Grove Family Investments

Managing from afar

Josh is a friend of mine who became an accidental landlord several years back. He had a condo when he was single in a great part of the city. When he got married, he didn’t want to give up the potential income stream from his bachelor pad, although it may have been some clinging to his glory days. We were discussing the various trials and tribulations of being a landlord when he mentioned how he had to drive down there and back to put on a new door handle. The whole affair took him about two hours. When I pointed out to him that a handyman could have done this for about $50, he responded that he just hadn’t thought about it but he wished he had. He had been going down there so often for small things that it had become a habit.

Usually, the first question people ask me when I tell them that I have properties out of state is, “How do you manage those properties so far away?” On the surface, it seems like a good question until you ask yourself how you would manage a property close by.

If something breaks at a house that you are the landlord of, most people do not have the expertise to fix such a problem. Even if they do have the expertise, it will undoubtedly take them longer than a professional. That time could be put to more valuable use.

This is all by way of introduction to my approach, which relies entirely on remote assistance. It’s a lot easier than most people would think. I use an app called Thumbtack where I can post a job and a location and get bids pretty easily. I then can contact the professional and discuss the job. This allows me to manage properties just about anywhere. I also use it for local properties. It usually takes me a lot longer than it should to fix small things at my own house so I don’t even bother at other houses.

To illustrate, I have an Airbnb in North Georgia. The guests check out at 11 am and check in at 4 pm. I got a call from the cleaner that the hot tub wasn’t working at about 12 pm. This means I have four hours to get this fixed; otherwise, I’m going to have to provide a pretty significant refund. This is the airbnb equivalent of a disaster unfolding. Using the app, I was able to find a hot tub repair person who was able to get out and fix it. It was ready to go by 3:30 pm. The guests were happy and so was I.

The bottom line is that distance shouldn’t hold you back from investing in better markets. Being able to broaden your capture areas increases the likelihood of finding better deals. All the problems have solutions.