Articles About Landlording - By The Educated Landlord

Why Discounting Your Rents Is For Amateurs

February 11, 2014 By Landlord Education

And Why Professional Landlords Get Premiums!

First month free. Free TV with purchase. Don’t Pay until…..

You see these types of discounts in ads everywhere these days. You also see these types of businesses that promote like this come and go and there’s a reason. They trade in commodities.

Commodities are items that have little value and are typically traded or bought for the lowest cost. Trading in commodities is not good business for the simple reason that you are tied into the lowest price. The lowest price doesn’t give you margin for error or more importantly for profits.

As a landlord, if you start offering discounts on rents to attract tenants, you’re turning your property into a commodity rather than a valuable asset. Yes, you have to be competitive, you can’t price yourself out of the market, but as a long term strategy, you want to be a leader rather than following the pack off the cliff.

Discounts are the easy way out and once you start offering them, they become expected. If you’re a retail store, maybe that’s to be expected, but to really succeed you don’t want to be the next Walmart or Target, set your sights higher and become a premium brand.

If you’re following some of my systems and tips, you know it’s important to be a professional and to treat your landlording like a business. If you become an educated landlord, one of the areas you need to look at is the condition of your properties and how they appear to prospective tenants.

We learned a long long time ago that if you spend a little extra initially to get the property better than your competitors it pays you back in increased rent, longer staying tenants and tenants that take better care of your properties. And here’s why..

The Argument For Increased Rent

If you do any tours of competing properties, even if this just involves reviewing other ads and photos of properties in your area, they all tend to be the same. Picture of the kitchen, picture of a bedroom, picture of a living room and some bad writing offering a price and maybe a few details.

Occasionally though, a few stand out. Usually they’re priced higher, the pictures look more professional, and the advertising copy looks polished. You want to be the landlord who is renting out that property for several reasons.

By looking more professional and by charging higher rent, you’re automatically going to push many of the less desirable tenants away. If they have a poor track record of paying rent, they understand a professional landlord will be screening them more thoroughly and they won’t even qualify. If the rent is higher, they understand they won’t be able to afford it and they will be cash strapped. And if the advertising copy comes off as professional it will also help to discourage them from even inquiring.

You move from quantity to quality and what you are looking for is quality tenants.

If you ever rented (I rented for years until my wife and I could afford our first house), you probably looked at a lot of properties before you found the right one. We personally couldn’t believe the condition of some of the properties that landlords thought were rentable. I still hear this from tenants when I question them how their search for a rental is going.

Once you did find the right one though, you had to have it. And it didn’t matter if it was an extra $100 a month, it stood out in your mind over the previous properties and it became even more valuable in your view point. This is the type of property you want and the mindset you want to instill in tenants that view your property.

Now, to get to this level, you may have to spend a few extra thousand dollars initially for extra renovations or updates, but this not only helps increase the overall value of your property, but that extra $75 per month, or perhaps $200 per month of extra income in a great property, sure helps increase your cash flow.

The Bonus’s of Better Properties

The extra cash flow isn’t the only bonus. If you have a better property, tenants tend to stay longer because it is such a great place to live. They actually become much more hesitant to leave as they don’t want to give up a great property.

This translates into less tenant turnover and longer periods between vacancies. Which simply means more money going into your bank account for longer periods of time and that helps ensure you continue to be a successful landlord.

These tenants that are also willing to pay extra to live in this great property, also tend to take better care of it. If they truly take pride in where they live, they want to make sure it looks great and they keep it that way. You’ll end up with fewer repairs after tenants vacate, less work for when the turnover eventually takes place and if there are any issues with the property like leaky taps, these types of tenants will let you know immediately, rather than finding out after repairs become more expensive.

Unfortunately I can’t guarantee every tenant will be a success using this strategy, but in combination with other strategies, it sets you up for success.

How To Avoid Discounting Your Rents

So let’s recap some of the strategies that can help make this work for you.

Buy rental properties in rental heavy neighborhoods. This gives you a much larger tenant base to choose from. You start with quantity and narrow it down to quality.

