In episode 25 of The Real Talk, Raquel Ramirez welcomes property manager Suzanne Wilson-Wong to discuss the ins and outs of property management. Suzanne shares her journey of becoming a property manager and how she helps rental owners maximize their investments while providing excellent service to tenants. They also discuss the launch of Suzanne's new video series, “Stories with Suze, The Property Manager”, which aims to educate and inspire others in the industry.
Tune in as they define property management and shed light on the important role property managers play.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:04:41] What a property manager does.
[00:06:14] Vacation Rentals and Profitability.
[00:10:48] Condo Associations and their Rules.
[00:13:13] Long-term Relationship with Owners and Tenants.
[00:16:54] Property Management and Rent Increases.
[00:20:51] Property Inheritance and Rental Increases.
[00:23:42] Property Taxes and Expenses.
[00:27:00] Differences in Real Estate Specialties.
[00:32:55] Real Estate Investment Gone Wrong.
[00:36:47] Investing in Rental Properties.
[00:39:40] Real Estate Pitfalls and Mistakes.
[00:45:16] Teaching and Sharing Property Management.
In this episode, Raquel Ramirez and Suzanne Wilson-Wong emphasize the importance of building relationships in the real estate industry. Suzanne even highlights the significance of establishing long-term connections with both owners and tenants. Unlike other real estate transactions, property managers maintain constant communication with both parties on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. This ongoing relationship underscores the understanding that real estate ultimately revolves around people.
Furthermore, the episode emphasizes several key factors for rental property owners, including the need for an exit strategy, insurance coverage, accountable service providers, and knowledge of legal obligations as a landlord.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Raquel Ramirez
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/featured_properties_intl/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/featuredre
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-ramirez/
Suzanne Wilson-Wong
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzethepropertymanager/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RPMgenesis/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannewilsonwong/
WEBSITES:
The Real Talk: https://www.therealtalkpodcast.net/
Featured Properties International: https://msha.ke/featuredre
Real Property Management Genesis: https://www.rpmgenesis.com/
Email: info@rpmgenesis.com
Contact No.: 786-744-5700
Welcome to The Real Talk. I'm Raquel Ramirez, your host and real estate professional here to bring you insightful conversations, expert advice, and powerful stories about what really goes on in life, love, divorce, and real estate. Are you ready? Let's get real. Hello and welcome to The Real Talk. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you for asking. I'm very excited to have you today. I know this has been a long time coming. Actually, I've had you in my mind for a while and I'm so glad that you agreed to be on here. So for the people who are tuning in, I am welcoming a very good friend of mine today. Her name is Suzanne Wilson Wong. Suzanne, so glad to have you. Now, for those of you who don't know who Suzanne is, yes, she is a good friend of mine and she is a property manager extraordinaire. She's also a colleague and somebody who I rely on for a lot of different things, including existential crisis conversations. And well, to tell you a little bit, talk a little bit about who you are and what you do. I'm going to go ahead and read something that I think sort of sums it up quite perfectly, which is that 10 years ago, you and your husband, Gary, became landlords for the very first time when you purchased a larger home and decided to rent out your townhouse instead of selling it, which is a good move. This marked the start of their property management business, which has since grown into one of the premier property management companies serving Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties, which is fantastic. Over the years, you've helped many rental owners maximize their return on their investment properties while simultaneously providing excellent service to the tenants, which is key because happy tenants, happy landlords, and vice versa. To hear them tell it, their decade-long journey in property management has certainly been eventful, colored with stories of great triumph and dismal failure, and everything in between. Through it all, you came to recognize that there were many teachable moments, which is something that I really love about you, how you are able to always find some nugget of inspiration, wisdom, or lesson. And this triggered the idea for the launch of your new video series called Stories with Suze, The Property Manager, which I love. And I happen to have been a very small part of that because I remember we had this conversation of how we were going to bring this to life. And I'm super duper proud of what you're doing. I think it's phenomenal. I love running into these posts whenever you put them on social media and I love to tune in. First and foremost, because I love you and I think you always have a lot of great information to share. And second, because I think it's very catchy and it's very informative. But before we get into any of that, I really want to, I guess, hone in first and define what property management is, because I think a lot of people out there have no idea what a property manager does. And this is, I think, a perfect time in our episode to talk about that, what a property manager does. So tell us in your words.
