Property Management – West Hills

Fact:  The cost to replace a tenant is more than 3 times the amount to keep one.

Fact:  Tenants are finicky and it seems like the best ones are always the ones that want to leave.

Fact:  Without long term retention you will not produce passive income and generate equity for your investment portfolio.

Depending on what report you read, 30% to 40% of the nation’s population are renters.  Despite the sheer number of available renters, the competition to land quality, qualified tenants has never been fiercer.  So obviously it’s important to retain and keep happy a good tenant once you have them placed in your rental.

Consider this.  Let’s pretend you have a rental property in West Hills that typically has an average rental income of $1200 a month.  Your old tenants just moved out and the average time it takes to market, find, and qualify a new tenant is around 60 days.  Let’s not forget to factor in any cleaning costs, the costs of any repairs, screening costs, and the costs of any marketing you may have to do.  Add up all the time and money this process can take and we can conservatively say these costs can be around $3500.  Unless your full time job is being a landlord, why would anyone want to run around pretending to be a money-collecting maintenance man?

The following keys you are about to read will help you to find success in generating long term rental cash flow by utilizing a professional property management company such as carnahanmanagement.com.

1)   Communication/Response Times

When a tenant has maintenance issue, be sure to respond in a timely fashion.  Do you have a 24hr call service or hotline set up & available?  Are you able to respond quickly or do you let the issue go on for several days or more.  Either handle the maintenance issue quickly or if you can’t afford to, immediately communicate to your tenant when you intend to do so.  This will go a long way towards avoiding tenant/landlord disputes.

Disputes are a going to happen given the nature of the business.  That’s okay.  Just make sure there is a system in place to address them quickly and fairly.  By establishing clear communication, it will keep all expectations above board and help to avoid resentment.

Follow up:  Keep all communications in writing.

Be sure to ask your property management company to follow up ALL verbal communication with an e-mail reiterating the key points in your conversations.  A good lead in is: I wanted to review the issue(s) discussed today as per our conversation…

When interviewing to hire a property management company in West Hills make sure to ask to meet the customer service representatives and choose the right one for you.  After all, this person will be assigned to handle your property and has a direct effect on the successful rental of your property, which in turn directly affects your long term profitability.  Ask them how do they handle resolution?  What is their system of communication and documentation?  Also don’t be afraid to ask to speak directly to tenants that have had difficult situations resolved under their guidance.  This is why carnahanmanagement.com has an open door policy and streamlined customer service center focused on client support and fast maintenance completion.  Our belief is that the key to successful cash flowing rental starts with how a property management company handles customer service issues.

2)   Renewal Bonus

Look at what it costs to replace a tenant.  Would it hurt you to reward a tenant with a loyalty program?  For signing up for another year, offer to replace an appliance, install new carpet, or perhaps $200.00 dollars a month off for the first one or two months of their renewal.

Don’t expect your property management company to just offer these things for you carte blanche.  After all it’s your money!  As a landlord you have to;

1. be willing to enact a program.
2. be willing to ask your property manage program to help you develop this type of program.  Stop looking at what it would cost.  Consider the cost of $300 to $500 against $3500.00?

3.)  Appreciation/Referral Program

Does your West Hills property manager treat your tenants respectfully yet firmly in a fair manner?  This concept is extremely important because as your property managers we have to handle any problems that arise with either rent collection or maintenance issues and in most cases the renters will either choose to stay or leave depending on how they are treated.  Most renters just want to be treated fairly and with respect and at carnahanmanagement.com we understand this and always conduct business with honor, integrity, and respect.

Have an appreciation program developed through your property management company such as sending your tenants notes/cards 3 to 4 months into their rental period asking them how are we doing?  Telling them that you appreciate their choice in choosing to live in your property?  You could also end these types of communications with a P.S.  The highest compliment you could give me is a referral.

4.)    Utilize A Rent-To-Own Or Lease Option Program

Most renters are renters for a reason.  Either they don’t have enough of a down payment to buy their own home, just moving in town from out of state and are not sure where they want to buy, or they have gone through a bankruptcy / foreclosure and have bad credit.  By offering your prospective tenants a lease option program you will find that the renter psychologically becomes a homeowner in their own mind and not only treats the property as if it is their own, but is willing to pay a higher rent and pay on time!

At Carnahanpropmgmt.com we have a variety of solutions for tenants who would like to participate in a lease option program.  We strongly urge our investors to give a percentage or portion of their appreciation in the property to the tenant as an incentive for them to option the home for purchase.  Once they have entered into the option to purchase, they are now invested with you in the home and take care of it as their own as well as stay much longer than the usual tenants.  The lease option should be negotiated for each individual situation.  When you are not sure how to create a lease option program, contact a professional for guidance.

5.)  Proper Marketing & Screening

Proper marketing is an essential key step in finding the right type of tenant.  If you are marketing in the classifieds section of the newspaper you will most likely attract a certain type of tenant (one that buys and reads the newspaper). Different from the type of tenant you would find on Craigslist.org (online) or from a referral (the best kind)!  Our point is unless you plan on paying for and implementing an aggressive marketing campaign you will have little chances of generating enough qualified prospects as you would when you hired a really good property management company with their own aggressive marketing strategy! Through property rental property marketing your chances of being able to choose the right type of tenant for you will ensure a higher tenant retention rate in the long run.

Of course just generating the prospect is only half the battle.  Once your prospects come knocking the next step is to pre-screen and qualify them to your standards.  Does your current property management company have a comprehensive application process that allows them to pull criminal background and credit information?  Do they pull not only credit reports but verify employment and income by also speaking with a potential renter’s employer instead of just relying on paystubs?  Do they verify rental history and ask for referrals from prior landlords and even roommates?

NOBODY does more marketing for qualified tenants than the experts at carnahanmanagement.com.  Every year we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on print and online advertising and are currently managing over hundreds and hundreds of cash flowing rentals for our investors.  We pride ourselves on proper tenant placement so that both you as the real estate investor and the tenant can enjoy the business relationship over the life of your investment.  Aside from buying the property for the right price in the right location, finding the right tenant for your property is one of the single most important decisions to be made for the long term successful generation of passive income for your investment portfolio.

By Gorenter.com