Military Personnel PCS-ing from Killeen, TX? How Your Investment is Looked After by a Property Manager

Hi, everyone it’s Janet from Gold Medal again. Today I’m going to talk about 4 key topics that you are going to want to discuss with a potential property management company to make sure that they are the right fit for you. The first thing that everybody is always most interested in are fees. What kind of fees do they charge? There is a monthly percentage for a management fee a lot of places have advertising fees, leasing fees. I’ve seen technology fees, all kinds of fees! Does it matter whether or not my property is vacant -- are the fees still assessed? So, those are all things you are going to want to ask about! But there are also some fees that you may not be aware of. You would want to ask them what kind of fees your tenants may be paying. So, for instance some of our competitors here in the area charge $20.00 a month to the tenant for the AC filters to be delivered to the property. At Gold Medal we provide the air filter to our tenants for free. They just come into the office and tell us what size and pick them up. We also provide the 9 bolt batteries for the smoke detectors! Now you might ask why do we do that. Well, we know from experience that the number one way to hurt an air conditioner system in our hot, humid environment is always going to be by having a dirty AC filter so we want to incentivize them to do all of the right things. Be sure to ask not only for owner fees but also tenant fees. The second thing to ask about is how you will have access to your data. A t Gold Medal we have an owner's portal that you have access to 24 hours a day seven days a week. That is where we will upload invoices that have been paid on your behalf for maintenance or anything like that and your weekly and monthly statements that you will receive as part of your owner package. The third thing that you are going to want to ask them is how they vet perspective tenants. According to fair housing laws every real estate company that rents to tenants has to have a set of criteria and guidelines and they have to be applied evenly and fairly across all tenant prospects. Ask them to see a copy of the criteria and guidelines and make sure that you find out how they doing background checks... are they running a credit report? Are they checking past rental history? These are a ll important things all related to vetting a potential tenant. Finally (and I think the most important question) ask them what happens if you're not happy with the services. The topic there is termination fees and it’s very common in our industry that companies have termination fees. Now at Gold Medal we don’t have termination fees because prior to opening our own business in 2011 we had another property management company that had exorbitant termination fees which we had to pay in order to get our properties away from them and into our own management company. We decided on that day that as a property management company that we won’t have termination fees. What that means for our potential owners or perspective owners is that you really don’t have anything to loose. If you’re with us for six months and we can’t get along and we’ve tried to rectify our differences and we're just not a good fit we will just pack up all your leases and security deposits and wish you well and wish you on your way. If you’ve liked our answers to all these questions from a Gold Medal perspective I hope you will give us a call at our office any time. We love talking to potential owners and look forward from hearing from you soon. Until the next time!

Hi, guys it’s Janet from Gold Medal again and today with the topic of this video, is how to make sure you’re choosing the right property management company for you. Regardless of whether you are a long-term serious investor or you’re a first time investor or you’re a homeowner and you just received PCS Orders and you aren’t really sure what to do with your house. Hopefully this video will answer some of those questions for you. At Gold Medal when we are interviewing a prospective owner and the prospective owner is interviewing us we look for what we call a vision match. Now what is that? It’s basically making sure that our goals, objectives and our beliefs around property management align with each other because a lot of times having a property manager is a lot like being married. You want to make sure you have the same goals and objectives. As an example, at Gold Medal one of our core values is equal respect for owners and tenants. So, if that isn’t a belief that you could align with, then we might not be a good fit for you if you’re an investor that only wants to do the bare minimum maintenance and make sure we collect the rents and you don’t really care about anything else then we may not be the best fit for you. It really depends on how you want to be treated as an owner and how you believe that your tenants should be treated in return. All of those things are very important discussions to have with a potential property manager. If you are looking for a property manager in central Texas, I hope that you will give us a call so that we could interview each other and see if we have that vision match. We look forward to hearing from you soon and I’ll say goodbye now until the next time!

Hi, Guys its Janet from Gold Medal again. I’m back with part two about renting properties during the time of Covid. There have been a lot of legal challenges but by far the biggest challenge that we have experienced the ever changing legal landscapes of everything. There were first state wide mandates then federal mandates. So, I’m going to talk about some of those today. But the fact that everything was changing so fast especially at the beginning of all this that has been the single greatest challenge for us to stay up on. At the beginning of the Covid crisis governor Abbot the governor of Texas issued a state wide guidance about filing for evictions and collection of late fees and all of these things for the tenants. That timeline has already expired and did sometime in the beginning or middle of June. Then the federal government they passed the C.A.R.E.S Act and we had a whole new set of guidelines that we had to follow and that we had to be aware of, the biggest thing for that is that the eviction progress still has a moratorium on it based on what type of mortgage is held on the property. This took a while for us to kind of wrap our arms around. Basically if the property had a VA or FHA loan on it. Then we are not able to file for eviction for non-payment of rents until after July 25th so we continued to monitor it, we also had to reach out to all of our property owners to try to find out what type of mortgage was on the property. So, it was a bit crazy there for a while. The main thing that we have been trying to do just to continue to monitor all of these changes. There is no guarantee that there won’t be more federal or state wide guidelines that we have to kind of modify our process around. Our biggest focus has been on communication, especially with our property owners majority of owners aren’t in this area and because we know that thing were different from state to state and those other guidelines that were federally based we really wanted to make sure we were providing our owners with updates. So, we did a whole series almost weekly on just around the topic of what was going on with Covid. But then we didn’t want to forget about our tenants there were several programs that were available to tenants for assistance so we also felt it was very important for us to communicate with our tenants to make sure they were aware all the programs that were available to them to use. So, it’s been crazy and it’s been a fast and furious summer and I know we are all ready to kind of put this behind us and get back to a new type a normal. But this is why you hire a property manager so you’re not the one who’s trying to stay on top of these guidelines as they are changing so rapidly and so fluidly in the times that we are living in today. I hope this information was helpful for you. If you have any questions specifically around property management or the Covid topic I would love to talk to you so give me a call at the office any time. Until the next time you guys have a great day!

Hi, everyone it’s Janet from Gold Medal again. Today I’m going to talk to you about how we’ve had to modify some of our practices and processes doing property management during the time of Covid. Obviously, this is situation that none of us have dealt with in the past and we’ve had to learn as we go. It’s a very fluid situation that changes almost weekly. One thing that has helped us to be able to still perform all of our duties is that the Governor of Texas has actually deemed our industry as an essential business. So, really the fact that we are working day in and day out has not changed very much. The way we work is what has changed. I want to talk about that today. First and foremost we are open for business! Our staff is here and we are taking work order requests. We are leasing properties. We are still doing background checks and all of those things - answering phones, answering emails, and taking care of our tenants and our owners. One of the things that has really made it easier for us to adapt to a new way of working is our investment in technology. Having the technology that we do have it hasn’t really changed that much for owners because most of our owners are remote from our area anyway. But for tenants it has been a really big change. We used to sign leases in person and now we are doing it electronically. They are still fully enforceable and still legal documents but we are sending leases out to the tenants for their signature via DocuSign. We also invested in technology like electronic lock boxes. We used to check out keys in the office to the perspective tenants they came in - we had to touch the keys - they had to touch the keys. We have now totally turned into a touchless environment - and by utilizing the electronic lock boxes we have been able to do that very well. In fact were leasing properties now much more quickly prior to the Covid time! We have had to engage in some new processes primarily in the area of maintenance because we still want to take care of the tenants --still take care of the properties. We have worked closely with all of our vendors to make sure that everybody is using PPE as appropriate for the work they are doing. Everyone has gloves. Everyone has masks, and we are making sure that everyone has plenty of hand sanitizer. This is actually the first half of a two-part series about Covid. In the next video we are going to talk about some of the legal challenges we have faced kind of moving into this new model. I hope you’ll join me then!

Most people who call us want to know how much property management costs. So today, we’re going to talk about the typical fees that are involved when you hire a professional property manager. Since this topic has a lot of information to cover, we’re doing a two part series on it. This is part one, so be sure to catch the follow up video. Management Agreement The topic of management fees should be discussed when you’re interviewing a property manager. All of the specifics and the terms and conditions should be outlined in the management agreement. If you are interviewing a property manager who is hesitant to speak frankly and openly with you about fees, it may be a red flag and you might want to keep looking. Property Management Fee The property management fee itself is the most common expense that a company will charge you. Every management agreement will have a monthly fee. Sometimes it’s a flat fee, but in most cases in our area, it’s a percentage of the rent that is charged for the unit. Ask if the property manager charges that management fee even when the property is vacant. This is important because if your property manager is getting paid regardless of whether you are receiving rents, you might not get the assertive behavior you want in a property manager to get that property rented. Property managers aren’t going to be as eager to secure a tenant for you if they’re getting paid anyway. So make note of that. Termination Fees If you’re not happy with the service you’re getting from your property manager, you’ll need to know how to terminate the agreement. In some cases, a termination fee is a flat charge that is paid one time and allows you to terminate your property management agreement. In other cases, the management company will continue to charge the fee and will accelerate the charges due through the end of the term of your current lease on your property.

People are often asking us how much they can get for their rental property. It does depend on the size and condition of your house and how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has. The location is also important. All these things come together to address the market conditions. Market Conditions and Killeen Property Management The market conditions can be broader than just the physical make-up of your property. You have to take into consideration the season as well. We have PCS high season related to army movement in the Fort Hood area, and that plays a role. Market conditions also take into consideration the number of available properties on the market that are similar to yours. We call that market saturation; when there are a lot of available properties and not as many tenants looking. Analyzing Market Conditions When Pricing We address market saturation and other influences by always watching market conditions. We measure how long properties have been on the market, and how many are competing in your specific area of town. We’ll talk to the homeowner about the possibility of a slight price reduction when necessary. At the end of the day, your property is going to rent for whatever supply and demand dictates. So, you need to think about your tolerance for vacancy. If you’ve moved to a new location and you have new housing expenses to cover, you don’t want to have an unlimited amount of time where you’re paying your housing expenses here. Pricing Strategies There are some pricing strategies to think about. We do what places like Walmart and Costco do – we implement special pricing. If we can price your home just below the search parameters online, where tenants are predominately finding us, your home will get a lot of attention. Think about the $9.99 sale item in those retail stores. It makes a difference to price your property at $1,195 per month instead of $1,200. Ft. Hood Area Rental Management It’s also important in the Fort Hood area to think about BAH levels.