Yes, so before getting into that, All the feelings that you just expressed, you know, are absolutely mutual as far as our mutual professional respect for each other professionally and personally as well. So it's such a pleasure to join you here in this forum. So let's talk about property management 101, which typically a lot of people don't understand. And I didn't realize this until I got into the business and started fielding questions about what So what do you do? Are you a rent collector? Am I paying you to collect my rent for me? Because I could do that for myself, right? Good point. So what is a property manager? So a property manager is essentially a third party contractor who provides daily oversight for residential, commercial, and sometimes industrial properties as well. Somebody who you're hiring to oversee your investment. A good property manager will help you protect that investment. They'll provide a comprehensive professional service because you have people out there who will claim to do property management services and it's neither professional or comprehensive. A good property manager will also help you minimize costs and then maximize the return on your investment. It's good. Yeah. So, you know, it covers everything from tenant screening to leasing, maintenance, you know, God forbid if an eviction is necessary. As I mentioned before, the property manager should provide a full service solution, which will allow the owner investor to truly relax and enjoy the fruits of their investment. Because if you invest in if you get an investment property, it's supposed to be passive income, right? It means that you should not have to be on top of it. All you really should be doing if you have a good property management company in place is just checking your bank account. on a monthly basis, if that's when you've agreed to be paid to see that you're getting the returns that you expect and that's it. So for us, for our company, we primarily focus on residential real estate, includes management of single family homes, as well as multifamilies like duplexes and quads and condo units.
Awesome. And does that include also like, say, Airbnb type of rentals or is this more like long term, 12 months and higher? Both.
It does both. Under the umbrella of residential, it would cover long term leases, which are typically 12 months, but also vacation rentals as well, which is quite a different business model, by the way. Yes, I would imagine so.
But we manage those as well. But I hear they're very lucrative, especially for those people who are are using, say, like their townhouse or their villa or their even their their their original, say, homestead. If they've turned it into an Airbnb because it's like a per diem, you know, there's a daily rental rate. It tends to yield higher profits.
No, the extremely lucrative. But it's all about location, location, location. Yes. And location with regards to ensuring that you have, you know, regular guests wanting to come to your area or reasons for them to come throughout, but also location as far as if you buy something and you haven't done your due diligence to ensure that there are no restrictions. Yes. As far as allowing short-term rentals, you know, then you'll be in a lot of trouble because it slows down a property that can't give you the returns that you anticipated. So that is absolutely true. So like in terms of areas, location back to geographical areas, we manage properties in the Keys, in the Upper Keys. And that's completely seasonal. So we'll have a bumper crop between, let's say, December and March. Then everything pretty much dries out. Interesting. and then starts to fill back up. So an owner needs to understand and a property manager needs to also explain to the owner, you know, what type of income that can expect throughout the period. So you'll know whether or not you'll get the return.
And that's part of the service, right? That's part of the service for you to analyze, you know, the type of property, what kind of, and particularly, right, we're talking about vacation rentals in this specific instance, what kind of seasons you can expect. And then I presume you prepare some form of analysis maybe for them to understand what their profit margins are gonna look like and when they have ups and downs and good seasons and dry seasons. Yep, absolutely.
So we present a report showing anticipated revenues for, annual, but also seasonal as well, dependent on, you know, vacancies, factoring in vacancies in that. But also, you know, as you mentioned, the other thing to keep in mind, you know, I use the keys as an example. In certain areas in the Keys, there's a minimum 28 day rental for certain areas. So those houses aren't for the families that want to get away for a few days and are looking for a rental like a weekend. Right. This is a month long, a month long. And so all of these things are things that, you know, an owner would have to take into consideration. And a good property manager would give them guidance with regards to that.
