Purpose of Upside-Down Nametags and Fewer Rental Home Photos
Early in my business career, I attended a networking event at a local restaurant. I went to the sign-in table and was enthusiastically greeted by Susie. “Welcome! What’s your name?”
As Susie found my name on the sign-in sheet, she dutifully checked a box and pointed me to a nearby table with white sticker nametags and black Sharpie markers on top. “Write your name, your business name, and go meet some great people!” Then she quickly repeated the same spiel to the fellow behind me.
I did what I was told and uncomfortably started to mill around the room while simultaneously straining to read the other attendees’ nametags around me.
Me: “Hi, Jim. I’m Brett. What do you do for Hillman’s Autobody?”
Jim: “I fix cars. What does ‘BDF’ stand for? Oh, that’s really interesting…”
It was painful for me, as it was for Jim. As I moved on in the room, I saw a slightly overweight, middle-aged man standing by himself against a far wall with his nametag on upside-down. I went over to him and then unwittingly stepped into his trap.
“Excuse me… Joel?” I tried to awkwardly read his name by crooking my neck. “Your nametag is on upside-down. I just wanted you to know.”
“Oh, thanks! What a klutz I am, Brett!”, he appreciatingly said while reading my nametag. He then unstuck his nametag and put it on correctly.
“But do you know what else is klutzy? Not having life insurance, Brett! Let me tell you about it.”
And that was the opening that of his 10-minute monologue. He was very concerned that my grief-stricken family members would potentially being stuck paying for my funeral costs (thousands of dollars!) and what a stain that would be for my deceased self’s legacy.
When the conversation came to its merciful conclusion, I politely excused myself and headed to the exit. When I got to my car, I realized I had forgotten my coat and backtracked back to the restaurant. I retrieved my coat from its hook and was on my way out when I saw Joel standing by himself again… with his nametag on upside-down.
Wait a minute…
So I fell for Joel’s little ruse. I definitely felt duped. But, to Joel’s credit, he knew why he was there and what he was trying to do. Sales is a numbers game. His purpose was to talk to enough people and expect that one would be in the market for life insurance. The right conversation with the right person would lead to a sale.
In the rental home game, landlords are trying to find qualified tenants to apply for and rent their homes as quickly as possible. So, they set the bait in the form of on-line rental ads.
Prospective renters visit these on-line rental home websites with the purpose of finding the best home for their needs. To do so, they add some filters to the search criteria (cost, # of bedrooms, size, area, etc.), look through these narrowed down rental home listings, and then click through the details of specific homes to find a few finalists. Then they schedule times to see these top choices in person before applying for them.
In my mind, the purpose of rental ads is to be one of the homes that is visited in person, not just a home clicked on thousands of times. The more in person visits, the more chance that a home will be applied for and rented. Most people do not want to keep visiting rental homes without picking one. If a landlord can create intrigue with the promise of a renter finding their “diamond-in-the-rough” property, this intrigue can generate more visits.
So how does a landlord create intrigue? One way is to use fewer photos. As the saying goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know”. It may seem helpful to prospective renters to be able to narrow down properties by seeing 50 photos and a virtual tour, but landlords shouldn’t want their properties to be narrowed down and eliminated from consideration. If only 8-10 great photos are posted, it can create a taste of a property that can only be sated by a home visit. More photos can actually bring up more reasons to cross a rental home off a list, especially in light of hundreds of available homes to choose from.
The purpose of Joel’s upside-down nametag was to start conversations to ultimately generate life insurance sales. Smart landlords remember that the purpose of landlord rental ads is to generate home visits to induce rental applications.
Happy Landlording!
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Trump Versus Institutional Homebuyers: Opportunity for “Landlords on Purpose”?
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
(Napolean Hill)
In recent news, President Trump is working on banning institutional homebuyers (firms owning 1,000 or more residential homes) from buying more homes. These institutional buyers (IB’s), like Progress Residential, Invitation Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, and others, own about 3% of the homes in America.
