1783: Tenant Turnover, Marketing & Screening, Self-Management, Rental Increases, Zillow & Zumper, Credit Reports, Creating Wealth Virtual Event in January

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My name.

Is Andrew and I live in the Pacific Northwest. So far, I've got six properties in about three and a half years and I'm pretty happy about it. And it's all because his team of experts and just his, his knowledge and his time that he spent doing it, he can really guide you through it. And his podcast is excellent and I highly recommend it for anybody, whether you're a beginner or an expert. There's a ton to learn there and it'll help you get to the next level.

Welcome to the Creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You're about to learn a new slant on investing, some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world's most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self made multimillionaire who's actually been there and done it. He's, he's a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who's owned properties in 11 states, had hundreds of tenants, and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason's footsteps on the road to your financial Independence day. You really can do it. And now here's your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.

Well, welcome everybody. This is episode 1783. 1783. And I am here with my mom who's been staying with me for a couple of days here for the Christmas holiday. And when she's around, I always want to help you get some of her great advice. She's very experienced as a real estate investor and is, as I call it, what do I refer to you as the extreme do it yourselfer? Yeah, it's the extreme do it yourselfer. That's my mom. And so as the extreme do it yourselfer, one of the things, things she does very well is self management and really make sure she gets the highest yield out of her properties. Now, I'm not suggesting you go as far as she goes with doing everything yourself. As you know, I believe.

Well, why not?

Well, okay, here we go. I, I, I believe in this hybrid approach to management where people get help managing the tenant turnover, but they collect the rent themselves and they don't have the manager in the middle of that, skimming the profits off the top. Okay, but as much as I bash property managers sometimes and complain about them, and we all do just understand that you always have to ask that Question compared to what? It's better than Wall Street. It's better than Wall street because with the Wall street game, you are leaving yourself susceptible to a whole bunch of middlemen who are just skimming all the profits off the top. Right. And that's why we property so much better. Even if you're using a property manager, it's just a better deal. But, mom, you are headed to another part of Florida probably in an hour or two, I guess, and you're gonna buy, what, three more properties now?

Hopefully.

Hopefully three more. And how many did you buy on your last trip?

I bought three.

Three. Three more there. Okay, so. So you have six more in Florida, and you'll have a total of 10 in Florida after this, I believe. Right?

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, tell us about your approach to getting your properties leased. When you have a tenant turnover, what do you do? How do you handle it? I mean, this is not a totally new topic. Of course. We've talked about it before, but just each time we have this discussion, there are new distinctions that come out, new ideas, and I think the listeners and viewers really benefit from them. So tell us what you do. First step. So tenant says they're going, well, you probably sent them a rent increase letter.

But mostly they just take the rent increase increase nowadays. Maybe that's where we start with this conversation. So speaking of which, you did a lot of rent increases recently, and I think only one tenant moved. Was that.

Actually, two tenants moved, and I was delighted to have them move because I wanted to get out of California. And one, they just moved because the children had grown up and they were out of, you know, high school and on to college, and the other moved because they didn't like the rent increase, and they'd been living there for 13 years. So they. It was high time they bought their own house.

Right, right, right. Okay. But you raised rents on a whole bunch of properties. And I. I know. I remember you saying how surprised you were that they just accepted these rent increases. Right.

I was blown away, actually. But the thing. The fact is, there's no place to move, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't out there looking, but I couldn't believe.

You weren't out there looking comparing rental opportunities. You mean for tenants. Right, when you say that.

Yeah, I wasn't out there as a tenant would be looking to see if there were any alternatives. You know, my place compared to what somebody else would be offering. And apparently my places were as good or better than whatever else was out there in the marketplace. The problem is that there are, why everyone seems to stay is that there are so few places to, to move to.

Yeah, yeah. The rental market is extremely tight, just like the for sale market. But when I say you weren't out there, or when you say you weren't out there looking, what you mean is you weren't even analyzing comparisons. You just intuitively kind of knew that rents had increased a lot. You had to do some big rent increases, right?

Oh, yes. Well, I always look at Zillow.

Yeah. Okay.

And, and I always see, and it seems as though what always is happening to me, I think, wow, this is the rent I'm going to increase it to, but by that next year, it seems like I'm behind on what the rental market actually is.

So.

Have you kind of always felt that way over, you know, over 30 years of investing, have you felt that way?

Yes. It seems as though there's a price when you're ready to increase the rent, to send the notice out, you know, a 60 day or a 30 day notice. And so you think, well, this is a pretty good rent I'm going to be getting. And then a year later, you look at all of the Zillow things for each one of your properties, comps the comps, and you're way behind, Right? Yeah, it's, it's amazing.

Yeah, it's amazing how, how rents just are such a good hedge against inflation and rents have just risen so, so much. It's, it's truly incredible.

Yes. As, as a matter of fact, one of the tenants that I raised to $5,000 and I thought that was a lot.

And he moved shortly after, after that because I'd sent out the increase and the rent was $200 more than the $5,000. So I, I was actually behind.

Okay. So one of the things you told me just yesterday or the day before that I did not know, is that your longest tenant, the truck driver and his girlfriend, okay. That have lived in this property since I think, 1989, is that correct?

Yes.

They could have purchased the property, paid off the mortgage and then some. I mean, 1989 is when they started. So that's, let me see, 1999, 2009, 2019. They've been there 32 years. Is that, is that incredible? And have you given them a rent increase every single year for each of those 32 years or some years where you didn't raise rent?

Well, probably when I first began, you know, I was just grateful to even have somebody rent my houses.

Right.

I was in shock. As a matter of Fact.

And you were pretty new back then. Yeah, yeah.

But in the last, I would say 10 years, I increase everyone. Always.

Yeah. Okay, so every year a rent increase. That's just the way you've got a hedge. Inflation. It's just being a good landlord. And it's really better than shocking your tenants with by not raising the rent and then giving them some shocking increase later. Okay, you know.

Oh absolutely.

Every year you at least got to index inflation, folks. That's just normal. Everybody does that. So, so make sure you do that. But what you told me yesterday or the day before when we were talking about him, your truck driver tenant there, the 32 year tenant, is that there was a time when you actually started eviction proceedings against him. I did not know this. Oh yes, this is interesting. Tell us about that.

Well.

He was actually probably lying to me. He was saying that he wasn't getting paid and that maybe he was going to quit. And, and his girlfriend was really, really, really upset about this.

And so what happened? I started eviction proceedings. He went to an attorney actually to find out if I had the right to evict him, I guess, or what the, or, or what he could get, you know, by going to an attorney and you know, fighting my eviction case. And of course he found that if he didn't pay the rent, he has to move, which all, all, everyone should realize. So anyway, he decided to stay and I said if you want to stay, you have to pay, you have to pay the eviction charges. And so he paid the eviction charges and he brought his rent up to date. And since then he has been an excellent, excellent tenant.

Now how long ago was that?

That was probably.

Eight, nine years ago.

Eight, nine years ago. Okay. So interesting that she has this long term tenant that she actually started eviction proceedings against once and he ended up staying and he's still there. So that's just an interesting story. I thought you should hear that. Okay, let's move on and let's talk about what you do when a tenant gives notice. So maybe you gave them a rent increase letter. Maybe they just had a life change. Whatever it was, they are moving and you have these properties many times long distance.

Right?

So do you go over and do a walk through? How do you do that? You know, any, any tips on like taking pictures and documenting it and what you charge them for from their security deposit? And by the way, this is one of the reasons. There are so many reasons to self manage. It is truly amazing. One of many is right here you're about to hear it is these darn property managers many times are too reluctant to dock the tenant, their tenant security deposit for stuff that the tenant should be paying for, stuff that isn't normal wear and tear that the tenant is responsible for. And they just don't want to charge the tenant because they don't want that tenant to go write a review on Yelp or complain about them somewhere. And this is the problem with the property management industry. They are trying to serve two masters. They should be serving us, the investors, but they're trying to serve the tenants and the investors at the same time. And, you know, nobody can serve two masters, as the old saying goes. So it just doesn't work. Tell us what you do.

Okay, so what happens is they. They send me their notice, and they'll usually call up and I said, it has to be in writing. And then.