Absolutely. Yeah. And going back to what you were talking about location and restrictions, I know that you and I had a conversation once about a buyer, a property owner who bought a place under the pretense that they could rent that property out and lo and behold, some ways, somewhere along the line, they were misinformed by the association and they could not, in fact, actually rent that property out. So now this this person had bought this property, invested all this money, hoping to start generating some form of income or at least a breakeven point, right, where their rent was going to pay their mortgage. And they come to find out after the fact that that property or that condo, I don't remember what type of property it was, could not, in fact, be rented out. And that became a big, big deal. Right. I remember you dealt with that.
Yep, it was a big deal. In that case, it was a condo and the buyer had just closed. on the assurance from his realtor that rentals would be allowed. So I was the agent in that case, representing the renter that had a signed lease. And we went to the HOA to just get their approval. And the response was no, that unit is not allowed to be rented. Long story short, the buyer had to end up releasing my client from the lease. I'm not sure what happened with him and his agent, but just imagine that.
That's a serious thing. Yeah. And in some cases, because this is on the real estate side, I really do mostly purchases, but on the real estate side, some cases result in the fact that the association might have a one-year restriction or a two-year restriction. Some restrictions come in the way of ownership must be by a person and not an entity. There are all kinds of restrictions. And I've had episodes in the past talking about condo associations and their rules and regulations. That's something that people often overlook as something that's just tedious and that all condos and associations are the same when in fact they're not. So it's something that's really, really important. And I say it all the time. I know those documents tend to be just long and drawn out, and there's a lot of legalese, and they're difficult to understand. So it behooves people to contact an association attorney, let's say, even if it costs you a few hundred dollars or even a thousand dollars, to review those documents to make sure that you are purchasing something that you can actually work with in a particular case of, say, an investor or a person who's hoping to rent out that unit that would be a detail of particular interest, so to speak. So yeah. And I'm assuming this is part also of what you do to ensure once you start working with a landlord to make sure that there are no restrictions or what restrictions might be in place that might prevent you from doing your job as they hope you would.
Yeah, absolutely. Again, offering a professional service versus just one where you find a tenant, you know, you hand it over and you don't use diligence for sure.
Right, right, right. And now, you and I have talked about this before, I say it all the time, I may broker real estate, but my business is people. And this is very much the same really for you. And I'm curious, I was reading some of the notes I had taken here before our episode, and I know that you mentioned it actually, you had written something here that was actually quite beautifully said, in an industry that understands that real estate at its heart is a people business, right? And it's by its very nature, it facilitates an ongoing relationship with clients and owners. And it's absolutely true. So I'm curious if you can share some examples of ways in which the service you provide has impacted your clients, whether they're landlords or tenants or both.
Yeah. So for property management, This part of the real estate business is the one where there is a long-term relationship with both owner and tenant. So in other real estate transactions, if you're just brokering a rental for an owner or a tenant, Once a lease is signed, then that, you know, if it's a realtor, they'd walk away on to the next transaction. You know, maybe they may keep the owner contact in the owner, but there really doesn't need to be a business relationship, perhaps for another year when the lease is about to expire. Right. Property managers. This is a long term relationship. So on a monthly basis, sometimes on a weekly or daily basis, we are in communication with both tenants and owner. And so that necessitates a real relationship. And so that's really why I reiterate that we are in the people business. So as far as sharing examples of the ways in which, you know, our service has impacted our clients, it's for that very reason that, you know, we launched Stories of Suze, the property manager. I've had so many interesting, colorful experiences in this business that I had all these stories trapped in my head. And I was like, you know, if I don't share this, how are people going to benefit moving forward? And at heart, I'm a teacher. As you mentioned before, and like, I'm always inspired to educate. So if I learned something, I want to share it for the betterment of somebody else who might come along the way. So all of that was the genesis behind stories of Suze, the property manager. We have all these stories to share of things that went wrong or went right, which we felt would be a good way to explain also what a property manager does. But it also helps current owners and potential investors understand some of the things that come along with property ownership and some of the pitfalls that can happen, but also just some of the great rewards that you can get as well. And so that's why we came up with stories of Suze, the property manager, which focuses on the rich tapestry of experience. that unfolds within the world of property management. I love it. We try to keep them short. So each episode is between four to five minutes long, but really rich in terms of what you can take away from each of them. And I think so. Their video. But, you know, they can also be audio as well, just showing various characters and the stories behind them.
