The question she had for me was what she needed to do in order to lease the property again. My advice to her was that you needed to get legal possession of the property.

It’s important that you play this by the book because if you cut corners and get caught, the punishment may be way worse than the little bit of convenience you gained by cutting corners.

What that means is that she needs to file for eviction with the court even though the tenant was already gone. This is especially important when the tenant has left a bunch of stuff in the house.

The reason she needed to go through the court is because there is always a chance that the tenant could come back and claim that they had some hardship that took them out of town.

Now let’s suppose that my client had gotten rid of all of the items in the house. In that case, the tenant could make a ridiculous claim against the landlord for throwing away their their “valuable” items. If the landlord did not have legal possession of the property when those items were removed, they could be liable for damages. Who knows what the tenant might claim was left in the property.

The nature of the items in the property is also important. Let’s suppose that the landlord gets legal possession of the property. In Oklahoma, if the items in the property can truly be considered trash, they may simply be disposed of. If, however, some of the items have value, the landlord is required to store those items for a period of time before disposing of them so the tenant has an opportunity to settle their debt with the landlord in order to get their property back.

In this article, I’m going to share with you three tips to improve the customer service of any rental company.

You think your business is different, right? You don’t have to worry about customer service. Sorry, you do. In fact, good customer service is the secret sauce for keeping your rental customer long term.

You have to keep in mind that your customers expect to be treated with courtesy and dignity. Those first few moments they meet you are critical.

When they come into your place of business and they feel like they’re not welcome, they are going to leave you fast. If you don’t show them how much you care about them as a customer they’ll go somewhere else. That means you won’t get their money.

When they call you to get information about a property, give it to them cheerfully. Here are three tips to improve your customer service skills.

1) Don’t be rude when they’re calling to schedule an appointment.

2) Be professional and helpful when they ask you questions. That’s courteous and shows that you’re and outstanding business person.

3) Remember the golden rule. Treat them just like the way you would want to be treated if you were walking into a business the first time.

When you do these things you’ll be better than most of your competition, and that can help set you apart from other property management companies or landlords in your city.

Everybody seems to be talking about how the great the section 8 program is.  It’s great for the person who getting the benefit because they get at least part of their rent paid by the government.  It’s great for the landlord because they get a check from the government that comes in as long as all the requirements of the program are met.

But just like everything else that sounds too good to be true, the devil is in the detials. 

I’ll give you an few examples.

Yesterday out office got a call from someone who very excited because she just got her section 8 voucher approved for a 2-bed rental.  She said her approval amount was $688 per month, and did we have anything available? 

Now first of all, section 8 doesn’t tell the individual that part of that money, approximately $150, is toward utility allowance.  But the tenat doesn’t know that.  They think the $688 is the amount of rent that section 8 will cover. 

Another bid one is their all bills paid deal. 

From a landlord’s perspective, you have to be careful about doing a contract with section 8 all bills paid.  We attempted last month with a one-bed unit.  The approved amount from section 8 was $565 per month. 

My plan was put a cap of $200 per month for the utilities (electric only, we included water at no extra charge), and make usage above that a lease violation subject to eviction.  Well, even the best laid plans get total messed up.  The day of lease signing, I found out from the housing authority that if we did it that way, we would run up again some affordability index for this person.  It would drop the total rent to $500, all bills paid.  Basically, the housing authority forces a landlord into complying with their model of how they think the world should work. 

Now I doubt the usage will be $200 per month on this unit, but I don’t think I would have agreed to this deal up front if I had all the details. 

The devil IS definitely in the details. 

And don’t get me wrong, I think section 8 is a heck of a good program.  If you are landlord, don’t do just one property like this because their is way too much of a learning curve about inspection requirements and other administrative hassles.  If you plan to 10 or 100, it can definitely be a fantastic money maker. 

"I use  40% of Gross Income as my Total Expenses (taxes,insurance,repairs,vacancy,etc) not including mortgage and in my case, management fees since i manage the properties myself.  Am I on the lower or higher end of it?

How do you guestimate your total expenses? is there a formula?"
 

I believe the context here is for estimating what effect this will have on cash flow when you are coming up with an amount to offer and therefore finance when purchasing a cash flow property. 

I’ll tell you where I really want to be – I want the maintenance to be 10% of gross income or less.  You’ll get this on properties that are mid 1960’s and newer, or older homes that have the plumbing, electrical, and heat and air updated. 

