to always check um beforethe winter time, so you want to
do your fall check and then umafter winter to kind of see if
anything happened after that gothidden by snow or whatever, and
stuff like that.
So mines does it like twice ayear.
I always get the emailnotification, so very, very the
(23:21):
communication frequency isreally good.
And then just ensuring that yourvalues align, like I said, with
mine, is, yes, I want to makemoney, but also take care of the
tenant, make sure I have safeand affordable housing for them.
So it's like a win-win and sotheir values kind of align with
(23:45):
mine.
And so what other things arethey going to take care of for
you, like evictions, things likethat?
So it's just really ensuringthat you're interviewing them
and make sure that they aregoing to be a good fit for you
and that they do everything thelegal way, right, that, no shady
(24:07):
stuff.
They start kind of like notanswering your questions
straightforward.
They're probably being a littlebit shady and you need to go
somewhere else.
So definitely take your time.
Um to to um, find a goodproperty manager that the
benefits you know outweigh thecosts and stuff like that.
And a quick little plug I do gomore into depth in this with my
(24:32):
rental property bootcamp.
It goes over from A to Z on whatyou need to know to buy your
first rental property.
So if you are interested inbuying a rental property or you
just want to brush up on yourskills.
I do have a rental propertybootcamp.
It's a self-paced course.
It's linked down below and ifyou're not ready for that, I do
(24:56):
have a free guide as well.
That just goes over the sixsteps to get you started and
then later on, if you want totake the course, that's fine too
.
If not, that's cool, but it'sdown in the description.
If interested, all right.
So now let me tell you thechisme of what happened to me a
few weeks ago.
(25:16):
But let me give you thebackground of it first.
I, just like I mentioned alittle bit earlier, I bought a
rental property which is sectioneight housing recently and it
was kind of weird because when Iwas doing all the paperwork,
you know, doing the contract andstuff, it only said that the
(25:39):
top unit was um, was uh,occupied.
But as they, when I closed andwhen they sent me the, the
documentation of, like the leaseof the top tenant and all that
stuff, I ended up getting twoleases and during closing I
actually got the prorated rentsof the top and bottom units.
(26:02):
So the bottom unit wasapparently occupied in the
pictures of the listing in theum uh walkthrough.
When you know when I went to go.
Well, not when I went, but whenmy uh realtor went over there to
show me the property, weactually thought that the bottom
(26:25):
unit was vacant.
Because it was so weird,because there was like, uh, two
air mattresses, one in eachbedroom, but that was it.
Like it was just air mattresson the floor and in the middle
of the dining room was just likea folding table with a few
folding chairs, like the onesthat you get at walmart with a
(26:45):
few cups, but they were all likeset up just like neatly.
Um, and then we looked at the,uh, the listing, and it was
exactly like that.
So I was like, and this listinghad been there for a while, so,
like this stuff has not moved.
And we're like, well, maybe the, the owner was just trying to
kind of like stage or something,I don't know, we were just so
confused.
(27:05):
So, anyways, we closed and Igot the money and everything
like that.
And then we're like, uh, itlooks like the bottom unit is,
you know, rented out.
And you know, yeah, we talkedto the, the previous owner, and
he's like, yeah, the bottom, youknow, has a tenant in it.
And we're thinking that maybehe didn't realize that the
(27:27):
tenant moved out or whatever,because there was nothing, not
even like a couple like water.
There wasn't.
Like trash, you know, like whensomeone lives somewhere, like
there's trash, there's, you know, maybe things, toothbrushes,
whatever.
There was nothing besides thosethings that I said.
So I was like so confused.
So when I gave the property overto my property manager, I let
(27:49):
them them know it's like, hey,you know, I'm not sure if the
bottom unit is rented.
Like I have a lease, I have umprorated rent that I received,
but like I don't know where thistenant is, like it doesn't look
like they live there.
And so they went, did theinspection and they said the
same thing, like they don'tbelieve the tenants actually
(28:10):
living there.
So I don't know, it was a weirdthing.
And we couldn't get in contactwith him because the seller
wasn't giving me their contactinformation.
He was supposed to.
So one thing if you ever take aproperty over with tenants,
make sure you get their contactinformation so you can notify
them of the change and, you know, start that whole process and
(28:34):
collect the rent.
So, yeah, they posted a noticefor like two weeks, I think,
saying that hey, you know, we'regoing to change the locks
because it doesn't seem likesomeone's in there, and this was
back in the beginning ofJanuary, and so they go change
the logs, right, whatever.
So then, all of a sudden I thinkit was like the first week of
(28:59):
February, it was like a Thursdayor something like that I got a
phone call from the tenantdownstairs.
I guess she had gotten my phonenumber from the seller, I don't
know.
Somehow she got my phone number, she called me and she was
stressed out because she wasworried because, again, this is
section 8, housing and she couldlose her, her benefit.
(29:21):
If you know housing, like wetell housing that like she moved
out and didn't say anythingwhatever, because they're
supposed to let housing know ifthey move out, or whatever,
because you know that'sgovernment money, and so I guess
that's what happened.
