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Proactive Renewals
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Innovative Rental Marketing
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Robust Tenant Screening
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Persistent Rent Collection
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Tracked Property Maintenance
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Intense Financial Reporting
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Consistent Property Inspections
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Pic & Video Validation
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Aggressive Evictions & Pay Plans
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Legal Guidance: LLC, Licenses, Insurance, etc.
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Evaluations, Repairs, Renovations
Have a Question about a specific service we offer or how we exceed expectations?
Please hover or click on the corresponding icon for an overview. Then click on the read more link for even more information.
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Our Commitment to Communication
All calls, emails and texts are copied or referenced at your online portal for reference, to avoid misunderstandings. Every document concerning your properties is scanned and made available on your portal. We are transparent to the extreme.
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Well Defined Processes & Systems
There are so many moving parts to property management that errors are guaranteed, UNLESS there’s a well-defined plan to succeed. So, we’ve methodically analyzed every area of management to design effective and efficient solutions.
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Local Knowledge, Experience & Contacts
Real estate is always local and property management even more so. Those that think they can know every neighborhood, understand local cultures, connect with local city officials and find reliable local contractors – are usually proven wrong.
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We’re ALWAYS Improving our Services
Nothing survives standing still – everything is either growing or dying. Our company culture requires constant growth via our “Plus One” mentality of incremental changes, so we’re always improving the services we provide our clients.
I’ve used Logical for property management services going on one year now. They are responsive and work well as a team.
They were fantastic at helping me get the best prices to rehab my rental unit. Their guidance saved me thousands of dollars in rehab costs. They quickly got a new tenant as soon as the rehab was complete. Thanks!
Very well organized property management company.
Average days on market nationally: the trend continues downward
The rental market in the United States is experiencing significant shifts, and landlords are sitting up and taking notice. Recent data from ShowMojo, based on over 500,000 on-market periods spanning mid-2017 to the present, highlights a concerning trend: the average...
Eviction Horror Story: Episode 3
As property managers with over 25 years of experience, we’ve seen our fair share of tenants who were more trouble than they were worth. But our most recent eviction story stands out as a cautionary tale for every landlord. Let...
Why the Rental Market is Increasingly Tenant-Driven
As technology advances, the rental market has seen a significant shift towards being tenant-driven. Why? Because people want convenience, quick resolution times, and more self-service options. And things like virtual tours, online scheduling for viewings, and online rental applications are...
Proactive Renewals
Our goal is to aggressively & proactively pursue lease renewals to lower tenant turnover, thus improving the investment return for our owner-clients, via less frequent Rent Ready Repair and Vacancy costs.
Here’s a summary outline of how we pursue this goal.
90 Days Prior to Lease Expiration
- Lease Renewal Reminder auto-emailed to all tenants on lease, about 60-Day deadline to submit MoveOut Notice or the 12-month renewal @ 5% increase built into their standard LPM lease will automatically occur.
- Annual Home Evaluation scheduled by our Inspections Department to determine:
- Is tenant housekeeping acceptable, making them eligible for lease renewal?
- If tenant chooses not to renew, is home in acceptable showing condition for marketing?
- Video Timestamp and Scope of Work results shared with owner.
- Market Analysis conducted by our Marketing Department to determine current market rent for home.
- The analysis is shared with Owner & Tenant to establish rent increase parameters
- Rent Negotiation message sent to tenant(s):
“Your current Lease with monthly rent amount of $xxx will end on mm-dd-yyyy. Homes similar to yours are currently renting for $xxx. Please see the attachment that supports this rent amount. Given this higher rent amount, please let us know how much of an increase you think is fair.”- If market rent is NOT higher than standard 5% increase, alternative message sent.
70 Days Prior to Lease Expiration
- Lease Renewal Reminder again auto-emailed to all tenants on lease.
- Rent Negotiation continues with 60-Day deadline in mind.
60 Days Prior to Lease Expiration
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- Renewal Negotiation finalized by this deadline:
- New Rent Amount is updated in our system.
