Rental Property Investor · Chattanooga, TN · Member since 2012 · 74 posts · 43 votes
Those of you who have been landlords for years, what have been some of your game changers so to speak? craigslist? kwikset smart key locks? online tenant screening?
Investor · Orange County, CA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
I agree with @Sharad M. Its easy to get emotionally triggered by event. Maintenance calls, vacancies yada yada. But when I started thinking of it as a business and managing it as such, its all just about the numbers.
Ahh yes, but which numbers and how to analyze them? ... I think I'm with you on that subject Anish, and IRR is the answer, but let's not start a holy war with the implications of that right before the weekend ;)
Investor · Orange County, CA · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
Just because it is expensive doesn't mean it is a bad investment, and the opposite is true. That which is cheap in the short term can be very expensive in the long run. Focus on value, not cost. Quality, not quantity. Long term, not short term. Natural tenancy left unchecked is to do the opposite, so your brain must be actively trained to do otherwise. Once you make the mental switch, though, that's a game changer for sure!
Investor · Woodbridge, VA · Member since 2015 · 476 posts · 197 votes
10y
Figuring out that a quality product in a quality are may not make as much money every month but provides for much more consistent and hassle free returns. No chasing down rent, minimal having people break things or trash your place, minimal actual broken anything and tenants who let you know when things do break.
Real Estate Investor · London, Ontario · Member since 2014 · 31 posts · 20 votes
10y
Porting as many of my business tools to cloud based platforms has been a #majorkey. The ability to recall, record, and share information pertaining to any part of your operations at any time is very liberating.
Here are the tools I've found useful, while also being free, and super easy to implement.
Excel Spreadsheets ---> Google Sheets
Tenant documents, Property Photos and Leasing Documents ---> Dropbox
Realtor · Sequim WA & Port Angeles, WA · Member since 2016 · 164 posts · 78 votes
10y
Good thread. Agree with these and for me it's using "processes" or "templates". There is going to be variations between the units of course but if you have a process in place you just customize it to the property. So there is the advertising / marketing, screening, lease signing & walk through, cancellation of utilities, downloading move in pics and recording everything. It's a process from start to finish to put a new tenant into a unit - I use the same process for each but the specifics will vary according to the details of that unit.
These processes have helped me to be efficient and always keep vacancy down.
Real Estate Professional · Memphis, TN · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
@Stephen E. it is all about peace of mind. My "A+" properties, I do not worry about. All you have you to do is to train that tenant up front and it is easy-peezy movinjg forward.
St Thomas, Ontario · Member since 2013 · 575 posts · 408 votes
10y
@Alex Craig I agree. I have properties around $1,000 a month in rent, and a number around $1,200 a month in rent. They are a bit harder to lease because fewer tenants can afford them (average rent for a two bedroom here is about $900) but the tenants of higher end units seem to have fewer issues. They are in general professionals so there are fewer behavioral things. There can be exceptions to the rule but that does seem to be an observation that fits the data. The unit I have had most problems with has rent under $1,000. It is under contract for sale.
Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2016 · 245 posts · 436 votes
9y
My game changer has been using an auto withdrawal rent payment system (cozy).. in my experience I have found that often times when a tenant is late it's because they forgot to mail the rent or just procrastinated, bit because they actually didn't have the money in their account. Auto withdrawing the money out of their account on the day rent is due removes these issues and reduces late rents, multiple trips to the PO Box, etc.