The Successful Landlord Blog

Recently I had the opportunity to review a piece of rental property management software called Landlord Enterprise 2009 offered by Provericon Software Development based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

This tightly integrated and intuitively designed software allows property managers or landlords, large and small, to perform critical tasks such as tenant management, property management, property maintenance scheduling, document management, lease management and some light accounting. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the moment every landlord dreads!  No, not finding out that the a/c is busted.  Sure that one’s pretty huge, but if you know the right repairman, even that one can be far less painful than it has to be.  The OTHER dreadful thing – your tenant is broke/relocating/divorcing/marrying and has to move.  Sure, you’ve done everything that you can possibly do to make your house and the maintenance of it a dream come true.   They are so happy there that they never want to leave.  Another year passes and you glance at the calendar to see the renewal date has come and you promptly send out the renewal agreement.  Thinking nothing of it, you continue about your business without a worry.  They don’t ever want to leave –  right?

Days pass until one evening you see the caller id flicker with their name.  Your heart sinks to your knees.  When you answer, you find that your fear is confirmed.  Life has thrown a curve ball and they are unable to stay put.  Worse yet, the tenant is squeezing out with barely the required notice, leaving you no time to find that much needed new tenant and to handle those necessary inspections, repairs, yardwork and a top to bottom cleaning. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent note by a reader inspired this post about the role of technology in the landlord business.

When I started in this business I had every intention of leveraging available technology to make the job easier for me and the operation more efficient. I wanted to set up a web site where tenants could communicate with me about maintenance issues and also be able to pay their rent online.

Being that I have a technology background (software engineer) I made certain assumptions about tenants and banks in general which turned out to be wrong. They are listed below:

• Tenants use the internet
• Tenants use banking services
• Tenants WANT an efficient exchange of money and communication
• Banks want to electronically process all transactions

I should say that not all of the above are true all the time but such is the case most of the time. Read the rest of this entry »

So I recently became aware of a new product by Dutch Boy Paints called Refresh. Although I have not used this product myself yet, I certainly would like to try it the next time it becomes necessary to perform a “trash out” in a previous tenant’s unit.

It never ceases to amaze me that tenants will check the box “No” on the rental application that asks (in plain English) “Do you smoke?” And then proceed to smoke indoors, presumably with the doors and windows closed judging from the lovely brown nicotine patina adorning the walls after a year. Not to mention the accompanying odor. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking back on the last few maintenance issues I’ve had with rental properties, I’ve come to the conclusion that most tenants are clueless about electrical panels and utilities in general.

Here’s a synopsis of the last three maintenance calls I’ve fielded:

First, I got a call a couple of months ago from a tenant who reported that their heating system had failed and they were freezing in the 60°F weather. I asked them if they had checked the breaker panel for tripped breakers and they had not. After resetting the breaker for the heating element in their A/C unit, all was well. Read the rest of this entry »