Get a neighborhood snitch.
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| When you see an inquisitive neighbor watching you at the house, go introduce yourself. Tell them that you are the owner and that you want to know if any tenant misbehaves or doesn't take care of the yard. A messy exterior is usually a reflection of a messy interior. |
Keep a copy of the key in a mechanical lock box at the property.
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| This is very important if you are not local and you are managing your own property. Valueable time is often eaten up by sending / receiving keys to vendors. If the tenants work all the time (which is frequent), you can have vendors repair items with your tenant's permission to enter. |
When a tenant moves out, keep all openers, extra keys and post office keys in the kitchen drawer.
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| These are small items that owners frequently lose. By keeping them at the property, you won't have to manage them. This little detail often eats up a lot of our time when new owners hand off a property to us. |
Deliver air filters on a semi - annual basis.
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| Your tenants will be too lazy to remember or go through the effort of purchasing and installing air filters. Replacing air filters will have a significant impact on the life of your AC unit. You can go a step futher and purchase a dozen of them and have them delivered via UPS to the door and then stored in the garage. Bribe your tenant with a Starbucks card if they will actually replace it for you. |
Hire a pool service to manage the pool.
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| If you are unfortunate enough to have a property with a pool that is rented out, get a pool service. 75% of the pools managed by tenants will go sideways and the hundreds / thousands of dollars you spend to fix the pool will remind you why we tell investors not to purchase them. |
Prepare a list of vendors before things go to hell.
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| You don't want to be scrambling for a plumber when water is shooting into the street. If you are not our customer, get a complete list of vendors and then hand them to your tenant just in case you are on vacation when disaster strikes. If you are our customer, we provide that list free of charge. |