As promised here is the 2nd posting of The Real Truth in PM.
This posting will focus on marketing, and more specifically the strategies followed by almost all companies, as discovered during my research/investigations.
In a city where over 40% of 2.2MM residents are actually renting, it's a little hard to wrap your head around the idea that your property is actually vacant. When you read the following message, you will probably understand it a little more. It's not that there are no renters, or even enough qualified renters, what I have found is the fact that the properties are just not being marketed correctly.
Please read on!
When marketing a property for rent, what I have found is almost all companies operate with the exact same strategies. In my experience, most company executives know that business does evolve, and you should as well if you want to maintain success. What I am seeing is the exact opposite of this, they are not evolving at all, they are relying on the same techniques of a different era, where gas prices and the economy was considerably better than now.
Their strategies are as follows:
1. Sign In Yard – BAD BAD BAD IDEA! Why? I'm glad you asked! The issue with signs in yard is the fact that gas prices in my city are hovering around $3.50-$3.60 per gallon. So if the average vehicle can hold 15 gallons of fuel, that is around $50 or so for a tank of gas. Now this may or may not seem like alot of money to most of us, but I can assure you that it might as well be 1 million dollars to most tenants. These tenants usually put $10-20 in their cars at one time, they DO NOT drive neighborhood's just looking for their next rental home. In fact, my exit polls with tenants have discovered less than 15% of tenants use this method. Those that have answered that they found the property by a sign in the yard, was only because they happen to be on the street.
The other major issue with a sign in the yard, it advertises your property as in FACT being vacant, and invites break ins!! I see this time and time again, rental houses with yard signs, having their front/back doors being kicked in. It's just a bad idea!
2. Craigslist Posting – Before someone yells at me, I strongly support CL ads, when they are done correctly! What do I mean by this? When posting rental properties on CL, you have to run that ad, no less than 3x per day, if you want it to gain momentum. The very reason we post on CL (millions of users), is the very reason it can defeat your intentions. The average ad takes 15-20 minutes to go live on CL, in a section like Apts/Housing For Rent, you will literally have 1000s of post every day. What happens to your ad is quite simple, it goes live, and within 30 minutes it is buried on Page ___! To properly use CL, you must fully understand how CL works, this means creating intelligent ads that CL will not FLAG, and a good understanding of marketing. How do you get your house to stand out among a 1000 others?
3. NON Employee Leasing Agents – This is just a terrible terrible idea! You can bet, if your company is using this method, and many many companies, in fact, utilize this strategy almost exclusively. Here is the only problem you need to know about this. I can promise you and almost guarantee you, there will be absolutely no background checks run on those tenants.
Here is how this strategy plays out. Most independent leasing agents, will charge anywhere from $350-500 per tenant. If your property is renting in the $600-800 range, and your agreement calls for 75% or even 100% of the 1st month's rent, who is going to pay for the background check? You can bet not the leasing agent, and the company will not be happy with $100-$300 to place a tenant, this drastically cuts into their profits. So to reduce this number by another $30-100, just not going to happen. A thorough background check should cost around $30-50 per adult! And they should be pulling a background check on ALL adults!
Now for facts!
60+% of current tenants DO NOT have consistent access to the internet! They simply cannot afford it.
80+% of current tenants DO NOT and WILL NOT drive area's looking for their next home! This used to be the norm, but gas prices have changed all of that! It's time to evolve!
Over 95% of tenants literally live check to check, extra money is out of the question! Why do I bring this up? To help their bottom line, all companies I researched, charge anywhere from $20-40 for an application fee! What's wrong with this? It's really about economics, the very tenants that cannot afford to pay any extra money for an application fee, that they stand a 50% chance of being denied, will just look for those companies that DO NOT charge for applications! ME!!! What does this mean for me and my clients? I see considerably more applications per property than any other company, as they say, safety in numbers! I choose from an average of 12 tenants per property, instead of 1 or 2, which odds do you like better?There are companies that have connections with Section 8, and are allowed to market within the Housing Authority. I have no issue with Section 8, as long as you do a background check, and a very very thorough previous landlord interview. I won't post the story here, but if you all would like to see why this is important, visit my website and read the story of a Section 8 tenant!