- Renewal Negotiation finalized by this deadline:
OR
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- Pre-MoveOut Process starts to prepare advertising for new tenant with showings the last 30 days of the lease.
The standard LPM lease has an auto-renewal clause that requires either the tenant or landlord to give the other party a 60-Day notice for any changes to the lease, including termination. So, if both owner & tenant do nothing the LPM lease will auto-renew for another 12 months. The standard LPM lease also has a 5% auto-increase clause for each renewal period.
The LPM lease legal structure does not require execution of a new lease upon auto-renewal. However, we do obtain confirmation from a tenant that they agree to the renewal & amount via portal, email, text or recorded phone call. To account for updates to the LPM standard lease, we do our best to have a tenant sign a new lease every two years.
For tenants that want to only renew Month-to-Month (MTM), the standard LPM lease only allows this with a 10% increase and excludes the worst months to have a vacancy, November – February.
Innovative Rental Marketing
We write unique, descriptive rental ads and publish them on 20+ websites. In secure markets we offer cutting-edge Self-Showings for prospect instant gratification – which leads to more showings and less vacancy time. All inquiries, showings and applications are tracked to generate bi-weekly Marketing Reports.
Below are the activities handled by our Marketing Department to get as much exposure for your advertised rentals as possible.
- Verify Property Showable
Many owners think we should just throw up any old ad as soon as possible to get their property rented quickly. It’s been shown by many experts that this gives a property a “bad reputation” as everything on the internet stays on the internet. While your property doesn’t have to be 100% Rent-Ready, we make sure it’s in acceptable showable condition before marketing it. - Take Pics
We want your property to look it’s best when a prospect is searching online. Also, in today’s market, ads without pics are rarely looked at, so we must have decent pics before we can advertise your property. - Write Ad
Once we have enough information about your property, a descriptive ad is written about your property. We include room sizes and other pertinent facts about the property to attract the right prospects. - Touchup Pics
To avoid crooks copying our pics and running fake ads, we watermark all our pics with our log and phone number. We also adjust rotation, brightness, intensity and other aspects of pics to make them as attractive as possible. - Rent Analysis
Since there is no single source of reliable rental data, we check multiple sources for rental comparables to determine market rent for your property. - Owner Approval
The ad and rental analysis are presented to you for your final approval before it is published. - Ad Published
Once an ad and price are approved, the ad is published and syndicated to numerous websites. Click here for the list of websites you can find your property on. - Schedule Showings
Consumers shopping for a rental home today expect immediate gratification, so we use an online system that allows prospects to self-schedule showings and where possible, schedule self-showings. This maximizes the number of showings for your properties, getting your property rented faster. - Obtain Applications
To meet the expectations of as many prospects as possible, we offer several methods of applying for your property. - Monitor Activity
Unfortunately, not every vacant property rents out as fast as the owner expects. So, we monitor the number of web views, inquiries, scheduled showings, completed showings, submitted applications and approved applications – and analyze this data to recommend ad edits, ad reboots, price drops or property improvements.
Robust Tenant Screening
A bad tenant can lead to thousands of dollars of losses via unpaid rents, legal fees and property damages. We’re one of
the few property managers that require W-2’s and a bank statement and we go way beyond the traditional, “income must =
3x rent” qualifier.
Below is more information about what our Applications Department does to screen applicants and find the best tenants
possible for your property.
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- Required Info
We require the following from each applicant over the age of 18, that is not a dependent of another
applicant (as evidenced on a tax return):- Copy of acceptable state picture ID
- Recent YTD paystub
- Recent W-2
- Recent Bank Statement, all pages, no info blacked out
- Recent tax return if self-employed
Applicants are often slow about turning this information in, asking us why we need it and then taking
several days to submit. Then they complain that our process takes too long! - Credit History
Many companies use credit summaries, but we find these rarely tell the whole credit story. So, we obtain
a full credit report and review collections, chargeoffs, age of credit accounts, active accounts, etc.
to build an overall credit evaluation.