I love it. Actually, I think we have an episode queued up right now. So why don't we take a listen and a look for anybody who is tuning in on YouTube? I'm going to go ahead and share my screen real quick and and see if we could see this is, I believe, Chris's story. Let's let's tune into Chris's story. Here we go.
I'm going to adjust your volume.
Meet Krista. She inherited tenants who were paying 50% below the market rate, and she needed to fix this right away. Here's her story. Krista's mom had owned and self-managed two duplexes for 18 years before a crippling injury that eventually led to her death the previous summer. As her only child, Krista inherited her mom's estate and was challenged to sort through her affairs, including decades of clutter. One of the things that required immediate attention was the property tax bill for the two duplexes that was now past due. Upon closer investigation, Crystal realized that her mom had been having difficulty paying the bill because the rental income from the duplexes could barely cover the expenses. When she dug a little deeper, she discovered that the rent the tenants were paying was 50% below the current market rate. With this information, she reached out to Jeff, the real estate agent who had taken over the properties management one year before her mom's passing. When she asked Jeff why the rents were so low, He told her he didn't think raising the rent was a good idea because the tenants might leave, so he decided against it. Dissatisfied with this response, she fired Jeff and came to Real Property Management. She explained that most of her mom's tenants had been with her for 10 years or more, and in all that time had only faced two modest rent increases. During that time, property taxes and homeowners insurance and the cost of a key could have profitable again, so we got to work. At Real Property Management Genesis, our mission is to provide a head for business and a heart for people. It's benefit balance to ensure that our property owners financial objectives are being met while at the same time providing decent affordable housing for our residents. We took a multi-step approach to Chris's problem. Step one was a market assessment of co-property houses in the area. Evaluating not just rent rates, but also features and amenities that allowed some properties to command higher rent than others. Step two involved a walkthrough evaluation of both houses, which revealed that though they were located in an upscale neighborhood and everything appeared to be structurally sound, no significant improvements had been made in over a decade. Faded paint, broken fence posts, stained driveways, dirty roof tiles, old kitchen and bathroom fixtures, Step three, we met with residents to introduce ourselves and get a sense of who they were and also gave them an opportunity to voice any questions or concerns they had. We also broached the topic of a rent increase and discovered that although reluctant, they were willing to pay more because they liked the neighborhood and appreciated the fact that they had been seeing increases over the years. Within a week, we met with residents to present a plan. Rents would be increased by 30% over the next six months at 10% increments every two months. scheduled planned improvement work over the next 12 months to increase property value. She accepted the proposal and the residents signed the new leases and welcomed the home improvement plan. Nice. Nobody likes having a rent increase conversation, but it's inevitable for both the landlord and the renter at some point in a long-term relationship. If you have to brush a topic, here are a few things to keep in mind. Do comprehensive research on the comps in your area, not just the price comparison. Humanities and property improvements go a long way towards increasing perceived value and should be considered when pricing your rental. Don't expect the discussion to go smoothly if you've been a derelict landlord. People are more amenable to paying more for a good product or service. Do give your tenant sufficient notice of an impending increase. 60 days is a standard notice period, but if the increase will be significant, you might want to consider a longer notice period or a phased approach. and don't let years go by without addressing the rent. Even if you aren't inclined to increase it, formally communicate this so they know it's an option you chose not to exercise. Yeah.
