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Welcome to episode 6 of season 13 of the Growing Empire Show. Today we’re going to talk about how to avoid being a bad landlord. So stay tuned.

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Welcome to Growing Empires. Hosted by real estate entrepreneur and trusted investment advisor, Jennifer de Jesus. Growing Empires provides insight to building wealth through passive income producing real estate investments for those who want to build and manage a more profitable real estate portfolio.

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Whether or not you elect to have the services of a professional property management company, or you are self managing your investment properties, the type of landlord that you want to be is highly dependent on your communication skills, and your relationship with your tenants and or property management company. People are not born with natural landlording skills. So perhaps one of the biggest questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not you want to manage yourself or hire an
outside company is, will you invest the time needed to learn to become a great landlord? Will you read books, listen to podcasts, talk to local landlords asked for help on landlording forums? You’re likely going to find great success by doing so. But if you are managing your properties ineffectively, or if you are given directions to your property management company or tying their hands in effectively managing for you, you’re definitely going to lose 10s of 1000s of dollars. Bad landlords have a nickname that they’re
called slum lords. And it’s a slang term for a landlord, which is generally meant to be an absentee landlord that has more than one property and who attempts to maximize profits by minimizing the spending on property maintenance. And those types of events, not only are they going to dramatically impact your cash flow in a negative manner, they’re going to render you a terrible landlord who will eventually have issues renting properties out in the future because you’re going to be known in the area
as being that slumlord. There’s so many things that you can do. Whether you’re self managing or using a property management company that will go a long way to making sure that you are seen as a professional representative of great properties and a place where people want to live. So how do you
do that? Anything that you can do to help a tenant get acclimated to your building is going to be helpful. I’ve heard owners, landlords in the past say things like, we know we help the tenant get adjusted to the area by sending them helpful information about like utility services and cable providers and internet providers and where the local grocery shopping is. Almost like creating like a welcome packet. If you’ve ever moved into a new location or a new area, specifically, maybe like a development, you likely have received some sort of welcome packet that gets you familiar with the area. Write them a welcome letter. Welcome them to your unit. If you are hiring a professional management company, I would definitely assume that the management company is doing an actual walkthrough with a tenant, showing them where emergency shut offs are. How to shut off water lines, what to do in the event of emergency how to reset a breaker, how to reset a GFI. There’s so many things that that would take minimal amounts of time just to show your resident just to get them comfortable with the building and where everything is that in the event of an emergency, they can react quickly, which also prevents further damage to your building. And gives them a sense of calm because they know how to operate everything in their unit. That can be done by a welcome letter. But it can also be done by an in person walkthrough, which is something that we highly recommend.

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Doing the simple little things like stocking their bathroom for them upon move in. Something as simple as just putting some toilet paper and soap in their bathroom is all I’m actually referring to. I don’t necessarily mean that you’re stocking their bathroom with all the toiletries that they would do. But some of the necessities. I mean, think about it, you’re moving, you’re moving, you’re moving, you’re probably not thinking about, Oh, I gotta pick up a roll of toilet paper or some hands so. So just something as simple as that gesture will make them feel very welcomed and very appreciated. Help them with things that they need to know like a Change of Address form. If your municipality requires a move in fee to be paid by the tenant, helping them with those forms. Being able to discuss their lease and their rental terms with them is going to go a long way to making sure that you have a very happy tenant. So any concerns that they have, you can address up front. At any point when you’re handling maintenance concerns or problems with a tenant, again, this is regardless of whether you’re self managing or using a professional management company, you always want to remain calm. No matter what happened, there’s always a fix to it. And even if the tenant did damage, you want to be respectful of the fact that they told you that they did something, versus making it a big ordeal that they did some damage. Having open communication and remaining calm when you’re handling problems goes a long way to making your resident feel comfortable to bring concerns to you. Those concerns will be a really big deal when it comes to further and future issues and maintenance on your building. But if the other side is true, if the resident feels like you’re not going to respond to them, or it’s fallen on deaf ears, or you overreact when a maintenance concern comes in, you can expect that the resident will fail to tell you about future events, needing your attention. Always keep the relationship professional using, you know, please and thank you go a long way with a tenant, you want to make sure that you are consistent, and that you’re constantly following your rental guidelines. So that it can be clear what standard you expect from the tenant. And this goes even for just collecting rent, right? If one month you’re okay with them paying 10 days late and the next month, you’re not okay with them paying late at all, it’s going to be very hard for the tenant to understand what the boundaries are. So you always want to be consistent. You want to be accessible, you want to make sure that the tenant can reach you in case of an emergency. And provide multiple means for that tenant to get in contact with you such as a phone number, an email, a property management platform or a portal that they can access. But you always want to make sure that you’re accessible and can respond to your tenants needs. When you do respond, you want to respond promptly. So what I don’t necessarily mean is that you have to immediately fix the problem. There is something to be said about emergencies versus non emergencies. However, it is important that you
acknowledge the tenant very quickly. So if they submit a maintenance request during normal business operations, they’re going to expect that you’re going to respond back to them during normal business operations. And definitely in under 24 hours. And it could be simple as you’re just saying, Hey, I received your request, I’m gonna reach out to my preferred vendor and see when they can get you on the schedule for maintenance that you’ve requested. Or to give them a timeline of when they should expect something like this to be taken care of. But you want to make sure that you are responding properly, and that they have some kind of acknowledgement that you heard their request and that you are going to address it in the very near future.

