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Renting & Managing the Property
Renting
Following the completion of the project, I achieved remarkable success by leasing all eight units in just over two weeks. I did this by using various marketing platforms to effectively reach our target audience of high-quality professional tenants. The platforms that I use are Furnished Finder, Facebook Marketplace, Google Ads, Roomster and Craigslist. Crafting compelling and engaging listing descriptions plays an important role in attracting the right tenants.
My monthly rental rates for this specific property are set at $899 for seven of the units, with one unit offered at a slightly reduced rate of $849. For detailed pricing information on each unit, you can visit my website at www.stayhobknob.com/riverview.
Additionally, we do a thorough tenant screening process on rental applications for all residents. My screening protocol includes background checks, credit assessments, and income verification. It's crucial to remember that while landlords can establish their own rental criteria, making sure that you are consistent with these standards across all applicants is essential to mitigate the risk of potential discrimination lawsuits.
Managing
I use a specialized property management software that serves as the central hub for communication, rent collection, home-related information such as rules, Wi-Fi credentials, lease management, invoicing, and maintenance request for our residents. This software is not only cost-effective but also has plenty of valuable features. It is pretty simple to self manage 10 to 15 CoLiving units.
Given that approximately 90% of my tenants are professionals, along with my systems I have in place, I typically only experience few major issues within our homes. One recurring issue I encounter is related to residents not washing their dishes. To address this concern I have strategically installed cameras in each kitchen of our properties. I positioned rent drop boxes that are in camera view of the sinks, effectively addressing 2 potential issues with a single solution. The second being that my properties have NEVER been trashed/damaged since I started HobKnob CoLiving in 2017 (I also have exterior cameras all around the buildings and Ring doorbell cameras in everyone of my properties, and the best part about it is that the tenants love the security feeling that the exterior cameras provide).
My overall systems has evolved into a very efficient process, allowing us to interact remotely from start to finish with 25% of our applicants. Three out of eight residents moved into this property when we first completed it, without seeing the home in person. This is made possible by the implementation of smart keyless locks on all exterior and bedroom doors, exterior cameras, and pictures/videos of our properties that are available on our website (we also have videos of each unit/bedroom and a walkthrough video of each property).
Maintenance
As previously mentioned, my property management software offers my tenants the convenience of submitting maintenance requests with varying levels of importance: "Low," "Normal," and "Critical." They have the ability to include pictures and videos to attach to their requests. Our response time correlates to the priority level of the request.
For low-importance requests, we typically address on Mondays, our designated maintenance day for all properties. Normal-importance requests, are reviewed and allocated to resolve either on the following Monday or within 48 hours, depending on the nature of the request. Critical-level requests demand immediate attention, and are prioritized as such. This is crucial, as neglecting critical requests could potentially result in physical harm and may lead to a negligence liability lawsuit.
In addition to my responsive maintenance approach, I adhere to a routine maintenance schedule for each of the properties. Lawn care is attended to every 10 days and landscaping maintenance every 15 to 20 days (this will vary based on your market conditions, weather patterns, and property type). The HVAC systems have their filters replaced every three months, and I schedule two HVAC servicing sessions annually, one in the Spring and another in the Fall. Annual gutter cleaning is also a factor to ensure the overall well-being of the property. As we are CoLiving, we can advertise "No Pets" in our homes, contributing to less CapX expenses overall.
Final Step!
Refinance, Equity & CASHFLOW
The FINAL step is where the magic truly unfolds! I'll show you the process of refinancing the property, leveraging the equity we've added, and ultimately kickstart the cash flow. I will even share with you actual documents from the closing, itself!
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