- Required Info
FICO Score | Pct of Population | Default Probability |
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800 or more | 13.00% | 1.00% |
750-799 | 27.00% | 1.00% |
700-749 | 18.00% | 4.40% |
650-699 | 15.00% | 8.90% |
600-649 | 12.00% | 15.80% |
550-599 | 8.00% | 22.50% |
500-549 | 5.00% | 28.40% |
Less than 499 | 2.00% | 41.00% |
- Public Records
We also obtain data from national databases about evictions, convictions and sex-offender histories. These all
require applicants to submit an acceptable Letter of Explanation addressing each specific issue and occurrence. - Rental History
Because a current landlord may say anything to get rid of a bad tenant out of desperation, we also require
information for the previous landlord of all applicants. Verifying rental history often takes a long time to
complete due to applicants not giving us correct landlord contact information, landlords not returning our calls
or refusing to give us any details.We also deal with applicants trying to have family or friends pose as their
landlords. To address this, we verify the property owner per government records and use this information to vet
imposters.Anything that seems suspicious will lead to us requesting an acceptable Letter of Explanation to
address. - Analyze Income
Many landlords require a month of paystubs from applicants and just use these to calculate a monthly qualifying
income. In our opinion, this doesn’t result in a viable income amount or analyze income stability. We use a YTD
paystub and last year’s W-2(s) to calculate income several different ways:- Hourly or salary income calculated to a monthly amount
- YTD income divided by number of YTD months
- YTD + W-2(s) income divided by the corresponding number of months
If these numbers vary too much, then we investigate and require an acceptable Letter of Explanation.
- Employment Stability
Unless an applicant has exceptional credit, we strive to determine their stability of employment to make sure
they’ll always be able to pay the rent on time. So, we require a detailed employment history for the last two
years and verify as much of it as reasonably possible. - Assets
We are one of the few management companies that requires a bank statement as part of our application process. We
think it’s important as it allows us to check for Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) issues and to determine if an
applicant is living paycheck-to-paycheck. Bouncing payments or only being an illness or accident away from not
being able to pay the rent, are issues considered by our underwriting. - Letter Of Explanation
Any time there are credit issues or we discover an inconsistency, we require a written letter of
explanation (LOX). Many applicants just want to tell us their excuses over the phone, but if they won’t take the
time to put it in writing, we find they rarely end up being good tenants. - Underwriting
Traditionally, landlords have only looked at the income of applicants and approved those having income equal to
three times the property rent. This crude method ignores all the other debt payments tenants have. Given that
many tenants will make their car payment before their rent payment, we’ve copied the mortgage industry’s method
of debt-to-income (DTI) ratios. We calculate rent plus all debt payments as a percentage of gross monthly
income.
Our underwriters strive to analyze and balance all the information above to determine the statistical likelihood
of a tenant paying their rent on time. - Approval
Once an applicant is approved, we require a nonrefundable Holding Fee to make sure they are serious and don’t
change their minds. We actually keep marketing your property and accepting back up applicants until your
property is actually occupied.
Persistent Rent Collection
Our automated systems email tenants with unpaid balances every day until they pay! We also have a specific series of calls/texts we make and require specific dates & amounts for payment promises & payment plans.
Every tenant has a story why they’re behind on their rent and try to make their problem, your problem – even your fault. We have a well-designed, logical system to effectively and consistently handle tenants with past-due balances, and not let them get months behind. We understand challenges happen in everyone’s life, and sometimes its mentally easier to temporarily avoid an ugly problem. So, our system has some built-in, reasonable flexibility, but we require tenant cooperation and accountability every step of the way. If a tenant avoids these, then they’re not serious and we remove them from a property as quickly as legally possible.
Below is more information about what our Evictions Department does to pursue tenants with past due balances.
- Specific Communications
We’ve learned the hard way that calling past due tenants daily – usually results in them totally ignoring us and even blocking our calls. So, we’ve developed a pattern of calls designed to maximize our chances of productive communications. - Eviction Process
Ultimately, the only real leverage we have is to start the legal eviction process. It starts with sending a Demand for Possession Nonpayment of Rent, and strictly following through the process from there. We never forget that giving a desperate person an inch, means they’ll take a mile.