Maybe she got a phone call, Idon't know how she found out.
Um, because she called me, shewas stressed out, saying that
(29:42):
like she was worried that shewas going to lose her housing
benefits, uh, that she was stillin the tenant and she was a
little annoyed, right, uh,understandably, you know, uh,
again, you know I'm not anasshole.
So I, I heard her side of thestory.
Apparently she has been uhgoing back and forth with um to
(30:04):
I forgot where she said butshe's going out of state to help
take care of her grandpa, orsomething like that.
I forgot what a family memberthat is.
Like.
Um, basically, you know, uh ill, terminally ill, and uh, I
guess she comes back or whatever.
Now I don't believe the fullstory, um, but I think maybe
(30:28):
what happened was like, you know, giving her the benefit of the
doubt is that maybe you knowfamily member got sick and you
know going over there and thenjust ended up staying there long
term but just was going to waittill the end of the lease to
just like then move or whatever,I don't know.
But she did say that she didplan to move at the end of the
(30:50):
lease, but she wanted to makesure that we didn't tell housing
um that she wasn't living there, but cause she was that she had
.
She mentioned the air mattressand I was like, okay, cool, all
right, uh, so she was a littlebit stressed out about that and
this was like Thursday evening.
So then I told her I was like,okay, I'll talk to my property
(31:10):
manager about it and blah, blahnext day.
And, mind you, she was textingme and had called me throughout
that night.
So again, and this is when Iwas, like you know, feeding my
daughter and everything likethat.
So that's why I said I got agood taste of what it would be
like to manage a property bymyself.
And right then, and there I waslike, yeah, I'm so glad I have
(31:34):
a property manager.
Because this was like, um, whenI was trying to take care of my
daughter next day, then I had tospend time emailing and
contacting my property managerand telling them that the story
about this and that whatever.
And they're like, okay, let'syou know, figure it out, they're
like I'm.
I was like they.
They said kind of similar thing.
They're like I don't, you know,figure it out.
They're like I'm.
I was like they.
They said kind of similar thing.
They're like I don't believeshe's living there, but,
(31:56):
whatever, we're gonna do ourpart.
You know she's gonna move outin april anyways.
So let's just like, you know,not do anything crazy.
Let's help her out, we're good,whatever.
And so they, they started totaking care of that because they
needed contact with housing,but she's still freaking out
because she hasn't heard fromthem she, we, you know and I was
(32:18):
like hey, just be patient,because she's calling me like
the.
The next day she called meearly and I'm three hours behind
, so it was early in the morning, it was like 6 am for me, uh, I
guess 9 am for her, but justthat in itself waking me up.
And then then, you know, again,understandably she's stressed
and worried and everything likethat.
But just told her like hey, youknow, we're working on it, just
(32:42):
be patient, give them a fewdays.
I know it's a Friday, but likeyou know, and then again all
weekend, just like texting me,and you know, had to reiterate,
like I'm sorry, but like myproperty management, they're
they don't work on the weekends,right, and neither does housing
.
So you can't really do anythingover the weekend.
(33:03):
You just, uh, she's not in thestate, she's still over there.
Now she did say that she wasplanning to fly down here, like
well, not down here but to overthere, but I don't know if she
was or not.
But you know, either way,monday came around and my
property management team got itfixed and, you know, contact her
(33:26):
, let her know that everything'sgood and so everything is taken
care of.
We're just going to wait forher to move out.
I don't know if she's going toget access to the unit or not.
I think I got to ask myproperty managers on what
they're going to do with that,because then I got to change the
locks again, and that's anotheryou know, money that I have to,
because I had already spentmoney to change the locks the
(33:48):
first time.
But, yeah, it was a stressfulweekend because I was getting
constant texts and phone calls,understandably because she's,
you know, worried.
But that's one of the reasons Ihave a property manager,
because, like, I want to be ableto enjoy my weekend and on top
(34:08):
of that, I can't really doanything because, again, I'm
three hours behind.
So, by the time, you know, Icould probably try to call
during work, but most of thetime, you know, the house
housing's already closed, orthree hours ahead, um, and then
she's calling me early orwhatever.
You know, uh, it's just adifference in time.
Uh, my time itself, um, youknow, having to deal with that
(34:31):
while I was just trying to spendtime with my daughter, my
husband and all that stuff, andjust the stress of it, like of
of dealing with the tenant, like, of course, like I care, but
that's a lot of time all weekendthat I had to, like, you know,
calm her down and, you know, lether know like, look, I do care,
(34:54):
I'm trying to take care of it.
It's just you got to be patientbecause of X, y and Z and so
all those things, and I have six, have six tenants.
So I can imagine like sixpeople calling me and then, as I
grow and buy more properties,then I get like eight and then
like 10 or whatever, and thenhave 10 people that can call me
(35:14):
for issues.
What if I'm trying to be onvacation and I'm in Mexico or
whatever is like, um, thatstress I just rather put it on
somebody else.
So, again, that 8% is worth itfor me.
