What to Look For in a Turnkey Rental Provider
Most turnkey pitches start with a property: the photos, the price, the rent. That is the easy part to compare. What you will actually live with is everything around the property, including who plans with you, who handles each step, and who stands behind it afterward.
If you are weighing turnkey providers, here are five things worth looking at before you look at a single listing.
1. Turnkey should describe the process, not just the property
A turnkey rental is generally a home that has been renovated, rented to a tenant, professionally managed, and cash flowing. The goal is that you are buying something that is ready to operate, not a project.
Getting to that point takes a long list of steps, and this is where many first-time investors get stuck. Once a property is under contract, you still need a lender, a way to set up the entity that will own the property, property management, tax support, and an insurance contact.
At Turnkey Property Pros, the goal is for the process to be turnkey, not just the property. As John Blackburn puts it, "the process itself is turnkey, not just the property."
That means lining up lenders, entity setup companies, property management, a CPA and bookkeeper, and an insurance contact so they are ready once you place a property under contract. John compares it to a grocery store: the ingredients for the recipe are all there on the shelf, and you do not have to hunt each one down yourself.
Questions to ask any provider: Who handles each step between contract and closing? Are the lenders, managers, and tax professionals people you already work with, or will you be sourcing them yourself? Who do you call after you own the property?
2. Planning should come before the property
It is tempting to start by scrolling listings. A better starting point is a plan. Nate Hall's view is that the real estate itself is the easy part, and the harder questions come first: How will you finance the purchase? Will you use cash, a self-directed IRA, or a solo 401(k)? Why do you want a portfolio of rentals at all? Using cash leads to a different strategy than using retirement funds, and rental property investing is not right for everyone.
That is why Turnkey Property Pros works in a particular order: educate and plan, then buy. Many providers do the reverse. They show you inventory and hope the plan sorts itself out behind the scenes.
Questions to ask any provider: Will you walk through the projected income and expenses for a property before I decide whether to buy it? Will you look at my current investments, if I have any? Will you help me think through how I want to finance this?
3. Look for a provider that teaches you before it sells you
You should leave a conversation understanding more than when you started. Nate describes the approach as taking your time with each investor. That looks like Zoom and phone calls, property reviews, a walk through the numbers, and a look at your current portfolio. For most investors who buy through Turnkey Property Pros, that adds up to somewhere around 2 to 5 conversations before the buying decision.
Just as important, a good provider is comfortable if the answer is no. If rental property investing is not the right fit for you, that is a perfectly good outcome.
The same philosophy shows up in the educational content on the Turnkey Property Pros YouTube channel and website, which is built to take someone from curious to informed.
Questions to ask any provider: How many conversations should I expect before I buy a property with you? Is there any pressure to move quickly? What educational resources will you give me access to?
4. Check the experience behind the product
John looks for experience in anyone he works with, "whether it's the guy that's cleaning my pool or a landscaper or someone I'm buying a car from." The same goes for a turnkey provider, and a useful test is whether the provider invests in what it sells.
Nate has more than 15 years in real estate, is a licensed realtor, and owns multiple properties in multiple markets. John has invested in real estate for 21 years, through retail fix and flips and single-family to four-unit rentals, and is buying 6 to 10 properties a month. Between them, they have helped thousands of investors buy thousands of rental properties.
Their experience goes back before Turnkey Property Pros. Nate and John helped build the Passive Income Club, a rental property education division of Fortune Builders, and ran it for about a decade. Over those years they also supported the growth of other companies, including JWB and REI Nation, so they had seen what was possible in rental property investing from several angles.
It also helps to ask how the product is run. Turnkey Property Pros offers its own turnkey product, from purchase through renovation, renting, and long-term management, and manages each step. It also works with partners in other markets, and measures their performance against the same kinds of KPIs it uses on itself.
Questions to ask any provider: Do you own what you sell? How long have you been doing this? How do you measure the partners or contractors you use?
5. Ask about your options
Many turnkey providers work in a single market. That can be fine, but different markets suit different budgets and goals. Turnkey Property Pros has its own teams renovating in Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee, and works with partners in other markets, including Indianapolis, Indiana and Birmingham, Alabama, so an investor can compare options in one place.
Questions to ask any provider: How many markets do you work in? Why do you recommend this market for my goals? What would change your recommendation?
Putting it together
When you compare providers, set the listings aside for a moment and ask five things: Is the whole process handled, not only the property? Do they plan with me first? Will they teach me before they sell to me? Do they have real experience in what they offer? Do I have options?
That is the idea behind Plan First, Property Second: a one-on-one conversation about your goals, your capital, and your risk tolerance, then a plan built around you.
This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice.
Want to hear Nate and John dig deeper into this topic? Watch the full conversation on our podcast: https://youtu.be/OkogiQ9YT4w
Ready to talk through your plan? Visit www.turnkeyproppro.com to book a call.