Tracked Property Maintenance
Tenant requested & required city inspection repairs are transparent to owners, along with updates on bids, change orders and invoices. We strive to provide before & after pics and/or videos, so owners see where their money is going.
Please keep in mind maintenance is usually a thankless task – tenants constantly complain repairs take too long and owners complain repairs cost too much.
Below is more information about what our Maintenance Department does to document and track repairs.
- Work Orders
A Work Order is created for each tenant repair request, city required inspection repairs or Annual Inspection. These Work Orders allow us to keep all the information about the repairs in one place, so our team and you can more easily track them. - Maintenance Evaluation
Tenants and City Inspectors are often vague about the repairs they request. So, one of the first things our Maintenance Department does is try to decipher what the problem(s) actually are and who to send to fix them. Sending a licensed contractor to fix something a handyman can fix is prohibitively expensive. It’s not easy though as tenants just want someone to come to their home to fix the problem and city inspectors have limited hours of availability and don’t always remember why they wrote something up. - Bids
When bids are required, we strive to provide you with as much detail as possible, with supporting pics or video. This is dependent on the scope of the work and urgency. - Owner Approval
For all nonemergency repairs exceeding your contractual agreement, we submit bids for your review, questions and approval. - Funds
Once you have approved a bid, we do require 100% of the corresponding funds before we will start work. You can send us funds online, pay via credit card or send us a check. - Change Orders
There are often surprises when working on older buildings. Please understand we do not have “x-ray vision”, so we cannot see what’s in a wall or behind a cabinet until it is cut into. If something unexpected is found, we will send you a change order bid with supporting pics or video, for your approval. - Completion Validation
When work is finished, we strive to provide pics or video documenting the completion. So, we do our best to provide you “before” pics or video with bids and “after” pics or video, so there are no misunderstanding about what work was done. Any required permits and proof work passed city inspection(s) is also made available to you. - Emergency Repairs
Emergencies happen – broken water lines pouring out water, dangerous electrical issues, failed hot water heaters, etc. Many of these issues are legally required to be addressed within a limited amount of time. When emergency maintenance is required, we will do our best to document the problem with pics or video and control costs.
Intense Financial Reporting
In addition to a traditional Monthly Statement, we provide Live Reports for current month income & expenses, tenant balances, and last & current year monthly comparisons. An Annual Statement is provided with a 1099 for easy tax preparation.
- Monthly Statements
Just like you receive a monthly bank, mutual fund or IRA statement, we provide monthly Profit & Loss Statements around the 15th of each month, for the preceding month. These are automatically emailed to you each month and are also always available at your portal (as shown below).
- Live Rent Roll Reports
We provide two reports to provide as much information on rent payments as possible:- Rent Roll: Lists all your rented properties with columns for: Status, Lease Name, Total Unpaid, Rent Unpaid, Monthly Rent, Last Payment Amount, Last Payment Date, Public Assistance Program, End Date (lease), Notice Given Date, Start Date (lease), Reason for Leaving, Deposit Held, # Late (fees), # NSF, and numerous dates/information related to eviction proceedings, plus more.
- Tenant Payments this Month: A supplement to the Rent Roll Report (which only lists the most recent payment). If a tenant makes multiple payments in a calendar month, you will see them listed here.
- Live P&L Reports
We want our clients to have access to transparent financial information, even when we haven’t published an Owner Statement yet. So, we provide the following reports:- Owner P&L (Current Month):
We think it’s important that you have access to how your portfolio of properties is performing financially at all times. - Owner P&L (Previous Month):
We publish Statements for the previous month on the 15th of each month. Until then, you can access this report for financial information.
- Owner P&L (Current Month):
- Monthly Comparison Live Reports
Wondering how your property(s) is performing overall? It’s often very insightful to look at multiple months of financial data side-by-side for comparison. To do so, we provide the following:- Current Year Monthly Cashflow Compare:
A month-by-month comparison of Cash Flow data for current year - Last Year Monthly Cashflow Compare:
A month-by-month comparison of Cash Flow data for previous year.
