being a landlord - The Educated Landlord

What Would Make You Quit Being A Landlord?

As you gain knowledge being a landlord you do it two main ways, through good experiences and through bad experiences. As a landlord bad experiences can be problems with tenants, lenders, insurance or even neighbours.

It’s one of those bad experiences that drove another landlord out of the business.

As many of you know, I help landlords in my area (Alberta) get through the process of evicting tenants. It’s knowledge I’ve gained through many bad experiences!!

One way I help is I’ve created an easy to follow step by step guide that walks landlords through not just the eviction process itself, but what to expect along the way. I really take the unknown out of the situation for landlords and give them confidence to get through an eviction.

Confidence they didn’t have before.

Now I’ve sold a lot of these guides over the years, we’re talking hundreds!! And I’ve only ever had to do a handful of refunds. So whenever someone asks for a refund I get curious.

Half of the time I know they’ve just taken advantage of my refund policy and the other few occurrences they’ve had very valid reasons. Well I had another refund request this week…

And the reason for the refund? Well the tenant left before the landlord could start the eviction. And he left a ton of damage behind. And he’s tired of being a landlord so he’s quitting…

Another landlord down.

Now it’s too late for this fellow, but the question comes up, could it have been avoided? And more importantly would it make YOU quit?

Be Prepared

You will have problems, challenges and bad experiences as a landlord. Solving them and getting through them will differentiate you from being a landlord who simply quits when the going gets tough or worse yet has to quit.

Now I’m not saying this particular individual gave up too early, I don’t have enough of the details I just know there is an important lesson here.

Unprepared landlords have fewer options to recover, fewer options to get them through tough situations and most often few or zero reserves to deal with a financial hit like lost rent or larger repairs.

If you want to survive the bad along with the good you need to be prepared.

This requires setting aside cash reserves to deal with bigger expenses, it involves understanding eviction rules so you can get tenants out quickly when necessary and it involves understanding potential financial, insurance and other pending challenges.

So really it involves being prepared and educated! And that’s the important lesson!

If you go blindly in thinking you will become wealthy by just buying and holding you may get a big surprise along the way. A surprise that can set you back significantly if you’re not careful.

Be prepared to not just survive when times are tough, but to thrive!

Today’s question, could you survive if you had a $2,000 hit against your rental property? A $5,000 hit? what about a $10,000 loss? Would you be forced to sell or could you make it work?

Leave me a comment below and share your strategy or plan during a bad experience with others. Also please share this with other friends and landlords you know so they can start thinking about being prepared!

So You Want To Be a Landlord?

I seem to get a few emails/calls about being a landlord, so here are some quick thoughts from me on the basics of being a landlord.

This will likely be a multi part series, so this post will focus on what skills do you need to be a landlord?

Handyman Skills

Well some landlords I know are incredibly handy people, they are great with renovations, they love working on their properties and they are you typical Mr. Fixit’s.

However, I know many landlords who’s only tool they have ever used on their property is pen and paper. Rather than investing their time in a property, they have simply hired someone to get the job done. So while being handy helps, I guess it’s not a needed skill.

People Skills

How about people skills, a good landlord should have people skills! Again I know many landlords that are great people people and having the ability to relate to the tenants and get along with them has helped them tremendously.

But as I think about it, these same people have some challenges because they tend to get buddy buddy with their tenants, which rarely seems to work out well.

I also know many landlords who I would definitely put people skills at the lower end of their abilities, yet they are also tremendously successful. So maybe people skills aren’t quite as essential as it seems to be a successful landlord.

Fierce Negotiator

This one has to be important because first you need to be able to negotiate the best possible price on the property you’re purchasing as a rental property, then you need to negotiate with contractors to get the best prices, tenants to get the highest rates and everyone in general to get the best deals.

Except this can be a horrible plan for long term success.

The people you buy your property from resent you for being such an aggressive negotiator, the contractors won’t work for you again because they hate getting nickelled and dimed and tenants can’t wait to get out as they never feel comfortable and often feel ripped off.

In my experience it often works out far better when it’s a win/win negotiation. Where both parties get a fair deal whether it is the purchase/sale of the property, the renovation work and even the rental amounts. So maybe you don’t need to be such a fierce negotiator to make your job as a landlord easier.

Now, I’m not saying have some of the above mentioned skills won’t help you, it just appears they may not be as important as people often believe. Many people find success anyways, even if they are lacking in or more of the above areas.

So what skills are valuable to a landlord?

Organization, Patience and Humility

Now these three skills I do believe are important. Again, they may not be essential, but definitely important.

If you’re organized you can find records, receipts, invoices and more that are required for everything from your taxes to warranties to simply getting your books done correctly. Having systems in place to guide you along the way is one of the best methods to help with this.

If you’re patient and understand your Real Estate is a long term investment it makes being a landlord much easier. With the constantly changing market trying to time your purchases of a rental property and your selling of them can be incredibly stressful.

Rather than following the get rich quick path that so many people promote with Real Estate a longer term approach with an extended time frame (and lots of patience) will guide you through the ups and downs of the inevitable transitions through both buyers and sellers markets.

Finally humility. Have you ever run into a pompous landlord who knows everything about Real Estate? I’m willing to bet many of you have and apparently one ex-subscriber felt that way about me.

You need humility so you can go to others when you have questions or are unsure of the answers. It’s why you need a Real Estate agent who understands investment property when you’re buying. It’s why you need an accountant familiar with Real Estate if you are a landlord so you are aware of the correct deductions you can apply for and the correct processes for setting up your accounts.

It’s why you need to call plumbers, drywallers, painters and other contractors when something is beyond your scope or when it makes sense to bring a pro in to get the job right. Doing all of this takes a bit of humility at times as we often believe we can do it all.

And perhaps we can, but if we do, then we lose focus on what the property is. An investment that should be run as a business.

What do you think?

Another Landlord Down – When You’re Tired of Being A Landlord

What Would Make You Quit Being A Landlord?

Be Prepared

The Basics of Being A Landlord – The Skills You Need