The Trump administration rationale is that IB’s with unlimited checkbooks are outbidding families for the same homes which makes achieving the American dream of homeownership harder for regular citizens. IB’s are typically vultures in the market eagerly trying to buy affordable homes (around $200-400K in Charlotte), so there is truth in that. After they buy them, they usually fix them up (laminate wood flooring, new paint, new stainless-steel appliances, etc.) and make them higher-priced rental homes. Then instead of a family owning a home, the family is paying high rent to an IB.
The picture painted above of an IB is not a glamorous one! IB’s would tell the story a little differently than the Trump administration. They would say that they provide liquidity for the home sales market as a motivated buyer; this helps American families move on to buy other houses or cash out on their real estate investments. They would say they fix up houses that are in disrepair and introduce new, needed rental homes to the market for American families to live in. They are an instrumental partner in keeping American housing stock current and from neighborhoods incurring decay from dilapidated and abandoned homes.
As someone who regularly sells homes in this price range, I like dealing with the IB’s. They always pay cash, don’t quibble with repairs, and close on time. They are in the business of accumulating homes that fit their investment profile and they are good at it. The agents who work for them are cordial and non-emotional; they don’t hold a grudge when we reject their offer initially and they are still willing to make a deal months later if we call them out of the blue. Their offers are not usually outlandishly low; some are actually above what we expected to get from a non-IB buyer. They are a nice option for sellers to have!
In short, I think IB’s are both bad and good. But I don’t make the rules! I just try to work my best within them for our landlords, their rental homes, and the tenants.
If IB’s are banned, there will be fewer rental homes available. And in Charlotte at least, we need more rental homes for the influx of 157 people a day that are moving into our metro-area. Where will they come from? The Trump administration says they expect the void to be filled by Mom & Pop investors (aka you and me).
So here is the opportunity. I saw a statistic the other day that said that 51.5% of all US mortgages are below 4%. I also saw (and have experienced) that the home sales market has been relatively stagnant for the past 3 years. Many people believe the past low mortgage rates are causing the slow market. This has been labeled as the “lock-in effect” where sellers don’t want to lose their low interest rate to buy a house with a much higher interest rate. Their great past interest rate is “locking” them into their existing house. That makes sense to me.
Reviewing the information below:
IB’s being banned or curtailed would create fewer rental homes (less supply)
Strong rental home demand continues as experts say that not enough homes have been built and there is undersupply (strong demand)
Previously bought homes with sub-4% mortgages can cashflow better than buying investment homes now at higher interest rates (lower monthly cost)
Buying a new home in a buyer’s market is favorable (lower prices, more negotiation room, & less competition)
Real estate is considered a great investment that adds portfolio diversity while hedging against inflation
I would conclude (drumroll please), it might be a great time for smart investors to rent out their “locked-in” rate house and buy a new one to live in! There are families ready to rent them.
As opposed to an “Accidental Landlord” who is forced to turn a non-selling home into a rental, a “Landlord on Purpose” could be a profitable way to ride today’s market trends.
Happy Landlording!
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A Pair Should Beat a Full House? Reassessing Security Deposit Wear Guidelines
“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean…”
(Proverbs 14:4)
I remember several years back we had a couple come in and apply to rent a home from us. They had eight children and seemed abnormally well-rested and together. I was an admirer of these parents who were gracefully taking care of business with almost three times the youth constituency I’m currently trying to navigate. Warriors!
This was going to be a full house! Fair housing laws prohibit any type of discrimination based on family size, so the sheer number of inhabitants wasn’t a factor on their application decision. But common sense dictated that a house with ten people was going to have more wear than a house with two. And wear on a house costs landlords money.
In rental home poker math, a pair should beat a full house. Less occupants means there is less potential for things to break and be worn down. Avoiding and accounting for wear has come more to the forefront as repair and renovation costs have skyrocketed post-COVID.
I started to think about the wear assumption while I was out in the field doing interior home inspections earlier this month. I hadn’t done this many personally since pre-COVID and things were different this time around! I visited around 25 rental homes during business hours and was shocked that 85% of the homes had people present. Schools were in session and it was not a holiday of any sort. I thought most people would be working outside of the home. This was not the case.
