Book Review: The Book On Managing Rental Properties by Brandon & Heath

Starting off the year with something a little different. I’m going to be reviewing the book that helped start my path as a property manager, The Book On Managing Rental Properties by Brandon & Heather Turner.

I decided to start doing this series because I’m an avid reader. I like to mix it up and read a lot fo different books, but obviously because of the field I’m in, I read a lot of books on real estate. Reading is actually how I got into real estate. Books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, got me started on this path. I love books like these and also really enjoy reading book reviews. So, I decided “Why not? I can do reviews on real estate books!”

Real Estate & Bigger Pockets

We are beginning this series with one of my personal favorites: The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Brandon & Heather Turner. It was published through Bigger Pockets, a site that I love! If you’re an investor and you’re not on Bigger Pockets, “like I don’t know what you are doing with your life.” They are awesome. The podcasts, forums, and multiple other resources are invaluable to a real estate investor.

Theory vs. Practice

One of my gripes with a lot of real estate books is that they are a lot of theory with very little practice. Like, “If you want to be a good real estate investor, you have to treat is as a business not a hobby.” And that’s it… What is the difference? What does it look like if I’m treating it as a business? “Cash-flow is king.” What exactly is cash-flow and how do I calculate that? Bigger Pockets, I find, really gets down to the nuts and bolts of how to do things. And this book definitely does that.

Starting Off

I first read this book right after we brought our first rental property. I just adore the way the book is laid out because it takes you step by step through the process. “How to advertise your rental property.” “How to create a lease.” “How to screen a tenant.” “What the application process looks like…” We we started renting out our property, I was not a realtor yet. I was just a self appointed property manager of our newly purchased sole property. I followed this book step by step and didn’t even read ahead. Like, “I advertised it, and got an application. What do I do next?” My copy is filled with highlighter just because I found so many tips useful. Because of this book, I appeared far more professional with our first tenant than I had any business doing. I was able to go about it in such a way that it seemed like I knew what I was doing. Which, in this industry, is important. You certainly don’t want your tenant thinking that you dont know what you’re doing. This book helped me do that.

Book Supplement: Forms

Another thing I really like about this book, is that it comes with some forms. Accompanying the book is a whole zip file of forms, pretty much evert form you’ll need except the lease. Leases are very state specific, so that is not part of it, even though it does contain a cheaper on How to Craft a Lease. However, it contains tons of useful others, like the Move-In, Move-Out Condition Report, the Pet Agreement, a Deposit to Hold Agreement, a Breakdown of the Deposit Return, and many others. Rules and Regulations is really good, however, I did have to remove one. Sorry, Heather Turner, but I had to remove the Gun rule because I live in Texas and most of my tenants are military. Even if you have to customize some of these forms, its great to have a starting off point for a process that can sometimes seem overwhelming.

If you are a first-time landlord, or if you are new to this, if you are going to self-manage, I’d definitely get this book and follow it through. Even now that I’m a property manager and realtor and am reading it through a new lens, it really does give a lot of good advice.

Fair Housing

Another aspect that I really like about this books is that before the book dives into the meat and potatoes, it spends a lot of time talking about being a fair landlord, taking pride in what you do, taking pride in your properties, and being a good business person. It has a whole chapter on Fair Housing, which is incredibly important. The penalties for breaking a Fair Housing law are very strict, and for the ethics and integrity of your business, you want to follow the Fair Housing rules. This is probably the chapter where I highlighted the most. I hadn’t taken my realtor classes at this point, where almost half the classes are about Fair Housing. There are things you could do unintentionally that can be interpreted as discrimination, and so, it gives you some examples. Children and family size is a protected class, so you can’t ask someone about their kids, which is something I’d normally do in conversation. Asking about a potential tenant’s children could potentially be breaking a Fair Housing rule.

Conclusion

I definitely recommend this book! It is for after you’ve already acquired the property, and you are trying to self-manage. I would keep this book on hand even if you hire a property manager. I feel like this would still be helpful; if there is ever something that your property manager is doing that you don’t understand, you can reference this book. It can show you that you manager has to do something a certain way or that is makes sense for your manager to do something a certain way. You may even disagree, and find that the book recommends doing it differently, and you can suggest that to your property manager. The Book On Managing Rental Properties by Brandon & Heather Turner is a wonderful resource. I am thankful that I had it when I was starting off. I am especially thankful for the forms because they are really well made and customizable. I even made a little logo and put it at the top of the forms, which definitely made me look more professional. This book is all practice and practical tips. It contains some theory but is mostly practical.

I hope this review has been helpful! If you have other book that you’d like me to read review, comment down below. I love reading want to know if there is anything I’m missing out on. If you think of anything let me know. As always, follow, like, subscribe!