All companies I investigated DO NOT run any checks on Section 8 tenants, this is simply foolish! It may be guaranteed rent, but IT IS NOT guaranteed good tenant, major difference.
To summarize:
Make sure your company is in fact evolving with the times, this economy has changed the way ALOT of us conduct business. You can bet if it's effecting our bottom line, it's killing the tenants. Your company should be savvy enough to detect this and make changes where necessary.
NO SIGNS IN YARD! They simply are not as effective, and they cause more problems than it's worth.
CL Posting – Consistency Consistency is the key! Learn CL, so that you can manipulate the results. For example, I use video links in my ads of the properties. Why? It creates an automatic counter for me, I can see actual results of my ads, and not have to guess on their effectiveness. This is marketing!
Independent Leasing Agents. Just a bad idea PERIOD!!
I want to thank those of you that have read my previous post, and this one! I hope this information will help all of you experience a better opportunity, in any market. These methods are tried and true, and backed up with actual data from tenants!
Wishing you all massive returns!
John
Agree with most of your post, although I do beleive a lot of the tenants do drive the homes.
break ins and theft is something that the Aussie by and large just does not understand in the US rental market. And it used to be it only happened in the lower end. But that has changed it happens every where. Aircondioning units get stolen for sport.
I was at a closing in Atlanta a few weeks back and at the lawyers office and it was hot as hell, I mentioned something and he said his condensers units were stolen the night before and this is basically the best town in the metro plex.
Now I am going to post a letter I recieved from someone I lent money to. He is a pastor. he bought 2 properties. and the rest speaks for itsself.
I am still on hold because I am financially drained and may be being forced into bankruptcy (not yet doing all I can to hold it off), all my assets have been drained by the bait and switch cheats on several of the props I got, plus the vandalizing on this one, Combs, and other in KC. My personal home is in foreclosure (we are doing a mod on it), my wife was on jury duty for a year and my church has not paid me since Nov, so we are starting to get back on our feet. My wife is back to work and would like to see how we can work this out too.
I appreciate you and your proposal, so I need to work out something better…I can’t find a good contractor the 2 I already used ripped me off… and the Inur did not come through… So I need someone trustful…any idea, then we can do it…
…also I got this in the mail today, I thought the back taxes were paid and just the current is owed… see attached…. btw I have been in touch wit the tax office and I received NO warning or notification on this, they told me I had till Feb 12…
,,,and the house is insured through Affinity Group Management
National Real Estate Insurance Group
5800 Foxridge Drive, Suite 400
Mission, KS 66202
Phone: (913) 262-1624 ext 618
Toll Free: (800) 790-4872 ext 618
Fax: (913) 894-6534
Thank-you
Richard
This unfortunatly is very comman experince in the states. I have been preaching on this forum and a few have chimed in with there bummer stories. This is why we created our company to handle all these issues as owners not vendors. makes a huge difference. Plus we have 500 plus units.Thanks again for the reply!
Some tenants do in fact drive neighborhoods, as my exit polls point at around 15% of them. I base everything on a risk vs reward, and in a case where 15% of tenants use this method to find their homes, I don't see the reward being better than the risk.
If the property is being marketed correctly, there is no need for yard signs, so that risk can be eliminated.Unfortunately, I see the same stories and in fact am experiencing that same scenario right now with a client. She bought a house here, thought she had bought a "turn-key" home, just to find out the renovations were never done. I am helping her track down the company execs and we will be pursuing criminal charges.
John
From my limited knowledge in this area, the sign out the front serves a number of purposes: advertises the place is available for rent, not just for drive-bys it is for the neighbours to ‘tell a friend’, advertises the letting/selling agency.
Sure, there may be some risk of vandalism but what’s insurance for afterall?