I love this. I love this. Now, it seems as though Chris's story had a happy ending. And I mean, to go back to her issue, I've heard a lot of people have very similar situations where they inherit a property. I do work with a lot of estate sales, so I do see a lot of that come to life, you know, when people inherit, say, like their grandparents' house or their ailing parents' house they haven't been buying a really long time or just because of the nature of the beast, so to speak, you know, they haven't had the health or the financial means to keep the property. And then once that property transfers over to their family, they go in there and they realize that the property requires a significant amount of financial elbow grease, so to speak, in order to bring that property back to life and put it on the market. In this particular case, when it comes to renting out or increasing rents and making the property profitable again, yeah, there's some things that you need to address right away in order to justify, say, a rental increase of any amount, really. I like something that you mentioned in there too about communicating whether or not you're increasing rents, say this year or skipping a couple of years, or only increasing the rents modestly, even if they don't compare favorably to the current market rents, you should be communicating that to your tenants. say that it's like, you know, like, what's the word I'm looking for? Like building yourself up in front of your tenants, you know, I'm the most amazing landlord on the planet, but you do want to communicate the fact that you are passing through some concessions, you know, because you are happy with your tenancy and you want to make sure that you're being as fair as possible. But yes, increases are inevitable sometimes because costs to not just to manage, but costs when it comes to insurance taxes. Those things do increase over time, too, and the landlords do have a right to at least break even. So interesting. I don't know if you have any any additional comments you want to add to that particular episode before we jump on to the next one.
Yeah, so this episode was about rent increases generally, but there are so many other takeaways from this episode. So you hit on a number of them just now. Inheriting a property, you know, somebody would think, oh, great. Grandma left me her house. It should be easy. We'll just rent it out and we'll get a windfall of income. Maybe.
Maybe not.
But along with that, even if you get that property free and clear, you also have the expenses of property taxes and insurance, which continues. It needs to be paid. And in particular, within this last year, I've had several owners who have had their property taxes shoot up significantly, increasing the carrying costs. of their investment property and significantly reducing their cashflow. So what do you do then? And so at that point, you really need to take a look at the numbers. The other thing is the fact that these tenants hadn't had a significant rent increase in over 10 years. I hear that so much from owners who come to me and they're like, yeah, this is a really good tenant. They have an increase in 10 years. Well, I mean, that's good. for the tenant, but have your expenses increased over the past 10 years too? So that's something to think about as well. And if you, as I mentioned before, if you opt to not pass on, And this increase to the tenant, don't have them believe that this will continue in perpetuity. You know, at some point you're going to have to make the adjustment. So have them keep them abreast even annually when their lease comes up for renewal. You know, say that I've opted not to increase or I've only opted to increase by a small percentage. That's not necessarily going to be the case moving forward. So everyone is aware of what's going on. Oh, yeah. Finally, I mean, there's many more points to be taken from that. And at some point we can explore more. And we from our end, we'll also have a different episode of Spinoff, which explains some of the points. One of the other things that I'll bring to mind is that Krisa had a realtor or her mom had a realtor. who was doing property management before. Now, you and I are both realtors as well. And so it's common practice for a realtor to also take on rentals for their clients and also property management by extension. And for the most part, for a realtor, they don't have the bandwidth to do it. well and do it comprehensively. And you and I know this by experience, because all that is required, things like helping the owner navigate increase in property taxes. There are companies, by the way, that you can go to to help you contest your property management bills. These are companies that we are partner with and we offer that service. We introduce our clients to them and help them contest it. You don't have to always accept the increase. Insurance is another one that gets hiked up. And we have partners who we can refer them to to help them see if they can get a reduction in their bill. As far as maintenance, we have a list of trusted vendors who we know we can call upon. For all intents and purposes, a realtor has the best of intentions, but they don't necessarily have the resources to do that.