The last time I was out doing inspections, almost all of the homes were vacant when I stopped in; the process was sort of robotic and boring. This time it was nice to be able to see some of our tenants and talk. But it was unexpected. And it made me think of how much more foot traffic these houses take now than then.
Wear is probably less of a function of how many people are in a house, but how many hours people are in a house actively using it. So if ten people are living in a house but travel for work and school most of the week, there is not going to be much wear. But if these ten people never leave the house, the wear rate would be very high.
When calculating wear expenses for deduction from a tenant security deposit, property managers will use general guidelines for the life of new carpet or paint (typically 7-10 years); these guidelines have been around for a long time. But if adult tenants are not leaving their homes during work hours, should these numbers be adjusted downward (6-9 years)? Rental homes are incurring a higher rate of wear after COVID jolted the work system and it’s not cheap to renovate.
Wear rate will never be an exact science! I remember doing the walk-through after the aforementioned ten-person family vacated after several years of occupancy. The home looked better than it did when they moved in. Go figure.
But, generally-speaking, wear has increased in rental houses post-COVID. Smart landlords will reassess their security deposit deduction guidelines periodically as wear has become an even larger expense driver.
Happy Landlording!
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A Thanksgiving Rental Home Vendor Question: “What Do You Even Do???”
Property managers have a lot of things under their purview. Different types of things break or need to be serviced on a rental home. Most are handled by specialists in some regard who know how to work within the confines of what landlords require (no gold-plated toilets, please). And sometimes it can be tough to find specialists who are a good fit.
One of the vendors that has historically been a difficult find for BDF Realty is a good, reliable lawn company. When the service area is as large as the Charlotte-Metro area, it’s understandable that not every company works everywhere we have rental homes; it’s tough to justify driving 20 minutes to mow one stray lawn! Then properties are constantly in flux (vacant ones need to be mowed and rented ones don’t, and this changes constantly); this can be administratively difficult to keep straight as their weekly routes need to be constantly updated due to our needs. Not being able to work due to rainy days adds another wrinkle of difficulty to keeping yards look consistently good. Finding one, let alone several, companies that can accommodate us has been challenging. Then they need to be reasonably priced, reliable, friendly, have sound accounting to boot!
In my quest I stumbled on to a lawn company and met with the owner. He was a nice guy, easy to talk to. He ran a smaller shop and thought he could help us out. We started to send him our properties.
Shortly after, I noticed that I stopped hearing from him except when he acknowledged he received our house changes and sent us invoices. Occasionally, he would let me know he saw something askew at a house that we might want to check out. But for the most part, he went dark on BDF Realty.
But the yards were always mowed! We stopped getting calls from tenants and agents complaining about overgrown lawns that hadn’t been cut for weeks. The bills showed up on time and accurately. We weren’t paying for lawns that were still on the schedule when they had previously been taken off the master list. The landscaping part of the business seemed to be quietly humming along.
If I hadn’t been in the business of trying to find good lawn companies for so long, I might have thought something was wrong. “Why don’t I hear from this guy? Why do we pay him so much money? Should I be pitting another lawn company against him? What does he even do that’s so special?” But experience and age gave me appreciation on what a gift this peace of mind was. He really kept us clean from a lawn service perspective. I appreciated it!
From a Charlotte property management perspective, this is what we aim for. We want to be like our lawn service provider, keeping all of our clients clean. The question of “What do you even do?” is one I hope every client has. That usually means that the rent comes in every month, tenant leases are regularly extended, house turns are smooth, tenants are calm and satisfied, and the property management side of the business is quietly humming along. When it looks easy from the outside, it’s running as designed.
Speaking of… A special “Thanksgiving” shoutout to our vendors who do such tireless, great work every day for our tenants, clients, and us. I could ask the question, but I know what you do!
And a thank you, as always, to our clients- if it weren’t for you, there would be no BDF Realty.
Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Landlording!
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The Bachelor & Long-Term First Leases: Too Much Too Fast?
Those who are serious in ridiculous matters will be ridiculous in serious matters.”