Renovate your properties to help them stand out from competitors. This makes your properties memorable and helps you receive premium rents.

Write better ads with better pictures. Stand out from the crowd and get people appreciating your property and it’s value rather than looking for a commodity.

Don’t discount your rents to attract tenants. Tenants that are attracted to discounted rental units will also leave quickly if they can get a better deal. Don’t be a commodity, create an environment where tenants want to come home to.

So, did you find this helpful? If you did, could you do me a favor and share this with at least two other landlords you know? The more landlords we have out there that are better educated and running true landlord businesses the better the environment for tenants, which makes a landlords job easier. It turns into a win win situation, so spread the word!

I’m In A Quandary

February 6, 2014 By Landlord Education

Easing Back In

Hey, if you haven’t noticed I’ve kind of slipped off the pace here this year. My goal has always been to get one new article out a week and one email tip out a week to everyone that’s registered.

Fortunately I’m fairly far ahead in my email list, although those that have been on it for a while may not have seen anything new in a while. That brings me to my current quandary.

I know so many of you are at different levels and different stages of being landlords. Some have been at it for a years and know quite a few of the tips and ideas I talk about already while on the other end of the spectrum many of you are new to the landlord business and a few are still just learning before you even take the plunge.

Knowing the broad differences in experience I’ve been a little unsure of what direction to head with the site. Do I continue to write and guide with basic tips for new landlords, or do I throw in some advanced steps and topics along the way?

That’s been the way I’ve tried to do it with the big focus on helpful beginner tips, but I want to hear from you to find out what you find most valuable.

I’ve been trying to ease back into this and I’ve already written half a dozen new articles, but I’m just not happy with where they were headed, hence my quandary.

So can you help ease my confusion and tell me what you’d like to see more of? Property management tips? Renovations? Dealing with tenants? You tell me?

I’m still working on a few other projects and courses in the background, right now one’s on writing ads for your rental property and another is how to run a rooming house, so if there are gaps in your knowledge as a landlord that you’d like to fill, here’s your soapbox. Leave me a comment in the section below and let’s see how I do!

Analyzing Rental Properties – Rental Neighborhoods

January 13, 2014 By Landlord Education

Choosing The Right Neighborhood

Here we are on part three of analyzing rental properties, hopefully this is helpful for you if you’re planning on expanding your portfolio or just getting started in the landlord business and plan on purchasing your first property.

If you missed the first two articles, I’d suggest you backtrack and read them first, you can find them at these links, Analyzing Rental Properties Part 1, Analyzing Rental Properties Part 2.

So what is the right neighborhood? To be fair there is no specific right neighborhood and it can vary from state to state, province to province and city to city, but there are clues to what areas tend to work better.

Following the Clues

When purchasing a rental property there are a couple key considerations you need to think about. First and foremost is cash flow.

Cash flow requires two things, healthy rents and being fully rented as much as possible. If you generate $500 cash flow a month that’s great, but if you’re vacant four months every year you end up losing money. If you only generate $100 cash flow a month, but are vacant even one month a year you could also be going in reverse.

Ideally you want properties in high cash flow areas or properties that have the opportunity to provide multiple streams of income. This can be basement suites or multiple units.

Alternatively you can look at single family homes if the monthly payments are very low and rents are great, but this can be a challenge and leaves you open for extended vacancy periods with no income coming in.

The second area to consider is a good rental population. This is where so many potential investors fall down.

You can have the best rental property in the world waiting to be rented out, but if there are no tenants, it just sits there vacant with you feeding it. This is where the economics we talked about in the first article come into play.

In healthy areas where economies are growing workers tend to migrate to the area and they tend to be renters when they arrive. Often the healthiest areas in these places are districts with good access to industrial and warehouse areas.

The reason for this is they provide the largest supply of potential renters and renters like to be close to their work. Many people moving to new cities or towns who rent are typically blue collar workers or laborers and these are your prime candidates for many landlords.

They tend to stay tenants for longer periods of time and they are plentiful which gives you more applicants to choose from when you are vacant and leads to less vacancies.

