Author Archive

10 Ways To Boost Resident Satisfaction Without Breaking A Sweat

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Max Glassberg

There are many reasons residents choose to leave. They might be buying a home, something many renters aspire to do. There’s nothing you can do to prevent that, nor would you want to: resident satisfaction isn’t about changing people’s life plans, but rather about maximizing the number of renters who would want to renew their leases. In other words, it’s about resident retention.

After all, some residents leave for entirely preventable reasons:

  • A bad experience with a rude staff member
  • Unresolved maintenance issues
  • Unhelpful or unknowledgeable personnel
  • A feeling that their input or suggestions don’t matter

Improvements in resident satisfaction can help build long-term relationships within your community, but satisfied renters also add value to the property itself. It’s great to bring in new faces, but your renewing residents are an invaluable asset to your community. Let’s look at 10 strategies you can use to ensure a positive resident experience and create a happier community.

1. CREATE A STRONG NEW-RESIDENT WELCOME EXPERIENCE

A personal touch is always going to help get the relationship off to a good start. It helps residents feel welcomed and positive about their decision to move to your property.

  • Write handwritten welcome notes
  • Offer new residents a guide to the neighborhood
  • Give residents the ability to submit work order requests from their phones
  • Allow them to set up autopay so they can pay rent straight from their account without hassle

Three Estate Planning Benefits of Delaware Statutory Trusts

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog


By Austin Bowlin, CPA

Real estate investors can face challenges as they reach retirement age and focus on estate planning. Often, their real estate holdings have appreciated in value while annual depreciation has reduced the property’s cost basis. Because of this, selling a property before passing away can result in substantial capital gains taxes. However, an investor’s heirs may not be interested in actively managing those real estate properties once the investor has passed away. If suitable, a 1031 Exchange into a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) may provide a solution to this problem. DSTs allow investors to sell properties without tax consequences, receive potential consistent income from real estate investments, and preserve the eventual step-up in basis upon the investor’s passing.

Legal Corner

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Michael A. Brennan, Esq., Brennan Law Firm

  • Question. A long time ago, my wife and I used to handle most landlord-tenant matters ourselves, including drafting and serving notices and, even filing the complaint. It had been a long time since we had any bad apples, but a few months ago, we had a tenant fall behind on rent and, rather than tackle it ourselves, we decided to hire a law firm. The situation resolved itself after the attorney served a 3-day pay or quit notice, but now I have two more tenants who haven’t paid rent this month and I am wondering whether I really need to hire an attorney to draft our notices. I know a lot has changed in the landlord-tenant industry including the way three days is calculated, (and I don’t want to make any mistakes) but it seems drafting a notice should be a fairly simple task that I could save some money on by doing it myself. What do you think?

Q: Landlords are getting saddled with higher costs. With everything going up, can you talk about passing costs onto tenants?

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

Q: Landlords are getting saddled with higher costs. With everything going up, can you talk about passing costs onto tenants? Also, RUBS, where units with more tenants pay a higher share of utilities. Seems sensible to me. 

Bornstein, Esq.

We have a great deal of empathy for housing providers facing rising costs while being constrained in how much they can raise rents. While inflation has become a much-covered topic, the numbers are deceiving. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) takes into account certain consumer staples and does not adequately reflect the climbing costs landlords incur, such as appliances, what contractors are demanding for repairs, building materials, property taxes, and indeed, utilities.

Despite these hardships, we have to be careful in raising rents because Big Brother is watching, tenants have plenty of recourse to air out their grievances, and there is no shortage of tenants’ attorneys looking to find mistakes and even the score.

5 Tips to Prepare for End-of-Year Reporting and 1099s

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Brittany Benz

The end of the year is approaching, which means now is the time to begin checking off all of your year-end reporting tasks and getting your 1099s in line. However, if you’re relying on paper files or using accounting software that’s separate from your property management solution, this process can be incredibly time-consuming, cumbersome, and even error-prone for your property management business. Read on to find out five ways you can streamline your end-of-year duties so you can create space for what matters — big-picture thinking for the year ahead.

