Too much of a good thing?
Ah, yes. It’s that time of year again. It’s the season we property managers have grown to love; after all, it challenges the best of who we are!
It’s the time of year when furnaces go out in the middle of the night, water heaters flood basements, ice dams build up on walkways, and tenants sometimes forget the rent payment is due on the first day of the month.
Seasoned property managers will have prepared for this season. (more…)
In the area of screening tenants for residential rental properties, property managers often like to think of themselves as great judges of character. After all, as a property manager, you deal with prospective tenants from all walks of life, don’t you? A few years in the business is likely to give us the feeling that we instinctively know who’s going to be a good tenant, and who isn’t.
Greetings, fellow property managers! Today’s blog is a guest post by Robert Frenchu of Coldwell Banker Best Sellers in Carson City, Nevada. It’s a humorous look at the “Bad Owner.” Enjoy!
There exists a symbiotic relationship between Property Managers and our owner-clients. Take, for example, the crocodile and the plover. The croc could easily eat the plover but chooses instead to allow the bird to sit in his mouth and remove the tiny bits he’s not really interested in. This keeps his breath sweet and the plover gets a nice meal. The Property Manager in this example is, of course, the bird.
Firing Your Owner-Client
In most cases, this relationship works well. The owner understands the Property Manager’s role in managing his property, and the Property Manager understands his role in acting as the owner’s agent. But sometimes, the jaws snap shut, and there are only a few feathers left where a Property Manager used to be. (more…)
New Rules.
Property Managers, Common-Interest Community Managers, and landlords often lament the failure of residents to obey the rules of their communities. To these managers, keeping order in the community is a full-time job. If you talk to their residents, you’ll hear a different story. The residents will tell you of the extreme hardships caused by the managers’ extensive Rules & Regulations that seek to govern “every aspect” of the residents’ lives.
A conversation with a friend today sparked an idea. What if, as managers, we seek to communicate our rules and policies in a way the residents will not only read them, but adhere to them? And, if you’re a resident in a multifamily community, would you have more respect for the rules if they were communicated in a more user-friendly fashion? (more…)
Greetings, fellow property managers! Today’s blog is a guest post by one of our own, Robert Frenchu of Coldwell Banker Best Sellers in Carson City, Nevada. It’s a humorous take on the myriad issues surrounding roommates in rental properties. Enjoy!
Roommates
The very word sends chills down the spine of property managers. The only other things we’d rather not hear are, “…water leaking since last Tuesday,” and “…when the garbage truck plowed through the living room….” Why do we develop nervous tics whenever roommates apply for a rental? Besides dealing with the competing priorities and motivations of two or more different people, roommates many times have trouble understanding some basic concepts.
A lease is a contract— a legal agreement between two- or more- parties. Any time you add another party to the mix, things can get more complex, and often do. Many leases have language that describes the obligation being between the owner and multiple tenants, and that language is “together and severally.” (Think of the word “severed” instead of “several.”) That means the agreement is • between the Owner and Tenants A & B, and • between the Owner and Tenant A, and the Owner and Tenant B.
Now that you understand the concept behind multiple signatories on contracts, let’s cruise through some examples of situations you need to think about before you sign on the dotted line. (more…)
5 Signs You Might be Dating a Property Manager
Property Management is my thing. I’ve been at it for nearly my entire adult life. Dating, on the other hand, is something I’ve done on and off, over the years. Surprisingly, I’ve never quite gotten the hang of it. Like a fish out of water, the dating scene just hasn’t been a good fit for me.
There are many lessons to be learned in the dating world, no matter the outcome. One of those lessons came to me pretty early. I learned to be careful what I say about my employment. When I would come right out and tell prospective sweeties that I’m a property manager or landlord, it conjured up some pretty powerful stereotypes. Those stereotypes served to draw some rather strange prospects to my door.
So, if you are scrolling through an online list of potential dating prospects, and you see employment references like “real estate curator” or “property preservation specialist,” or “asset manager,” beware. You might just be dating a property manager. (more…)
