let’s talk : MAINTAINING & RESTORING YOUR PROPERTIES
Good morning!
Keeping today short & sweet because let’s face it, the day before Thanksgiving is basically a holiday in and of itself! Today I’m just providing you a quick update on what we have been working on – RESTORING OUR RENTALS.
So, as we do, let’s talk Real Estate, let’s talk MAINTAINING & RESTORING YOUR PROPERTIES…
So, everyone who knows me pretty much knows I have CRAZY anxiety when it comes to everyone’s safety. I HATE any potential liability, which is kind of ironic since I dove into the world of real estate investing where everything seems to be a liability. Anyways, I have made it our team goal to rid of as many liabilities as possible. I went through our inspection reports with a fine tooth comb and remediated any potential safety issue I could find (knocking on wood & crossing fingers as I type this).
Now, why we are talking about this?
So that we can prepare ourselves for the future and discuss the benefits of continued maintenance!
It is SO necessary to try and…
COVER OUR BUTTS : We should all be aware that if we do not fix these issues and something happens, that’s on us folks. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN THAT POSITION. There are SO MANY horror stories out there about landlords ignoring safety issues. Seriously, I stay up at night thinking of potential safety issues . While fixing these properties up may be costly for now, that piece of mind is 100% PRICELESS. We recently worked with a contractor who told us up front – if we ask him to ignore any of the safety fixes for cost reasons he will not do any work on the property. Now, I knew what the safety issues were going into this project – we had just had an inspection done – and I was MORE THAN ON BOARD to remediate these. His motto was such that he would fix the house up enough so that he would let his own children live in it. I loved that – he cared about everyone’s safety just as much as we did (do). He provided us pictures along the way and documented how and why everything was repaired.
SAVES $$$ IN THE LONG RUN : Preventive maintenance on the property lessens the likelihood that the piece of equipment / part of the home will fail, and may lengthen its lifespan.
It also…
MAKES THE TENANTS HAPPY TO KNOW YOU CARE : Honestly, one of the BIGGEST eye openers for me this year was to learn just how many crappy landlords exist out there. When your tenants know you care, they start to care, and in turn, take better care of your property.
HELPS BUILD A REPUTATION : We have only been actively operating up in Binghamton for about a year now (ish) and through word of mouth we have a list (okay, a small one, but nonetheless a list) of prospective tenants who want to live in a property under our management. Honestly, that makes me so happy! FYI I AM NOT SAYING WE ARE THE BEST LANDLORDS EVER – obviously we make mistakes and I am sure we have at least one tenant who despises us- but we are trying!
So to sum it all up guys – MAINTAIN YOUR PROPERTIES. I think I have hammered this in on a few other posts BUT it is so important to remember that we are in the business of working with people and providing a safe environment for others to live in. While it is DEFINITELY important to operate as a business and earn our keep (hello this is not a charity or a hobby) – DO SO THE RIGHT WAY. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon said, “Obsess over customers. Amazon is not too big to fail…In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespan tends to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years. If we start to focus on ourselves instead of focusing on customers, that will be the beginning of the end.” While we are NOWHERE near an AMAZON type of player, and I SO HOPE that we do not fail, I do believe in obsessing over customers, and putting our tenants first. Customer service is of HUGE importance to us, and I believe it to be the key to building a sustainable business. So, as the holidays come around, and the weather gets colder, make sure your heaters are working, that there are no pipe leaks, that the properties are properly functioning and HABITABLE. PLUS remember, any capital expenses you put into the home between now and the end of the year – may help your tax situation! Just sayin!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful for all of you LTRE readers and community members!
Feel free to comment on the blog post HERE and let us know what YOU think!
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Happy Wednesday!
Erin
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Me – this is also based on my own personal experience!