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The episode will continue in just a moment.

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As an investor, we know it’s important to stay on top of market trends and real estate opportunities that add value to your portfolio. We also know that having a trusted source of reliable information to help you stay a step ahead of other investors is critical to your success. If you’re interested in having these types of resources, as well as access to me and my team, I invite you to join the Empire Investment Club. A free service that gives you an easier way to make sense of today’s and tomorrow’s real estate opportunities. As a member of the Empire Investment Club, you’ll get access to relevant resources and investment focused experiences such as live interactive webinars, market trend presentations, and investor socials designed to equip you with what you need to succeed. So whether you’re an active investor, passive investor, a combination of both or just starting out, the club is where you’ll get what you need to build a portfolio you love. To join, just head over to JenniferdeJesus.com, sign up, and we’ll see you in the club, where everyone’s on a journey to becoming a better investor.

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As a landlord, you want to be very aware of your online profile. If you are a great landlord, people will talk about you. If you’re a bad landlord, they’re going to talk even more about you. So think about what you look like on
your online profile. Think of things like Yelp or Review My Landlord. They allow tenants to post reviews of your services and your units. Both sites allow you to respond and address good and bad reviews. But keep in mind that when something is negative, it can’t be undone. Somebody already saw it. So you want to make sure that you’re putting forth the effort to make sure that when people are saying things about you, especially if it’s in an online form that they’re saying positive things about you. Convenience is a really big deal for tenants. So offering online services and options for them, is a really big deal, giving them easy access to submit maintenance requests, or pay their rent. Anything that you can do to make life easier for the tenant is going to go a long way for both you and your resident. Electronically storing documents, so that they always have easy access to their lease and other pertinent information regarding your property. How to access the trash removal and recycling requirements of the municipality that they’re in, anything that requires them to reference in the future electronically, storing
those documents would be a great idea. You want to make sure that you keep the lines of communication open with your tenant, so they feel comfortable telling you anything and everything that is happening on your property. And again, if you’re using a professional property management
company, I wouldn’t expect that you would have to do this part. That would be something that the management company would do. But in the case of of self management, you want to make sure that you’re keeping the lines of communication open. You want to make sure that you are respecting the
tenants privacy. So every state in every municipality has requirements for how much notice is required for you to enter an apartment. And a general rule of thumb is you should expect to give a tenant 24 hours notice prior to entering a unit unless there is a dire emergency that you need to attend to. And that’s partly because you want to respect their privacy, although you own this property, they live in this property. And the more that you can do to make sure that they’re comfortable in the environment that they live in, and they feel like their needs are addressed and their privacy is respected, the longer they’re going to want to stay with you as the landlord because they’re going to feel comfortable. Always make sure that you’re listening to the concerns, even if you are deciding that you’re not going to address one of the issues that they are bringing up, listen to their concerns, exercise compassion when talking to your tenant. And even if the answer is a hard no, see, if you can find a middle ground that would work for both you and the tenant. I never suggest that any landlord always is at the beck and call
of the tenant. And sometimes tenants do request things that are a little outrageous, and probably not worth the money spent on those items. But there’s a way to get around those things by exercising some compassion and listening to their concerns. And then also trying to find a middle ground, that would be helpful. So for example, let’s say your tenant thinks that the entire building needs to be repainted. Maybe you don’t think so. Maybe it’s just normal wear and tear. So maybe you’re not going to pay for your painter to come out and paint the whole apartment. But what you could do is you could offer to pay for the paint if the tenant wanted to do it themselves. That would be an example of how to find a middle ground that would give the tenant what they need it without costing you a lot of extra money.

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Make sure you do know the laws in your respective areas and that you are abiding by them. Specifically things regarding entering the property security deposits, landlord and tenant obligations, tenants rights and evictions. And if you do not have access to this information, make sure that you get it from the Department of Housing your local government, your attorney or your respective property manager. Ultimately, being the best landlord you can be will equate to dollars in your pocket, because they will equate to long term tenancy, happy tenants that pay rent on time and take care of your building. That relationship is 50% your responsibility and 50% the responsibility of the resident. While it’s important to make sure that you’re screening the tenant and getting the best quality tenant in your unit to begin with, how that relationship goes beyond that point is really up to the both of you as a whole. The more that you do to exercise compassion, respect their privacy, be helpful, address their concerns, the longer that resident is going to stay in your unit, pay rent on time and care for your property. And ultimately, those
are all the things that have the biggest impact on your cash flow. Being a great landlord is not hard at all. But if you ever feel like you need help in this department, all you really ever need to do is hire a professional management company and they will be the ones to do it for you. I hope you enjoyed this
episode of how to avoid being a bad landlord and you can use the information provided to be the best landlord you can be and until next time, take care.

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For more information about how Jennifer can help you plan, develop and manage a strong real estate investment portfolio visit growingempires.com