Property Management Protocol For Coin Laundry

[Frankie Renaldi]

Hello BP World,

Having a debate right now about common protocol.  My wife and I are RE Brokers (37 years combined in the business), investors, and now own a PM company.  We are taking on a client group that has some buildings w/ coin laundry.  Currently their PM retains the coins and sends the total to the owners in their distribution payments.  The way I'm understanding this is the PM is collecting, rolling and depositing.  Is this standard protocol?  I can't see hand rolling quarters being a great use of time.  Current PM is not taking them to coinstart, full amount is being deposited (I guess there is a chance PM is lying about the amount to compensate for coin star).  What are your thoughts on expectations or if you have any helpful direction for us.  Thank you all in advance!

[Richard F.]

Aloha,

I have had a number of properties over the years with coin-op, and yes, personally pull the coins from the machines on a regular schedule, then turn the coin bags over to accounting. They roll them, and deposit them, and, as "income" to the Client we charge the same % fee as rents for doing so. Your bank may let you turn in un-rolled coins that they can just run through a counter. Pulling the coins is a good opportunity to simply get eyes on the property and catch other issues.

Some Vendor deals have them collecting the coins from laundry centers, where they keep 50% of everything BUT also maintain and own the machines. They send a check direct to PM, which also get processed as "income".

You do need a trustworthy person to collect the coins, obviously; and you sometimes need to adjust your pick up schedule if usage goes up. Once the coin boxes are full, tenants will not be able to operate the machine until it is emptied. You also need to be "aware" of your surroundings, and who is in the area when you actually pull the coins. I try to do it at different hours, when activity on a property is lowest if the property is in a sketchy area. It is common to have several hundred dollars worth of coins per pair of machines.