All Forum Posts by: Kevin Epp

Marc Cunningham has a great take on this.

At first it sounds like typical, corny corporate-speak: PM business is relationships, not transactional. *eyes roll* got it.

But practically speaking it makes sense. When you onboard with a PM, that's the beginning of the process. It's an ongoing transaction, per se. A relationship. Sometimes for 12 months, hopefully for years.

This ongoing transaction (relationship) is much harder when things are disjointed, expectations aren't met (or properly set), people are curt, or worse.

Find a PM that passes the sniff test of someone you want to build that relationship with. [God it kills me to even say that, just sounds so corny. But it's true.]

It's not "sign the PMA" then wash your hands of it. No matter how "fire and forget" the PM is. Something will break. There will be a vacancy. There will be plenty more calls, etc. down the pike with them.

Don't just look at fee structure, however that's a part of the equation.

1. How soon do you like to advertise a space once you know a vacancy will be coming available? ASAP? even if its 2-3 months out?

I advertise as soon as possible (up to two months out). People tend to start renting closer to the move-in date, however, and I rarely have luck two months out. The sweet spot is one month out. That way almost all of the people contacting you are looking to move and serious.

2. Do you prefer to have an open "application period" to collect applications and then make a decision based on the "most qualified" or do you take the first qualified, even if on a personal level they put off some red flags. In my mind I think it would be ideal to wait until I get a "no-brainer" but notice as I drag my feet applicants tend to get antsy for a decision (Which I can appreciate).

First qualified. Some cities even require you to do this. If you have strong screening criteria, someone who is qualified should be just fine. The perfect tenant does not exist.

3. What if people are interested and qualify and never indicate that they even need to see the place in person before willing to sign a lease? I try to take this as a complement as I try to keep my rental rates competitive to garner a better pool of applicants. (Whether this makes financial sense is probably a discussion for another post) Should I insist on meeting prospective tenants face to face before agreeing to lease to them?

We do sight unseen frequently. Video tours of the properties help this. Being open and disclosing any nuances of the property helps too. Don't try to sell them, you're trying to make sure they're the right fit. "Keep in mind there's a highway behind the house," or other things you know they would care about but aren't necessarily in the pictures.

1. See if you get any further complaints. If no, let it go. [Read: do nothing right now]

2. If you get another complaint, bring it to the downstairs folks and upstairs tenant separately. It will be no mystery why you're having the conversation though (hah!) Remind downstairs folks of the noise policy. I would also remind the upstairs tenant of the property and how it's situated and you can hear noise easily, and can't control when people are on the phone. They have to acknowledge this or move out.

3. It's quiet hours, not "can't-be-awake-on-my-phone" hours. The only thing you can enforce here is quiet hours, not people talking on the phone (albeit, late at night). It's going to happen. It becomes an issue when it's habitual.

It's early in the tenancy right now. I've seen a lot of face-value high earning professionals be lousy to their neighbors over time, so do not pick sides. Thankfully you've had them sign the quiet hours paperwork. 

I'm not in NYS, but in WA you can google the law and find what is required.

Going off the top of my head here for WA:

Deliver a copy personally to the tenant.

If the tenant is absent, by leaving a copy with someone of suitable age and discretion at the rental unit AND mailing a copy.

If neither of the above are possible, by posting a copy on a conspicuous place on the premises, handing a copy to any person living there, AND mailing a copy.

There's also a form that goes along with notifying them. Stating the 5Ws of the notification and signing/dating it.

All these places copy one another, so I imagine it's something similar.

Take pictures and save all notifications you send to them too.

You have your screening criteria for a reason.

If it works, and this person meets your criteria, move forward.

If they don't meet the criteria, on to the next.

A few folks here have already touched on this: keep in mind the implications behind early termination of the lease and how to reimburse money if it's required.

@Nadir M.

There's a lot of hot takes on here that are calling you cheap, lazy, unfit to be a landlord... and I do not believe that is the case based on what I'm reading here.

Charge the tenant for the next TP clog.

1. You've had a professional company conclude that it is not the pipes, but the amount of toilet paper.

2. You have a new toilet.

3. You paid for the first unclogging. Now it's become an issue.

4. Previous tenants did not have this issue. Same toilet, same pipes.

5. You are not the one placing toilet paper in the toilet, thus causing the issue.

6. Though the bathroom can is a cultural taboo in the US, people put waste from baby diapers in a can daily and don't bat an eye. Thanks for pointing that out Giselle. Of course, given the cultural taboo of it all...not the permanent solution.

I'd say charge them.

Cracking up...spending my Thursday morning talking about poop paper solutions...

Hey Amire! I'm a property manager in Tacoma with you and invest as well. Let's link up! Happy to chat.

Early on I interacted with a vendor that I highly respected, and everyone else did. I asked him for his preferred vendor list, he gave it to me. In this case, the vendor was a home inspector. By nature of his work, he knew who did good jobs and bad jobs - he was there inspecting homes and saw who did what.

I have retooled this list over time. But honestly, almost all those vendors off that list were competitively priced and great to work with.

Recommendation: if you know at least one credible vendor who's been in the industry a while, ask them for their list. It's a good start. If they don't have one, I bet they know somebody.

Answering your questions:

1. Did you use traditional marketplaces like yelp, thumbtack, angi? Used to. I don't anymore. Probably only for lawn cutting will I find someone on Thumbtack.

2. Is it common to protect your list or are you open to sharing with fellow investors your know? Professions that are booked out a long time typically are guarded. This is like builders and handymen, especially in rural areas that are hard to reach with little competition. Think AirBNB markets in the mountains. Vendors are hoarded there. A plumber in a metro area? People will gladly give referrals for them.

3. How do you store it? Google sheet? Do you use software? I keep mine on a Google Sheet to rapidly pass to folks who need it. It is also uploaded onto our PM software for accounting, systems, etc.

4. Do you have multiple for vendors per trade? Yes.

5. How or where have you typically found the best contractors? Online forums? Referrals? FB Community Pages? Nextdoor? etc. People in the industry who have had money/reputation on the line. I found these folks from working in my local market.

6. Do you perform regular preventative maintenance to avoid emergencies or are you more reactive? Proactive is always better.

1. Vacant unit fees. If you're on a %/mo fee structure from them it doesn't sound like financial incentives are aligned if they still get paid while it's vacant. If you pay them a flat fee per month (like Adam said) then that could explain it.

2. Contractors. I'm sure it's frustrating for you, that's tough. A lot of PM firms keep contracting work in-house and do not allow outside help from owner's because of timelines, relationships, and of course potential liability. Some do. My recommendation would be to ask them if they're okay with you finding folks/quotes for the uncompleted work and getting them on the schedule (if it doesn't explicitly say it in the agreement).

Adam and Nate have great responses here. I would follow their recommendations.

1. Those vacancy times and prices are high. Especially if there was little/no communication from them, that frustrating. For what it's worth: what was the working relationship like prior to these vacancies? Setting precedent and expectations as an owner may have allowed this behavior from them.

2. I think you need to take a look at what you expect from a PM and evaluate them from that lens. You are not expecting too much - what I'm saying is you can vet a PM that is quality. Follow Adam and Nate's advice on this.

3. Most PM software can automate reports. Request reports for maintenance, accounting, etc. on a more regular basis if you want updates. Even better - find a PM that already does this and fits into their business.