The Educated Landlord

Making Landlording Easier

You are here: Home / Archives for Property management

Interview With a Landlord

By

Can you believe it’s fall already? Time has absolutely flown by and I apologize for the extended layoff with videos and posts. I think putting that Screening Course together in August threw me off further than I thought.

On the positive side, I have more information started that I want to get out to everyone and it starts with an interview I did last week with a landlord I’ve been mentoring for the last four years. I’d known Tim before he started in the landlord business and since he knew what I did, he reached out to find out more about being a Real Estate investor.

I think I gave him enough to get started as it wasn’t too much longer before he picked up his first rental property and now he’s got several in his portfolio and isn’t done yet. With an eye for analyzing potential properties he’s done well in picking some properties with great potential, but he’s also had some hiccups along the way.

In this 8 minute interview Tim sits down with me and goes over some of what he has discovered along the way and shares a bit of his story, I hope you enjoy it.

If you did enjoy this and feel your story would be interesting and informative to others I’d love to set up an interview with you. Since our readers are scattered all over the country I can do interviews via Skype if that works or I can even set up an online meeting to record our conversation.

To get started, email me at info@TheEducatedLandlord.com and let’s help make you famous!

 

Bill

Out With The Old, In With The New

By

Tenant Turnaround Time

One and a half hours. That was the shortest turnaround time I had between one tenant moving out and another moving into the same property. What was your shortest time?

The Secret is Preparation

It hasn’t always worked out this well for me and typically the turnaround is a day, but there is no reason it shouldn’t be a few hours or less every time. After all, the longer you are vacant, the more money is out of your pocket.

The secret to making this all work though is preparation. So, what do you need to prepare? Well obviously, you need all of your paperwork, leases, exit and entrance walk through forms and deposits paid in advance, but the catch that most landlords worry about, is the condition of the property when tenant #1 leaves.

This is where preparing well in advance pays off and is just part of another strategic system that landlords should have in their arsenal. The question for you at this point is, are you ok with sacrificing an hour now, to prepare some paperwork you can use over and over and over in the future and that allows you to turn tenants over quicker than you thought possible?

One Special Tactic

It all comes down to one extra tactic once your tenant provides notice. This tactic is simply a matter of mailing, or dropping off in person, a copy of the original lease, the walk through and one new form with the tenant, shortly after you have their notice.

The original lease points out their obligations, the walk through reiterates the condition of the property when they moved in and the new form is your ticket to happiness.

This extra form is the one you should prepare immediately and includes a list of expectations for the tenants departure. It reminds the tenant of their responsibilities by pointing to any pertinent clauses you have in your lease. Clauses such as the tenants being responsible to steam clean the carpets if you have them.

It goes over your charges for any cleanup or garbage removal you may require to complete after they move out and details costs they will incur if you have to replace any light bulbs, screens or any other minor items. It also explains that they can get their full security deposit back quite quickly if no extra work is required for cleanup on your part.

If there is significant work to get the property back to original condition this can affect the timeline of them receiving their security deposit and they need to be aware. So break this down in your form as well.

By the rules, you have to return any remaining security deposit back within ten days of them moving out, but if you require work to be done, you can also withhold approximate costs if you have a quote to get this completed and it’s always good to get high quotes, just in case!

The majority of the time though, this lights a fire under the tenants. So, as long as you check the property out a couple weeks prior to the move out, you should have a great idea how quickly the new tenants can move in!

Understanding Costs

You can charge your time out at the equivalent rate for other cleaning companies. So if you do the cleanup yourself, call a few cleaning companies in your area to determine a per hour cost for cleaning and use this in your form.

Also, when talking about costs to replace bulbs, it’s not just the cost of the bulb, but your time. So replacing a bulb isn’t $1, because that’s what it sells for at the store. It’s $5 because you had to buy it, and use your time to replace it. Explaining this and showing the tenant how it’s in their best interest could help you get your turnaround time even lower than mine!

Want To Fill Your Properties Faster?

By

Then What’s Your Price Point?

fill your properties faster - advertising for tenants the smart wayWant to fill your properties faster when they’re vacant? Then take a page from Walmart.

Have you ever shopped at Walmart? I think I know the answer, but humour me.

Everywhere you look, items are priced at $19.97, $39.99, $89.97 or even $99.99. They are never priced at $20, $40, $90 or $100 and there is a reason for it.

It’s the same reason you should never advertise your unit for $1,000, $800 or $1,500. Psychologically people think of $995, $797 and $1,499 as lower numbers. Rational thought jumps out of the window and people feel it is less, even if the difference is just a few pennies or even five dollars.

This can be extremely powerful when you are trying to rent out a property, so humour me again and never rent your property out for an even dollar amount!

Bonus Tip

Here’s a quick bonus tip to help ensure your properties get found more often. If you advertise on any of the online rental sites (and I highly recommend you start if you aren’t already doing this) make sure you understand their search functions on the site.

Often the systems allow renters to search by price and you always want to be just under any cut off points. If they break the increments down by $50 it might be tougher to stand out, but if they break them into larger increments, you can make sure your rental fits in the right spot!

If the cut off points are $750, $1,000, $1,250 and increase by $250 from there, you want to fit just under those cut off points. Think $749, $999 and even $1,249. Don’t be afraid to experiment and even try $747, 997 and $1,247. Experiments have shown the number 7 included in a price actually sells better than 9!