The final considerations are transportation and amenities. You want good transportation services nearby so it is convenient and you want shopping also to be handy for items like groceries.

An example of this is our furnished rental properties that cater to working men. They all have multiple buses that stop within a couple blocks that will take them to the industrial areas or other main work areas (downtown core, secondary industrial areas).

They are also located close to main transportation corridors if they have their own vehicles that can get to the North, South East or West of the city quickly. And we have nearby grocery stores, pharmacies and even restaurants that are all within a short walking distance. These features create a benefit of saved time and convenience and tend to help us keep tenants for longer periods.

Good cash flow, a large pool of potential tenants to fill your property and proximity to transportation and amenities are all keys to successful rental properties. They aren’t the only keys, and these alone won’t guarantee success, but they will make the process easier.

So, if you haven’t purchased your first rental property yet, start including these in your parameters when searching. If you already have a rental property, how many of these three attributes do you already have in place?

Not having all three isn’t a guarantee of failure, there are always successful rule breakers out there, but the more you have the easier it can be.

Not having great cash flow can be compensated with you occasionally funding the property, perhaps the cash flow is compensated by great appreciation.

Not having a large supply of local tenants can be worked around by setting up relationships with relocation companies that provide rentals for large local companies.

Not having amenities can be compensated by…. hmmmm, well hold it that one may be more of a problem, but it can depend on the area and what people are used to, but you get the idea.

So, for those you with rental properties already, take a look around and see if you have these requirements and then let me know if you have them by accident or by plan by leaving me a comment below!

I look forward to hearing from you and I would also like to know from those planning on becoming landlords int he near future, did it help? Were these last three articles useful and applicable to you? your feedback will help ensure future articles and series can help everyone the most possible, so thanks for your input.

Analyzing Rental Properties – Neighborhoods

January 9, 2014 By Landlord Education

Location, Location, Location

Continuing on with my series on analyzing rental properties I started by talking about doing some homework before you jump in.

We started it by looking at the local economics of where you’re potentially looking to purchase an investment property. Economic factors can help ensure the chances of your rental property being a success are multiplied, so if you’re just starting with this post, you may want to go back to part 1 Analyzing Rental Properties – The Economics

In this post I’m going to talk about neighborhoods which help ensure a steady stream of tenants and even better odds of hitting a home run with your investment rental property.

As the old adage in Real Estate goes, the three most important parts of buying Real Estate are location, location and location, although when buying rental property, it’s not the same location as buying your personal residence.

So many would be landlords see a house down the street from where they live come up for sale and they get the idea that it would be ideal as a rental property for them. Nine times out of ten, it’s not. In fact it could be the worst decision you make as a landlord and has the ability to permanently scar you.

The Pain

I’ve been there. I purchased the house beside mine years ago to help out the little old lady who wanted to move away. We tried to help her sell the property, but the market was very flat at the time and she was on a deadline, so we did what we felt was right and bought it os she could move on.

We were already experienced landlords with a couple years under our belt, so we knew it would work. Except with a high mortgage and low rents we new we would have some cash flow challenges, but if we could make it last a year, then we could sell it, yeah that’s it!

So we went ahead with it. We repainted, we fixed up some minor issues and we had a great property, just no one to rent it. Now since fortune favors the brave (or the uneducated initially), we managed to find some people who drastically needed to sell their home due to foreclosure issues and needed help getting back on their feet.

We were able to set up a win win solution where we took over their current home’s equity and renovated it, put it on the market as it was in a much higher demand area and sell it quite quickly. At the same time we moved them into the property beside us, used a portion of the equity as a down payment for a rent to own scenario for them and it all looked great.

They were actually paying less per month, we were making a few dollars as rent to own properties have higher rents and we had a bundle of cash from the flip of the other property. Everyone was winning.

They seemed like nice people, we got along quite well and several times they even joined us out back on our deck for a beer or glass of wine during the summer. Then the wheels fell of.

One of the burdens they had to deal with in their lives was a severely mentally handicapped daughter . She was fifteen years old, but mentally only reached the capacity of a two year old. Needless to say, but helping her and managing her was a full time job for the mom. Plus they had another son, so their days were full.