(Cato the Elder (Roman statesman))
“Wisdom gives a man patience…”
(Proverbs 19:11)
The Bachelor became an instant TV hit in 2002 when it first came on the air. What an interesting premise: a single man searching for the woman of his dreams to spend the rest of his life with- and having 25 attractive females to choose from in a captive audience! He gets to essentially speed date all of these women who are all in pursuit of him. And from these brief encounters, he is expected to make the decision to marry one of them.
This lifelong commitment is born out of 6 weeks of dating the supposed “Mrs. Right” while being filmed AND splitting time seeing 24 other women concurrently. It starts on a level playing field; everyone is complete strangers at the beginning of the show and are having their first conversations there. Common sense would dictate that it would be difficult for anyone to know anyone particularly well, let alone have enough to base a serious marriage proposal off of. It’s completely ridiculous, but an engagement is the goal of each season.
So how would it ever work? The Bachelor seems to be big on participants finding their long lost “soulmate”; if they found the right person, they would know they were meant for each other. The rest would fall into place.
But if that “soulmate” even exists, is she even there? And can you have two “soulmates” who are both there? The reality is that this arrangement of strangers trying to make this dating scenario a serious, constructive process leads to plenty of awkwardness. Below are some of the common, absurd conversation snippets heard in most seasons of The Bachelor, courtesy of AI:
[THE BACHELOR] (Eyes glistening)
This has been such an amazing journey. I’m just feeling so many different emotions right now.
[CONTESTANT #1] (Sobbing in confessional)
I just don’t know if he’s here for the right reasons. Like, I’m literally opening up my heart and he’s so connected to the other girls. It’s hard to watch.
[CONTESTANT #2] (Approaching the Bachelor)
Can I steal you for a second? I just… I need some clarity on our connection.
[THE BACHELOR] (Sighs dramatically)
Sure. I feel like we have such a strong foundation. But I also feel like I’m in a really tough spot.
[CONTESTANT #2] I just feel like you don’t see how much I’m falling for you.
[THE BACHELOR] I just need to know that you are fully in this. I’ve never felt like this before in my life.
[CONTESTANT #1] (Steals the Bachelor back)
I’m just so crazy about you.
[THE BACHELOR] Thank you for sharing that with me. That means so much.
In a way, it reminds me of long-term lease requests. As a Charlotte property manager, we are sometimes approached by new rental tenants who want to sign 5+ year leases or longer upon rental application approval.
At first glance, this looks like a great thing! The owner gets a long-term tenant. The tenant gets housing stability. A match made in Heaven!
But what if the tenant signs on and winds up hating the house? Or the tenant loves it, but winds up being a neighborhood nuisance and doesn’t maintain the property? That would be a problem for the owner.
Sometimes starting a long-term leasing relationship right away is too much, too fast. Neither party knows what to expect from each other. Both sides have not had time to assess the situation to see if it makes sense for both parties. Starting out on a 1-year lease is a good first step for most rental situations.
For entertainment purposes, The Bachelor tries to fast forward casual dating into marriage. In contrast, smart landlords are patient and not looking for high drama with their rental tenants. They tend to wait for the second lease (after an initial 1-year lease courtship) to determine if they really found their rental soulmate.
Happy Landlording!
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Pete Rose’s Reinstatement & Evictions: Worth Reaching for a Win-Win?
“It depends upon what the meaning of ‘is’ is. If the- if he- if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not- that is one thing.”
President Bill Clinton pleading his case during the Monica Lewinski grand jury trial
Growing up, I remember having some of Pete Rose’s baseball cards in my collection; they were good ones! Not only was he the all-time hit leader in Major League Baseball (MLB) history, he was the consummate ballplayer. He was gritty, ran out every groundball, and earned the nickname “Charlie Hustle”; he was consistently lauded for “playing the game the right way”. During his 24-year career, he won three World Series and more regular season games (1,972) than any other professional player in any sport. He loved baseball and was considered a surefire Hall-of-Famer.