Scott No Mates wrote:From my limited knowledge in this area, the sign out the front serves a number of purposes: advertises the place is available for rent, not just for drive-bys it is for the neighbours to 'tell a friend', advertises the letting/selling agency. Sure, there may be some risk of vandalism but what's insurance for afterall?Well most of the time you cannot get insurance for vandalism, and if you do have it its really expensive. there are 2 schools of thought here, one of my clients up in Indy, use's multiple leasing agents, when one of his houses come's on the market you will see 5 or 6 signs in the yard. Why you ask? Because tenants will call sign number 1. if they get no asnwer they call the next then the next until they get a live person. Tenant does not care who the leasing agent is. so you have multiple leasing agents competing against each other to bring in the tenant as soon as possible.
The reality is if your properties are in the type of neighborhood that you have to go to the methods the KC turn key operater has mentioned here. Then there is more to securing the house's. Most of us could learn alot by checking out what the Detroit guys that buy in these areas do to their homes. Here are few tips: They:
1. Metal kick proof door and door frame front and back.
2. basement windows and some first level replaced with glass blocks, "these will not pass Hud" for the ingress egress issues but they will keep vandals and burglers out.
3. Paint copper pipes grey. So when a snatcher is in looking to rip out the copper in the middle of the night and has a little flashlight they look like galvalized pipes.
4. Heating Airconditiong and all appliances are left out of the house until the day the tenant moves in.
5. And of course virtually anywhere in the US these days you need to cage your condenser units. The first person to come up with a lo jack gps tracking device for airconditioner units is going to make more money than any real estate investor. If you got the idea how to do it We will market and sell it.
However this is great feedback for the AU investor to understand what they are facing. Just because you go the US and personally check things out and do your due diligence. Thats just the start of the process the rest of it is in the running of the property, and having to manage your managers.
Obvioulsly when you visit in person and your checking out that 15k house thats going to give you a 25% yield you will probably come to the conclusion that you would not want to own in that neighborhood, or its a dead and dying area. Not to mention the Ghetto
Scott No Mates wrote:From my limited knowledge in this area, the sign out the front serves a number of purposes: advertises the place is available for rent, not just for drive-bys it is for the neighbours to 'tell a friend', advertises the letting/selling agency. Sure, there may be some risk of vandalism but what's insurance for afterall?When I'm managing properties for my clients, my #1 job is protect their investments the best way I know how. All the decisions I make for each and every property are based on a risk vs reward basis. The risk involved in KC of leaving yard signs out, far out ways any reward that the investor could realize. Again this data was compiled primarily in the KC market and obviously does not reflect other markets.
We can purchase vandalism insurance in KC, and it's not a real expensive option. I purchase builder's risk policies on all my renovations, to protect from this very thing. I usually can get a 6 month policy for around $500. The trick with insurance companies however, is the more you file claims, the quicker they are to get rid of you. The insurance companies have an interconnected database that they all can retrieve the data they need to determine how many times you have filed claims. If you essentially get blacklisted from insurance companies, your left with no insurance protection or having to buy it thru the state at a rate that would probably choke you.
John
Property management is a very specialised area. After renting out numbers of properties in various areas in LA over the last 15 years I can honestly say nothing in anyone’s post here inspires me with any confidence at all.
I _think_ I have finally found a manager that gets where I am coming from and understands what I mean. I am considered a decent client of the broker I have dealt with since day one and finally got introduced to ‘somone you might work well with’.
I recently bought an expensive (for me) building and if I had relied on traditional management it would have failed cataclysmically.
You need someone ‘on the ground’ who can talk the talk. Most of the properties I have seen spruiked or spoken about online will end up complete disasters. Such promising statements as ‘when you go to the US Steve McC*’s favourite store is Best Buys so bring some extra cash’ means – you don’t know what the hell is going on, you will be ripped off.
I am _just_ getting to the stage where I feel confident in one manager I have. And they basically do the management for free because they have much bigger plans than management.
If you can speak spanish fluently enough to have americans referred to in your company as ‘gringos’ then you have reason to be confident in most of the areas I have seen. I’m not personally (yet) cool with the blackfella’s but have some trusted tenants who (I think) look out for my interests in that culture, but unless you are that involved with the tenants you will never succeed as you should. Most of my property managers have had no idea what is going on (before they get the police reports). After 15 years of failing like everyone else I feel I am starting to make my own luck.
