Mom and Pop Landlords

 I have been a member of COROA for several years now, and the main reason my wife and I joined was to learn all we could about this thing called landlording. The classes that COROA puts on are always very helpful and informative. One big thing we have learned is how much differently property managers have to handle properties than the mom and pop operations do. I’m not talking about different laws for different people, because most all the laws are the same for each, with a few exceptions such as co-mingling of funds, trust accounts, licensing, etc.

 The differences I’m talking about have to do with the things that mom and pop operations can physically do themselves because we tend to have fewer properties to manage. For example, I have always been told to not get in the habit of going to the unit to collect rent if the tenant has called and said, “I have the rent - could you swing by?” We have some tenants that don’t have a car, and because I have the time and the units are not far away I can chose to do that if I want. But I can totally see why the property managers would not do this; they would be running all over the county and not get anything else done. It is much better from a business standpoint to have the tenant bring the rent to you on time or a late fee will be charged.

 Another example is repairs. A tenant recently called us complaining of a kitchen sink that was plugged up. This had nothing to do with the sink malfunctioning - the tenant probably threw potato peels down the disposal and clogged the drain. The landlording 101 thing to do is to tell the tenant to call a plumber to get it fixed, because this is not my fault or a defect of the unit. But with these hard times we are in, I look at it like this: I do have the time to go over there, I do know how to fix it, and if they call a plumber that’s at least $100 from my tenant that will not be going towards rent. I went over and 10 minutes later it was fixed! The tenant was happy (and as we all know, happy tenants stay and pay rent) and I’m not out anything but a little time.

 Please don’t get the idea that I don’t like property managers, because that’s not true. Property managers have to run a tight ship, they tend to know the landlord/tenant laws forward and backward, are able to handle many properties, and also have the headache of not only dealing with the tenants but also with us whining property owners. If and when my wife and I feel we can retire, then we will hire a property manager, because we won’t have the time to baby-sit our properties like we do now.

 These are just a few ideas that some of the mom and pop landlords can do to help make it through these tough times.

 See You Next Month!

Terry Luelling