But off the field when his playing career was over, he did not always conduct himself the right way and broke a major, unforgiveable rule- gambling on baseball. With the integrity of the competitiveness of the sport at stake, gambling had always been banned by MLB. Outcomes of games would not be tainted by it. It was a simple, Draconian regulation: if you gambled on baseball while involved, you were banished.
Rose was accused of betting on his own baseball games while he was manager of Cincinnatti Reds. He denied the accusations. When concrete evidence was discovered showing his guilt, he continued to lie about it. The commissioner of baseball permanently banned Rose from the game of baseball (including the ability to be voted into the Hall of Fame) in 1989. Afterwards, he still showed no remorse for his actions, even after finally admitting to gambling on baseball in a book he wrote years later. A storied career ended in infamy.
Pete Rose died last year.
But last week, the newest commissioner of MLB, Rob Manfred, reinstated Pete Rose. This lifted his ban and made him posthumously eligible for Hall of Fame induction.
But he broke the unforgivable rule! How is reinstatement possible? Doesn’t this send a bad message to other MLB personnel? Or have times changed now that gambling is more mainstream? Baseball fans seem to have split feelings. But, regardless, Pete Rose not being in the Hall of Fame is a regrettable lose-lose for Rose and MLB.
The same line of questioning can be used in property management on eviction guidelines. Most residential leases have rent due on the 1st of each month and allows for evictions to be promptly filed on the 2nd if rent has not been received. But that doesn’t happen often. In fact, most evictions aren’t filed until the 16th at the earliest. Why?
It’s because it is in everyone’s best interest (tenant, owner, and property manager) for the tenant to pay. And giving the tenant additional time to the 16th of the month usually allows a second paycheck to come in so the tenant square the balance. Once eviction is filed, attorney fees and court costs begin to accrue to the tenant which can make a perilous financial situation worse. If this happens, the tenant will probably never get caught up before the eviction is recorded, leading to the owner never receiving the rent, and leading to the tenant being forced out of the house. It creates a true lose-lose situation.
What about if the tenant gave a compelling case that full payment could be made if he was granted an extension past the 16th of the month? This is where it gets sticky. All the letters sent and communications continually reinforce that the 16th is it. There is no tomorrow. Full payment needs to be made by then or, unfortunately, eviction must be filed. Rarely can most tenants in a non-payment situation get caught up after being a full month behind anyway.
But does it need to be a hard and fast rule? Shouldn’t every effort to avoid lose-lose situations be exhausted? Is there a case to be made that sometimes the 16th isn’t it?
I believe there is. Pushing the deadline is always by a case-by-case basis, and candidly, most situations don’t warrant it. But some do. Property managers should be always aiming to avoid lose-lose situations.
Doesn’t everyone believe that the all-time hit leader in MLB history should be enshrined in baseball’s Hall-of-Fame? Of course! Hits are one of the most important baseball metrics and he had 4,256 of them.
Yes, it might be sticky if he ever gets voted in and enshrined. Fans may revolt in anger. Players may look at this as a precedent that gambling is a forgivable sin now. No one knows if there will be future negative ramifications.
However, a tenant paying and Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame are ideal win-win scenarios. But getting there requires discernment because there is always a chance of getting burned. Smart landlords (and MLB commissioners) should tread carefully.
Happy Landlording!
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Are Savannah Banana Tix & Great Rental Applicants Worth the Fuss?
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
(Matthew 13:44)
I was completely caught off-guard by the Savannah Bananas. More accurately, I didn’t understand the frenzy around their tickets.
It all started around 6 months ago when my wife casually asked me to enter the “Savannah Bananas Ticket Lottery”. I had no idea what she was talking about, but dutifully complied. I clicked on the website link and inputted my contact information. Done.
I ignored the marketing jargon at first:
“These aren’t your typical tickets”
“It’s the most fun you’ll ever have at a baseball game”
“You name it, we have it. Just be mentally prepared.”
From what I could ascertain, the Savannah Bananas were like the Harlem Globetrotters, except for baseball. Which is fine, but they didn’t look overly enticing to me.
However, the inputting of my information set off a 6-month e-mail marketing firework show about how wrong I was:
“You will only have one opportunity to buy tickets to the game of a lifetime- don’t miss out!”