No property management company I have come across in the US has come close to even an average standard in Australia. They have no taste whatsoever in decorating, will almost certainly not understand what it is you are saying and will do most things just to make their life easier. Putting effort into decisions on your behalf is simply highly unlikely to expect.
I gave up on trying to make a real success of the US a couple years ago because of management. I wouldn’t pretend I am confident enough to lecture anyone on ‘you need this’ to succeed, but in the last 2 years I have upped most rents 50% with minimal improvements, Its all about the people skills of the manager. I find the US very foreign. I find it very hard to be understood properly over there. That is the problem and it gets very expensive. Buy in the ‘right’ areas and hope for the best. It is not impossible, but it IS difficult.
lawsjs
Nice post:
what do you mean your property manager does not charge and has bigger ideas ?
Are you doing an equity share with them in lui of management fee's?
I think the biggest thing to realize in PM is that its a for profit business. and no property manager can make a living and give the client that special attention and to them and their property for 7 to 10% of collected rent per month.
Its a huge responsibilty for the PM for very little pay. Unless you have thousands of units. If your managing say 50 to 100 units your grossing maybe 4 to 7k a month. Who can live off of that unless you did 100% of the work yourself.
This is why PM must charge for placement, must up charge for maintance, and some do to an extreme others do not, but again how much effort can one company put into your property making this kind of money.
They see their future in being turnaround specialists rather than managers. A property manager with a real interest in the quality of the tenant and building. The first few places of mine they did for free – considering 5-7% gross a waste of money collecting. Variation on a theme, we now split the rent increases. I am also looking at renting entire buildings to them alone. My list of US management disasters stretch as long as my us rental experiences. Generally I have found ‘gringo’ managers to be extremely difficult to communicate with and (whilst looking for a better word) lazy. If something is not directly going to benefit the individual they simply have no inclination for the task. If you want someone in the US to do something you have to first work out how to convince them it is in their best interests to do it. The old fashioned ‘pride in a job well done’ just doesn’t seem to be in the US anymore. Fortunately the rest of the world has not reached that level of selfishness – yet. I hope it never does…
In their defence, most individual managers Ive come across deal with 50-80 buildings. Some 250-300+ sets of tenants. That is a LOT of work for anyone. Also, the worst tenant in Australia is unlikely to know which end of a gun would hurt you, let alone kill you.
lawsjs wrote:They see their future in being turnaround specialists rather than managers. A property manager with a real interest in the quality of the tenant and building. The first few places of mine they did for free – considering 5-7% gross a waste of money collecting. Variation on a theme, we now split the rent increases. I am also looking at renting entire buildings to them alone. My list of US management disasters stretch as long as my us rental experiences. Generally I have found 'gringo' managers to be extremely difficult to communicate with and (whilst looking for a better word) lazy. If something is not directly going to benefit the individual they simply have no inclination for the task. If you want someone in the US to do something you have to first work out how to convince them it is in their best interests to do it. The old fashioned 'pride in a job well done' just doesn't seem to be in the US anymore. Fortunately the rest of the world has not reached that level of selfishness – yet. I hope it never does… In their defence, most individual managers Ive come across deal with 50-80 buildings. Some 250-300+ sets of tenants. That is a LOT of work for anyone. Also, the worst tenant in Australia is unlikely to know which end of a gun would hurt you, let alone kill you.So they are doing a triple net lease with you it sounds like, they make the upside you get a flat rate that you can count on.
This is excatly what we do with our company, our investors get a return they can count on, If we do well we make a few extra bucks. However the investor does not take the huge down side risk that is common to the industry. It will take a few years for this to all flush out and I think your story is more common than not. Its just hard for investors to admit its not going as the sales pitch that was delivered.
For those reasons our property managers in our companies are OWNERS not VENDORS, they are resposible personally and financially to the property. At the end of the day and as you have come to realize, if properties do not work right the property manager just walks away and says to the investor sorry about that nothing I can do and buy the way send me another 10k to fix this or that.