I remember when I first started out I bought these old junker houses – you know the ones…pre-1950’s plumbing, wiring so old that you didn’t trip the breaker, you blew a fuse…and yes, tempermental floor furnaces. 

I thought you just bought the house, gave her some paint and carpet, and you are off to the races. 

WRONG!!!

You’ll pay through the nose if you don’t get these items updated to some standard that doesn’t required constant maintenance.  That doesn’t mean you have to totally rewire the property just because it has a fuse box.  But it does mean that you need to know where to spend your money properly on upgrades.  If you don’t, you might as well figure in 20% on mainenance and a higher than usual vacancy rate. 

That brings me to vacancy, which ideally is less than 10%.  If you are running higher than 10%, it’s time to take a look at what’s not working right in your business.  Basically, you have a break down in one of the following areas:

1) You aren’t getting your properties ready to rent quick enough between renters,

2) You don’t know what you are doing when it comes to collections,

3) Your marketing / advertising isn’t getting you enough traffic into your properties,

4) Your tenant screening is not adequate, or

5) The amount of your advertised rent and/or deposit is too high relative to your market.

As for property tax and insurance, it’s best to use actual values. 

Once a year you should be doing a financial statement, even if you don’t have to put one together for the bank.  When you do, calculate out the maintenance and vacancy that you are experiencing.  The amount of maintenance that you actually do will be in those numbers. 

As for vacancy, you can calculate that by taking the amount of income you collected (other than late fees and seized deposits) and divide that by your potential income if 100% of rents would have been collected for the year. 

Here is the email he got as a reply to his craiglist add for house he has for rent:

Thanks for your mail,Yes i appreciate your wanting to help us in oursituation.I am a
chemist by profession and i am currently working with NORTH WICK PARK &ST.MARK’S HOSPITAL,17WATFORD ROAD,HARROW,MIDDLESEX, LONDON . I will be in the states for the next one year with my wife and nine year old daughter and during my stay i will be working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency on a private research work…..We have a financier that is based in the states and he will be handling the rent deposit payment on our behalf,we will instruct him to send you the check for this as soon as you give us the go ahead to make payment to you. Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival,we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furniture,so we will need you to provide us with the measurements of the living room and bedroom so that we can send it to the furniture company so that they can supply the unit with furniture that will fit in well. As regards the lease agreement,i want you to send it to me for my review,i will eventually have it filled and signed on my arrival in your place as i am of the opinion that such documents are best filled and signed physically.We can start the lease by 10th of November and we will be doing a one year lease although we will not be arriving until 1st of December…or even before then.You can prepare the lease in my name Mr Richard H and my wife’s name Mrs. Susan H..Please call my cell phone+44 7024055555 Let us know how to move ahead as we intend to complete this deal before we move in by the end of the month,we will let you know the exact date as soon as we get a booking on a flight to the states….
As regards the rent and deposit required to be paid by me in order to secure this rental
prior to our arrival,i will need you to provide me with your full name in which the check will be issued and your complete physical contact address to which it will be sent to by
my financier,as soon as you provide these,i will forward it to my financier with an instruction to issue and send you the check.Please i need you to also reconfirm the total move in costs,that is the rent and deposit to be paid….

I will look forward to your e mail with the required information..
Thank you,
Mr Richard H

Answer: “Somewhere in Nigeria this “Richard H” or whoever it is – is probably replying to several hundred rental advertisements across the US. I’m not certain how he bilks his marks – but rest assured, he has something something up his sleave that involves separating you from your money. What he’s probably fishing for is your bank account information so he can attempt to clean in out from overseas. Nice try, Richard H.”

• The single biggest problems facing landlords in FED court are improper service to tenants, and not having the evidence in court to support the claims they are making. Be sure to understand what the requirements of good service are. 

• Be very careful in regard to your treatment of personal property left behind after a tenant has been locked out following a lawful eviction. Be sure to send a letter by certified mail to the last known address of the tenant (i.e., the house you rented to them) letting them know you will dispose of the remaining items 30 days after the eviction. You as landlord must decide if items left behind have any tangible value.  If they do not, you can dispose of them. 

• Once a tenant has been locked out, do not give the former tenant a key to the property. This should be an obvious one, but if they left a bunch of stuff behind, it may be a pain for you to have to stay at the property while they remove theire things, but don’t give them a key because if they decide to stay, you just won the privilege of starting the eviction over again.

• You must keep tenant deposits in a separate account. No other money shall be kept in that account other than just deposits. Keep a detailed record of the amount of the deposits kept in this account.