So, um, if you are thinking ofmanaging your property yourself,
just think about all thesethings, because you might think
(35:37):
and say like you know what, I'mgoing to save myself that fee
and get more cash in my pocket,but in reality it really isn't,
because your time and the mentalworkload and all that stuff is
going to really affect you andeventually some people just like
end up just bailing out of realestate investing, like the girl
(36:00):
that is in my group.
She's really at the end whereshe's just like ready to just
give it up all because she'sstressed of dealing with tenants
and the property and all thatstuff and the bookkeeping itself
, like making sure you'retracking all that stuff and
everything, and you still don'twant to like review the report
(36:22):
that they send you monthly.
But yeah, you don't want to goto that point where you're
tempted to give up the propertyBecause I know firsthand of like
then you'll like kind of regretit later.
It's like man, I could havejust gotten a good property
manager or whatever.
So trying to convince her tojust do that switch, and even if
(36:43):
let's say you do have the timeand you want to do that, um,
always when you're doing yourcalculations for the property
for cashflow, your calculationsfor the property for cashflow
include that in there you know,figure out how much.
Um, well, do like 10% just to belike at the top of the of your
rental income per month and justaccount for that so that later
(37:06):
on if you do decide like youknow what actually this isn't
for me.
I don't want to manage theproperty, I don't want to deal
with the tenants.
Like you do have the extra umfunds.
You already accounted for it atthe beginning that you could go
get a property manager and nothave to, like, sell your
property.
Um, but yeah, that's that's, uh, the crazy thing of.
(37:29):
Of.
That reinforced the idea thatI'm always going to have a
property manager.
So, yeah, hopefully this washelpful.
Let me know if you have anyquestions.
Always remember there'sresources down in the
description.
Um, but yeah, that's it forthis episode and I will see you
in the next one.
Bye.
I will always have a property manager.
There's so many benefits tohiring a property manager for
your rental properties and a fewweeks ago, I got a taste of
what it would be to manage myown properties and let me tell
you no, me gusto para nada.
Hola, mi gente, welcome to theMoney Chisme Podcast, where we
(00:25):
spill the real chisme onbuilding wealth without the
bullshit.
Whether you're trying to invest, grow that side, hustle finally
, get your money right or, myfavorite, buy rental properties,
you're in the right place.
I'm your host, violeta, afirst-gen Mexican immigrant,
real estate investor,entrepreneur and your financial
(00:48):
hype woman.
Get ready for tips, tricks andexpert advice straight from
nuestra comunidad, porque eldinero es power and we're here
to claim it.
Don't forget.
You can always find helpfulresources down in the show notes
and in descriptions, so makesure you check that out.
Hola, hola, welcome to anotherepisode of the money chisme
(01:11):
podcast.
Esta semana, I want to talkabout the benefits of having a
property manager, why I chooseto have one.
I know a lot of people.
When they get into real estateinvesting, they want to manage
the properties themselves, butfor me, like having a property
manager is so beneficial, and Iwant to share a story of a few
(01:36):
weeks ago that I got a taste ofwhat it would be like to manage
my own properties, and let metell you it was not the vibe.
No, me gusto para nada.
It was stressful and you know,I was so glad that I have a
property manager.
So I'm gonna tell y'all thatstory.
Pero primero, I want to talkabout you know why you should
(01:59):
have a property manager?
First up, what is a propertymanager?
A property manager can be alien, it could be a single person,
or it could be an actual companythat is going to handle all the
day-to-day and stuff for yourrental property.
(02:19):
Uh, they're going to be theones that go out there and look
for a tenant, they screen thetenant, they handle all anything
that any tenant concerns uh,anything to do with the property
, like maintenance, repairs andall that stuff, and so they're
doing all those mundane tasksthat, um, you don't want to
(02:43):
really handle yourself,especially me, and they will
charge you a small fee, and so,depending on the property
manager or company that's goingto determine the fees, each one
has a certain type of fees, butusually they will charge you a
(03:03):
monthly fee between around eightto ten percent of the monthly
rental income.
Now there's other fees thatthey can charge.
For example, with my propertymanagement company, they cobran
about four hundred dollars tocreate a lease for the tenant.
(03:25):
So when they get a tenant there, they charge me an upfront flat
fee of $400 and that is goingto cover their their cost to
find the tenant, screen thetenant, the application fee and
well, not the application feebecause the tenant pays that,
but you know all all theirexpenses for getting a tenant in
(03:47):
there.
And then after that they justcharged me the 8% monthly.
And the other fee that theycharged me is another $400 in
case um of eviction.
So if I have to evict somebody,which I did have to do that I
believe it was last year theycharged me $400 and they handle
(04:08):
everything.
You know I don't have to doanything.
They go to do the stuff withthe court and of course,
additional court fees um applyUh, but they handle everything
getting the, you know notifyingthe tenant, getting the tenant
out of there and you know doingall the whole court process and
everything like that.
And so it was pretty smooth uheviction process.
(04:33):
When I did have to evictsomebody, uh, they took care of
everything, and so you mighthear all these fees and, uh,
might be tempted to like savethat money, because that's
really.