JLH
I didn’t know it had a name, I just knew the best deal I could get was to have a happy building with no worries. I made the suggestions, they thought it was a good idea. It worked for Marriott and Hilton so it seemed worth a shot. I am VERY happy for someone else to make money as long as I can cover my costs + a bit. This way the return went from a net 10-11% to about 18% on one building, in the process of fixing the others. It worked for me because the repair bills disappeared.
If your company does a similar thing, then all I can say to people is that it works (so far) for me and there is NO WAY you can effectively manage places from 6,000miles away when you understand nothing of the culture.
The other thing it has done is up the numbers on the properties way beyond what I had previously. On a refi I am doing on the first place I offered these guys, as the income increased so did the ‘value’. Some 30% instant equity was created.
You have to make it worth while for people to operate or over the longer term (5 years+) it just won’t happen.
lawsjs wrote:I didn't know it had a name, I just knew the best deal I could get was to have a happy building with no worries. I made the suggestions, they thought it was a good idea. It worked for Marriott and Hilton so it seemed worth a shot. I am VERY happy for someone else to make money as long as I can cover my costs + a bit. This way the return went from a net 10-11% to about 18% on one building, in the process of fixing the others. It worked for me because the repair bills disappeared. If your company does a similar thing, then all I can say to people is that it works (so far) for me and there is NO WAY you can effectively manage places from 6,000miles away when you understand nothing of the culture. The other thing it has done is up the numbers on the properties way beyond what I had previously. On a refi I am doing on the first place I offered these guys, as the income increased so did the 'value'. Some 30% instant equity was created. You have to make it worth while for people to operate or over the longer term (5 years+) it just won't happen.This is the corner stone to our program> we fully manage stay long term, Glad to happened on this method. Its really the best for out of area investors either country or US. Our investors are mainly west coast buying South East so they like the Net payments with upside and no downside risk. Takes an investsor a few years to understand this as they have to write the checks and understand whats really going on. Not just what was sold them out of the gate.
And yes what you described is a triple net lease, which a great many commercial properties are managed that way. And equity sharing I have been doing for ever, marry the 2 and you have a great program with much more safety than trying to manage your managers from accross the globe or the US.
Guys I am reading all these post and every one seems to be missing the basic and most important ingredient ( which is tenants) I make sure to include them as part of my investment team. By doing this we are working towards a common goal
Sure we have problems like any one else.We manage over 200 units in South Carolina and North Carolina ( we manage other teams of wholesalers selling properties Atlanta Georgia , several Florida markets, Charlotte North Carolina , Dallas Texas, Jackson Mississippi . . When I say the tenants as part of the team. I think this is a huge step to make any management of properties both financial rewarding to the investor and the management team. Long story short as investors we want cash flow , as tenants they want solid homes to live in. Once we learn to work together , tenants and investor and find that happy medium it makes real estate investing a fun and profitable experience
We don't use to many signs to advertise rentals in our current market they cost to much to put them out . Also a good way to market to thieves to come and steal. What we do is send a monthly news letter to our tenants, just as we do for our investors. Keeping them involved as much as possible.( we try to get other teams to use our similar method but as you can tell by now.Every state in the USA is different.
Simple things, paying out tenants a 100 dollar referral fee to bring us new tenants. When your tenants are happy they love to brag about us. Again it is simple things.Yard of the month is another huge hit for us. It is amazing how when we give $25 to 50 dollars of there rent.How many tenants keep there yard looking great.
One of the last seminars I spoke at . I asked all investors to look at the tenants in a different way. Lets say every month we have tenant is coming to give you check. This is basically your long term wealth building. Take the house out of the equation. Just knowing that they are bring you a check. This should help to make sure we treat them as the most valuable part of the investment team
I think this would change the way we look and treat tenants.Now I am not saying it is all perfect.We do get quite a bit of headaches.That is where being a proactive property manger is the key. Treating tenants as part of the team but also making sure they stick to the guild lines set in place.
again just my two cents but management in any market is going to be the key to a winning or losing investment.
sincerely
Alex FranksAlex,
I could not agree with you more!
So many PM’s just completey miss the idea of actually building a relationship with tenants. Without question the most important part of the equation with income properties, is the tenant, yet to many PMs, just simply ignore it.