“Confirm your contact information and double-check your log-in to make sure you can get into the website when ticket sales go live!!” (received 4 months prior to the actual lottery)
“Make sure your credit card information is preloaded so you don’t blow the chance of a lifetime!” (received 2 months before the lottery- I guess I need to make sure the card I put in there isn’t expired by then…)
Things got more intense as lottery day approached. “Reconfirm your log-in info!” “You’ll receive an e-mail 5 days from now that you will need to click on to keep in the lottery!” It seemed like these e-mails kept showing up requiring me to do
(and re-do) more work for the right to buy these tickets. Though annoying, on a certain level I was amazed at their potent marketing acumen that turned an apathetic ticket buyer into a pup willing to do whatever they asked.
The day approached and I was told I needed to be ready to buy them at exactly 12:30 PM on the day of my youngest son’s preschool picnic lunch. Of course, I succumbed and checked the time frequently during the event; I’d be ready to click on their website link at exactly the right time. When the time came, the link was slow to respond making me second-guess my log-in credentials (I know I should have reconfirmed them for the 5th time like recommended- dumb!!). But it finally went through and my credit card information was true as well. Four Savannah Banana upper deck tickets were now mine! The website congratulated me and culminated their storyline with the fact that I was now one of the luckiest 150,000 people in the Charlotte-Metro area.
Hooray? Whew!
Besides the cathartic value of getting this experience off of my chest, it made me think of what else is worth the effort that it took to secure these Savannah Banana tickets.
From a residential property management perspective, great rental tenants is the first thing that came to mind. This is the #1 goal of being a successful landlord. Great tenants pay on time, take care of the property, and make working with them a pleasure (I’m picturing a few of them right now!). And they are a gift that keeps on giving. Once they are secured, the benefits accrue for a year and usually much longer!
So when we see great rental applications come through (high credit scores, low debt, glowing landlord references, etc.), the next step is to make sure they don’t get away. Calling them, texting them, e-mailing, following-up, having after-hour conversations if necessary. We need them. The biggest difference between a good and bad property manager is tenant quality.
We’ll find out if the Savannah Bananas experience was worth the fuss of securing these tickets when we attend the game on June 6th. But smart landlords know that securing great rental tenants is always worth it!
Happy Landlording!
And the postscript courtesy Axios Charlotte:
Savannah Bananas tickets sold out in Charlotte in roughly five hours when they went on sale last week, a team spokesperson tells Axios.
Why it matters: Tickets sold for up to $65 originally, but resale prices start at $113 on StubHub, at $171 on Vivid Seats and $156 on SeatGeek.
Catch up quick: Ticket access was based on the Banana Ball Ticket Lottery, which closed last fall. If you were selected, you were assigned a time to have a chance to purchase tickets.
- Before tickets went on sale, the Bananas added a second night to their World Tour stop at Bank of America Stadium to respond to “overwhelming demand,” according to organizers.
My thought bubble: Even with the added night and assigned ticket purchase time, I still wasn’t able to grab tickets. 😔
(Axios Charlotte By Laura Barrero · Apr 16, 2025)
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Jayden Daniels Football Card Worth $1K? Simple Rental Home Pricing
My 11-year old son has become very interested in football cards. He used to just like finding players on his favorite team (The Tampa Bay Buccaneers- ugh! If it wasn’t going to be the Carolina Panthers, could he not pick a team in another division???), but now he has expanded his interest in what the cards are “potentially” worth.
Now his old man had similar interests in his younger years, except mostly with baseball cards. I’d get the Beckett price guide and add up how much my cards were worth. And, of course, I dreamed of when I was much older and the rookie cards of players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens would be worth millions when they made the Hall of Fame (cough, cough).
My son excitedly pulled me aside one day and showed me a Jayden Daniels (rookie quarterback for the Washington Commanders) card he had just pulled from a new pack. On my wife’s phone, he had found a page that showed that the card’s value was around $1K- wow! Next to the value was an eBay button where one could post it for sale with the push of a button.
Our conversation:
Me: Very cool! Push the button and sell it for a $1K!
