10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•512 views
10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make 1. Not screening tenants. 2. Not maintaining your property. 3. Letting your tenants pay late. 4. Not having a lease in place. 5. Not collecting a deposit (or last month’s rent). 6. Not getting post-dated cheques. 7. Not having the utilities switched over. 8. Making friends with your tenants. 9. Allowing animals. 10. Being too nice.
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to 10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make
Similar to 10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make (20)
More from Jim Pellerin
More from Jim Pellerin (17)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make
- 1. 10 Property Management Mistakes You Never Want to Make
- 2. When I started buying rental properties, I made a lot of mistakes as a Property Manager. Here are some of the most common and irritating ones, in no particular order. www.JimPellerin.com
- 3. 1. Not Screening Tenants You should always do some kind of background check on your tenants. A bad tenant is worse that no tenant. www.JimPellerin.com
- 4. 2. Not Maintaining Your Property If you let your property get run down, you will attract bad tenants who will run it down even more. www.JimPellerin.com
- 5. 3. Letting Your Tenants Pay Late Don’t let you tenants pay late. I start the eviction process that day the rent payment is returned or late. Don’t get emotionally involved. www.JimPellerin.com
- 6. 4. Not Having a Lease in Place. Make sure you always have a lease with your tenant that describes all the terms and conditions. www.JimPellerin.com
- 7. 5. Not Collecting a Deposit You need some kind of upfront commitment from your tenants. Make sure you get cash, certified cheque and that the cheque clears before you hand over the keys. www.JimPellerin.com
- 8. 6. Not Getting Post-Dated Cheques Make sure you have post dated cheques for the duration of the lease or that you have some form of electronic payment system in place. www.JimPellerin.com
- 9. 7. Not Having the Utilities Switched Make sure the utilities have been switched over to the new tenant prior to turning over the keys to them. Don’t offer to keep the utilities in your name and then have the tenant pay you. www.JimPellerin.com
- 10. 8. Making Friends With Your Tenants If you develop a personal relationship with your tenants it will be harder to evict them or treat them as “tenants” because you are emotionally involved. www.JimPellerin.com
- 11. 9. Allowing Animals I have too many bad news stories that involve pet damage and noise related problems due to pets. They can be expensive to cleanup after. www.JimPellerin.com
- 12. 10. Being Too Nice. I have lost a lot of money trying to be understanding about a tenant’s “difficult” situation. A lot of the reasons are made up. www.JimPellerin.com
- 13. More Information If you would like to read the full article and learn more about Real Estate Investing, go to jimpellerin.com www.JimPellerin.com
Editor's Notes
- There are four main ways you can make money as a real estate investor. Most involve owning real estate, but even that is not a necessity.
- 1. Not screening tenants. You should always do some kind of background check on your tenants. A bad tenant is worse that no tenant. Keep your unit vacant until you find a good tenant no matter how desperate your are to rent it. I had one person show up with 2 months rent. I was desparate to rent that particular unit so rented it to him on the spot. That mistake cost me about $40,000.
- 2. Not maintaining your property. If you let your property get run down, you will attract bad tenants who will run it down even more. You will also have a higher turnover of tenants. Make sure you are doing proper maintenance and upkeep of your property.
- 3. Letting your tenants pay late. I have heard just about every story imaginable. My good nature has cost me thousands of dollars in unpaid rents. Now I start the eviction process that day the rent payment is returned or late. Don’t get emotionally involved. This is business.
- 4. Not having a lease in place. Make sure you always have a lease with your tenant that describes all the terms and conditions. Get your lease form reviewed by your lawyer or use one from a reputable source (government or realtor). Without a lease you have no formal agreement in place should there ever be a reason to dispute the arrangement.
- 5. Not collecting a deposit (or last month’s rent). You need some kind of upfront commitment from your tenants. Lots of people have asked if they can pay the deposit later. It rarely happens. Make sure the deposits are deposited properly. In some areas the deposit has to be paid to some government organization such as a “rentalsman”. Make sure you get cash, certified cheque and that the cheque clears before you hand over the keys.
- 6. Not getting post-dated cheques. If you don’t have post-dated cheques, then you will have to meet the tenant every month and that can very time consuming. And they never come to you. An exception to this rule is if you have some form of electronic payment process. I get 36 post-dated cheques for my 3 year rent to own agreements.
- 7. Not having the utilities switched over. Some tenants can’t get the utilities put in their name due to some unpaid bills with the utility company. Don’t offer to keep the utilities in your name and then have the tenant pay you for them. They rarely do. Make sure they have the utilities in their name prior to turning over the keys to them.
- 8. Making friends with your tenants. Real Estate Investing is a business. You don’t want your friendship getting in the way of dealing with tenant problems. If you develop a personal relationship with your tenants it will be harder to evict them or treat them as “tenants” because you are too emotionally involved.
- 9. Allowing animals. I have too many bad news stories that involve pet damage and noise related problems due to pets. I have had to call the SPCA because one tenant left his 2 dogs in my unit and abandoned them. The place was a disaster and cost me about $15,000 to repair.
- 10. Being too nice. I have lost a lot of money trying to be understanding about a tenants “difficult” situation. A lot of the reasons are made up. Most times it just delays the action you have to take and you end up paying too much in lost rents. Start the eviction process the first day the rent is late. Some people will get offended but explain you are just doing your due diligence and will cancel it once the rent is paid.