Yeah, I'd like to add something to that, just to kind of make that point extra clear, which is you wouldn't hire me, let's say I'm a residential real estate professional to do commercial property. And I do have people, clients from many, many years ago, probably after exiting my banking days where they knew that I did a lot of commercial transactions inside as a corporate banker. But, you know, they come to me now and they say, hey, can you help me rent out my my office or can you help me sell this building? And I always say, you know, I may have had commercial experience, but that's not what I do. So I would be doing you a disservice if I said I'm going to take my residential hat off and pretend to be a commercial agent for however long and for whatever service you might need. Because the truth is that I don't have the relevant experience. I don't have all the right connections. I don't have access to many of the portals and the resources and the platforms to obtain certain commercial sale information. And the list goes on. And so I try to explain that to them. So it's kind of the same thing. And I think people might think, well, if they're in residential real estate and they also do rentals, then it's kind of the same thing. And it's not. Even though there are some similarities in what some of the things that we do, and we are talking about residential property, there are differences, vast differences in there. I do also some rentals, but I do rentals on the transaction side. If somebody says, I just really want to rent my house, okay, fine. That's perfectly normal. Sometimes I'm able to procure a tenant and vice versa. There's a tenant who's looking for a place to live. But that's really the extent of my involvement. I do not go any past that because I don't do management. And I know there are nuances and things in there that really do require more of an expertise. And like you said, an ongoing relationship about things that I really don't get involved with, including evictions, including, you know, rental analysis, you know, considering their taxes and things like that. So, you know, for the people listening in, I want you to be extra clear on that, that just because, you know, we are in real estate, we don't do the same things. Property management and transactions are two very different parts of what we do. Now, it's not always a happy ending. And we know this. I guess that's just true about life in general. But there are instances in which clients are unable to, I guess, turn the page and be successful in there. And I think we do have another episode queued in, which I think should illustrate what happens when it's too late. So let me see if I can share my screen one more time.
Try maybe increasing the volume this time, because it was a little bit low last time.
It is as far as I can take it, unfortunately. And I think that just might be and I'll look at it one more time. But let me. Here we go. Okay, so this I believe is Jeb's story. So let's share Jeb's story and see how that turned out.
Jeb, his investment properties caused him to retire bankrupt and broken. Here's his story. Chippagai Ezekiel was a spunky 74-year-old with a hearty laugh, a sharp mind, and an equally sharp tongue. Over his seven-decade lifespan, he had worked in a number of professional capacities. He'd been an elementary school teacher, a pharmacy technician, and a librarian. He eventually acquired a doctorate and settled into a career as a college professor. Jeff came from humble beginnings, and as a result, was always frugal about money. He was a good saver and over time built up enough funds to invest in real estate, purchasing four quads. These four apartment units were two-bed, one-bath converted military barracks. They were clustered together in a small residential community and served as housing for blue-collar workers and young professionals. Jed sold his primary residence and made his home in one of the apartments. When he bought them, they were in pretty good condition because they had just been refurbished by the developer. As a result, he decided he could self-manage because little maintenance would be required. With the help of his handyman, Tom, they were able to tackle most repairs, keeping expenses at a minimum and yielding a good return on his investment. Fast forward 30 years, Jeff isn't as agile as he once was, and is unable to keep up with the demands of managing properties. He's starting to make preparations for what he hopes will be a stress-free retirement in Georgia with his kids, so he decides to engage Real Property Management Genesis for help. Our first task was to reach all the residents and tour the apartments. During our visit, we found several code violations, including windows that were issues with the AC units and a myriad of plumbing-related complaints. When we met with Jeff to review the evaluation report, he didn't seem perturbed. He was familiar with the issues raised and considered many of them to be petty and not requiring reduced attention. At Real Property Management Genesys, we provide a dual service for owners, managing as well as educating. So we patiently explained to Jeff his basic obligations as a landlord under the law. We then presented him with a scope of work to address the issues identified. timeline for the repairs to be completed. There was a lot to get done. And to his credit, Jeff was willing, but just did not have the funds to address everything right away. When we suggested that some of the repairs were valid insurance claims, he informed us that since the mortgages were paid off, he no longer carried insurance.
Oh my God.