You know, one of the reasonsthat a lot of people want to
(04:53):
manage their own rental propertyis because no quieren pagar the
.
They don't want to pay for the8 to 10% a month of rental
income or the $400 upfront.
But there are a lot of benefitsfor hiring a property manager.
That makes it more than worthit of paying that fee.
(05:15):
One of the benefits is that forthe experience and all their
resources.
So, as a new real estateinvestor, you don't know what,
you know the legalities ofeverything, making sure that
(05:38):
when I'm screening tenants, I'mdoing it the right way, legal
way.
The fees that I charge them arewithin the legal limits.
You know raising rent and allthat stuff that you know is all
covered with an experiencedproperty manager, and you know
(05:59):
they've been, especially ifthey've been doing it for a long
time.
That's one of the things youwant to look at and I'll get
into, like, what kind of how tofind a good property manager in
a minute.
But that is one of the thingsthat you're paying with that fee
is the experience of themmanaging properties, um,
managing tenants.
(06:19):
They know the drill, they knowthe, the legal stuff for that
city and state and all thatstuff.
They know how to work thesystem, so, like, if they need
to evict somebody like how I didI would have had no clue of
where to start, what to do, thatI had to notify them and wait a
certain amount of days and thenstart the court process or
(06:41):
whatever it is right.
They know all that stuff.
They know the legal stuff.
And then they know the tenantstuff, how to address issues.
They know, uh, the types oftenants that, um, you have to
deal with in the area that I'minvesting in, where I have my
rental property.
They know how to deal with allthat.
(07:02):
And now, even more, um, theyknow how to deal with all that.
And now, even more, um, thatone of my properties that I just
bought is section 8 housing.
I don't know anything aboutsection 8 housing and there's
some legalities with that aswell and how to deal with
section 8 tenants.
Because you know, sometimes, um, the rent is paid in full by
the government, sometimes it's'snot, blah, blah, blah, and so
(07:25):
all of that stuff is handled bythe property manager and that
just takes off.
So much stress and worry andjust like the mental workload of
having to do that Like I ammore than happy to pay the 8%.
I mean I like I get charged 8%a month and so with having the
(07:49):
property manager, like I'm ableto like rest easy and know that
my property is being managed bysomeone that's experienced, that
knows all the stuff of of howto manage a property.
Cause I don't know, even thoughI've been doing it for 10 years
, I've always had a propertymanager and it's just a lot.
(08:11):
It's just a lot to learn.
I just don't have the time andthat's one of the other benefits
of having a property manager isthe time of it.
Like I am in the military so Ihave to do all that stuff with
(08:31):
the military of the career, ofthe trainings, of doing that job
and inspections and all thatstuff.
So that's already mental workfor me.
And then I get home and I havemy daughter and my husband and
then, of course, I do Money,cheesemade, the podcast and
everything like that.
So I have, like so many thingsthat I'm doing I'm in the middle
(08:54):
of.
In four, four and a half monthsI'm moving, I'm getting out the
military, going over to thereserves.
So, like I have a lot to do, soI can't imagine to have to
manage and think about myproperties.
Right now I have six units,that's six tenants.
That's a lot, that's a lot thatthey're going to like call me,
(09:17):
figure out maintenance stuff.
Like that is time, and so howmuch is your time worth?
And I had this conversation inan interview that that I went on
somebody's podcast that willcome out later, but that was one
(09:37):
of the things we talked aboutbecause I know they wanted to,
kind of they were thinking ofmanaging the property themselves
and I'm like, well, you have abusiness and your husband I
think I'm not sure if he did ornot, or you know, I was like,
and you make way more money inone hour and that eight to 10%,
(09:58):
like, for example, with mine, um, monthly it is about one,
probably 145, 145 a month to payfor this property manager.
And on average and I I Googledthis right Cause I was like you
know how, how?
How much time do you on averagespend managing a rental
(10:22):
property?
And so, on average, a personthat's managing their own
property is going to spend aboutfour hours a month.
So 145 divided by the fourgives you $36 an hour, and so
just by that myself, like, Imake more than that.
(10:43):
So if I wasted an hour tomanage this property myself, I'm
losing money.
Uh, because that hour I couldspend um at work or, you know,
with money, cheese, mail orwhatever.
And in this case, um, my friendKay we're talking about if she
wanted a manager or not I waslike, look, you coach people,
(11:10):
you do your business and helppeople and all this stuff.
Like, you make way more thanthat and you're going to lose
money if you use that time tomanage your property, versus
then over here in your business,that makes you way more money.
So like, um, the point ofhaving uh an investment property
(11:32):
is to make money, not losemoney.
So, uh, the time itself is afactor as well of that um, of
that price, of that fee that youpay for a property manager.
So don't think of it of like,oh man, I'm I'm losing 145
dollars per uh per month for aproperty manager, where I could
(11:55):
save that money uh in inmanaging the property myself.
