BiggerPockets

Jeff:

As you grow you will have to add more GOOD people. You will have to be proactive in the hiring process and set the standard, rules, pay, and quality you expect. As the owner you set the way your business will operate. Make a plan and write it down. You can't put people out before the end of the contract.

I am a general contractor and you will have to tell your construction workers how long they have and give them a scope of work. If you have been doing this for a while you should know what you want and ask the contractor for advice on major issues above your expertise.

If you plan to grow you have to train people your method or operation. I wish you well.

Find a great handyman who can do all these things (painting, drywall, carpentry, cleaning, etc) pretty well, and pay him per unit. Ask him to bring in help if necessary to get a typical unit turned over in 4-6 hours, and let him know that once a month (on the last day of the month), you may ask him to do up to three units in a day.

To incent him to do this, offer to use him for your intermediate repairs (when tenants call you with problems).

A great handyman can be one of your best assets!

Jeff,

As you already know, the current tenants have legal possession of the unit until midnight on the last day of the month. Even if you try to specify a certain time that they must be out, it won't always happen.

There are many ways to handle this issue. Yes, you can stay up all night working on the rentals and even hire a big crew trying to get everything ready for the morning of the 1st. If you don't use these crews on a regular basis, chances are that half of them won't show up and the other half will be incompetent. If there ever comes a day when I can't do the work of 5 hourly workers, I'll quit and do something else!!!

If a tenant isn't going to move in until the 1st, then they can usually move in on the 2nd or 3rd. Once they've stayed in their current rental past midnight on the last day of the month, they already owe their current landlord a month's rent! So, moving their move-in date back a day or two so you can get their rental ready isn't a big deal. I simply tell the tenant that their unit won't be ready until the 3rd (or whatever). That is almost never a problem. If one tenant does have a problem with that, then focus on their unit and do the others over the next couple of days. Another way to handle a tenant that is desperate to move-in is to do a rough clean of their apartment and then come back in a few days to do any deferred items (like drywall, touch up painting, etc) I'm actually doing that today. I've got a tenant that moved out yesterday and another that must move in today (because the city is kicking him out of his current rental, which was never zoned for residential rentals). So, I'm meeting the tenant at 8:45 this morning to get the rent and deposit, and I'll do the work over the next 2 or 3 days. NO BIG DEAL!

Mike

I guess there are no good answers. I want to be a pro and not be painting fancy units once my tenant has moved in. Thought someone might have had a great idea.

Jeff:

I wish you well but you really don't need anyone to answer you because you already know or have done it. It's the way you want to run it and that's all that matters.

Here in Los Angeles... We have guys who are looking for extra work, hanging out at home depots or similar dept stores. I usully pick up 1 or 2 of them and put them to work. If you need man power to get cleaning etc... done. This is porbably the best way, and cheap too.

I will not have this probelm til next season as I didnt have enough rentals, but this next year should be interesting.

You won't have this problem next season either, because that's just not the way it works in the real world. I'm not saying that you'll never have multiple renters wanting to move in simultaneously, but that is not the norm. People move in and out every day of the month. There are a million reasons for that, but that is the reality. Here are just a couple of reasons that people move-in at times other than the morning of the 1st.

1. They don't get paid until the 1st, therefore they don't get their check until the end of work on the 1st.

2. They can't get a U-haul until the 2nd.

3. Their brother-in-law can't help them move until Saturday.

4. They get paid on Friday and won't have the move in money until them.

5. The forecast is for rain on the 1st.

6. They must pay another month's rent if they stay past midnight on the 31st - so they must move BEFORE the 1st.

I could go on and on and on and on. However, the bottom line is that in the real world, the majority of tenants don't move on the 1st. My latest tenant moved in on the 24th (two days ago).

Mike

Jeffrey,

Although you mention that you TRY to stagger your lease end dates, I think you should enforce this more rigidly. In the long run, you will find it imperative to determine what length of leases you are not going to be able to offer because you should not have more than a few leases ending in the same month. Using this strategy will save you time, money, and better your emotional and physical health-I assure you. You should actually have no more than 9.93% of your leases, at maximum, expire per month. As your company grows, as I'm sure you know, it is inevitable that you will require more staff. I do not agree with the suggestion that you should do a "pre-walk through," as many tenants, at least where I am currently employed, do a fantastic job of cleaning their apartments, and sometimes hire their own apartments to be cleaned, carpet cleaned, or paint. A "pre-walk through" is not fair to the tenants, and actually may be worse condition, as they are moving, than when they actually vacate the premises. While I am aware that you REALLY want your new tenants to be able to move a few days early, sometimes it's just NOT feasible. Stick to your guns, if not, there are always other renters out there- pending that you are utilizing adequate marketing and pricing techniques.