Son: Now way, Dad! That’s low. It will be worth much more later.
Me (thinking of the old baseball cards I had in our house with virtually no value): Are you sure? $1K of real money gives you a lot more options.
Son: Nope.
Me: What if Dad sweetens the pot and will give you another $100 on top of the $1K if you can really get close to $1K for it?
He still wasn’t going for it.
In my mind, I wanted to put this estimation of value to the test. Was there really someone willing to pay $1K for this new card? I was doubtful. What was the real market if he was bent on selling it? Ebay, in theory, pulled this valuation from past sales somewhere. I’m thinking that it was worth much less, like single digits. Unfortunately, short of listing his card for sale on the sly, I’ll never know for sure.
I find rental home pricing to be similar. Property managers dig up comparable sales, factor in the differentiating house features, look at the available competition that is renting in the area, and then formulate a price. This price is an educated guess and is compiled in order to get good tenants applying, in a relatively short amount of time, at the highest possible price.
But we don’t really know how many houses are truly on the market for rent. There are many rental websites. Recently, we thought we had priced a home for rent well, only to find that there were almost 10 others on the market in the neighborhood on another website we hadn’t seen- and they were all listed at the price we recommended! That type of similar inventory makes for a logjam.
So what’s the right price? Does it matter how many Jayden Daniels cards are on the market? How can one know how many houses and cards are for sale out there? And how much they sold for?
It does matter, but there is no real way to know everything going on. However, there is a way to know for sure whether a price is good or not. And it’s really simple.
Putting the home on the market for a reasonable amount of time is the surest way to find out. If the house is listed with decent exposure to the market and the valuation is right, it will rent. If Jayden Daniels’s rookie card was listed at $1K and it sold for $1K, the price was right (or too low). If it didn’t sell, the price was probably too high. Simple stuff.
The market sets the price. And the market is constantly changing. But it is pretty efficient. If it didn’t sell, the market declared that the price was too high at that time.
Will my son’s card sell for $1K? There’s only one way to know! I just need to convince him to list it and see.
Happy Landlording!
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The “One Mistake” Case Against Rental Home Self-Management
“You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Socrates
It has been a life-long learning process for appreciating professionals in my adult life. Most of the time, this teaching did not come easily to me.
From fixing cars and watching them break down at inopportune times. Feeling physically poorly for months until I went to a doctor who had me better in days. Using bug spray to get rid of termites only to see them come back with a hungry vengeance until a proper exterminator was employed.
To be fair, fixing things on my own outside of my sweet spots isn’t always a losing effort. I’m always proud of myself when I can pull off some repair successfully in my house or submit some legal paperwork without any help. Go me!
Likewise, in property management, there is some definite positive reinforcement for self-managing:
“The last tenant I placed paid on time and left my rental home spotless!”
“No one is going to love my property like I do.”
“I do a lot of the repairs myself and save money.”
“Property managers are expensive!”
“The house is right by my house.” (writer’s note: that’s a double-edged sword…)
It is estimated that around 50% of all rental properties are self-managed, so it is prevalent. But despite the “tenant domination” stories told by some landlords at parties, it is not all roses. There really are midnight calls for stopped up toilets, tenants not paying rent that need to be evicted, and disgusting houses dropped into a landlord’s lap when a tenant leaves in the middle of the night. There is actual effort and stress in managing rental properties; to do it well requires time, sweat, and educational investment. No one can say it isn’t doable, though.
The biggest driver for self-management is saving money. I get that! There is a certain joy when all the money generated from the rental home goes directly into the bank account without any property management fee deductions. Months (or years) that this happily goes on is certainly a case for self-management; it probably comes to a few thousand dollars in potential savings per rental house a year.
But where things sometimes go awry in this calculation is that there is the “One Mistake”; this one miscalculation erases all accrued property management savings. Whether it is a legal one where a security deposit dispensation is not sent out in 30 days and the tenant who destroyed the house has the legal right to get it all back. Or when needed (or, sometimes it turns out, unneeded) repairs are made and the time and monetary investment keep ballooning due to unfamiliarity. Or a trusted vendor was employed who actually shouldn’t have been trusted. Or a tenant court date that keeps being pushed farther out due to not sending out proper notices while, concurrently, no rent is being paid.