Because they'll call up and tell you they're moving, but you'll tell them you got to give me written notice.

Yeah.

Okay.

So anyway, they do that. And after they have been there that many years, usually.

Usually there are so many things that because I. I give the tenant a house that is freshly painted, everything is absolutely working. The windows are washed, the lawn is mowed, the hedges are trimmed, and the place looks very, very good. Otherwise they never would have moved in in the first place. I expect that if I have to paint after 13 years, I have no problem with that.

Okay, that's pretty normal.

Yeah, but, but the point is, if the lawn hasn't been taken care of, if the dirt is so hard packed that there's no way I can grow grass on it without installing sprinklers and installing grass seed and cultivating the place, then they don't deserve to get all of that money back.

So they're responsible for all the landscaping, obviously.

They're responsible for mowing, edging, trimming, and keeping, you know, the trees, you know, the bushes trimmed. The. The reasonably height bushes trimmed.

Yes. Okay, so the yard is one thing. And so you pay attention to that. And then what about inside? What can you charge them for? What can you not charge them for? You know, painting after they've been there. 13.

Well, well, sometimes, you know, when tenants were moving in, in and out very frequently, and they would move within a year, I would charge them for the full paint job, regardless of what these authorities say. Look, if I have to turn around and spend eighteen hundred dollars to repaint a house after one year.

After one year, that's not normal.

Absolutely ridiculous. Right.

Paint should last probably five years.

Well, that. That is my thing. Now. California has a different idea about it, but I don't care what they say. Okay.

Another reason not to invest in California.

Paint job should last for five years. And if they've been there two years, they are going to get docked for. What would that be? 80% of the paint job. Okay, so you prorate the paint job. Prorate the paint job. Yeah, whether they like it or not. And I, I remember.

So, for example. Let's just give an example about that. So if painting just for round numbers was a thousand dollars, it's going to be, you know, 1800 or more, probably. But if it's a thousand dollars and they. They are there, you know, only for 20 or 80. 20% of the time, and you need new paint, which you shouldn't need new paint, they're going to pay 80% of that painting cost to you, and only. You're only going to cover 20% of it.

That is correct.

Okay. Yeah, that's.

That's.

A property manager is not going to do this stuff. They're just going to give them back their deposit and stick you with the bill. That's what they're going to do.

Yeah. What was the time? What really, what really made me so upset one time, and when I just firmly established this rule that I follow. As one tenant turned around after she'd moved, after she'd moved within a year, she says, oh, that's what landlords have to do. And I thought you, you insufferable individual.

Those weren't the words that went through your mind, but you insufferable individual. Okay, all right. So. So. So you prorate things. You know, landscaping has got to be in good condition. Everything else, so you've got to send them a letter saying what you're charging them for. And different states have different rules as to the amount of time you have to do that. Okay. So make sure you document with the letter. Okay. And if you don't have their address, you just send it to the property address, assuming they should have forwarded their mail. Right. And it'll. It'll go through the forward. Okay.

And. And also send receipts for what the. The work you have done. Okay. You can't just write down, I spent, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You've got to send.

So you give them documents. That's good. Okay, good, good.

So that's what I do.

Okay. So now the process of getting the house ready. So I love your primitive, Very primitive technique. My mom is not into technology about hiring contractors. Okay. So you used to use the yellow Pages. I remember seeing those in your car all the time. Until just recently, actually.

Yes, you did. Yes you did.

But not recently. I mean, I threw out all the telephone books a few years ago.

It's 2021 right now anyway. But what you do is you go and you do a search. So you search for the given area painter, right, for example, and you look at the first three pages and you call or email the last one first because they're down in the search rankings and you assume they're not very busy.

Jason, you don't spend time on emails. Okay? Look, you just go to Google and you say painters in whatever city you're in.

And you get about three pages worth of them. And then you start on the third page and you go up from the bottom and you just make the phone calls. And really and truly, this does not take very long if you make 10 phone calls or maybe you have to make 15 phone calls. Okay, but. And if the people aren't there, you just say that you have a house at such and such an address and you need the entire house painted. Please call me as soon as possible. And you hang up and pretty soon your phone will start to ring. And when you get after you've made those 10 or 15 phone calls, you will end up with five or six good estimates and you will really know what the job should actually cost you.