Big mistake. Big. Huge. About two months into managing, we got a maintenance call from Bob in 2C. recurring issue for years, and usually the handyman would just sneak the line, giving temporary relief. He made sure to tell us that he had been following Jeb's instructions and not flushing the toilet paper, and was instead disposing of it in a bin next to the toilet. When we sent a professional plumbing partner to investigate, it was revealed that the cast iron pipes under the house were literally falling apart. You could actually recognize pieces of the pipes He eventually saw the quads at a significant discount. He did his retirement savings and moved in with his kids. What should have been Jeff's retirement nest egg left him broke and broken. You've got to know what to hold on, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. The great philosopher Kenny Rogers may not have been referring specifically to real estate, but the same advice applies. Real estate investment is one of the fastest and safest ways to build wealth and grow your net worth. In fact, 90% of all millionaires build their wealth through owning real estate. However, if you don't understand how to optimize your investment, it could have the opposite effect. Here are a few things to consider if you own residential rental property. Do have an exit strategy in mind. Ultimately, your goal will help you determine whether you should have a long or short hold operate a rental without insurance. Whether you acquire insurance through a traditional provider or start your own savings plan, you must have funds set aside for a rainy day. I promise you, it will rain. Do not use unlicensed and uninsured service providers for big ticket jobs. Knowing you have someone you can hold accountable is worth a few extra bucks. And do understand your legal obligations as a landlord and adhere to them. These days, tenants know their rights and will hold you accountable.
Wow. I had no idea. That is quite the unfortunate story. Very, very sad for Jeb. Very sad for Jeb.
Jeb was really one of the heartbreaking ones. He was such a nice gentleman and, you know, it just didn't end well for him at all. But Jev's episode is chock full of don'ts. Oh, yeah. We only captured, you know, two at the end, but so many things. Insurance.
Oh, God. I got this feeling in my stomach when I heard that part and said, oh, no.
No. That's the one. And so people like Jeb had owned these properties, which is great. He invested when he was young. He owned them for 30 years, you know, and figured, you know, this is going to be his retirement nest egg. He paid them off, which is fantastic. I've heard of, yeah. You know, all free and clear. But then, you know, remember, only a mortgage requires you to carry insurance. Once the mortgage is paid off, like nobody's, you know, bugging you about that. And so a lot of owners decide They're not going to bother with the expense.
Yeah, they forego that. And it's so important because you don't need it until you do is the problem. And then by then it's too late, too late.
And so with the jab, the other thing is I spoke about the long and short hold strategy. And this is important for whenever you're investing in, you know, real estate for rentals. After a certain period of time, things are going to start breaking. Now, there are various schools of thought about how long you should hold an investment property. Typically, I hear bandit around eight to 10 years, five to 10 years. It really depends on the state of the house when you bought it and what kind of investments had been made up until that point in terms of ensuring that it's structurally sound and everything works. Now, if you're going to hold a property for 30 years, you need to ensure that you're doing the investment to make sure that property, you know, is- Will last that long. Yeah. Will last that long. Jeb's issue with those pipes, like cast iron pipes, I know, you know, they said, like, maybe you can have steel on it. Cast iron pipes are a big deal. Many houses have cast iron pipes underground and eventually they will deteriorate. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And if they do, that's a significant expense as far as repair. There are things that you can do, modern advances, which will not necessarily require you to dig underground and dig all the pipes out, but it's still quite an expense, which you're going to have to budget for. If you don't, exactly what happened to Jeff is going to happen to you. And it's unfortunate, but it is a hundred percent true. The other quick thing I'd point out in this, which, you know, some people may have missed is that Jeff decided he's self-managing, which there's nothing wrong with self-management. Honestly, you know, if you do your research and you educate yourself, But Jeff decided that he's going to live right next to his tenants. And that in itself can have a whole lot of issues that you don't even anticipate. You're like, okay, I bought a quad. I'm just going to live in one of them. And I'll live right next to my tenants. When that line becomes blurred, between what should be a business relationship into a personal relationship. There are so many issues that will arise. And so oftentimes once an owner comes to us, you know, and says that our first step is to kind of sever that relationship, that communication relationship between owner and tenant. So it reverts to a business relationship, which is exactly what it is. It's a business relationship and should be treated as such.