I develop friendships with my tenants in alot of cases, and some of my tenants are actually on my marketing teams. They get paid as they produce, This builds a great relationship and pretty much assures they will stay put.
I do the same in paying referral fees for qualifed tenants, I have one client that owns half the block of properties, i convined him that once a year we should do a block party for the tenants. We provide a cookout for them once a year, and provide everything. This costs the owner around $200, but he has NO VACANCY. We once lost a tenant to a sudden death, the unit was re rented 10 days after, with no marketing. The tenants had a name for me within days!
You can never underestimate the importance the tenant plays in this role, this is exactly why I perform exit polls, I actually care what they think.
John
GreaterKCHomes wrote:Alex, I could not agree with you more! So many PM's just completey miss the idea of actually building a relationship with tenants. Without question the most important part of the equation with income properties, is the tenant, yet to many PMs, just simply ignore it. I develop friendships with my tenants in alot of cases, and some of my tenants are actually on my marketing teams. They get paid as they produce, This builds a great relationship and pretty much assures they will stay put. I do the same in paying referral fees for qualifed tenants, I have one client that owns half the block of properties, i convined him that once a year we should do a block party for the tenants. We provide a cookout for them once a year, and provide everything. This costs the owner around $200, but he has NO VACANCY. We once lost a tenant to a sudden death, the unit was re rented 10 days after, with no marketing. The tenants had a name for me within days! You can never underestimate the importance the tenant plays in this role, this is exactly why I perform exit polls, I actually care what they think. JohnWe give our tenants a turkey at thanksgiving and a ham at christmas:)
My key to success is having the best house for the money, And since we own the house and our investor is the bank we have the freedom to do as we please, Many investors just will not let the PM provide the quality product that is needed and its short sighted but whats a PM going to do ( Spend their own money on things they think should be done) think not.
We make our investor clients succeed because they are truly passive, and they are not involved in the day to day..Our investors work fulltime jobs and the last thing they want to do is get a call from their PM with the bad news. " Hey the water heater went out please send us 800 bucks. Hey your airconditioner got stolen that will be 1400. And in any neighborhood were you have board ups of any kind that is going to happen for sure.
THEY JUST GET THEIR CHECK EVERY MONTH WITH NO INTERUPTION AND NO CASH CALLS. AND NO DOUBT THE TOTAL INVESTMENT WILL BE MUCH LESS THAN WHAT ANY OTHER TURN KEY OPERATOR IS SELLING HOMES FOR IN THE US BECAUSE THEY MAKE THEIR PROFIT ON THE SALE. END OF DISCUSSION.
Its a new paradigm, Give up some equity on the back end and mitigate your risk's during the life of the investment, depends on your risk threshold.
Wow Jay
Was not trying to offend or make any one upset.
Just FYI we both did the same radio show with Les going beyond real estate.I stopped the week before you started. I agree with your process .We do both sales and equity shares. My company is totally funded by our private investors. has been for years as well. You are 100 % correct about getting there checks .At the end of the day that is what the investors want. Our companies are the ones doing the work .Yes most of our clients work normal jobs. So they don't want to hear about repairs or who and what at 2 am..
Then again the investors who own properties they do want to know what the hell is going on with there properties when and where some thing goes wrong. If a property management team has a good management system is in place they would not be getting calls. Simple emails stating the problem and the solution on the fix .Repairs would be taken out of the appropriate repair funds set up for each property. Majority of our clients are from NY and California actually 95 % are out of state. Just breaking into the over seas investor market . As for daily to dos, being our clients are passive they are not involved in that aspect weather they are PM or building a Cash flow portfolios one house at a time.
As some other members spoke we all have different methods not going to say any one is better or worse then others. To be honest it depends on the clients needs and wants. Every client is different my approach for our clients is building a real estate portfolios for them ( long term investing ). This is depending again on their needs and financial situation. Our clients consist of wide range of investors .From very cash strong to the single mom buying one home year.
Again just my 2 cents maybe a bit more….At the end of the day the investor are relying on the team in place, and the systems they have for buying selling , renovating , holding , or liquidating…..Yes been doing this for 12 years so not a guru but after buying fixing and selling homes from $10k to $5m been through enough to add in my little opinion for what it is worth.