Below is a screenshot of the reports above:
- Current Year Monthly Cashflow Compare:
- Annual Statements & 1099
To make tax season easier for you, we provide an Annual Statement and 1099-MISC by January 31 for the previous year. Just hand these to your tax professional and you should be all set.
Consistent Property Inspections
To catch unreported maintenance issues that could lead to costly damages and track potential tenant caused damages, we do Annual Interior Inspections. Quarterly inspections are available upon request. We do our best to video these inspections, so you can see for yourself the condition of your property.
Inspection pictures of your property are better than just a writeup, but videos give way more information. One of the challenges of video inspections though, is referencing the maintenance issues. Who wants to watch a 10 or 20 minute video multiple times to find the issues? And then you have to watch it again to address questions! So, we also provide a timestamp writeup of the video, listing the times and maintenance issues for much easier referencing.
Pic & Video Validation
Leveraging technology, we take a LOT of pics & videos and provide them to you, so it’s the next best thing to being there yourself!. Tenant MoveIns & MoveOuts, Inspections and Maintenance Completions are all provided when possible.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen the pics that enticed owners like yourself to buy a property – only to discover later that the pics didn’t really convey the true condition of the property. Or you’ve paid for repairs and received pics that make it appear that repairs were done, but you find out those repairs weren’t to your property.
So, we take video as often as possible and provide them to you.
Aggressive Evictions & Pay Plans
No matter how well prospective tenants are screened, we can’t predict job loss, medical conditions, etc. that lead to rent not being paid on time. To minimize loss of rents we have a clearly defined Eviction Process and require tenants to provide written payment plans with specific payment dates & amounts.
Desperate people will say and do desperate things and tenants facing eviction are no exception. In their desperation many tenants follow a pattern of making excuses, giving vague payment promises they don’t keep, become belligerent, claim they’re holding rent because of phantom repairs, blame others, stop communicating, threaten retaliation and more. Our eviction process is reasonably flexible to allow some humanity in how we proceed, but we’re also fairly strict on maintaining an acceptable timeline for resolution.
Below are the steps our Eviction Department takes to either get tenants to pay or move.
- Communication Triggers
Calling past due tenants incessantly doesn’t work. They know why we’re calling and avoid our calls if we just constantly nag them. So, we’ve designed a pattern of systematic communications to try to get them to tell us when they plan to pay their balance. If they avoid our calls, it’s a sign they don’t plan on paying. - Payment Plans
No one really wins when a tenant is evicted. So, in every communication with a past due tenant we try to get them to commit to a Payment Plan. We’ve learned the hard way though, that desperate tenants will say anything to stay longer. So, if a tenant wants a Payment Plan we require their plan be submitted in writing, with specific dates and payment amounts, with documentation supporting their income to make those payments. Many tenants want to tell us they’ll pay us whatever they can on their next payday, but we will not accept such vague information and not verbally. If they won’t take the time to put it all in writing, then they are not serious. As many desperate tenants seem to forget ongoing rents in their Payment Plan proposals, we also create a spreadsheet to verify their Payment Plan will bring them current in a reasonable amount of time. - Cash-for-Keys
To save the time and cost of an eviction, we try to solicit Cash-for-Keys offers from past due tenants. Especially if there appears to be little logical chances of them being able to bring their rent current. Any amount agreed upon with the tenant is shared with you for your approval. Once all approve, the tenant must vacate the property and leave it broom cleaned before funds are paid to them. - Eviction Notice Sent
While the options above are pursued, we send out what’s referred to as a 7-Day Eviction Notice for Nonpayment of Rent. Desperate tenants will play games and appear to be cooperating, when all they are really doing is stalling for more time. So, the eviction notice in effect, “starts the clock” and lets them know they have limited time to work things out with us. - Notice to Attorney