It started when they asked if they could get a dog. Pets are great therapy for children and apparently even more so for people with disabilities, so how could we say no? So away they went and picked up a mid sized dog, for a very tiny back yard…

A little more background, our former neighbour kept an impeccable yard. The rumours in the neighborhood was that she snuck out late at night to pull dandelions as we never saw any in her yard and the back yard was beautiful with banks of flowers across the back and a lovely covered seating area to relax in.

Well, in no time it was a complete mess. The lawn was dead and torn up, they never cleaned up the dog crap and it went from bad to worse.

Very unfortunately the daughter’s health deteriorated even more and she passed away. We felt awful. They had done so much to make things work for their child, they had given up so many things to make a good life for her and she was taken away by failing health.

The positive we saw on this was with the extra financial burden gone, they would be able to turn their life around and while this left a huge hole in their lives, it would ultimately allow them to move forward. We were wrong.

People Just Think Differently

We were actively growing our Real Estate portfolio plus I was working a demanding full time job at the time, but we wanted to succeed so we made adjustments to our lives. We only had one well used vehicle to save money, we rarely ate out and we scrimped and saved. We thought that was how everyone should think when they are trying to live up to their ambitions and dreams.

You simply adapt to make things work and start to think differently.

Not the renters next door though, although they did think differently than us. What little money they had left they sunk into their daughter’s funeral, which is understandable, but it left them with nothing and when their daughter first became sick (this last bought was over a few months), we did what we thought was the right thing and didn’t pressure them for rent.

We knew they were incurring significant extra costs during that time, the husband wasn’t able to work as much as he was needed at home and we could cover it. So by the time they had the funeral they already owed us almost $6,000. I know rookie mistake, but a compassionate mistake, after all they were not just my tenants… but they were my neighbors too.

Then the husband’s vehicle broke down, so they leased a new expensive vehicle, still not sure where that money came from if they couldn’t pay me. Next we noticed the wife had new shiny manicured nails, a brand new cell phone and they even asked if they could get a second dog!! All expenses we refused to splurge on for ourselves as we were very money conscious. We said no obviously and suddenly we became the bad people for refusing them.

The best part? We had front row seats as it all took place next door.

Finally, we find out from them that the government funds they were receiving to help with their daughter’s disabilities were “suddenly” cut off now that she had passed. Their free supply of money that was obviously just being spent on them now suddenly dried up. Were they thinking it just ran on forever?

This just made the likelihood of us ever getting the outstanding rent back extremely unlikely, so we were ready to pull the plug and evict them. Before that hppened, they came to us and told us there was no way they could afford to stay in the property and had located a basement suite to move into, but couldn’t get in for six more weeks.

They were going from a 1,600 square foot single family home in a nice neighborhood, complete with a two car garage and a basement, to something under 1,000 square feet. Talk about a change of lifestyle.

I can’t even remember if they were able to get us any additional money during that remaining time they were there, but I know I spent every day hating the idea that money that should have been coming to me, instead was going to the shiny new vehicle in the driveway beside my older vehicle. It was a very painful daily reminder of how I was being taken advantage of.

When they finally did leave, the property itself wasn’t too beat up, but the back yard was a disaster and we had to completely repaint and re-floor the property. We knew there was no way we could rent to someone next door again and that we needed to sell, so a significant renovation was in order.

In the end, the tenant walked away owing us over $10,000, plus we dropped another $20,000 in fixes and upgrades to sell it. The positive part of this was during the time the tenants were in there, the market had taken a huge upswing and even after all the losses and extra expenses we still managed to make a healthy profit, but we were just lucky.

The TakeAways

The painful and expensive lesson we learned is that having your tenants next door or even near to you, opens up the door for more problems. Your relationship could evolve from just landlord tenant to a more complicated Landlord/neighbor scenario.

Part two of this is when things do go wrong , and there is no guarantee they will go wrong, it’s much more painful when it’s next door for you to see or you pass by it on your way home from work every day. Yes you get to keep a closer eye on things, but that too has it’s good and bad.