For the homeowner with a dilemma about whether to sell or rent out a home, the decision can be stressful and emotional. Today we are talking about what to do and how to manage the decision-making process. Set Your Long-Term Goal First, you need to decide on your ultimate goal for the property. If you know that you’re going to move back to Fort Hood some day and this will be your retirement home, then obviously, that’s a no-brainer – you aren’t going to sell your property. If that’s not part of your decision-making process and you’re trying to figure out the best decision from a financial perspective, it’s a different process. Consider Your Equity For a lot of people, the decision will be based on how long they have owned the home. For the first five to 10 years of a mortgage, you’re not building up equity in your home as quickly as you do with the second part of that mortgage. Often, especially in Fort Hood where we are still in a buyers’ market, you can find you’re not earning as much on the sale of your home as you would like. Think about whether the market will support the price you need to get for your house, where you can sell your home and come to the closing table without writing out a check or paying anything to get out from under your home. That’s not an ideal situation, and it doesn’t excite many homeowners. Holding onto Your Home Look at the financial side. If you’re upside down on your mortgage and closing costs and other fees will cost you money, look at the rental option. Put a tenant in your home, which provides you with the opportunity to hold onto your home a little longer and build equity. It also gives you a chance to see what happens to market conditions in this area over the next few years. We may have a sellers’ market at that point, and your position will be a little stronger. You’ll get more value for your transaction. When you’re thinking about selling versus renting, always talk to us in the real estate community. As licensed Realtors, we can handle sales and rental transactions for you. You don’t have to worry that we prefer selling or renting. We can help you sell or provide Ft. Hood area rental management. If you want a true consultant’s opinion in what really makes the most financial sense for your specific situation, we can help.

Today I’m sharing an interesting question that we received via our website last week. The question was: why do Army personnel choose to work with Gold Medal Property Management? That’s a question we are happy and honored to answer. Business Building and Army History If you have seen any of our videos, you know that my husband Keith is retired military. He spent nearly 21 years serving in the Army, and we have had the opportunity and the luxury of building our company from the ground up. We designed it with a business plan that we wanted to be proud of. So, the primary reason that so many Army personnel and their families choose to hire us is our philosophy that PCS-ing or ETS-ing or deploying is stressful enough. You have a lot to worry about. We designed our business model as an end-to-end solution for our homeowners. You can worry about where you’re going and not worry about where you’re leaving. Full Service Property Management in Killeen After you select us as your professional property management company, we take over for you. We handle as much for you as you want. We do all the little things you won’t have time to worry about, like coordinating maintenance repairs and painting. We’ll be the ones to schedule with carpet cleaners and pest control services. We will go in with our propertyspecialist to ensure your home meets all the requirements of the rental property code for Texas.

Today we’re talking about buying an investment property near Fort Hood. Whether you are looking to begin your investment experience and buying your first property or you’re adding to an existing portfolio, there are some things to consider when you’re purchasing in the Fort Hood area. Location As with all real estate purchases, location is important. By that we mean that with such a large percentage of our prospective tenants in this area being in the military, you have to think about a couple of things. Proximity to Fort Hood is going to be essential for those tenants, including which side of post their assignment is on. Some tenants come into the office and they are specifically looking for properties located near one gate versus the other. They have a specific idea of which side of post they want to live on. Not all of our prospective tenants are related to the military. That means you also need to consider easy access to all the major roads, which schools are zoned to the property and what the crime rate is like. We always recommend checking with local law enforcement agencies to know what goes in those areas. Property Condition Next, look at property condition. That doesn’t mean you want to discount or not consider properties that aren’t in the greatest shape. Sometimes, when the needed repairs are cosmetic, you can invest a small amount of money and take care of those repairs quickly while recouping your investment funds and still having a healthy cash flow on the property. Make sure the home’s larger systems and functions are sound, like the foundation, the roof, plumbing, drainage, etc. Schedule a property inspection as part of your buying process. Carve out time in your schedule to attend the inspection in person. On a multi-family unit like a four-plex, the inspection can take a lot of time. But it’s worth it because you’ll learn a lot about your property. Professional Help Choose to work with a fully licensed Realtor who is familiar with the area. This will help you not only from a buying perspective, but it will also help if the Realtor is familiar with the management landscape and climate in the Killeen area as well.