Women Invest in Real Estate

Hi, friends! We hope you are ready for some of the best tips and strategies we have for managing and ‘training’ your tenants. This week, we’re diving into red flags to watch out for when it comes to new/potential tenants (and inherited tenants!), and sharing with you some of the ways we have ‘trained’ our tenants to shift them onto our property management software and follow basic rental procedures. Let’s dive in!

Red Flags

• Sob story tenants
• Wants to pay multiple months of rent at a time/upfront
• Carries ‘cash in hand’ the day they tour the unit to rent ASAP
• Has no rental history
• Bad credit score (medical bills excluded)
• Someone that just seems ‘off’ on Facebook

While some of these may be case by case, you need to learn to use your best judgement and truly go with your gut. Some of those sob stories may be completely true and someone may have simply had a run of bad luck, but in our experience this is rarely the case in those instances.

(Bonus! If you have a tenant who needs to better their credit store, TenantCloud offers rent recording to help bump credit and this offers both owners and tenants win-win!)

Managing & Training Your Tenants

Training isn’t just for your property management and staff - but can also be used to get tenants all on the same page as well! Here are some of the situations where you can manage and train your tenants:

• Paying rent in person; instead transition them to online payments on TenantCloud or directly deposit to your bank
• Setting tenant communication boundaries
• Creating expectations for maintenance requests
• Outline rules and regulations in your lease (+ enforcing them!)
• Enforce late fees/rent payment due dates (TenantCloud makes this one super easy by automatically applying them to late payments!)
• Once an eviction notice has been posted any and all communication should be in writing
• Stick to your eviction notice policy!

Our final piece of advice this week is to treat your business like a business by creating and sticking to your boundaries!

We will catch you in the next episode!

Resources:

• Use TenantCloud for your REI business
• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
• Leave us a review on Spotify
• Join our private Facebook Community
• Connect with us on Instagram

Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 32 of the WIIRE Podcast! This week we have a special request from one of our followers on Instagram. Melissa writes:

“Hello loving your podcast. I'm new to real estate and we are looking for strictly cash flow to pay for liabilities we have. My husband wants to buy our first investment property with cash, hold, and then later when rates come down, and hopefully, the place appreciates, refinance. I would love a podcast on buying all cash and whether you think that would be okay?”

The short answer, it depends. But what does it depend on?

Well, there are a few factors we would take into consideration before making this decision and in this episode were going to talk about strategies for buying cash, the perks, and the pitfalls of both ways.

What it really comes down to is being able to predict when rates are going to come down. If we could do that, we would be crazy rich. But since we can’t we need to know how to lean into what you know and what you are comfortable with. If you know that you have no debt on a property and you want one cash-flowing rental then that could be a great option. However, if you are looking to scale we would advise against it because you want to keep your capital moving, as quickly as possible in most cases.

So many things can happen to any one given property so consider that. We like to have some diversification in our portfolios. Even if all of your properties are in the same market you can still have a diverse portfolio because you are not relying on one single tenant to pay for everything for you. If you are planning to buy a property then BRRR, or refinance within six months to a year, then we would consider that purchase.

Melissa also mentioned refinancing when the rates come down, but consider this: why not purchase it via financing right now, then refinance again when those rates come down?

“Just because you have a loan on it doesn’t mean you can’t refinance it.”

For us, we're in scale mode; so it's all about the next property. However, Melissa might not be. She might want one and done and that's okay. It’s a really personal decision and there is a lot to consider on both sides.

Thank you SO much, Melissa, for submitting that question. If you have a question you’d like us to feature in an upcoming episode send us a DM on Instagram or reach out via email.

Thanks for tuning in, we’ll catch you in the next episode!

Resources:

• Join our private Facebook Community
• Connect with us on Instagram

Welcome back to episode four of the WIIRE podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the first three steps to getting started in mid-term rentals. We are super excited to dive into this topic because we both got started not too long ago in mid-term rentals ourselves so it’s pretty fresh. The steps we are going to cover can also be found in our free downloadable MTR Starter Guide.

We’ve compiled these three steps because they are the most common questions we get about getting started with mid-term rentals. At least once a week we get questions coming into our inbox with questions such as:

• How to get started
• How to identify a market
• Where to list your property

...plus so many more. So we’ve taken all of these great questions and created this free guide.

Step 1: Identify Your Market

How do you know if your market is good for a mid-term rental?

One of the biggest indicators about midterm rentals is that most of the tenants are traveling nurses. The first indicator is if it has hospitals, nursing homes, or some sort of medical facility in the local area. Also, if it has a medium to large population size is a good indicator as well. While mid-term rentals can work anywhere if you're looking to have more of a steady income with a mid-term rental you're going to want to look in a medium to big-sized city. The exception to this is if you are the only mid-term rental in your area.

The other thing about choosing the right market is that it's really going to help in the way that you might be able to turn your midterm rental into a short-term rental, if the opportunity is there, or maybe if mid-term rentals slowing down. And of course, the bigger the city, the more amenities in that city, the easier that's going to be to keep it occupied. One other identifier is, if the city has a major airport for travelers, including airline employees.

Simply doing your research ahead of time to see if there's a need for mid-term rentals in your area will help you decide if it is a good move for you.

Step 2: Identifying A Location

In this step, you need to look within the city you’ve chosen and see where within the city makes sense. One thing that's going to be different than a long-term rental is you need to have A and B-class neighborhoods because these people are coming from out of town and are trusting you to place them in a safe location. They're not going to be there for that long and are not okay with staying in D and C class areas or buildings that are loud, unsafe, and noisy. It needs to be in a good location, safe, cozy, and comfortable.

Many of these travelers are traveling alone and in our experience, over 50% of them have been females, and they want a safe and quiet neighborhood.

Another indicator of a good location is within 15 to 20 minutes of driving distance of the facility that they're going to be working at, specifically if they are a traveling nurse or medical professional. Many of them work on call and if they are called in they need to be within 15-20 minutes of that facility or hospital. Another perk is if it is close to public transportation if it is in a larger city.

Step 3: List your mid-term rental

The most common question we get: ‘where do you list your midterm rental?’

If we could only list our properties in one place, it would be FurnishedFinder. FurnishedFinder is specifically for mid-term rentals and is a platform that targets traveling nurses as well as a lot of other traveling professionals. On FurnishedFinder, bookings tend to come in around three weeks ahead of time.

The other two websites we have also used are AirBNB and also in city-specific Facebook groups for traveling nurses or even city-specific FurnishedFinder groups.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out our course called MTR Profit Academy, designed to start using midterm rentals as a way to start doubling your cash flow.

Thanks for tuning in, see you next week!

Resources:

• Grab our free downloadable MTR Starter Guide
• Enroll in our MTR Profit Academy
• List your mid-term rental on FurnishedFinder
• List on AirBNB
• Use Tenant Cloud in your biz

Welcome back to another podcast episode! We recently received a great topic request on Instagram to talk about low and no-money-down deals that we’ve each done so this week we are diving into exactly that. In this episode, we will be sharing three examples of deals we’ve done, all real-life examples from our personal portfolios, and we hope they are super helpful and allow you to think outside of the box!

Amelia purchased a single-family home in April 2021 after having found the deal through a local investor she saw working through Facebook Marketplace. But by the time she called him about the deal, it had already sold, so Amelia did a bit of research and found out that the seller owned multiple properties in the area. She reached out to see if he had other properties for sale and offered a package deal for multiple properties. This offer was for a 30-day close on four properties and despite dragging her dad along (kicking and screaming), it was a killer deal. Amelia and her parents partnered 50/50, but none of them had to come out of pocket for money with their creative financing techniques.

Grace also has done her share of creative financing and on her deal wanted to use instant equity that they were buying into. At the time she had one single-family home that was under construction and wanted to buy two duplexes (four units) for $255,000. 20% Down would have been $51,000, which she absolutely did not have at the age of 23 and only one year into her W-2. Even splitting it 50/50 with her partner wasn’t going to work, but Grace was willing to work some creative financing to make it happen. Grace knew the owner of the four units who had had a wholesaler approach him to purchase the units. Grace convinced the seller to let her look at the unsigned contract and told him, in short, that it was basically a piece of crap, and he should sell to her instead. The good news was that the wholesaler had already worked the seller down to his bottom dollar of $255K.

Grace called the bank she had used for a previous deal, which turned her down. She called a second bank, one she had been banking with personally, and spoke with the VP directly, who knew Grace and her background well and was willing to take the chance on her deal of 10% down. Being newly employed at the time and her boyfriend being unemployed, Grace turned to her sister to bring her in as a 3rd partner in the deal. Her sister agreed and this allowed Grace’s portion of the down payment to drop from the original amount of $51K to only $8,500.

The final example were going to share is the first (and only) deal Grace and Amelia have partnered on together. In a previous episode you heard us share that we purchased a property in Amelias hometown from one of her friends parents for only $38,940. Having mentioned to the seller about a year prior her interesting buying, the seller remembered that seed Amelia had planted.

One important thing to note about this deal was that the seller is moving and not taking everything with them, and was moving into an apartment and didn’t need the immediate seller payoff. Amelia and Grace negotiated to pay her one year after closing, so they could fix it up and flip it with no down payment. They planned to do some painting, updated the flooring, and sell it for between $60-70K. During the process, plans changed and they ended up putting a renter into the property, furnished, and with a few other unexpected expenses coming up, they had to do some additional work to refinance the property so Amelia could solely own the property and buy out Grace’s portion.

A few months in, Amelia refinanced with her local bank to purchase Grace’s portion of the property, which appraised at $65K. To buy out Grace’s portion of the property Amelia partnered with her parents because, despite Amelia financing the down payment, her parents adore the property and would like to flip it when the current tenant moves out. All in all, they were under contract for $38,940 and did a wrap mortgage for the financing, and paid her off in full after the 1-year time period.

One final recommendation...

Don't be afraid to wheel and deal with your bank. Some of them will say no, but some of them also might be interested in what you have to offer, especially if they know that you can get the deal done. So the first deal you do, maybe you won't be able to wheel and deal as much. But as you establish that relationship, just ask and make sure you're exploring all of those options.

We hope you liked the breakdown of these deals. As always, if you have any recommendations for future episodes, feel free to DM us on Instagram. We love getting your requests, and we will catch you in the next...

Hi everyone, welcome back to the WIIRE podcast! In this week’s episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast we’re going to talk about the five property management mistakes that you should not make. We’ve each learned some of these the hard way and want to help you avoid them at all costs too!

First and foremost, a reminder...Do as we SAY, not as we DO!

5 Property Management Mistakes

1. Not using a property management software!

Yes, they cost money but hear us out. This investment will not only save you time and energy but will streamline your processes, tenfold. We love TenantCloud and highly recommend checking it out. There are a few key things a property management software should do for your business:

• Allow you to collect deposits, rental payments, fees, etc.
• Submit maintenance requests
• Sign rental agreements/leases
• Communicate with clients
• Bookkeeping (you’ll thank us come tax season!)

2. Not setting (and sticking to) regular business hours

What that means is don't train your tenants to think that you will reply instantly on Saturday and Sunday, or even instantly at all. We are huge proponents of setting business hours so our tenants know when they can reach us and what our rough turnaround for requests is, aside from emergency situations of course.

What does this look like? If you are on your computer at 7:30pm on a Sunday evening and you see a question come in (not an emergency), let it sit until Monday. Then on Monday, respond by letting them know you just received their request from the weekend and add the rest of the response to their request.

Unless you want property management to be an around-the-clock business, set your business hours, and stick to them. (There will be situations that are clearly emergencies or more urgent and this does not apply to those.)

3. Failing to properly onboard a tenant

Onboarding tenants is definitely more work on the front end of a move-in, but it is so beneficial in the long run. Setting ground rules and training your tenants on expectations from the start is going to help save you a lot of headaches down the road. After they sign the lease, provide them with a simple welcome packet. This could include:

• Instructions on submitting maintenance requests
• How to setup utilities (bonus points for adding websites or phone numbers)
• Expectations for property/community

You should also include a move-in checklist where the tenant goes through the property in the first few days, notes anything that is broken/needs repairing/is damaged then turns it in so they are not held responsible for those upon move-out.

4. Not having an Estoppel Agreement in place for inherited tenants.

An estoppel agreement is a fancy way to describe a document that reiterates the terms of a lease for an inherited tenant. It includes anything that might be a verbal agreement between the tenant and the current landlord. With estoppel agreements, we also ask for all outstanding maintenance requests to ensure there are fewer surprises upon purchase of the property.

Key components of an estoppel agreement are:

• How much their deposit was
• What they pay in rent and any fees each month
• Who is responsible for the utilities
• Who lives at the residence
• Any verbal agreements in place between landlord and tenant
• Lease length

5. Last but certainly not least is doing quarterly, biannual, or annual walkthroughs of your units.

This is so important because it gives you a chance to get into your units and make sure they are being properly cared for but also allows you to look at general maintenance that needs done to keep the property in top shape and not degrade over time (looking at faucets for water leaks, checking for mold, pests, etc.). It will allow you to stay aware of any issues that may arise or what to expect when a tenant moves out and how much work you could expect to have to turn that unit over.

Avoiding these 5 things is simply about being a proactive landlord, rather than a reactive landlord. We too are guilty of (likely) all of these, and like everything in business, there is always room for improvement.

See you next week!

Resources:

• Check out TenantCloud