One of the things that I like to do is see what other apartment property owners are doing not only in terms of having good and happy tenants living in their apartments but also in terms of providing themselves a profit at the same time. I am always looking out and seeing what other owners are doing in terms of strategy, implementation, ideas and just ‘ways of doing business’ that I can copy or use myself.
So, I set out recently to check on what others are doing in terms of getting more rent and better occupancy in their properties. I also set out and looked to see what owners are doing in terms of reducing their expenses like taxes, insurance, maintenance cost, etc. When it comes down to making as much money as you can it makes sense to be working on both of these items at the same time and I assumed that most owners were doing this.
What I found surprised me. Here is what I found out.
1) That most owners have not raised their rents in the last year to year and a half. Their rent levels are about the same as they were a year ago.
2) Most of the owners that I talked to have not done anything in terms of reducing their expenses that has not led to any significant reduction in
The Scariest Thing is expenses. May of these owners had not even gone as far as shopped around for insurance. Now this is scary! It is scary as to how many owners are leaving thousand of dollars on the table in terms of not only cash flow but property value! Question is…Are you guilty? Are you guilty of not spending the time to make your investment as valuable as you can?? (By the way I am NOT lecturing you or talking down—I am not always Johnny on the Spot either).
This is truly scary because when you think about how much time, effort and energy it takes to make sure your apartment property makes you as much money in profit as possible it is essential that you make it the best it can be. With that in mind it is time to take these scare tactics away and give you a formula that many of my top owners have used to develop their properties into huge cash flow producing projects that increase in value year after year.
The first thing I recommend is take some time out, preferably once per week, to work on your properties. You know, it is easy to work IN your properties. Taking care of day to day items as they come up—especially from a management standpoint there always seems to be a fire that needs to be put out. If it is not a fire it is showing a vacant unit, dealing with housing inspections, etc.
In other words it is easy to get bogged down with the day to day stuff you have to deal with. So, by setting aside, say 1 hour a week to work on nothing but improving your properties cash flow and value—will pay you tens and possibly even hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash flow and value…all for as little as an hour per week.
Then, once per month you want to take a look at your properties exterior and common areas to make sure they look as good as they can so you can attract tenants that will pay you a nice amount of rent. You also want to check to make sure you do not have any common area maintenance items that need to be fixed or repaired.
Lastly, you inspect the interior of your units a minimum of twice per year. You do this for the same reasons, you want to check on the ability to not only get more rental income but you want your units to be their best and/or catch any potential problems. If you follow this simple formula you will be doing, very, very well by this time next year and things won’t be scary.
We love your feedback and welcome your comments.
Please post below: