Many small Mom and Pop type investors give up the opportunity to make money and have a wonderful free “come and go” life style simply because they never see the Importance of learning to be a skilled landlord. You don’t become a skilled landlord when you acquire houses. You become the owner-that’s all. Skilled landlording will take some education.

Basically there are just two ways to learn landlording. You can learn from people like me or other good teachers or you can learn from the tenants. I can tell you if you pay me 10 times more than I charge to teach you, it’s still cheaper than learning this job from your tenants.

Every landlord should know and under­stand landlord-tenant laws in his own area. Once you know the laws, your fear of renters or of being intimidated will vanish.

An overwhelming number of property owners incorrectly assume these laws favor deadbeat tenants. This is not the case. Laws are mostly about equity. There are unscrupulous landlords the same as naughty tenants.

Landlords often find themselves in serious hot water with tenants because they try to inject too much logic and common sense into tenant management. Logic and common sense have their place, but they seldom count for much where legal issues are concerned. For example, it is nearly impossible to effectively force your personal living standards and ideals on our tenants – a common mistake for many new landlords. Think seriously about what I’m telling you here, because it has a lot to do with sanity your sanity. What good would it do you to make a million dollars from your rental properties if your tenants drive you crazy?

To make the big bucks in this business, you must hold onto your rent-producing properties. Flip-flopping and selling off assets might sound a little more sexy, but its short lived at best. Selling works in direct opposition to retaining income, depreciation credits and avoiding the tax collector. Combined with appreciation, these are the main ingredients for wealth. Obviously, keeping properties requires handling the tenants, who pay you their money every month – but as your collections grow, landlording becomes ~ much more tolerable, and eventually, more fun!

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FOR DETAILS —-CLICK ON SEMINARS OR CALL 1-800-722-2550.

Finally, learning “street skills”, as well as rules and regulations in the book, will make your landlording job 100 times easier. This is where I can help you the most. I have years of “tender loving” tenant management under my belt and I’ll share my triumphs, as well as some pitfalls. When you finish my seminar, you’ll have enough street knowledge to gracefully handle most tenant intimidation (#1 cause for landlord suicides). When you learn my special techniques for handling routine renter business by mail, as opposed to personal confrontations or obnoxious phone calls, you’re gonna totally fall in love with my training – I’LL GUARANTEED IT!

The good news is, owning income¬ producing property and landlording is a profession that provides an equal opportunity for everyone to achieve financial independence and a quality of life second to none if you choose to participate. My good friend, Richard E., who owns and manages small apartments in San Francisco, says: “If you are comfortable with the role of owner/¬landlord and don’t allow yourself to be intimidated by the responsibility for setting out the rules by which tenants may live in your properties, you will find as many others have, that owning and operating small rental properties provides a vehicle for self-employment and self-expression that is difficult to match in our society today.”

I certainly agree with Richard: owning houses that produce cash flow every month is a great way to go once you get the hang of it. However, like anything else in life, you must pay your dues up front. Landlording is the price of admission for investors who operate income properties.

You won’t be hated when you demand timely rents. Landlords that insist on timely rents are no different than cashiers in the supermarket.

It’s your business to make sure rents are collected and the rules in your rental agreement are followed. Never let a tenant intimidate you. The most serious mistake new landlords can make is to allow the tenant’s urgency to become their urgency.

After many years of doing this job, I’m hard pressed to think of any situation so compelling that there wouldn’t be enough time to think it through. If there’s a fire at my property, the community fire department will handle everything. I’m protected by insurance on the building. Should someone die in one of my rental houses, I simply can’t do very much. I’ve yet to meet a landlord that would be of much help in this situation. The county coroner is the person you need.

Basically there’s just two ways to learn landlording. You can learn from people like me or you can learn from the tenants. If you pay me 10 times more than I charge to teach you, it’s cheaper than learning this job from your tenants.

Every landlord should know and under­stand landlord-tenant laws in his own area. Once you know the laws, your fear of rent­ers or of being intimidated will vanish. An overwhelming number of property owners incorrectly assume these laws favor deadbeat tenants. I can assure you this is not the case, although sometimes it appears that way. Laws are mostly about equity. Remember, there are unscrupulous landlords as well as naughty tenants.

Landlords often find themselves in serious hot water with tenants because they try to inject too much logic and common sense into tenant management. Logic and common sense have their place, but they seldom count for much where legal issues are concerned. For example, it is nearly impossible to effec­tively force your personal living standards and ideals on your tenants. To do so could seriously affect your sanity. What earthly good would it do to make a million dollars from your rental properties if your tenants drive you crazy?

