Better safe than sorry. Sure, it’s trite … but it’s also true. Every property manager should consider a well thought out emergency plan to be an essential part of his property management duties. In an ideal world you will, of course, never have to use it. However, should you ever find yourself in an emergency situation, an emergency plan may literally mean the difference between life and death for your tenants and between a property making it through an emergency episode intact or not.

What kind of plan do I need?
Begin by carefully thinking through worst-case scenarios that could potentially strike your property. Obviously, all properties should have a fire escape plan, but you may be subject to other natural disasters depending upon your location. If you are located in California, for example, you may want to have a plan in place should an earthquake occur. If you live in the mid-West, you’ll want to have a plan of action in case of tornadoes; if you’re in the South, plan ahead in case of a hurricane. Also bear in mind that even the most prepared person can’t foresee all potential scenarios, so it may also be wise to have a general evacuation plan on-hand to prepare for miscellaneous events that could put tenants and your property in danger.

What type of information should my plan include?
Every property’s emergency plan will vary dependent upon the size and layout of the property, its location, the landscape of the area around it, and the type of hazard the plan is designed to guard against. There are, however, a few elements every plan should include, including:

• Escape/evacuation route
• Communications plan
• Utility shut-off plan
• Special needs (for handicap and elderly tenants, etc.)
• Dealing with pets
• Safety resources (list of emergency numbers, individuals who can administer CPR, etc.)

Disseminate information.
No matter how well thought out your emergency plans are, they won’t do you any good if tenants and other property management personnel are not aware that they exist. Make sure that all evacuation routes are clearly posted throughout the building in multiple places; the entrance to stairwells and elevators is always a good place to display evacuation routes. In addition to posting this information, be proactive by providing printouts of such maps and a listing of emergency procedures in the lease packet at move-in. You may also want to redistribute this information on an annual basis, whether that’s at the beginning of every year or to each tenant on an annual basis when their lease renews. Annual distribution will also provide you with a built-in opportunity to update emergency numbers and review procedures to make sure they remain optimal and address any altered circumstances (such as a remodel).

Protect your property.
In case of an emergency, your top priority is making sure that all tenants are rapidly removed from harm’s way. Unfortunately, in certain scenarios, it’s simply not possible to avoid property damage or destruction. So the most surefire way to protect your property is to make sure that it is fully insured against all types of damage, however it may occur. FEMA recommends that all property owners carefully research the Insurance Information Institute to determine what kinds of insurance will offer the most protection.

Also be sure to strongly recommend (or even require) that all tenants carry renters insurance. Many renters assume their personal property is covered under the building plan, which is not the case. Let them know upon lease signing that they are responsible for covering their own personal property and that renters insurance plans can be found through most major insurance companies at an affordable rate.

Creating an emergency plan can be overwhelming. You should always feel free to consult with city engineers and planning or zoning administrators, all of whom will be able to advise you specifically on what sort of disasters you should be guarding against. They can also give you professional tips on how to protect your property and its tenants from potential threats. Also, be sure to visit FEMA’s website for tips on how you can protect your building from fire, flood, and earthquake hazards ahead of time; their Are You Ready guide to emergency preparation is a resource every property manager should have on-hand.

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Determining whether you’re dealing with passive or active property owner can be a challenging task, but if you have great communication skills you can work with either variety.  Organization skills are also key; they allow you to have a wide scope of information accessible at even a moment’s notice. Check out these links for tips on how to better your communication and organization skills.

• Industry associations often offer the best information about a given subject. Visit the National Communication Association to learn more about communication in the workplace.
• If you’re too busy to visit the association and want to make sure the information you need is always at your fingertips, consider purchasing Messages, a great book about communication.
• Organizing Plain and Simple will help even the most frazzled property manager keep things in order.
• LifeOrganizers.com provides tips on how to organize every aspect of your life … not just your work.
• Finally, if you want the most organized property management shop around, we obviously suggest using Buildium Property Management Software. This program will help you more easily manage your properties while still giving you plenty of time to grow your business.

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At the heart of it all, property management involves dealing with people. If you own your own property, you’re working with tenants, potential tenants, contractors, and real estate agents on a regular basis. And if you’re managing someone else’s property, you’re dealing not only with this cast of characters, but with the property owner as well.

Like properties, property owners come in all shapes and sizes, with a wide spectrum of expectations for the property managers they hire. To complicate matters, these expectations are sometimes unspoken—which means it’s up to you to figure out what makes your boss tick and how you can best meet his needs. With this in mind, one of your first property management tasks is determining whether you’re working with an active or passive property owner. For the purpose of this blog, active property owners are those who are very interested in the day-to-day operations and happenings of their investment property. Passive property owners take a more hands-off approach and will likely be in far less regular communication with you, whether by choice or due to circumstantial factors (i.e., living in a different area or state).  Following are some tips for property managing with both active and passive property managers in mind.

Record Keeping
Organization is a critical aspect of property managing, whether you’re dealing with an active or passive property owner. Make sure to keep careful, easily accessible records available for things like rental income, bill payments, rental applications, repairs, complaints, and other administrative data.

Active: An active property owner will likely be interested in reviewing any and all of these records frequently. Provide him with an online organization system login so that he can check records whenever he wishes. Also make sure to demonstrate how your record-keeping program is navigated so he can move around and check things out as he pleases. Finally, whenever you feel that important records have been added or changes have been made, shoot off a quick email to alert him.

Passive: A passive property owner is unlikely to be interested in detailed records. This means that you will have to organize and verify them all the more carefully—after all, you won’t have a second pair of eyes to catch those omissions and errors we’re all privy to. Provide him with a login so that he can check the status of things as desired, rather than being bombarded with a series of phone calls and emails.

Tenant Selection
Carefully screening and selecting tenants is obviously one of your more important functions as a property manager, no matter what type of property owner employs you. (Not to mention, you’ll make your own job much easier in the long run by putting in the work to qualify tenants ahead of time.) However, you may want to execute the process differently according to property owner type.

Active: Keep your property owner in the loop throughout the entire unit-filling process. Let him know where you are advertising and what sort of interest you’re getting. When applications come in, see if he wants to take a look at the tenant pool before screening begins. And once screening is complete, let him know what the best options are, allowing him to take part in the actual tenant selection if he so desires.

Passive: Chances are a passive property owner will be concerned solely with finding a reliable tenant to fill an open unit. Carefully complete your due diligence throughout the selection process and when you’ve found the perfect tenant, shoot the property owner an email letting him know who will be renting out the unit and providing basic lease details.

Repair Work
As we’ve previously discussed on this blog, getting any necessary repair work done as efficiently and proactively as possible is imperative. When it comes to repairs, though, there are often options in terms of what steps can be taken and what sort of fix they provide (i.e., short-term or long-term).

Active: Present your property owner with a detailed explanation of the problem at hand and available options for resolution. This should include the technical details of the repair as well as quotes and time estimates. An active property owner may well want to make the final decision.

Passive: Collect as much information as possible and perform any research necessary. If a repair will amount to a significant expense, make sure you give the property owner a heads-up. For the most part, however, this decision will likely be yours. Make it in an educated manner taking cost, time, and long-term effects into account.

In the end, a good property manager will always be organized, pragmatic, and educated on the issue at hand. Essentially, when it comes to active versus passive property owners, the difference lies in dissemination of information. One final word of advice though: No matter what type of property owner you’re dealing with, if you’re ever in doubt, err toward providing too much information rather than not enough.

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Earlier this week we discussed the three online rental sites you can’t afford to miss, but didn’t write about the additional resources these sites offer. Read on to find out about the many resources at your finger tips.

• RentWiki offers a great apartment advice blog, brimming with interesting information about industry happenings.
• Follow @Rentwiki on Twitter to stay up to date with RentWiki news.
• NARPM® members receive added benefits from Rental Home Pros.  Click here to learn more.
• Gone are the days of Craigslist geographic specificity. Residents can now search all of Craiglist.
• Although OLX was not mentioned in our initial blog post, this new company has nearly $30 million in financing that says it will be the next big thing.

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In so many ways, property managers have it easier today than they did a few years ago. As opposed to earlier times when marketing vacancies generally consisted of taking an ad out in local newspapers and advertising on bulletin boards, today there are a variety of online mediums to utilize. This means more vehicles through which to market your properties and, subsequently, more visibility. Think, for example, how much easier it now is for potential tenants moving from out of town to find your properties. If there’s a downside to this increased technology, however, it’s that there are so many online rental marketing options, sometimes it’s hard to determine which ones are going to be the most advantageous to you and your business. Following are a few of our favorite online rental sites, how they work, and why you should use them.

