Here ’ s the thing : when you are a landlord , you are in the tenant business . Your sole purpose is to keep that tenant happy , handle tenant needs , account for the cash flow and pay the expenses that keep tenants in the building . Though you are technically an investor , your main business is serving other people ’ s needs .
LANDLORD CONS
I didn ’ t care for a few things while I was King of the Hill ; for example , collecting rents . Oh it was great when they sent them in by mail on time . What I didn ’ t like was going out to collect them . Too many tenants would not be home , or would ask me to come back in a couple of days . By the time I collected
three nights ’ work . I was very happy when I delegated all of that chore except for signing the checks .
Of the many things I grew tired of while being a landlord , the one thing that always made me crazy was showing apartments . I discovered Dave ’ s Law : half the people don ’ t show up . You take time away from your family to go to the property to meet
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For those three and a half years . I liked having that control over my properties . In that period I accumulated 104 apartment units and my monthly cash flow was in the high five figures . I thought I was King of the Hill !
All that knowledge and control comes at a price . While the landlord is collecting rents , handling tenant needs and complaints ( and once in a while even praise ), making repairs , and paying bills — that landlord could instead be an investor , attracting more deals , creating more cash flow , and cashing more checks .
" All that knowledge and control comes at a price ." all of the rents , it was time to start collecting them again for the next month .
I certainly didn ’ t like fixing clogged toilets on Saturday mornings when my favorite real estate infomercial was on , or in the middle of the night . Almost as bad was paying the bills every month . I had no problem with the money going out for services , but it was the process that got old really fast : collect all the bills , open the mail , rip off the stub , put remainder in that bill ’ s receipt folder , write the check , make the journal entry , stick both stub and check in envelope , put on stamp , lick envelope , write in return address , go to post office . Doing that for one or two properties was easy ; doing it for 22 properties was two to people and they don ’ t have the courtesy to pick up the phone to tell you that they can ’ t make it . Even when they did call to confirm , a lot of them still wouldn ’ t show ! I finally adopted the policy of having them meet me at my corner donut shop ( Later , in my office ) and then we would drive to the property , regardless of how far away it was from the donut shop . I learned that if they didn ’ t show within ten minutes , I could be back at work in my office in two minutes .
It took me those three and a half years to get both tired and smart . If I gave up a little control , I could give up a lot of the madness and could make more money faster . I had graduated to property management .
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