Is Your Residential Property Manager Well Trained?

Lord help me if I run into another would be property manager who just came fresh from some seminar and thinks they know everything they need to know to run a property successfully. This is not a get rich quick business. This is a customer service relationship business. The faster this notion becomes clear to the property owner or manager, then so much better for everyone involved in the process. Having some sales experience is always a plus, but customer service […]

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Rental Property Diagnostics and Reporting

Good news travels fast, and bad news travels even faster. For you to be on top of your game as a landlord you need to have measurable information at your fingertips at a moments notice. Think about it. In medical terms, the patient is your dear and beloved property. That would make your property manager your attending physician monitoring the health and well being of the property. You would not want a doctor that knew or even suspected a problem or […]

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Before You Sign That Dotted Line: Property Manager Contracts

When you are interviewing a property manager ask to see a copy of their service contract. This is a good indicator of how any given scenario may play out once they are your manager for your property. A typical property manager contract is just like a tenant-at-will rental agreement you hold with your tenant-at-will resident. You want to be able to end the contract mutually either way in 30 days. If you are not happy with them and the service […]

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Door To Door Comparison on Property Managers for Landlords

How many properties does your property manager own like yours? This one is kind of a trick question. Most property managers started out managing their own properties and then take on similar properties like the ones they already own. That makes pretty good common sense. However, you have to keep your eye on the ball here. I have heard stories of some unscrupulous property managers actually taking good tenants out of properties they manage, and placing them into properties they own. […]

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Goldilocks and the 3 Property Managers: Finding the Right Fit

This is a great follow-up to the previous Blog post. In the previous post we wanted to know if the property manager owned properties like ours. In this Blog post, we really want to know if they manage properties like yours. Here is a good example. Let’s say you have a B property, in a B neighborhood, with bread-and-butter blue-collar tenants. That’s great. This is usually a property type that has a pretty good solid tenant base and usually has a […]

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Embracing Online Technology for Residential Property Managers

We have already talked about some of the trending technologies in the blog post regarding cell phones and all the cool apps available to track and manage properties. I want to push the discussion a little bit further in this section to discuss some of the online technologies available to property managers. There is a host of property management software that could be used on the Internet to set up accounts, track maintenance requests, store tenant profiles, and act as a […]

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Pre-Screening Your Property Manager

What kind of references can your property manager give you? Do they have a list of referrals and recommendations that they can present to you upon request? Property management is a customer service business towards both landlords and residents and your prospect should have a lot of happy customers on both sides. Due Diligence on Your Manager A property manager should absolutely be able to give you a list of at least 3 or 4 tenants that would have nice […]

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