Basically there’s just two ways to learn landlording. You can learn from people like me or you can learn from the tenants. If you pay me 10 times more than I charge to teach you, it’s cheaper than learning this job from your tenants.

Every landlord should know and under­stand landlord-tenant laws in his own area. Once you know the laws, your fear of rent­ers or of being intimidated will vanish. An overwhelming number of property owners incorrectly assume these laws favor deadbeat tenants. I can assure you this is not the case, although sometimes it appears that way. Laws are mostly about equity. Remember, there are unscrupulous landlords as well as naughty tenants.

Landlords often find themselves in seri­ous hot water with tenants because they try to inject too much logic and common sense into tenant management. Logic and common sense have their place, but they seldom count for much where legal issues are concerned. For example, it is nearly impossible to effectively force your personal living standards and ideals on your tenants. To do so could seriously affect your sanity. What earthly good would it do to make a million dollars from your rental properties if your tenants drive you crazy?

Rent monies are life blood to apartment owners. Yet, I know many property manag­ers and owners alike who participate with their tenants each month in a silly little “rent collection ritual.” The tenant starts the game by saying the checks in the mail. Then the landlord begins calling every day or driving out to the property to inform the tenant he hasn’t received it yet. This can go on for weeks.

Don’t allow yourself to be part of this game. Use the rules already on the books: the state landlord-tenant civil laws and your rental contract terms agreed to by your tenant.

“Scuzzos will still slip through your check-points … ”

Any landlord who’s been around the block can tell you that qualifying a tenant on paper is not 100 percent fool-proof, even when a prospective renter presents you with a beautiful well-written application form, the kind where every blank line is filled in perfectly and you get all the right answers to the important questions. Quite often appli­cants have good references and flowery letters from their last landlord. Even so, the system is not perfect. Scuzzos will still slip through your check-points occasionally. When that happens you’ll need to erase your mistake quickly and painlessly as possible.

Recently a young landlord said to me, “Jay, I’m not much interested in learning how-to kick tenants out. That won’t make me any money. Renting my units faster is what brings in the big bucks. That’s what I want to learn to do better.” It’s quite obvious that my young landlord acquaintance does not yet understand there are basically two ways to make money in this business. Collecting more rent is what most people think of first. However, equally important is controlling or reducing expenses.

Let me ask you this question. Who is better off, the landlord who grosses $1000 every month and pays out $500 in expenses; or the owner who takes in $1 00,000 monthly, but pays out exactly the same amount for expenses? Obviously, it doesn’t do you much good to improve your gross earnings if you lose it out the back door to higher expenses. That’s something like trying to fix a leak in a ruptured water line by increasing the pressure. By the way, I didn’t just make that up. A friend of mine actually tried to do that instead of calling in a plumber. It didn’t work very well. He blew the water line apart in five different spots.

“Doing an eviction is not very glamorous. ”

Sometimes evictions don’t seem like hot shot investor work. However, I think it’s helpful to understand just how much money is involved. Eviction costs are not exactly the same as ordinary expenses to a landlord. They are more like paying double to fix the same problem. That’s the good news. The bad news is often they cost a great deal more than double. Why should they cost double or more you ask? The reason is because when you have an eviction going on; in 99 percent of the cases you’re not receiving rent payments. At the same time, your house is still occupied which stops you from generating new income from tenants who are willing to pay. The total effect of this combination, even without adding in the legal costs can be a very expensive proposi­tion for landlords.

” … evictions don’t seem like hot shot investor work. ”

Some may argue that eventually, when you get your default judgment, or assuming you will prevail in the courtroom, you’ll get all your money back. In most cases, the odds are more in your favor that a flock of geese will fly down your chimney and swim in your bathtub.

Basically there’s just two ways to learn landlording. You can learn from people like me or you can learn from the tenants. If you pay me 10 times more than I charge to teach you, it’s cheaper than learning this job from your tenants.

” … there are unscrupulous landlords as well as naughty tenants.”

The Pitfalls of Management

Every landlord should know and under­stand landlord-tenant laws in his own area. Once you know the laws, your fear of rent­ers or of being intimidated will vanish. An overwhelming number of property owners incorrectly assume these laws favor deadbeat tenants. I can assure you this is not the case, although sometimes it appears that way. Laws are mostly about equity. Remember, there are unscrupulous landlords as well as naughty tenants.

