July 2015 Words From Our Broker | Brokers Corner with Tanya Chappell

Hi, What a busy first week of July! Has it really only been 8 days? Being a property manager in Gainesville in the month of July ranges from happily busy to insanely hectic depending on your work load and temperament.

My July is the happily busy kind. Thank God the days of insanely hectic are over for me. I went through that time period when I was much younger and liked the hectic pace – even thrived on it. I remember working till midnight doing inspections sometimes for three or four days straight. Those were the days that we ended all leases on July 31st and moved in the new tenants three days later. Doesn’t sound hard with a few rentals but when you’re managing hundreds it’s simply crazy!

I’ve turned 75 houses in less than a week complete with move out inspections, obtaining estimates, supervising work, and completing move-in inspections. This creates a ton of actual office work as well as having to be in the field. In those days we didn’t have the same wonderful technology shortcuts we get to enjoy today like creating work orders from my iPhone app or video taping the move out and saving to drop box so your office people can work on security claim letters, etc. right away. These days some of my bigger turnover challenges are finding fast enough Internet to upload or send my pictures and videos as I go from one property to another (and yes – hitting send before starting on my way to my next home). Let’s not confuse mobile office with an office in motion 😉

Most apartment complexes in Gainesville still operate this way. I quit requiring all leases to end in July over 8 years ago because the market could support more year round leases. This is especially true in single family homes but some of our properties do still need to cycle on those dates. We do keep those that are more suited to college students on that time frame.Those of you that still have properties that haven’t been rented yet may need to consider dropping your rent if you hope to attract a college tenant for this season. Keep in mind that the Internet allows people to easily compare properties and choose the ones priced best and in the best condition. Also equally, if not more important, is to not get antsy and accept a tenant with poor rental or credit history. Screening is probably the single most important thing you can do. Credit, criminal, and rental history as well as verifying income is a must or you may end up severely regretting even owning rental property. We require they make at least three times the amount of monthly rent for income and provide copies of pay stubs. For the do-it-yourselfers, if you don’t have access to credit and criminal background checks, utilizing a property manager for the advertising, screening, and move-in process is a life saver and a cheaper alternative than paying for full service. This is often termed “tenant placement service”. We provide this service for one month’s rent.

This Fourth of July was spent as most of mine are… enjoying the Keystone Heights “Our Country Day” annual celebration . Such a wonderful hometown event that includes a street dance, parade, fish fry and craft festival and my favorite, the volleyball tournament! Last year I had been released from the hospital the day prior and had to be assisted to walk down the path to the tourney where I had to watch instead of participate. I do love watching volleyball but I love playing more! I was really feeling very blessed to be playing this year. We played fours and our team came in third against some highly competitive teams. You wouldn’t think there’d be that many good players in this town, but we kinda breed them here 🙂 Many of my friends’ kids now play in college and come back home for this fun tourney.

Later that day we took the jet ski out to Kingsley Lake at Camp Blanding joining some family that was camping there. Wow! It is a wonderful little jewel that veterans and enlisted get to enjoy. They have rental houses and RV and primitive camp sites for dirt cheap, but you have to have served to rent them. The lake is clear and pretty big so in spite of the number of boats, it was still easy to find a good spot. I took a short video of one of the usual daily storms that came in while on the lake. That evening the fireworks show around the lake went on for hours. It was obvious some people spent a lot of money on their fireworks this year. I hope you all had a safe and happy Independence Day! Thanks again to all of you that have served.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures and video from Tanya’s 4th of July.

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• Words From our Broker – January 2015
• Words From our Broker – November 2015