Part three, if things do go bad and it gets to the point where your relationship sours, do you really want your tenants knowing where you live, or having to see them almost every day? Especially if they are spending your money on themselves rather than paying the rent they owe?

Why take a chance?

In all likelihood the neighborhood you are living in isn’t the best location for a rental property anyway. Although the quality of tenants overall may be better in nicer neighborhoods, the quantity is way down.

This can lead to longer times filling vacancies while you are making payments each month on more expensive properties.

When buying in areas more prone to rental properties you have a much bigger pool of tenants to choose from and while you may have to put more work into screening, during tougher economic times you want a bigger base of potential tenants to choose from as vacant months add up quickly.

Also, buying rental properties in rental areas is usually much cheaper than purchasing in prime homeowner areas which can save you money to start with. Buying a property for less money and still being able to get the same amount of income is simply being smart.

Buying an expensive property in an expensive area and hoping to make money may work, but it’s much harder and has more drawbacks.

Most of these neighborhoods frown on renters. It’s the NIMBY mentality or Not In My Back Yard attitude. They complain about illegal suites (which they have a right too), they complain about too many vehicles, they complain about snow not being shovelled in a timely fashion or grass not being cut to acceptable lengths etc. And while these people exist in all neighborhoods, they are much more prevalent in owner occupied areas.

Even if you do everything right, if your neighbors find out your property in the nice neighborhood is a rental, it gets a bit of a social stigma. Yet if you buy in a rental area where you have a huge pool of tenants, it’s just another property in the neighborhood.

Yes you may have a longer drive to randomly check up on your property, but the other benefits outweigh this by so much!

The BottomLine

You have to do what works for you. I’ve given you my example of what can go wrong and I’ve explained why not renting next to you works better. If you’re already living in a rental neighborhood, you may not have an option, or if you’re in a small town it’s hard not be be near your rental, but if you have a choice, don’t make it too close!

The benefits of purchasing a rental property in a rental neighborhood are they are typically a bit cheaper, they typically generate better overall cash flow, renovations cost less, you have more tenants to chose from and they can often be suited providing you with multiple streams of income from one property.

The benefits of buying in your possibly upscale neighborhood is that it’s close, you can keep an eye on your tenants, the initial price is higher so % increases in value reward you more and the class of tenant is typically better.

The negatives of buying in a rental area is you have to do more thorough screening as it’s quantity versus quality, the initial price point is lower so if values increase x% it would be smaller than if on a more expensive house and it may not be near by where you live.

The negatives of buying in your neighborhood that is not a rental area are far fewer tenants to choose from, so longer periods of vacancy, lower amounts of cashflow, renovations are typically more expensive, if the relationship sours, you have to deal with it often on a daily basis and your property can suffer local stigma for being a rental.

There are people who buy near them and run their property successfully, with only one property this may work perfectly for you. However, all the investors I know who buy multiple properties tend to buy them further afield and usually in specific areas designed to generate the best chance of success and the most cash flow and I can’t recall any of them buying the rental next door or down the street from themselves.

And if they don’t do it, why would you?

So, this has been one of my longest articles ever, so I hope you got some value from it, I’d love to hear your comments and stories about your rental properties. Are they in your neighborhood? In rental areas, or next door?

The next article will be the third in this series and will talk about local rental markets, I hope to have it ready for you soon!

FYI, this is how it looked when we were done,

Analyzing Rental Properties – Economics

January 6, 2014 By Landlord Education

Is It a Good Or Bad Rental Investment?

When you’re purchasing a rental property as an investment, you’re really looking for a good long term investment. The problem is, how can you be sure it works, and how can you tell a good rental property from a bad rental property?

Fortunately, there are a few things you can look at to help put the odds of finding a good rental property in your favor. This article will address a few of them.

Before anyone purchases a rental property, they should really do some homework regarding the local economy, the neighborhood they are considering purchasing in and the local rental markets. So yes, there is homework involved.

Economic Factors

I’m starting with economic factors as I feel they are one of the best indicators of long term success for a Real Estate investor or beginning landlord. You really want to choose an area that gives you an advantage.