But like, don't think about thetime factor, because time is
money as well and even if, let'ssay, even if you just work and
it's like, okay, whatever, whatis the time with your family to
(12:18):
be able to go to a spa, go get amassage, go work out or
whatever?
What is that value to yourself?
Because you don't want to, likeaqui and I'll get to the story
in a minute, because this iswhat happened to me that you're
over here enjoying time playingwith your kids and then te llama
(12:39):
, a tenant with an issue, right,and now you gotta stop what
you're doing with your kid tohandle this tenant issue.
It's like, what is that worthto you?
Is that $145 a month?
Um, so important, moreimportant than you know.
Making sure that in the evening, when you're, you know, giving
(13:01):
the, your kids, a bath, orplaying with them, or whatever,
or just spending time with yourhusband or just yourself, if you
, if you don't have a family,like being able to just enjoy
your uh, your favorite show, orwhatever.
Like, what is that worth?
And for me, I'm more than happyto pay that one.
45 for the peace of mind, for,uh, my time, like I'm always
(13:29):
going to pay that.
And so a lot of people, whenthey get started, they want to
manage these properties, and Iknow a few.
In matter of fact I'm in likeum, this group where it's uh
real estate investing, uhmilitary women, and one of them,
like she's managing themselvesand she's to the point to where
she's just gonna.
She wants to just like sell allher properties because she's
(13:52):
overwhelmed.
And I'm like, just get aproperty manager, like you're
going to lose cashflow because,uh, you don't want to get a
property manager and that's theother thing.
You're're seeing the, the 145,as a loss, but you're still
getting money.
So maybe instead of 400, you'reonly getting, you know, like um
(14:16):
, three, 300 or whatever,depending what.
How much they charge you on thefee is like you're still making
money monthly and on top of that, that fee gets deducted when
you go do your taxes, so ithelps bring down the, your tax
liability.
So that fee is still, you know,putting in work for you, uh,
(14:39):
not just helping you save timeand making sure that you have
somebody that knows all thelegalities, the experience and
you get their resources.
For example, with mine, when Ihad my section, when I took over
the Section 8 property, again,como dije, I didn't know
anything about Section 8.
(15:00):
So, but they have a section inthis management property.
They have, you know, two peoplethat that's all they do.
They know how to deal with theSection 8 housing authority, how
to do everything and everythinglike that.
Because when I took thisproperty over, it was a little
bit complicated because therewas a little hiccup which I'll
(15:22):
get into.
You know, I keep saying I'llget into in a minute, but I
don't want to to, like you know,uh, get lost in the sauce and
then forget to tell you aboutthis stuff, and so you're,
you're getting those resources.
Uh, they have their maintenancepeople.
They know how to findcontractors and vet them and
(15:43):
everything like that.
Um, they have, like, thelawyers and stuff like that.
So, like, for my eight percent,that 145 a month, mine goes
such a long way, such a long waythat I'm more than happy to pay
that.
And so that brings me into thenext thing is like, how do you
(16:06):
find a good property manager?
Because, uh, I know how it isto find a bad property manager.
Uh, like when I first, with myfirst rental property, my first
house that I turned into arental, that property manager
was not very good and you know,I was inexperienced.
(16:28):
Yo no sabía.
Like you know, this propertymanager was actually an old
supervisor of mine.
And when I was going to leaveVirginia for Texas, I didn't
know what I was going to do withthe house.
I didn't know if to sell it orwhat, or, and you know these.
He told me, like me, like hey,just make it a rental.
(16:49):
I'm a property manager, that'swhat I'm getting into.
And, to be fair, he was juststarting out to be a property
manager, like I think he maybehad been doing it for like maybe
two years or something likethat at that point.
But yo no sabia.
You know, I didn't know.
And then I didn't know anythingeither.
And of course, I also trustedhim because he was a supervisor
(17:13):
of mine and he was a pretty goodsupervisor.
Right, he was a little bit laidback because he was about to
retire from the military, so,but you know, couldn't fault him
for that.
Like even me right now that I'mgetting out, I'm just chilling
at work and um, but yeah, hetold me he charged me 10% and he
(17:33):
was going to handle theproperty for me.
And the thing with, uh, when youfind out that something isn't
good, is that sometimes, likeyou know, something has to
happen for you to figure outthat that's not a good property
manager because at the beginningit was smooth sailing, right,
(17:53):
he got somebody in there and itwas easy peasy, uh.
But there's a few things that,in hindsight, I should have
looked for and made sure that hewas doing and um.
So, with that, whenever you arelooking for a property manager,
like I said, he had only beendoing it for like a year or two.
He was starting now, which,okay, whatever, um, but he was
(18:18):
inexperienced, right.
So when you're looking for aproperty manager, check how long
they've been um in the industry, right, how long they've been
in a property as a propertymanager.
How many properties do theymanage?
Because you want to make surethat they're not over stretching
(18:42):
themselves, like if it's justone person and they're managing
like 20 properties with no team,um, that that's going to be
difficult to do, like, um,things are going to fall through
the cracks and you know it'sgoing to um, not be good for you
.
So you want to make sure thatyour property manager is
experienced, that, uh, they arenot over, don't have way too
(19:05):
many properties for themselves,that they have a team, they have
over a certain amount orwhatever.
Look at reviews, especiallyfrom the tenants, because the
last thing you want to do ishire a property manager that has
a bad reputation and the tenantdoesn't treat tenants well, and
(19:25):
then you're going to losetenants and you're going to have
a high turnover rate, and youdon't want that.
You want to try to keep yourtenants long-term and keep them
happy and, um, make sure thatthey're taken care of, because,
um, that's important to me too.
It's like, yeah, I want to makemoney, um, with real estate,
but I don't want to, you know,take advantage of people and
(19:47):
just be like a slumlord, right?
I want to have a good balance.
So whenever I interviewed thisproperty management, I asked
them, like you know, how didthey handle tenants?
Um, you know how often did theyraise rents and they go off of
they?
They raise rents at certainrates, but they also go off of.
(20:08):
Like, for example, with me, Itold them not to raise rents
last year because they weregoing to raise rents.
They send an email out like,hey, we're planning to raise by.
I forgot what the percentagewas.
It was a small percentage, sothat's another good thing.
They don't raise like by a hugepercent, but they were just.
I think they just stay on trackwith inflation, um, but they
(20:30):
also asked the property owners,like for feedback, like, do you
want to raise rents, yes or no?
And I said no cause at thattime I was good, right, and so
that's what I want they a goodrelationship.
Um, how often do they uh relayinformation for you?
What does it include?
So with my property management,they do again.
(20:51):
They find the tenant, theyscreen the tenant, they do the
evictions, they handle basicallyA to Z with the property.
Like I don't have to doanything, I don't even have to
do the bookkeeping, like thatwas another thing with the other
property manager.
He didn't do proper bookkeeping.
I never knew, like you know,like if a maintenance thing
(21:12):
happened or whatever, uh, hewould tell me like eventually,
uh, for big ticket items, whichis kind of the norm, is that for
anything?
I think mine is like 200dollars, is the threshold,
anything 200 and below theydon't have to ask for my
permission, because that'susually like, maybe they need to
(21:34):
come fix a leak, they need toreplace a doorknob or whatever.
Anything above that is biggermaintenance things that they
want to get approval from me,and then that's when they had to
get a contractor or whatever.
So, um, make sure that that?
What kind of process is that?
What's the threshold?
Is it $200, $300?
(21:56):
Of where they have to ask forapproval?
You know how do they handlemaintenance.
How do they find theircontractors?
Uh, how fast are they good atmaintenance?
Uh, with mine they're prettyquick.
As soon as a tenant submitssomething, the turnaround is
pretty much 24 hours.
So, unless it's the weekend, ofcourse, unless it's an
(22:18):
emergency right, which would beheat and water type stuff or AC,
those are emergencies.
So how often they do that?
How often do they go check theproperty?
That was one of the things withthat property manager is that
he wouldn't go check my propertyand so there was a few things
(22:38):
that he could have caught thatwould have prevented the damage
to the property.
For example, the deck startedrotting because there was leaves
.
If he would have done hisinspections yearly or twice a
year is a good.
It's a good frequency, I wouldsay, depending, and because you
(22:59):
want to always check um beforethe winter time, so you want to
do your fall check and then umafter winter to kind of see if
anything happened after that gothidden by snow or whatever, and
stuff like that.
So mines does it like twice ayear.
I always get the emailnotification, so very, very the
(23:21):
communication frequency isreally good.
And then just ensuring that yourvalues align, like I said, with
mine, is, yes, I want to makemoney, but also take care of the
tenant, make sure I have safeand affordable housing for them.
So it's like a win-win and sotheir values kind of align with
(23:45):
mine.
And so what other things arethey going to take care of for
you, like evictions, things likethat?
So it's just really ensuringthat you're interviewing them
and make sure that they aregoing to be a good fit for you
and that they do everything thelegal way, right, that, no shady
(24:07):
stuff.
They start kind of like notanswering your questions
straightforward.
They're probably being a littlebit shady and you need to go
somewhere else.
So definitely take your time.
Um to to um, find a goodproperty manager that the
benefits you know outweigh thecosts and stuff like that.
And a quick little plug I do gomore into depth in this with my
(24:32):
rental property bootcamp.
It goes over from A to Z on whatyou need to know to buy your
first rental property.
So if you are interested inbuying a rental property or you
just want to brush up on yourskills.
I do have a rental propertybootcamp.
It's a self-paced course.
It's linked down below and ifyou're not ready for that, I do
(24:56):
have a free guide as well.
That just goes over the sixsteps to get you started and
then later on, if you want totake the course, that's fine too
.
If not, that's cool, but it'sdown in the description.
If interested, all right.
So now let me tell you thechisme of what happened to me a
few weeks ago.
(25:16):
But let me give you thebackground of it first.
I, just like I mentioned alittle bit earlier, I bought a
rental property which is sectioneight housing recently and it
was kind of weird because when Iwas doing all the paperwork,
you know, doing the contract andstuff, it only said that the
(25:39):
top unit was um, was uh,occupied.
