10 Minute Property Management course

Want to learn how become a good landlord in 10 Minutes or less? First thing, treat your real estate as a business. Simple as that. This is a lesson most gain through buy dealing with a lot of crap.

When I bought my first investment property I was so excited. I bought it under market value in high demand tenant area, had a professional landlord tenant lease, checked my potential tenant’s credit and rented it really quickly.

My first tenant was a sweet god fearing old lady, I thought I hit the jackpot because she gave me 6 post dated cheques and she loved the place. In a matter of months this situation changed. Without me knowing, my furnace conked out and I get a call from the city saying they wanted to speak to me because they thought I was a slum landlord. Very quickly, I was facing a tenant who broke her lease and took off, I was facing a court date with the city and I was carrying the mortgage on a property without a tenant. Going through this process I quickly learned the value of systematizing my investment property so I could limit myself from ever going through this again and could protect myself if I ever do.

Trading my war stories with April “The Terminator” Stewart, whose company, Landlord Legal, makes it their mission to eliminate problem tenants as quick and as pain free as possible, we’ve come up with the definitive way to set yourself up for success in managing your investment properties.

1. Be proactive:
• Buy legal properties. If you bought an illegal rooming house any landlord tenant contracts may not be enforceable and taking them to court could expose you to city bylaw officers.
• Pick the best tenants and do thorough background checks
• Know exactly what your competition is doing. When I first bought my first rental. I actually visited competition whenever I see a for rent sign. I was amazed not only by the difference in price, but with the differences in size, lighting, appliances etc. It really taught me how to sell the potential tenants and understand their issues.
• Have money in the bank to deal with any maintenance issues. They will come up and your tenants will let you know one way or the other.

2. Always keep in control, enter every landlord tenant situation as if you were going to take them to the board or take them to court. This means you have to create a file for each tenant documenting everything.

• Give your tenants rent receipts each time they pay you.
• Teach your tenants to send you every maintenance issue in writing with the proper forms in triplicate (one the tenant keeps, one goes in the tenant permanent file, one stays with you or the contractor have them sign it once complete). Showing that you are proactive landlord will go a long way at the landlord tenant board hearing.
• For any complaint advise tenants to document in writing the date, time and how it adversely affected their life. In cases when a neighbor is making excessive noise, this could be used to evict the offending tenant.
• Write your tenant dated reminder letters stating that if there are any maintenance issues please let you know. Keep these letters in your file. The burden of proof is on the tenant to prove that you were not proactive dealing with any issues
• Do quarterly inspections, have them sign any issues that you saw and fixed (i.e. replacing smoke detector batteries)

3. Keep the relationship purely business. Don’t run over to the property as a reaction every time they call. The only time the tenant should contact you is an emergency, every other communication must be in writing. This separates you from your own emotions, reading the issues allows you to be calm and collected.