No sooner than the 8th day after the 7-Day Eviction Notice is sent, we can submit the notice and request a court date. In Michigan we must hire an attorney to handle this. Because this action will incur fees that will be charged to you if the tenant doesn’t pay to stay, we notify you before we proceed. If we don’t hear from you though, we do proceed. - Court Hearing
Hearing dates are typically obtained in 10-14 days, although holidays cause delays. Usually the attorney obtains a consent or default judgment from the judge. Sometimes the tenant appears and tells a story to convince the judge to adjourn the case for a week or two, to allow for clarification of an issue. - Possession Judgment
Once the judgment is obtained, Michigan statute gives the tenant 10 days to pay the judgment amount plus court costs to remain in the property. During this period, we try to communicate with the tenant to work out a Payment Plan or Cash-for-Keys. - Writ of Eviction
After the mandatory 10 days is up, the judge can be petitioned to sign the Writ of Eviction, once they verify the tenant did not satisfy the terms of the judgment. Again, we try to communicate with the tenant to work out a Payment Plan or Cash-for-Keys. - Bailiffs
Per Michigan statute an officer of the court, or bailiff, must perform the removal of the tenant’s possessions from the property. Most municipalities allow these possessions to be set on the curb for trash pickup. Some though, require the landlord provide a dumpster that all the possessions must be placed in. This can get pricey if a tenant is a hoarder and multiple dumpsters are required.
This whole process usually takes around 45-60 days. Our goal is to encourage past due tenants to negotiate a Payment Plan or Cash-for-Keys, by keeping pressure on them to cooperate or move.
Legal Guidance: LLC, Licenses, Insurance, etc.
Need assistance with setting up an LLC, obtaining an EIN from the IRS, getting a property licensed by the local municipality, etc.? If we can’t handle it, we can connect you with experts that can, who charge reasonable prices.
As a full-service property manager, we can either assist you ourselves or connect you with experts that can handle your real estate needs, whatever they are.
- Legal Assistance
Our associates can assist you with setting up a Michigan LLC to hold your real estate in, and get an EIN from the IRS for it.Want to use your IRA to invest in real estate? We can guide you through the process to make it easy for you.
Think you got scammed on a real estate transaction? Our associates can investigate the legalities, consult with you about your options and file a lawsuit if warranted.
Considering a 1031 Exchange? We can also connect you with professionals to handle that.
- Foreign Owners
If you live outside the US yet want to buy real estate here, we have the professionals to assist you. We’d prefer you contact us ahead of time to set everything up correctly, instead of after you’ve purchased a property and already made some expensive legal and tax related mistakes. Our associates can set up a Michigan LLC, obtain an EIN and ITIN from the IRS for you and setup a US bank account in the name of your LLC. - Tax Professionals
Whether a US citizen or foreigner, we have tax professionals that can assist you with questions or handle your IRS tax reporting requirements. - Insurance
Did you know most standard property insurance policies have a clause that terminates the policy if the property is vacant for more than 30 days? Make sure you have a policy designed for a rental property or let us refer you to an agent specializing in rental real estate policies.Note: we require liability insurance on all properties we manage, with our company named as additionally insured.
- Rental License
Most municipalities in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties require some type of inspection of rental properties every 2 or 3 years. Applications forms must be filled out, fees paid and inspections scheduled – otherwise tickets are issued. We handle all this for you.
Evaluations, Repairs, Renovations
Wondering if the “deal” you found on a rental property is too good to be true? Is it in a good area? What about its condition? What about the tenant? Does it need repairs and if so, how much will they cost? We can assist with all of these, so you make a good investment.
Who do you think has a more vested interest in you buying a good rental property?
The real estate agent that sells you a property and gets to walk away with their commission check and never have to deal with the property again, or your property manager that must deal with your rental property every day?
Our primary business is managing rental properties, not the buying & selling of real estate. We want to assist you in every way possible to buy a solid rental property or be aware of all the potential issues that’ll have to be dealt with to turn a property into a solid rental.
So, hire us to review your next purchase before you sign the purchase contract.