But as they, when I closed andwhen they sent me the, the
documentation of, like the leaseof the top tenant and all that
stuff, I ended up getting twoleases and during closing I
actually got the prorated rentsof the top and bottom units.
(26:02):
So the bottom unit wasapparently occupied in the
pictures of the listing in theum uh walkthrough.
When you know when I went to go.
Well, not when I went, but whenmy uh realtor went over there to
show me the property, weactually thought that the bottom
(26:25):
unit was vacant.
Because it was so weird,because there was like, uh, two
air mattresses, one in eachbedroom, but that was it.
Like it was just air mattresson the floor and in the middle
of the dining room was just likea folding table with a few
folding chairs, like the onesthat you get at walmart with a
(26:45):
few cups, but they were all likeset up just like neatly.
Um, and then we looked at the,uh, the listing, and it was
exactly like that.
So I was like, and this listinghad been there for a while, so,
like this stuff has not moved.
And we're like, well, maybe the, the owner was just trying to
kind of like stage or something,I don't know, we were just so
confused.
(27:05):
So, anyways, we closed and Igot the money and everything
like that.
And then we're like, uh, itlooks like the bottom unit is,
you know, rented out.
And you know, yeah, we talkedto the, the previous owner, and
he's like, yeah, the bottom, youknow, has a tenant in it.
And we're thinking that maybehe didn't realize that the
(27:27):
tenant moved out or whatever,because there was nothing, not
even like a couple like water.
There wasn't.
Like trash, you know, like whensomeone lives somewhere, like
there's trash, there's, you know, maybe things, toothbrushes,
whatever.
There was nothing besides thosethings that I said.
So I was like so confused.
So when I gave the property overto my property manager, I let
(27:49):
them them know it's like, hey,you know, I'm not sure if the
bottom unit is rented.
Like I have a lease, I have umprorated rent that I received,
but like I don't know where thistenant is, like it doesn't look
like they live there.
And so they went, did theinspection and they said the
same thing, like they don'tbelieve the tenants actually
(28:10):
living there.
So I don't know, it was a weirdthing.
And we couldn't get in contactwith him because the seller
wasn't giving me their contactinformation.
He was supposed to.
So one thing if you ever take aproperty over with tenants,
make sure you get their contactinformation so you can notify
them of the change and, you know, start that whole process and
(28:34):
collect the rent.
So, yeah, they posted a noticefor like two weeks, I think,
saying that hey, you know, we'regoing to change the locks
because it doesn't seem likesomeone's in there, and this was
back in the beginning ofJanuary, and so they go change
the logs, right, whatever.
So then, all of a sudden I thinkit was like the first week of
(28:59):
February, it was like a Thursdayor something like that I got a
phone call from the tenantdownstairs.
I guess she had gotten my phonenumber from the seller, I don't
know.
Somehow she got my phone number, she called me and she was
stressed out because she wasworried because, again, this is
section 8, housing and she couldlose her, her benefit.
(29:21):
If you know housing, like wetell housing that like she moved
out and didn't say anythingwhatever, because they're
supposed to let housing know ifthey move out, or whatever,
because you know that'sgovernment money, and so I guess
that's what happened.
Maybe she got a phone call, Idon't know how she found out.
Um, because she called me, shewas stressed out, saying that
(29:42):
like she was worried that shewas going to lose her housing
benefits, uh, that she was stillin the tenant and she was a
little annoyed, right, uh,understandably, you know, uh,
again, you know I'm not anasshole.
So I, I heard her side of thestory.
Apparently she has been uhgoing back and forth with um to
(30:04):
I forgot where she said butshe's going out of state to help
take care of her grandpa, orsomething like that.
I forgot what a family memberthat is.
Like.
Um, basically, you know, uh ill, terminally ill, and uh, I
guess she comes back or whatever.
Now I don't believe the fullstory, um, but I think maybe
(30:28):
what happened was like, you know, giving her the benefit of the
doubt is that maybe you knowfamily member got sick and you
know going over there and thenjust ended up staying there long
term but just was going to waittill the end of the lease to
just like then move or whatever,I don't know.
But she did say that she didplan to move at the end of the
(30:50):
lease, but she wanted to makesure that we didn't tell housing
um that she wasn't living there, but cause she was that she had
.
She mentioned the air mattressand I was like, okay, cool, all
right, uh, so she was a littlebit stressed out about that and
this was like Thursday evening.
So then I told her I was like,okay, I'll talk to my property
(31:10):
manager about it and blah, blahnext day.
And, mind you, she was textingme and had called me throughout
that night.
So again, and this is when Iwas, like you know, feeding my
daughter and everything likethat.
So that's why I said I got agood taste of what it would be
like to manage a property bymyself.
And right then, and there I waslike, yeah, I'm so glad I have
(31:34):
a property manager.
Because this was like, um, whenI was trying to take care of my
daughter next day, then I had tospend time emailing and
contacting my property managerand telling them that the story
about this and that whatever.
