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    A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management: Successful Landlord Strategies for Big Money and a Rich Life in Real Estate Investment
    A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management: Successful Landlord Strategies for Big Money and a Rich Life in Real Estate Investment
    A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management: Successful Landlord Strategies for Big Money and a Rich Life in Real Estate Investment
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management: Successful Landlord Strategies for Big Money and a Rich Life in Real Estate Investment

    By Denis J. LaComb

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    About this ebook

    This essential property management handbook covers these areas of creating passive income from small rental property ownership: Approach to Real Estate Investing, Property Selection, Attracting Quality Tenants, Tenant Selection, Financials & Record Keeping, Property Maintenance, and Future Growth. Presented in an easy-to-use format, this guide offers a unique way to quickly get to the practical details of real estate investment and management of apartments, multiplexes, and all small apartment buildings. *With Helpful Glossary Section*

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDenis J. LaComb
    Release dateDec 18, 2015
    ISBN9781310137655
    A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management: Successful Landlord Strategies for Big Money and a Rich Life in Real Estate Investment
    Author

    Denis J. LaComb

    Denis LaComb is a storyteller. Dissatisfied with a single title such as novelist, screenwriter, or playwright, Denis decided that the most apt description of his work would simply be: Storytelling. No matter what the genre; novel, play, movie, or children’s books, the essence of Denis’ work is storytelling in its purest form. While the characters may change and the story may vary, at the core of all of Denis’s work is a story to be told. A story that might involve mystery, passion, conflict, or the intricacies of relationships. The catalyst for Denis to begin writing full time was a decision to wind down his video production business. With the threat of retirement looming in his future, Denis went back to work on a Western novel he’d written forty years earlier. This was his first writing project and hence, a new career was born. He rewrote that novel and in short order, completed three more novels and four screen-plays. At that point, Denis decided to take some of the made-up tales he’d created for his grandchildren and turn them into picture books. Skinny Hippo is the first of such picture books. Denis is also writing scripts for television movies and has completed several plays, which he is shopping around for the proper venue. Denis and his wife, Sharon, divide their time between traveling, Minnesota, and Southern California with long layovers in Colorado where three of their grandchildren live.

    Read more from Denis J. La Comb

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      Book preview

      A Quick Start Guide to Apartment Management - Denis J. LaComb

      A Quick-Start Guide to

      APARTMENT

      MANAGEMENT

      Successful Landlord Strategies

      for Big Money and a Rich Life

      in Real Estate Investment

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      This essential handbook covers these key areas of

      creating passive income from small rental property:

      Approach to Real Estate Investing

      Property Selection

      Attracting Quality Residents

      Tenant Selection

      Financials & Recordkeeping

      Property Maintenance

      Future Growth

      DENIS J. LACOMB

      Copyright © 2015

      Denis J. LaComb

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN: 9781310137655

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      ***

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      To Sharon, my wife and life partner, who supported me in all our real estate ventures with her invaluable insight and suggestions.

      To my children, Brian and Melanie, who were my able assistants

      around the buildings as they were growing up and continue to

      inspire me every day.

      To Vida for her outstanding help with editing this manuscript,

      its book design and other great suggestions in its publication.

      ***

      INTRODUCTION

      Most books on managing residential property are one part truth, one part fiction and one part mechanical. They miss the most important point… the most important ingredient in successfully managing your properties - the residents.

      Some books take an antiseptic approach to the task of managing the buildings. A data-driven approach maxes out the numbers and forgets that those numbers are in constant flux - even with a fixed rate mortgage on the property.

      This book on property management is different because it focuses on a new bottom line - which in short, is your success and sanity. It is a strategy that focuses on not only making a decent return on your investment; but just as importantly, on customer satisfaction - thus eliminating 90% of the problems you might encounter in managing residential property.

      This guide is not about flipping apartments or swapping apartment contracts. It’s not about generating ‘mailbox money’ without any active involvement on your part. It’s not about wholesaling properties and collecting an ‘assignment fee.’

      This is a quick-start guide to finding, analyzing, managing, improving, and profiting from rental properties. It provides common sense and real world strategies that actually work. I will not offer any ‘streetwise’ strategies that infer one can get something for nothing with little to no effort and make a huge profit in doing so.

      Based on my thirty years of real world experience in the business of buying, managing, and improving apartment properties; I will show you how to master successful habits that then become routine in your own management style.