Jay I did see you post about Land ( lots )( yes we are buying every thing we can in the North Carolina and South Carolina area. Figure to sit on it for a bit.Very cheap and even with today's cost I think the future sales will more then cover that.
Sincerely
Alex FranksJay,
Just on my point before about managing managers and relationships. My new (your old) scheme has built a great relationship with my new manager, who in turn has built a great relationship with the tenants. I cannot communicate with Americans, I thought for a number of years I was doing OK, but I wasn’t. And it was spelt out in repair bills. Don’t be insulted, but you do not speak English, or certainly don’t understand it the way English/Australians do. Like De-planing (disembarking?) momentarily. A patently nonsensical announcement, yet it makes perfect sense to people who by any measure have to be deemed illiterate in the English Language – or above (sorry Alex) ‘getting there checks:)
‘. The thing is, you combine that issue with a manager looking after 300+ sets of tenants and there WILL be tears. I would rather have one manager who is looking after much less, but much more carefully. Of course, you have to trust that manager and that is again another issue. However, if you have a really good one and expect them to do a job as if it were you yourself there, then they WILL be operating less properties, and deserve/need to be paid more. Like it or not, they are your partner in the deal and need to be looked after accordingly.I have a number of buildings and if the current manager ends up ripping me off or walking out in any way, then despite the complexity/tax issues I will liquidate all the assets and bring the money home. I have spent too long finding out how hard it is to get an ‘Australian/UK’ style of management to go through it all again. Just convincing people you do NOT HAVE to have hideous pseudo country/frontier style interior design with tiled countertops took me nearly ten years. Eventually I managed to do what I wanted, and I bumped the rents from $700-$1400, impressively it was then the first person who saw the apartment that rented it, as opposed to sitting vacant for weeks. Working out that what the US calls ‘Euro Style’ and the rest of the world calls ‘normal’ was a triumph of communication… Finding the suppliers was tricky, but achievable (in the end). Like Apple who does no market research whatsoever, I subscribe to their philosophy that the US consumer (in particular) has no idea what they want, so don’t ask them:).
Find your manager, hope they have taste and an outgoing friendly personality. Make them study any decent design magazine until they understand ‘taste’ work out a deal that makes them ‘want’ to work for you and hope like hell it works long term.
The relationship you build with them WILL be continued through to your tenants. Make sure it is a good one, it will save you thousands and hopefully make you both a lot more financially secure.
It is very hard to achieve!!
Laws33
I never claimed to be a great writer.Actually to be completely honest I usually have my wife read and check all my emails. My spelling and grammar are horrible. Along with my southern accent ,now living in the South.What makes it even worse and harder to understand me is I was born in NY.
I guess being 6 ft 240 pounds and staying healthy in the gym .Most people would not make a comment like that to me.( just kidding ) I do have a sense of humor.
Long story short management is not for every one. There will be good and bad in all places. Dealing with real estate and the different teams comes down to a personal choice.
Alex
The comment was about the difficulty of communicating with the US, nothing personal!
As Winston Churchill said ‘Two countries divided by a common language’
another of my personal favourites:
Where in the world would we be without spelling or grammar? Why, America of course!
Don’t forget my issue cuts both ways. Amercians (I saw a sign once that said ‘Non-US Aliens’ – NOT KIDDING! – WTF does that mean??) have as much difficulty explaining themselves to me as I have explaining myself to them. I don’t speak French or Mandarin, but I have often found I can make myself better understood in those countries than in the States. I see the world as being the US, and everyone else. The difficulty is that almost everything is deceptively familiar in the States.
So true
Alex
‘. The thing is, you combine that issue with a manager looking after 300+ sets of tenants and there WILL be tears. I would rather have one manager who is looking after much less, but much more carefully. Of course, you have to trust that manager and that is again another issue. However, if you have a really good one and expect them to do a job as if it were you yourself there, then they WILL be operating less properties, and deserve/need to be paid more. Like it or not, they are your partner in the deal and need to be looked after accordingly.You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