While it’s true there is rental property in just about every city, county and jurisdiction, these areas are not all created equal and understanding the local economics can give you an unfair advantage over those that don’t. This advantage doesn’t necessarily translate directly to success, but it does make it easier.

Some of the factors I refer to as economic are items like unemployment rates, new businesses coming to the area and even the general age of the local population.

If you look at historical unemployment rates for the area you are considering you’ll find a mountain of potential information. Ideally, you’ll be looking at an area where people are moving to for work and unemployment has been quite stable (low and stable) or has been exhibiting a trend of dropping over the years.

Right off the bat, this makes Detroit a bad choice. Sure you can get into rental properties very cheap, but with extremely high unemployment and not to bright of a future it doesn’t bode well for getting paid rent on time and potential increase in values in the near future.

If you know of new businesses coming into an area, this too can be a benefit. The biggest example currently of this is throughout the Dakotas where the oil and gas industry are working like crazy. While many of the workers will end up being transient and not necessarily sticking around the area, the huge growth in these industries also trickles down to new restaurants, stores and businesses that serve these workers. These businesses have employees who will stick around and will be getting paid.

Another area to look at is the general age of the population. If you have a relatively older population in the area, does that mean a sell off is in the near future as they retire? Will this form a glut of properties on the market affecting rents and values?

On the other hand if the population is relatively young, will they be transitioning to purchasing in five years from renting? Will this put extra pressure on home values going up and lending itself to more growth in the home building industry?

These are the types of questions serious investors look at when purchasing in areas and if you’re serious about being successful, they should be part of your process as well.

I know dozens of investors, very successful investors, who don’t even buy in the same region they live in. they have hand picked cities and towns hundreds and thousands of miles from where they live. it might be daunting, but it also reduces much of the risk.

Tis The Christmas Season – When Landlords Come Second

December 5, 2013 By Landlord Education

Tis The Best Of Times

Christmas, a time of family.

A time of celebration.

A time of presents.

A time of excitement for families, both young and old.

It’s also a time where landlords can come second.

Tis The Worst of Times

This post will be live December 6th, six days after rent is normally due. If your tenants are late with rent right now, you have some tough times ahead of you. If your tenants are behind a month already, it just gets worse.

The reason I can relate to this so well is my very first eviction took place in December of 2004. It’s when I first learned landlords can come second to Christmas. They were already a month and a half behind and apparently struggling as they tried to catch up, or so I thought.

My generosity in letting them fall behind was a losing situation and when they didn’t have December’s rent, I waited a few days and then gave them an eviction notice to be out on the 22nd of December, or to pay me in full and they could stay until the end of the month.

We felt horrible. We were evicting people just before Christmas. People who we felt were struggling to get by.

The problem was, so were we!

I was still working full time in order to help our lives move forward. We’d been involved in Real Estate for 18 months at this point and had six rental properties (three of which were losing money, four if you count this one), and money was tight for us.

We knew we had to make sacrifices now if we wanted to get anywhere with our lives and if that involved having a small Christmas for ourselves, that’s how it had to be. As they say, if it was easy, everyone would do it and evicting people before Christmas isn’t easy.

To Make a Short Story Long

These tenants actually lived upstairs in this half duplex and our handyman was living downstairs. On the night of the 21st, he called us to tell us when he got home all the lights were on upstairs and the patio door, the bedroom windows and the front door were wide open and the tenants and their possessions were gone. Except for their garbage of course, and the damages.

No serious damage, just all the walls needed to be repainted, the handles and the vents had been painted with nail polish (most likely by their kids) and it was basically in a situation of neglect or lack of cleaning for many months.

Fortunately Ray the handyman had come home to find it, as we weren’t going to come by until the next day. Ray closed all the windows, the patio door and locked up the front door for us and we moved forward a little disappointed in life and in people.

The next day after work we stopped by to survey what needed to be done. Here it was December 22nd, I had five days off work, theoretically to spend with my family and discovered that the majority of it would be spent cleaning and painting my property so I could have it ready for January 1st. the perfect way to set the mood for the holidays.

