Todd Heitner

So, Anthony, thanks so much for coming on today. I wanted to talk today about asset management, especially managing the property once you’ve got it under contract, managing all of that.

So thanks for coming on today. How are you today?

Anthony Chara

I’m doing great. Thanks for having me, Todd.

Todd Heitner

Yeah, great. Maybe we’ll break this up into sections. Maybe first we could talk about hiring a property manager. So, that’s always kind of a debate maybe about “Should I hire a property manager?” “Should I try to manage it myself?” What do you think about that? What should someone take into consideration?

Anthony Chara

Well, that’s a great question. One of the things that I tend to lean towards is hiring a property manager. So most of the time, as far as hiring one, we generally use the same property manager that’s already on the property when we purchase it. It makes it easier for the transition. So we hire them, bring them on board, we give them six months or so to prove that they can do what they actually are supposed to be doing. But yeah,

sometimes you have to go out and hire a new one. As far as managing the property yourselves, I’ve heard arguments on both sides. I’ve heard people say, “Well, if you do it yourself right, no one’s going to take care of the property as good as you” which is probably true. But it comes down to me. It comes down to a matter of time. How much time do you have and how much time do you want to spend managing the property yourself? I didn’t get into real estate investing to own a bunch of properties so I could manage them myself and be a property manager. I did it because I’m an investor and the analogy that I use with people is “How many of you have ever bought a stock?” Raise your hand if you ever bought a stock. Well, how many people then that bought a stock then went out the next day and got a job with that company so they could keep an eye on the company, the people running the company, to make sure their stock was performing well. You don’t do that. Why not? Because you’re an investor. So an investor should put their money into a deal and then let the manager take care of it. That’s my opinion. But some people agree with me. Some people don’t. That’s fine.