BOOK REVIEW: Now Discover Your Strengths
Sunday, March 06
A co-worker gave me the book Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton. It is a business book rather than real estate, but I think it is relevant.The book comes with a passcode to take a test to find your top 5 strengths. It presents you with a series of paired sta...
Questions when hiring a PM
Thursday, February 25
In October Elizabeth Colegrove wrote an article titled 80 Smart Questions to Ask BEFORE Hiring Your Next Property Management Company. Given our experiences with a PM, thought I’d chime in.We invited our prospective PM to coffee and did interview her. I asked a bunch of questions.Questions I did...
2015 By the Numbers
Saturday, February 20
With the year complete and work on income taxes under way, thought it might be interesting to contrast some of the rental numbers between 2014 and 2015. 2014 way our toughest year yet, and 2015 might be our easiest and best year yet.In 2015 we had 3 uneventful move-outs, compared to 8 ugly move ...
Mixed Up Move Ins
Saturday, February 13
We had a move in mix up a few years ago.The tenants in a duplex were friends. One was moving out, the other wanted to move into his friend’s side, as they are not duplicate units. We verbally agreed to let him swap, but they took the liberty to make the move earlier than we anticipated, without...
No Nonsense Tips for Screening Tenants
Friday, February 05
Read this article on BiggerPockets, thought it was a great source of information.It doesn’t cover criminal records, but it covers most other factors we look at.For employment, applicants get full points if they have held their job for over a year. If they have not held any previous job for over ...
This week – Silence, Sharing, and Assault
Saturday, January 30
We’ve had a busy week.First, our Property Manager has become non-communicative. We haven’t received rent since November on our largest property, and we can’t reach the PM to get an update. Last we heard, the wife had cancer and isn’t able to work, and she was shocked to hear that her husband ha...