The holidays became even more interesting the next day when the former tenant called to say we had all their Christmas presents for their kids. After trying to find out what she meant, she told us they forgot all the presents in the closet and since we changed the locks after they moved out they couldn’t get back in to get them.

Back to the house the next day and lo and behold, no presents.

Which leads me down another garden path, but to try and shorten this up, we talked to Ray the handyman and when asked about it he fessed up that he moved them downstairs to keep them safe…

So wanting to do the right thing, we told the tenant we would drop the presents off that night. We’d already kicked them out before Christmas, they were apparently down on their luck, so it had to be done.

So when we finally grabbed the presents to take to them from Ray, we took a closer look. These poor downtrodden tenants who were scraping by probably had over $1,000 worth of presents for the kids.

There was a Leap Pad, which my oldest daughter wanted for Christmas, but we couldn’t justify purchasing because things were so tight. There were other electronic toys, stuffed animals, clothes, all types of items that were far and beyond what we could justify spending on our own kids.

Yet these people could do it and without a thought about it, not pay me my rent causing me financial hardship.

So needless to say, Christmas has left me a bit jaded at times. And the lesson to be learned is while Christmas is a time to be forgiving, it’s also a time where people will take advantage of kind heartedness. We could have let them stay for another month, in the spirit of Christmas, but the only thing it would have changed is how much more money we lost by being too forgiving.

So my lesson for you, if you haven’t been paid for December rent by the time you read this, don’t get too caught up in the Christmas spirit of giving, unless you can afford to lose the money and you don’t mind coming in second.

The Morning After Update

So I normally write these articles a day or two before I publish them which allows me time to think about what I wrote and how it will help others. When I posted it last night, I skipped that step and as I thought about it over night I believe it came across as perhaps a bit too harsh.

Now there is no discounting that these former tenants took advantage of me. I was pretty new and I was pretty hopeful people were good. Now almost ten years later I’m not so new, not quite so optimistic and even jaded at times. And occasionally my inner grinch comes out, like when I wrote this.

The important part to realize is not all tenants are created equal and when you have nothing to go on, history is important. History of the tenant that is.

If they have a history of paying late, your leniency should be short. If they have a great history and suddenly are having hiccups during the holidays due to unforeseen problems, then on a case by case basis, there may be room for slack and understanding.

Over the years I’ve received cards and gifts from tenants and they are definitely not all bad, in fact the majority of them are great, but we often forget the good and focus on the bad. So if you have good tenants, be good to them and they will reward you in kind.

There that’s my slightly revised message for you, hope it helps.

The Importance Of Having Current Tenant Contact Info

November 29, 2013 By Landlord Education

Tenant Contact Info

If you’ve taken my Tenant Screening Course, you know I stress getting as much information as possible on your application and contacting all the references and contacts. It’s just your added benefit of making sure you get a really clear picture of who your potential tenant is and to make sure everything is consistent.

There is also some extra benefit from this as well.

If perhaps your landlord tenant relationship sours and you find yourself the victim of a midnight move, damages to the property you weren’t expecting and/or even just difficulties getting your rent, having knowledge of where the tenant works, contact information for relatives and friends and access to references can definitely work in your favor.

It’s always nice to try a have additional resources to contact when trying to track down a tenant who is avoiding you or owes you money, but it turns out there are other reasons as well.

Being a landlord can be a roller coaster, from the highs of getting your first rental property, your first tenant and even your first rent check to the darker side which at times it feels like it can shake your faith in people.

This week was another hill in my roller coaster. Every time I feel I’ve seen it all, I see something slightly different, both good and bad and this week had shades of both with multiple lessons learned.

When Tenants Impact Your Life

Over lunch with a landlord I’m mentoring this week we brought up a familiar subject, landlord tenant relations. As the saying goes with people in general, if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile and this is especially true in a landlord tenant relationship.

The rules and boundaries you have in place need to be enforced so that you’re not taken advantage of. Whether it’s allowing a late rent payment, modifying your rules about pets or a myriad of other areas of leniency, you have to remember you have a business relationship, not a friendship with your tenants.