RentWiki.com
What it is: Founded in January 2009, RentWiki may be a relative newcomer, but it has entered the online rental marketing scene with a bang. Co-founder Eric Wu attributes this site’s early success to building RentWiki around user-generated content. Wu explains, “Typical online rental sites’ information is supplied by property managers; we’re trying to build a rental search engine powered by renters.” With that in mind, RentWiki uses popular forms of online information sharing (such as wikis and social media) to provide information through peer review. Potential renters come here to find out not only about available units, but also about the things that really matter to them: a neighborhood’s vibe, social scene, and amenities.

Why you should use them: Consumers like to know they’re getting “the real deal,” and the peer review element of this site allows potential renters to get the down-low on a neighborhood from the people who will give it to them straight: residents. This means that by the time potential tenants find your listing on the site, they’ve already identified your neighborhood as one they want to live in. Chances are the referrals you get from this site will be from renters who are more educated about your neighborhood and, therefore, more likely to fill out an application. Best of all, with this site, you only pay when you get a lead (i.e., a phone call or email from an interested party). Wu encourages property managers to make the most of RentWiki by taking a couple of simple steps. “First, identify and reach out to your evangelists and have them contribute to the community.  Second, listen and engage in the feedback loop.”

RentalHomePros.com
What it is: Commissioned by the National Association of Residential Property Managers, it makes sense that, more than any other site, RentalHomePros has the best interests of property managers in mind. And part of your best interests includes creating a site where renters know they can come to find exactly the information they’re looking for. RentalHomePros.com makes it easy for renters to target their ideal property by allowing them to narrow vacancy search results down to exactly what they’re looking for (this site allows renters to get as specific as choosing whether they want a smoking or non-smoking building or a lease-to-own scenario). Best of all, it’s proactive; apartment seekers can enter in search parameters and properties that fit that criteria are sent directly to potential tenants via email as soon as a listing pops up.

Why you should use them: Because this site has property management professionals in mind first and foremost, they offer services that will benefit you. Not only do they place your listing on a number of different websites (in other words, more exposure for less work), but they also take care of all the research you need to do when listing a property—rental rates, average days on the market, rental trends, and more can be found on RentalHomePros.com. Mike Nelson, president of Rental Home Professionals, explains, “[The site is] designed to set property managers apart from the competition by offering access to information that other property managers simply don’t have.  Our statistics engine, comparative market analysis reporting, and market vacancy utilities allow a property manager to make better, more informed decisions, in a more professional manner, with the kind of immediate response property owners so often demand.  To maximize your chance for success, use RentalHomePros.com for what it is: much, much more than an advertising engine.”

Craigslist.org
What it is: As the eighth most-visited website in America with an average of fifty million unique visitors per month, chances are you already know what Craigslist is. Founded in 1995, Craiglist ranks among the few early websites that have consistently stood the test of time. This simple site is a hub for all things classified, broken down by city or region.

Why you should use them: Online users are programmed to go to Craigslist—after all, they’ve been doing it for years. No matter what area of the country they live in, this is one of the few websites potential renters know to go to (no Googling required) to find a comprehensive list of available units. Which means you need to be there based on sheer numbers. Also of note, Craigslist postings are free to you (with the exception of apartment listings in New York City, which are $10 per listing). For tips on writing successful Craiglist postings, check out our post on writing online listings that sell.

Of course, it’s also important to utilize any local online marketing sites that have a proven track record and offer efficient and affordable marketing options. Combined with the use of any or all of the above sites, filling vacancies has never been easier.

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1031 exchanges are a great tool for protecting investments and building wealth. Think of these links as your toolkit for maximizing your property investment.

• The Federation of Exchange Accomodators (FEA) (that’s right, 1031 exchanges have their own trade association) has a ton of not-to-be-missed 1031 information.
• The National Association of REALTORS® provides members and non-members with a Field Guide to 1031 Exchanges that includes links to important 1031 resources. Start with the basics and if you’re feeling adventurous venture into reverse exchanges.
• Gotta love multi-tasking! Download a podcast from 1031Podcast.com and learn all about 1031 exchanges while you work.
• And if podcasts aren’t your style, just watch a 1031 video.
• Or, last but not least, learn more about 1031 exchanges  the old fashioned way–read a book.

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