I've been on a cruise boat for the past 5 days, and some things have gotten done. My leasing agent has filled 2 units (1 out of nowhere and not a loser running from a set out) and leased another... Top of the market dollar on 2 of the 3 and pushed the high end on the 3rd...

If you're not using a leasing agent, you're likely leaving money on the table.... in terms of longer turns or lower rents or inferior tenants....

I'm able to leverage THEIR brand, THEIR location, THEIR reviews, THEIR everything.... out of town renters trust their established presence over my hidden presence.... mom and pops look like scammers in the eyes of out of towners... leasing agents are trusted by out of them, and they're willing to pay more money...it's that simple...... The cost is about negligable... I pay 50% of the full 1st month's rent... some markets are 75-100%....

Also they screen out the tire kickers and watch over the strangers entering your house for showings. No agent wants to waste their time with people who can't afford to rent and section 8 types seem to stay away from agents because agents aren't free.

The tenant typically pays for the agent's fee in one of my markets so I use them all of the time for that property. It's nice because they set up the visits via an app. I get to see all the details including feedback if they leave any.

I still find myself having to do a lot of go between the agent and the current tenants. Agents want to show the units anytime they get a lead but the current tenants want to keep it confined to hours when they are not there. I have to step in and negotiate sometimes.

My experience was exactly like JKJ's in a different situation.

A landlord friend of mine recently had his leasing agent approve a convicted rapist for a large multi unit he has and he had to find a way to wiggle out of that one.

My experience was renting out houses for a community organization I volunteered for. They knew I managed houses and asked me to manage the ones on the property for this organization. I said sure, but we are using a realtor (we don't have leasing agents or property managers in this area). I didn't want fingers pointing at me if I made a mistake letting in a bad tenant.

Well, I'm glad they weren't my houses. Every tenant the realtors put in were total garbage who either got evicted, left owing money, or totally trashed the house.

After a few years of that I made a motion to tear the houses down and plant grass. That's what they did.

Doubt I would use one again - I have to give them the first month's rent. They take the first "qualified" applicant. With my 1800's houses, that doesn't always work in my favor as people need to understand, this is a country house, it is old and it has "charm".

There have been 3 occasions where we allowed an Agent to bring a prospect. Despite providing agent with our requirements all brought the same low end applicants all the ones we would hava rejected in the pre screen

I'm sure that there are good property managers out there somewhere. It appears that 22 has found a good one.

My experience was bad and we have had a lot of trouble with rental houses close to ours when they are managed by a property manager.

Hey #22 glad you are having great success with your leasing agent. Hoping your bank account is flowing over! I'm finding the same success, cheers brother!

NOPE! not gonna do it!!!!!!

Although we have a family business with 63 SFH's in the nest-- one reason we culled back from 80 was to keep it a family business. 60 plus or minus a few is just perfect to keep the reins.

J FL yes it is but keep in mind we didn't just get the 63 all at once. As we brought them into the nest we had a plan-- we staggered lease dates - we do prevent maint (I'm a Hugh believer in that). We defer nothing. When tenant leaves the homes are gone through with a fine tooth comb--.

J think of this-- how many things "break" in your well maintained home? I've been trained as an airplane mechanic and have that mindset for our homes. For me-- our team-- my wife my son and our maintenance man-- well we have each others back. That's how we do it.

One trick: we call the 3 W's its stripes of paper stapled together. 8"W by 3" high maybe 10 stapled together. WHAT WHERE WHO with lines for notes after each word. Top right is date/time next line is phone number. When tenant calls in the sheet is filled in. The lower section of the 3W's sheet is for A/C notes or HV notes if Freon was put into a system.

That makes sense myob. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Most investors plans are to grow-- agreed? So with that in mind -- why not ORGANIZE NOW. Here's a classic example from my son years ago. He would laugh that i was buying the Lassiters tax book in Sept-- for the next year. I would tell him you gotta plan a year ahead or know what's coming at ya. You can then plan your expensing. Same thing happened when we switched to quicken and quickbooks. We did a 6 month test running the program to know what and when to enter income and expenses. We didn't just jump into it.