And they're like, okay, let'syou know, figure it out, they're
like I'm.
I was like they.
They said kind of similar thing.
They're like I don't, you know,figure it out.
They're like I'm.
I was like they.
They said kind of similar thing.
They're like I don't believeshe's living there, but,
(31:56):
whatever, we're gonna do ourpart.
You know she's gonna move outin april anyways.
So let's just like, you know,not do anything crazy.
Let's help her out, we're good,whatever.
And so they, they started totaking care of that because they
needed contact with housing,but she's still freaking out
because she hasn't heard fromthem she, we, you know and I was
(32:18):
like hey, just be patient,because she's calling me like
the.
The next day she called meearly and I'm three hours behind
, so it was early in the morning, it was like 6 am for me, uh, I
guess 9 am for her, but justthat in itself waking me up.
And then then, you know, again,understandably she's stressed
and worried and everything likethat.
But just told her like hey, youknow, we're working on it, just
(32:42):
be patient, give them a fewdays.
I know it's a Friday, but likeyou know, and then again all
weekend, just like texting me,and you know, had to reiterate,
like I'm sorry, but like myproperty management, they're
they don't work on the weekends,right, and neither does housing
.
So you can't really do anythingover the weekend.
(33:03):
You just, uh, she's not in thestate, she's still over there.
Now she did say that she wasplanning to fly down here, like
well, not down here but to overthere, but I don't know if she
was or not.
But you know, either way,monday came around and my
property management team got itfixed and, you know, contact her
(33:26):
, let her know that everything'sgood and so everything is taken
care of.
We're just going to wait forher to move out.
I don't know if she's going toget access to the unit or not.
I think I got to ask myproperty managers on what
they're going to do with that,because then I got to change the
locks again, and that's anotheryou know, money that I have to,
because I had already spentmoney to change the locks the
(33:48):
first time.
But, yeah, it was a stressfulweekend because I was getting
constant texts and phone calls,understandably because she's,
you know, worried.
But that's one of the reasons Ihave a property manager,
because, like, I want to be ableto enjoy my weekend and on top
(34:08):
of that, I can't really doanything because, again, I'm
three hours behind.
So, by the time, you know, Icould probably try to call
during work, but most of thetime, you know, the house
housing's already closed, orthree hours ahead, um, and then
she's calling me early orwhatever.
You know, uh, it's just adifference in time.
Uh, my time itself, um, youknow, having to deal with that
(34:31):
while I was just trying to spendtime with my daughter, my
husband and all that stuff, andjust the stress of it, like of
of dealing with the tenant, like, of course, like I care, but
that's a lot of time all weekendthat I had to, like, you know,
calm her down and, you know, lether know like, look, I do care,
(34:54):
I'm trying to take care of it.
It's just you got to be patientbecause of X, y and Z and so
all those things, and I have six, have six tenants.
So I can imagine like sixpeople calling me and then, as I
grow and buy more properties,then I get like eight and then
like 10 or whatever, and thenhave 10 people that can call me
(35:14):
for issues.
What if I'm trying to be onvacation and I'm in Mexico or
whatever is like, um, thatstress I just rather put it on
somebody else.
So, again, that 8% is worth itfor me.
So, um, if you are thinking ofmanaging your property yourself,
just think about all thesethings, because you might think
(35:37):
and say like you know what, I'mgoing to save myself that fee
and get more cash in my pocket,but in reality it really isn't,
because your time and the mentalworkload and all that stuff is
going to really affect you andeventually some people just like
end up just bailing out of realestate investing, like the girl
(36:00):
that is in my group.
She's really at the end whereshe's just like ready to just
give it up all because she'sstressed of dealing with tenants
and the property and all thatstuff and the bookkeeping itself
, like making sure you'retracking all that stuff and
everything, and you still don'twant to like review the report
(36:22):
that they send you monthly.
But yeah, you don't want to goto that point where you're
tempted to give up the propertyBecause I know firsthand of like
then you'll like kind of regretit later.
It's like man, I could havejust gotten a good property
manager or whatever.
So trying to convince her tojust do that switch, and even if
(36:43):
let's say you do have the timeand you want to do that, um,
always when you're doing yourcalculations for the property
for cashflow, your calculationsfor the property for cashflow
include that in there you know,figure out how much.
Um, well, do like 10% just to belike at the top of the of your
rental income per month and justaccount for that so that later
(37:06):
on if you do decide like youknow what actually this isn't
for me.
I don't want to manage theproperty, I don't want to deal
with the tenants.
Like you do have the extra umfunds.
You already accounted for it atthe beginning that you could go
get a property manager and nothave to, like, sell your
property.
Um, but yeah, that's that's, uh, the crazy thing of.
(37:29):
Of.
That reinforced the idea thatI'm always going to have a
property manager.
So, yeah, hopefully this washelpful.
Let me know if you have anyquestions.
Always remember there'sresources down in the
description.
Um, but yeah, that's it forthis episode and I will see you
in the next one.
Bye.
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