The one-offs of learning the property management business can erase all the realized monetary savings and just leave uncompensated time that could have been better spent. That can be frustrating! And that’s the tough case against self-management.
The problem with avoiding the costly “One Mistake” is that it could happen in so many different areas. And sometimes things turn into “Two Mistakes” or more…
Property managers aren’t full-proof, but experience does offer some benefit for steering clear of these costly errors.
Happy Landlording!
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Is it OK to Visit My Rental Properties if I Have a Property Manager? I’m Sort of Curious To See Them…
Answer: Yes! We live in the United State of America. If you’re the owner, you are always welcome to visit your properties. This right is usually written into the lease as well.
This is a very short answer (and makes for a very short blog)…
For a longer discussion… the question could be whether it is advantageous for owners to visit their properties if they have a property management company managing them already.
Let’s look at 3 scenarios of an owner rental home visit. Keep in mind (especially after COVID), at least one of the tenants will probably be home at some point during the home inspection:
Scenario #1 (Happy Time):
Owner knocks on the door. Tenant enthusiastically answers and there is a warm greeting. They tour the home together.
Owner: “My, you keep my home up beautifully! How did you get the cracks so clean between the countertop and backsplash?
Tenant: “Oh, it was a trick my mother taught me- gently scrub a paste of baking soda mixed with lemon juice in with a toothbrush.”
Owner: “Splendid! And thank you for always paying early!”
Tenant: “You’re welcome! Have you met my 4-year old daughter, Ivory? Honey, come say ‘hi’ to our landlord!”
Owner: “She’s so cute!”
Tenant: “Thank you! Can I get your number if I have an emergency and can’t get in touch with the management company? They’re sort of slow sometimes.”
Owner: “Sure!”
Upside: Owner has firsthand knowledge of the property and a budding friendship?
Downside: It might be necessary to evict the tenant and her young daughter. A personal connection makes this tougher. The tenant now has an influential third-party to go to when the property manager’s answers are not to the tenant’s liking (the old “Go to Mom when Dad says ‘no’” trick).
Scenario #2 (Unhappy Time):
Owner knocks on the door- no one answers. Owner keys into the property. Family is eating dinner. Tenant has been late on the rent. The home is really messy and not maintained. Owner speaks to the tenant. Tenant had a tough day at work and complains about repair issues with the house. An unhappy conversation ensues. No one is happy when the owner leaves.
Upside: Owner has firsthand knowledge of the property
Downside: The relationship with the tenant is potentially complicated. There are negative feelings on both sides that may lead to sub-optimal choices that erode the relationship further.
Scenario #3: (Normal Time):
Owner knocks on the door- no one answers. Owner keys in and no one is home. Owner walks through, inspects all the rooms, and takes a few notes. Owner is preparing to leave and the tenant arrives home with her daughter from basketball practice. Owner and tenant cordially greet each other and then each continue along with what they were doing. Owner leaves.
Upside: Owner has firsthand knowledge of the property
Downside: None
As a property manager, our goal is to maximize our owner client’s investment; a large part of that is creating a drama-less relationship where rent is paid, the home is maintained, and needed repairs are done. We want to create an environment where tenants want to extend their leases and have no landlord-related reasons on why they wouldn’t. They are free to enjoy their rental home and live their lives. If at some point we need to file for eviction, the decision is based more on a business case as opposed to any emotion either way.
It’s a boringly successful relationship for all parties. Ran correctly, it’s a beautifully benign operation.
And it is entirely possible that an owner visit would not affect the tenant relationship at all!
But… going back to whether owner property visits are actually advantageous, we still don’t recommend them as the safest move seems to let things be. It doesn’t seem wise to add any potential disruption of this boring relationship when there is no tangible upside.
Owners are always welcome to visit their rental properties for any reason, including curiosity! There just seems little to be gained and much to be potentially lost. Why take an unnecessary risk?
Happy Landlording!
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