If your not available what do you do when you are managing your properties?

[Robert Carl]

What do you do when you are mananging your own properties and you are not available? If you have a accident, medical situation,or on vacation? I am currently managing my own properties. I have most things set up. Maintenance company/people, online/phone payment service, mail payments/P.O. Box. But certain things I still do. How to have this properties manage if something happens to me.

[Marcia Maynard]

When a tenant moves in, we give them a move-in packet which includes contact information. First, second and third. The first contact numbers are our home number and mobile number. If we are away and have cell phone coverage we handle things from the field and check our voice mail regularly. Not much seems to happen. Most of the time we don't tell our tenants when we are away and they never know. 

If we are gone for an extended time, or out of mobile range, or don't want to be bothered with anything we let the tenants know to call the second number. Also if we are in town and don't answer the phone/text/email (we work full time jobs and don't answer while we are at work), the tenants know to call the second number. The second number is our assistant, who actually is one of our tenants. She lives in a house across the street from our 8-plex, where most of the needs seem to arise. She is retired from a newspaper management job and she is quite capable of handling situations that may occur. She knows our work phone numbers. We provide her with the tenant list and the vendor list. She has keys to the maintenance room and coin-op laundry, but not the tenant homes. She is very trustworthy. If something serious occurs, she knows what to do and will call or email us with what is going on. Otherwise she lets us be and tells us to enjoy our vacation. We do with great peace of mind.

The third phone number is my husband's father who sold us our first rental property. He is older and also retired. He has worked with us on all of our properties over the years. He has access to our home, the office and the key room. He is also a partner with ownership in LLC ONE - one house and one duplex. Our assistant knows to call him if there were a need for keys to the tenant homes, such as an emergency or if a tenant locks themselves out.

The only time there was a challenge was when all three parties went on a cruise vacation together! Then we handled the job over to our sister-in-law, who is also a partner in LLC ONE, but prefers the silent partner role. BTW, LLC TWO - two houses, one duplex and an 8-plex is fully owned by my husband and me, but our sister-in-law was once a partner in the duplex and 8-plex prior to my brother-in-law's passing, so she knows the ropes.

The key is to set up a succession of contacts for the tenants from the beginning and then provide the contact people with the information and resources they will need to do the job. Also, if you hear word of a weather event or natural disaster, check in often. We have an emergency preparedness plan in place. Partly because I used to work for a hospital and was on a community committee for emergency preparedness; I became keen on the idea.