While this article contains helpful information, we are not providing legal advice. You should consult a qualified tax attorney for any specific questions about filing 1099s or year-end reports for your business.

1.) Move to a paperless accounting system

Paper-based accounting processes take up more time and can lead to errors due to double data entry. Meanwhile, generic accounting solutions like QuickBooks are not integrated into your business, so it takes longer to gather information and it’s harder to have a complete financial picture. Rather than relying on a separate system to handle your accounting needs, look for a property management solution with built-in accounting to save your team time on re-entering data and increase accuracy. Since everything is in one place, a fully integrated system like AppFolio can eliminate the pain of accessing and understanding the essential data that drives your business.

California Legislature Punts on Badly Needed Insurance Fix

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Steven Greenhut

The basic rule of thumb in the California Legislature is that lawmakers will spend the bulk of their time meddling in areas they should avoid while steadfastly not addressing the matters they should. So as the Legislature finishes up until next year, it’s not surprising that legislators were busy, say, boosting the minimum hourly wage to $25 for health care workers, forcing companies to reveal their “carbon footprint,” and requiring employers to give earlier layoff notices.

Legal Corner

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Michael A. Brennan, Esq., Brennan Law Firm

Question.     I just purchased a small building and I’m trying to determine the names of the tenants living in the units. I did receive rental agreements during escrow, but the tenant information doesn’t seem to line up with the tenants living in the apartments. I can’t even seem to find the telephone numbers for several of the residents. I’ve purchased properties before, and I know the importance of reviewing the files and doing thorough due diligence before closing escrow. Usually, I am much more thorough before closing but, in spite of the sloppy record keeping, this was a good deal and the seller needed a fast close.  Now that I’m the owner, is there anything I can do to clean up the records?

12 Genius Email Tips To Help You Master Property Management

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Max Glassberg, YardiBreeze

In the competitive landscape of property management, effective communication is your edge. It’s not just about sending emails. It’s about standing out and building trust. With tools like Yardi Breeze, you can differentiate yourself from competitors, engage prospects and foster lasting relationships with current renters. These email tips unveil key strategies to optimize your outreach, ensuring you’re not just heard, but remembered. Use these practical email tips to help you master the art of property management.

The Failure of Housing First: How Bad is It and What Can We Do Better?

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Tim Campbell

This is Part One of a two-part review of Housing First.  Part One details how badly Housing First has failed. Part Two will look at successful alternatives.

Before critiquing Housing First’s performance, we need to look at its history, then define what it is and what it’s supposed to do. Housing First was developed in the early 1990’s by Dr. Sam Tsemberis, a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry at New York University’s School of Medicine, based on his research on the positive outcomes when people were housed before receiving supportive services.  At the federal level, Housing First was adopted as a service model during the George W. Bush administration and became HUD’s mandatory funding model for homelessness programs in 2013. In 2016, California made it a cornerstone of its funding to local governments. It has been supported by the federal and state administrations of both parties.

Homelessness in California: Are High Rents the Problem?

Written by Landlord Property Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

By Frank Gallo, Member, Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles

A recently published study by the University of San Francisco on the California homelessness crisis concludes that the inability to pay rent was a major contributor to homelessness. In my opinion, the study is a good start but seems to be incomplete since it does not indicate for what reasons did those individuals stop paying their rent.

The survey and interviews used for the study attempt to identify the causes of homelessness while trying to understand why people remain homeless. Unfortunately, the study fails to address some major issues that are the intrinsic causes of the problem. What life crisis resulted in the individuals becoming unhoused? More importantly, how can we prevent those life crises that resulted in people becoming homeless? Creating housing for the now homeless would not prevent them from going back to the streets or prevent others from becoming homeless, it would just make the problem popular with politicians and well-paid non-profit organizations that continue to perpetuate it.