Unbelievable. I feel terrible for this guy, but it makes me wonder how many people out there are making similar mistakes. And it happens. I see it almost 100% of the time when it comes to, say, divorce real estate. Sometimes, and there's a saying, and I've never really understood who it was because there's all this misinformation on the internet that says the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? The intentions are there. I'm sure he didn't wake up one morning and said, I wanna sabotage everything I've ever worked for. Of course not. And anyone going through divorce or maybe even inheriting a property, Their goal is to sell the property, earn as much as you possibly can from your investment, whether you lived in it or whether you invested in it as an investment property. But mistakes will be made even with the best of intentions. So that's why it's so important to hire professionals who are well-versed in these types of transactions, these types of situations, so that you can avert some of those pitfalls, avoid some of those issues that you may just casually step in you know, thinking that you're doing the right thing. We use Google for basically everything, let's be honest. If our head hurts, we Google it. If we want to invest money, we Google it. If we want to know the definition of something, we Google it. If we don't want to know how to parent, we Google it. We Google everything these days, but not everything you Google. result you get is accurate or actually truly 100% helpful. So we have to be mindful of that. We can't always believe everything we read or everything we see on the internet, or especially anything that your neighbor might tell you or your best friend or your uncle. I mean, they may be well-meaning, they may be professionals in their field, and that's great. you know, you want to seek out professional advice whenever possible, especially when it comes to something like this, because, you know, you've heard me tell it also in other situations or other networking events when I always say that whether you buy a $200,000 condo or $20 million estate, chances are when you buy real estate, it's usually your largest investment. right? Whether it's your personal home or your first investment property or your 10th investment property, nobody here buys property to lose, right? It's a hefty investment no matter where you are in the spectrum. So it behooves you to make the right decisions to do your research and to hire the right professionals to safeguard those investments for you.
Yeah. And the point that you made is a fantastic one in terms of You know, if you're going to invest in real estate, you can do some research online, you know, validate your sources. But nothing beats. Real life experience, absolutely coming from it, and that's what we're sharing here. Mm hmm. Theoretically, everybody knows you should have insurance, right? Right. Theoretically, everybody knows that property taxes are going to go up. But these stories that we're putting out are real life examples. True stories. I'm not I'm not making these things up. through stories about what can happen when you do or you don't adhere to the theory. You know, while somebody might not be inclined to go read an article about insurance or an article about property management, this is an easily digestible way of teaching and showing what other people have gone through. So you don't walk the same path.
That's right. And again, I think it's genius. I love these little episodes. They are, not only are they adorable, if anybody is tuning in just through audio, I highly encourage you to check them out on YouTube or just go to her social media pages so you can see them. I think they're great. The graphics are fantastic and they do help tell that story. And yeah, they are chock full of little nuggets of just, You know, I think you and I were talking about that the other night, we were having a conversation by phone that people tend to learn either from personal experience or when they're having fun or when they are in the mud, so to speak, right? Nobody ever learns a better lesson than when they're actually living through it. So this is a good way to avoid having to make all of those mistakes yourself by learning from someone else's. So thank you for putting that out. I think it's a wonderful service that you are providing. I love to tune into your episodes. Why don't you go ahead and tell us what your social media handles are or where we can find you to tune into those episodes.
No, so we're on Instagram on at Suze, the property manager, and on Facebook at Real Property Management Genesis. And, you know, if possible, I'll share those. Well, can we share handles on?
Your yes, I will do that. I will actually when this goes live, that we decide to to post this on the social media platforms, I can absolutely include that so that anybody listening and anybody tuning in can actually check that out. Also on the website where the podcast will actually live, which is Simplecast. So if you go to the www.therealtalk.net, you should be able to see a full transcript of the episode and we can include those handles there for anybody wanting to to check you out.
Or just give us a call. Look, we're about teaching and sharing. We have costs. So if there's anyone out there who's either considering becoming a property investor, or you're currently self-managing, or you're not happy with whoever, give us a call. We're happy to talk to you for free. I will do that. I love doing that because I'm more of a teacher than I am a property manager. I'll share that. And so I'm into the business of helping people and building relationships. So you can contact us at info at rpmgenesis.com by email, or just give us a call at 786-744-5700 as well.