Having said this, when tenants have been part of your life for many years, it becomes more than just a tenant landlord relationship and when you lose one, it can be shocking.

And this week I lost a great tenant.

Kirk was a 70 year old fellow who had been with me in one of my shared accommodation properties since October 2008. Five straight years.

Through the tough years of the economic downturn and the good years of steady turn over, Kirk had been a rock in the house making sure it was clean, the other tenants were staying in line (or I quickly knew discreetly who the problem was) and acting as an ambassador to other incoming tenants.

He always made the new people feel right at home and was quick to welcome them from wherever they came. It was common in this house for Kirk to make a roast in the slow cooker or chili or some type of stew and to share it with everyone on Saturday and Sunday’s.

I mentally reviewed where some of the tenants I had in this short term accommodation had come from and the list was extensive. People from not just across Canada and the US but also Australia, Ireland, Poland, Russia, New Zealand, Mexico many countries in the Middle East and many more that I’ve likely forgotten. And they all seemed to comment about how Kirk made them feel at home.

Perhaps especially the young twenty year old currently staying at the house who called me Tuesday night to tell me that Kirk had passed away at work that day.

Kirk had treated him like his own son and understandably this young man was extremely sad to lose this fellow so close to him and such a rock in his life. It’s just a testament to what a great tenant and a good person Kirk was. Sure he had his demons, but he affected so many people in a positive way.

There was a long list of previous tenants who would often be repeat clients as they cam back through our city for work and they always wanted to be back in that house as they enjoyed being around him. It was a common occurrence to show up at the house and find one of these former tenants just stopping by to say hi to Kirk or taking him out for dinner as he had made such an impact on them.

He will be sorely missed

Which brings me full circle back to having current tenant information and the lesson learned from this. As a landlord, we often have to do things which make us uncomfortable. Be it confronting tenants, evicting tenants or simply saying no to tenant requests.

Well Tuesday night I had to make the uncomfortable call to Kirk’s daughter to inform her of the news. I wasn’t sure if she knew already or if I was going to have to pass on the news. I dreaded making that call, but as a landlord, I have responsibilities especially when it comes to doing what’s right, as touch as it may be.

The dread became worse when I discovered I broke my own rules and didn’t have the full phone number for her. Here I teach people to get contact info and I couldn’t even get this right. I had a partial phone number, but obviously at the time Kirk didn’t have the complete number.

Fortunately her number was in his room and I made the call.

Also fortunately, I wasn’t the first to talk to her. Kirk’s work had called her earlier in the day. I had a quick conversation and we arranged to meet later in the week so she could collect his things.

The next day I began to reach out to some of the former tenants I knew had often come back to see Kirk and it wasn’t long before my phone was abuzz with text messages as word spread. Many knew each other and the resounding message was how much he will be missed.

So just to close up, there are some lessons to be learned.

Even though many tenants often portray us as cold hearted landlords, and it may come across that way at times, tenants do affect us. I had quite a sleepless night that night and I know I will miss my tenant of so many years for more than just being a rock steady tenant. He was a good person.

Second, you need to stay on top of your tenant contact info. This is the second time I have had to deal with a death of a tenant and I also had to make a tough call that time as well. I’ve also had to call parents when tenants were badly injured and it’s never an easy thing to do, but imagine not being able to update loved ones about their sons or fathers.

So stay on top of your records and remember to treasure your good tenants, you never know how long they will be around.

And Why Professional Landlords Get Premiums!

The Argument For Increased Rent

The Bonus’s of Better Properties

How To Avoid Discounting Your Rents

Share this with your friends:

Easing Back In

Share this with your friends:

Choosing The Right Neighborhood

Following the Clues

Share this with your friends:

Location, Location, Location

The Pain

People Just Think Differently

The TakeAways

Why take a chance?

The BottomLine

Share this with your friends:

Is It a Good Or Bad Rental Investment?

Economic Factors

Share this with your friends:

Tis The Best Of Times

Tis The Worst of Times

To Make a Short Story Long

The Morning After Update

Share this with your friends:

Tenant Contact Info

When Tenants Impact Your Life

He will be sorely missed

Share this with your friends: