Business
In this episode, I have the opportunity to interview successful investor and entrepreneur, Mike Bonadies. Mike is the owner of Side by Side MRO, a maintenance, perseveration, and construction company, and co-owner of TerraVestra, a property management company. He is also a landlord himself owning 25 of his own units in South Jersey. Get ready to dive into some of the less spoken of and dirtier aspects of real estate in this interview! Mike begins by telling us about his time in the corporate world as a commercialization manager for DeWALT power tools. He said his work experience was in the construction industry as he was brokering deals with Home Depot. A coworker overheard him working the phones one day and asked him if he had ever considered being a landlord, and that was the beginning of Mike’s real estate investing journey. After doing some research, he bought his first duplex in South Jersey, which he house-hacked. He invested in twenty properties before people started coming to him about property management issues. His buddy, Drew Side, owned sixty properties, so together they decided to start their own property management company, TerraVestra. This also led them to start their own property maintenance company, Side by Side MRO. I told Mike that I have a company managing my properties and my only frustration with them is that often the maintenance calls seem really expensive, especially since I have a flipping background. Mike took some time to explain the differences between how construction and maintenance companies operate, especially because of the overhead they may have or the services they are providing. There is also a different level of insurance that a maintenance company has to hold which drives up the cost of service calls. We spent some time discussing the details of finding and working successfully with property management companies. We talked extensively about property management styles, how they contract with customers, how they handle pricing, and finding a company that fits with your vision. I wanted Mike to explain how a landlord could go about finding a property maintenance company if they were just interested in contracting this type of company to handle their portfolio. Mike gave us several routes on how to best find and vet these types of companies. He also talked about how important it is to find maintenance companies that have experience with your market’s property asset class. I asked Mike about how to go about finding an effective property manager based on the size of an investor’s portfolio. He brought up a great point about the manager’s size and if they are spread out over several states or work more locally. He also addressed the difference in types of properties and how much attention you would get from various kinds of management companies. We also discussed the level of property he looks at to purchase and also to manage. Mike said he likes to raise the quality level of neighborhoods, so he will buy several properties on a particular street and bring all of them up a couple of notches. We talked a bit about the impact of the pandemic on housing and what types of homes might provide a return regardless of the restrictions and ongoing impact. We have interviewed other landlords and property managers recently, but in this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, our guest provides some unique insights and valuable, practical advice for all manner of property owners. Don’t miss it! Notable Quotes: “Once you build your brand and show some success, people will absolutely start investing in you.” Mike Bonadies “I just started blabbing to everyone what I was doing and pretty soon I had people coming to me saying that they wanted to get involved.” Mike Simmons “The money is out there. You just have to show a little initiative.” Mike Simmons “As a landlord, to me, the maintenance is the silent killer.” Mike Simmons “A maintenance company’s cost structure and how they make money is very different from contractors.” Mike Bonadies “There are not enough people doing physical labor, and therefore, the rates of a normal maintenance tech are getting higher, and when those go up, prices to customers go up.” Mike Bonadies “If you get a good maintenance company, they will absorb all of your headaches, and even if you pay a slight premium for the service, it is worth it.” Mike Bonadies “I feel like a good property management company doesn’t keel to every request from a tenant.” Mike Bonadies “I look at every property that we manage like, ‘If this was my property, what would I do?’” Mike Bonadies “Understanding the industry is equally as important as having systems in place.” Mike Bonadies “Our maintenance clients just know they can trust us and that is the level we want to be at.” Mike Bonadies “If you want property management exactly your way, hire admins, and do your own.” Mike Bonadies “If a property manager has to drive three hours to get a property, how well do you think they are managing it?” Mike Bonadies “You need to be a better value than everyone else.” Mike Bonadies “We have had to get incredibly creative during the pandemic to get tenants to pay rent.” Mike Bonadies Links: TerraVestra Property Management TerraVestra on Facebook Side by Side MRO Side by Side on Facebook Return on Investments Just Start Real Estate JSRE on Facebook Mike on Facebook Mike on Instagram Mike on LinkedIn Mike on Twitter Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months