Random ideas for PM's

[Richard F.]

I attended a NARPM conference this week, and there were some interesting ideas presented. You need to figure how best to apply them to your business, and some may not work for you, but I though they were worth sharing...

> Home Ownership Program
Essentially, you allow tenants to accumulate credit towards the purchase of a home- not necessarily the one they are renting, although it could be. They pay a small upfront fee, then you kick in X each month that they pay rent on time and abide by all the rules. They must go through you/your office when they are ready to purchase, but you can show them anything on the MLS/your inventory (spell this out upfront). The "credits" are deducted from your commission (and possibly your favorite lender will reduce some of their fees to participate). Benefits: Encourages long term tenants (who will lose all credits if they move and rent from another company) and ensures that YOU will get the sale (how many times have you had a tenant buy their first home elsewhere?). A reduced commission is better than none, yes? It also is a great motivator for them to behave while they are your tenant.

> Vendor discounts
Especially for those "one horse" operations where the handyman wants to get paid "right away", rather than allowing accounting to post payables in a batch, require an additional % discount for payments made in less than 10 days.

> Lease Orientation DVD
You can easily create a PowerPoint Presentation going over each paragraph of your lease and house rules, as well as general procedures such as maintenance requests, trash pickup, definition of "Emergency", proper use of disposals and toilets, and whatever else your tenants frquently have problems with. Burn it to DVD, set up a TV in your conference room and have EVERY tenant watch and sign a statement saying they watched it! They can take it home for reference, or you can give it to them BEFORE they come in to sign. Eliminate a lot of misunderstandings, and save yourself a lot of time. Just be sure to keep it current with any changes you make.

> Eviction Protection Program
IF you manage enough properties, and IF you are confident in YOUR tenant selection, and IF you very carefully work out the numbers and details, this MAY be useful to you. Essentially, you offer to your clients as an OPTION a "per door" fee that would go into a pool. If a tenant YOU selected goes under eviction, the legal costs are paid out of this pool. If the tenant is "inherited" they would not be eligible to apply pool funds to.

I think the key to this one is figuring a fee structure that makes sense. It also is dependent on what typical legal costs are, and total number of units in the pool. There are possibilities, but be careful.

> Management agreement
Here is a good little tip...add a place for a SECOND contact person- outside of the owner's immediate family, that can authorize financial expenditures when the owner is unreachable.

Another one I like, is to include, when applicable, an "Owner Repair Agreement" that spells out what repairs the owner will make on his own, a time frame for completion, and what happens if the work is not done. (This applies to service call type work as well as any "improvements" the owner is promising). When an owner fails to follow through, the tenant is usually blaming us!

As I said, some of these may work for you, some may not...but maybe they will spark a GREAT idea for you!