Common Ways Landlords Fail

This business is easy to succeed but also easy to fail. As a professional property manager I see a common theme among some landlords that maybe should be using a property manager instead of trying to handle it themselves. Here is a short list of common fails. But we are also solution oriented so I will briefly explain how we overcome or avoid these fails at AZ Property Management Group.

  • Not treating and running like a business
    • This is a business and far too often landlords don’t treat it as such. Make sure you make decisions on a sound business model and keep an eye on the finances. Make sure your investment is the correct one to buy, that it’s maintained, and the right people are renting it from you. Don’t do things on a whim or a gut feeling. Don’t rent to a friend because you trust them (unless you do the proper due diligence like you would anyone else), or buy a property in a bad rental market because a friend needed to sell it, and so on. Take a look and think about how your investment is being ran. If you hired someone to take care of your very expensive asset that was running it on a whim or just going off of his gut feeling rather than a sound business model, would you fire him?
      • What does AZ Property Management do? We operate under very precise business principles. We treat everyone the same and have strict guidelines that have been developed by successful property management companies. For example, we are consistent in the qualification required to rent from us, like how much income they should have, when late fees are due, when notices go out for non payment, how we conduct maintenance, etc. It’s a system and structured for success.
  • Getting emotionally attached
    • This is pretty common. Typically because people rent their former family home and have a tough time with it. Or they rent to a friend. Or even more common the landlord becomes friends with the people they are renting to. Being emotionally attached causes lots of issues, such as Landlord Tenant Act violations and not increasing rents according to the market thus hurting your ROI on you business. They simply make decisions based on emotions instead of sound business principals. Lots of properties we take over that are being managed by the owner are considerably under market value. I think the reason is two fold, getting emotionally attached and not having the proper tools on hand to determine market rents.
      • What does AZ Property Management do? Having a property manager will help with separating you from the tenants so you don’t have to see other people living in your home or be the bad guy when rent needs to be raised at the end of a lease term. We are not emotionally attached to the home nor the tenants, this is our business and our judiciary is with our owners. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy our tenants and are friendly to them but following our business model is non negotiable.
  • Lease poorly written
    • This is a serious problem. Many leases we get from owner managed properties are completely invalid and contain violations of the Landlord Tenant Act. If things went south a judge or an attorney for the tenant would have a hay-day with most the leases I see. This can land you in so much trouble, some of which could be criminal simply because you were trying to do something you don’t know anything about.
      • What does AZ Property Management do? We spend many hours in seminars, classes and with our attorneys that help us understand trends, lawsuits and litigation concerns. We know the laws and follow the laws to protect our company and of course our property owners.

If we can help you with a property, even if it’s already leased or in a less than perfect situation, please contact us.