      There are no absolute guarantees of success and this guide may not be the final answer to every question about real estate investing a newcomer to the field might have. However, if you follow the practical principles outlined here, you will find yourself on the road to success. It won’t be a cakewalk - but then again, nothing worthwhile ever comes without effort.

      The future for owning and managing small apartment buildings is great and getting better … if you know what you’re doing.

      [FROM MY PERSPECTIVE]

      Sprinkled throughout this guide are personal antidotes and life stories that can be invaluable lessons for anyone new to real estate ownership and managing residential property. These personal stories will be shown with a ‘From My Perspective’ header for your convenience. The entire story will be within the [ brackets ].

      This book is about more than just mindset. The right mindset is essential in dealing with management issues and other problems associated with owning property. Also important is the right kind of discipline; a process and a strategy to be able to manage apartment buildings with a minimum of problems; both tenant problems and mechanical issues.

      You will learn a few simple steps to make your role as property owner easier and more profitable. It’s all about organizing your management skills to get the most benefit with the least amount of stress. It’s about unlocking your potential to influence and engage others to help you reach that goal.

      It’s about using your emotional intelligence as well as financial and managerial intelligence to best utilize your own strategic set of guidelines for managing your properties. You want to become an effective manager of buildings so that you can harness the power of thinking without thinking about it. Your pattern of success will then become a regimen you follow automatically. By doing so you will avoid critical mistakes that can be costly to your bottom line and might drive residents away

      It’s all about working smarter - not harder or longer. It’s about using data to help you process information and create sustainability for energy usage in each property. It’s about making the most of your time and being productive with the tools you will learn to use in this guide.

      I hope this guide will help you avoid the same mistakes I made as I began in the business.

      Good Luck,

      Denis J. LaComb

      CHAPTER ONE

      ***

      APPROACH TO

      REAL ESTATE INVESTING

      Investing in small apartments requires a concentrated study of this aspect of the business. As Warren Buffet has been quoted saying many times: Stick with what you know and focus on the long term. It means understanding this segment of the real estate business as well as anyone else. Small apartments are a business entity whose profit picture for decades has been reasonably predictable. Even as interest rates vary and financial markets shift and change, the financial basics of managing small apartments have stayed pretty much the same.

      Every property has its own list of potential problem areas. This guide will provide you with a strategy to deal with any and all of them. You will be encouraged to keep detailed records to correctly assess the most logical ‘next step’ when issues arise. The idea here is to be proactive instead of reactive. You need to prepare for, anticipate, and know the logical steps to take when dealing with any issue.

      At the risk of sounding redundant, let me repeat that this is not a get rich quick scheme. There are no surefire recipes or formulas to follow here for guaranteed success. Rather it is a slow and steady routine with as little pain as possible. If you are looking for a quick fix or easy money, keep watching so-called reality TV but forget about the reality part. You probably will not succeed to any measurable degree and you most certainly will encounter a lot of frustration along the way.

      If you are willing to work methodically through these principles, if you experiment and find the right strategy that works for you (one that matches your personality, your patience and your own particular lifestyle) then your chances of success are increased exponentially. Remember there are few guarantees in life but this book will take you a long way toward achieving your goal of successful apartment management.

      It is not enough just to imagine yourself as a landlord or property owner, you must own that vision. You do that by taking the actions necessary to make your dreams, your visions, and your self-image come true. Simply stated, you must be willing to put in the work necessary to achieve your real estate goals.

      Study the real estate business relative to your specific interest…in this case, managing small apartment buildings. Educate yourself on the latest trends and developments in the marketplace. Continue to network with other professionals in the field. Develop a strategy for success and then follow through on that plan.

      You must decide if this is rental property, investment property, or someone’s home. The moniker is very important because it defines what business you are in. Rental property connotes maximizing rents. Investment property connotes a total concentration on the bottom line often at the exclusion of those entities that will help you get there.

      Why has real estate historically been a good investment but hardly a no-brainer?

      Real estate investments have historically been a good investment as long as certain principles are followed. Unlike most other investments, real estate can provide a steady source of income, debt reduction, equity build-up, appreciation, tax benefits, and leverage.

      Down through the ages in this country and abroad, the individuals and families that made their mark through real estate among other investments are legendary. Storied names like Rockefeller, Hearst, Mellon, Carnegie, Roosevelt, and Kennedy. The list continues today with Trump, Zeller,

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