Landlords often find themselves in seri­ous hot water with tenants because they try to inject too much logic and common sense into tenant management. Logic and common sense have their place, but they seldom count for much where legal issues are concerned. For example, it is nearly impossible to effec­tively force your personal living standards and ideals on your tenants. To do so could seriously affect your sanity. What earthly good would it do to make a million dollars from your rental properties if your tenants drive you crazy?

Professional property managers rarely act mostly they react.

The Keys to Good Management

Enforcement of the rules, whether civil code laws or your own house rules is the best way you develop a smooth running manage­ment operation. Preventative techniques are as important to managing tenants as they are for the doctor who manages your personal health. One of my main criticisms about professional property managers is that they rarely act-mostly they react. They’re always ready and willing to fix the busted door, but only after the horse is outta the barn.

Rent monies are life blood to apartment owners. Yet, I know many property manag­ers and owners alike who participate with their tenants each month in a silly little “rent collection ritual.” The tenant starts the game by saying the checks in the mail. Then the landlord begins calling every day or driving out to the property to inform the tenant he hasn’t received it yet. This can go on for weeks.

Don’t allow yourself to be part of this game. Use the rules already on the books: the state landlord-tenant civil laws and your rental contract terms agreed to by your tenant.

Action Keeps landlords One Jump Ahead

Landlords who learn to act before small problems become big will control most tenants. This strategy works very well for collecting rents and also for enforcing your tenant rules. Many landlords have too many rules. It’s better to keep your list of rules short and enforceable.

Would you rather be popular or profitable? You don’t have to be greedy to be a wealthy landlord. What you must be is a fair-minded business person. Fair-minded means that rents are collected in a timely manner and that your houses are maintained properly by the tenants who lease them. See how simple this stuff is.

You won’t be hated when you demand timely rents. Landlords that insist on timely rents are no different than cashiers in the supermarket.

Landlording skills improve your income. Owning rental properties that produce income is without question a very profitable and worthwhile achievement. Most folks who buy properties and stick with it end up a whole lot richer than those who don’t. I’m a good example of this, but I must tell you, there is definitely a catch to owning rental properties.

The catch is if you do not quickly learn how to operate your rentals and handle the tenants who live inside them; you’ll think a lot more about suicide than counting your money. Getting rich is a very strong motiva­tion and will certainly carry you through some rough times. But, tenants who don’t play by our rules can have a devastating effect on our bank account as well as your quality of life as an investor.

I don’t mean to scare the daylights out of you, particularly if you’re just starting out. But, I do wish to call your attention to a very important function of property owner­ship that often receives hardly any attention. That’s because it’s not a very exciting part of investing. In fact, it’s the part of ownership that turns many would-be investors off.

” .. .it’s the dull part of ownership. “

Landlording and managing your proper­ties is very important. I’ll certainly agree with anyone, it’s the dull part of ownership. Yet it’s a path that must be traveled on your way to the gold mine. I often refer to property man­agement, including people management, as the 10 percent part of ownership that’s nec­essary in order to receive the benefits from the other 90 percent. The 10 percent figure I use comes from the amount I charged (10 percent of the gross rents) when I used to manage properties for others.

The first rule of good landlording is to treat it exactly like you would any other well run business. Managing your property is a business and the tenants are your customers. It’s your job as a landlord to provide the best product (houses) and the best possible ser­vice you can.

Offer your customer the best value in the rental business. That means a clan house or apartment, priced ideally at $10 to $20 below the competition. This is enough to swing many deals your way.

How can you tell if you’re $10 to $20 below the competition? The best way is to study your local classified ads. Then drive out and see what your competition is offering at comparable rents. Adjust yours up or down according to what you observe.

You will hear that deadbeat tenants know all the rules, which enable them to stay in your property month after month without paying any rent. Sometimes the storyteller will say this is so because the tenant has minor children and receives welfare or some other assistance.

Offer your customer the best value.

This is giving far too much credit to the tenant for being street-savvy and knowledge­able. But, chances are the tenant’s success is much more likely attributable to a dumb landlord. Seldom will any tenant stay very long in my property if he or she doesn’t pay rents. After you’ve done a few evictions your­self and learned what papers to file in a timely manner, you’ll quickly build enough confidence so that horror stories won’t happen at your properties. Again, I’ll repeat, know-how is the difference between owners who operate their rental properties successfully and the ones who are simply hoping for the best.