Property Management Problems

JimPellerin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:13:09 +0000

Property Management Problems

Some quick tips.

I have had several people tell me about their bad experiences as a Real Estate Investor. They bought a house as an investment and then rented it out. They typically have a history of bad tenants who caused a lot of damage. They couldn’t afford the repairs so they ended up selling and actually had to pay because the house sold for less than what they owed.

Real Estate Investing is a business and has to be treated as a business. You need to make sure you allow for certain expenses. If you are going to do all the work yourself then you need to get good at it and learn from you mistakes. The other option is to hire a professional. Here a couple of quick pointers to help ease the initial pain.

1. When evaluating a property as an investment, make sure you allow enough money for maintenance and repairs (typically 5% of rents). Also, make sure you build up a reserve fund to pay for these unexpected costs.
2. Get good tenants. Make sure you screen your tenants properly. Do a background check and a credit check. An empty unit is far better than having a bad tenant.
3. Hire a Property Manager. Make sure you allow enough money for property management. You want to make sure you get paid for your work or if you don’t want to do it you can afford to hire someone to do it for you.

Happy Investing,

Jim Pellerin

Investor, Advisor, Speaker, Coach, Writer

7 Steps to Real Estate Riches

The Realty Millionaire

Are You Sure You Want To Be a Property Manager?

JimPellerin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:45:33 +0000

Are You Sure You Want To Be a Property Manager?

If you own rental properties, they will have to be managed. Before you decide to do your own Property Management make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

Some things you will be responsible for are:

Advertising your property when you have vacancies.
Preparing the property to be shown
Showing the property to prospective tenants
Handling all calls from prospective and current tenants
Arranging for repairs when needed
Handling disputes between tenants
Handling tenant complaints
Dealing with and paying for damages caused by bad tenants
Evicting bad tenants

Are you willing to take phone calls at any time of the day or night? What if someone’s toilet overflows and they call you? Do you have sales and marketing skills? You will have to convince any prospects to rent from you.

All of these activities take time. The more buildings you own, the more time it will take, and you will eventually run out of time. If you decide to do your own Property Management, make sure you allocate enough funds so you can hire someone else to replace you when the time comes.