Okay, now let me say a couple of things. This is the extreme do it yourself example. Most people don't want to do all.

This when this is so simple and it is so non time consuming. I don't believe people not wanting to do it.

Okay.

Extreme barrier yourselfer. So what I do is I just use the hybrid approach that I've talked to you about on many prior episodes where I have my agent or a la carte property manager who's doing the turn for me. I never visit the property, they do it all and they just line all this stuff up for me. I tell them I want three quotes. I don't call them estimates, by the way, I call them three.

Is that all you're getting?

Well, yeah, because I'm already. I already know what the prices should be of stuff most of the time. Okay. And so I, I'm getting three things and they get them for me. And once you are happy with people and say you've got several properties in one area, then you know the contractor for next time around, right? So you know, assume, assuming their prices stay competitive and you're happy with them, you just can Use the same person the next time. And one of the things that I found to be super convenient is that there are so many of these, not even really contractors, just painters, for example, that'll do the job of a whole bunch of different jobs. A lot of them have gotten into the investor industry, has matured so much that they've gotten into the sort of holistic whole house business. Right. And they all have friends that do all these things, and they'll just. Even if they're not a general contractor by the technical definition, they'll just handle it all for you. They'll say, hey, by the way, I was over there bidding the paint job, and I noticed you need landscaping and some H vac work and, you know, this and that. And they'll just handle it all. It's amazing. Then they'll just give you a quote for everything. And you can use, like, one source a lot of times, which is super convenient. I found that to be true many times. How about you? Have you.

If they are good workers, it's a great way to go. Okay. But sometimes they're not that good in their other jobs that they say they can do. So just be careful.

Yeah. But a lot of times they're just lining up their friends, too.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. That they work with. Okay. All right, good. So now you've got the house ready. Is there anything else on getting the house ready? I mean, there's a lot, but, you know, did we sort of COVID it?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay. Let's talk about tenant screening. Okay. Or tenant marketing to get tenants. Okay. So you used to use bandit signs. They call them bandit signs. You probably don't even know that name.

They were not bandit signs. Mine were. Mine were 18 by 24. Right. They were big real estate signs.

It's not about the size of the sign, but it's just signs that said for rent, and you'd put them all over the place. Okay. Because you're an extreme. Do it yourselfer.

Yeah.

But now that my mom. Now that my mom.

Now that mom has become high tech. Okay. She's actually using the Internet. Imagine that. And so you post your listings on.

Zillow, Zillow and Zumper.

Zillow and Zumper. Just two.

Well, then they go to a bunch of other sites.

Yeah. Okay. What about photos? You take your own photos or.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. So I would recommend you get a real estate photographer just one time. You can use these photos for 15 years probably. Okay. Easily. And you get a real estate photographer to take really good Photos of the property. And sometimes they're not even that great because they don't even know what they're doing. But, but you direct them. You get a good set of photos that you keep on your computer so you can use them over and over again. And, and so you, you post the photos, you post the description, anything, any tricks of the trade there?

Yes, but I just wanted to mention, don't trust the real estate agent to take the photos because all real estate agents are not good photographers. Okay. I discovered that I took much better photos myself. So be careful.

That's the photo.

The photos count. Okay.

Yeah, the photos definitely count. Okay, so any tricks of the trade on posting, on doing, putting the listing online, on Zillow, on Zumper?

Well, I always think that you should kind of very sensibly and intelligently arrange the photos. And you should have some nice greenery, you know, at the very beginning to show what the area looks like. And a nice lawn photo of the front of the house should be really the first photo. And then interspersed, sometimes you throw in the backyard between the first bedroom and the second bedroom, you know, so that they just get, and get a variety. Instead of seeing white walls and brown stuff. Okay. You've got to intersperse some greenery in amongst it. Okay.

Okay. And so you don't want them if there are 25 photos. You don't want them to scroll through the first couple and not know that you have a great backyard, for example.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Okay. Anything in the description, the text?

Well, I write.

Beautiful, gorgeous, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Most real estate agents will just put in the facts. But, and, and then, and then I say, I don't know, words come to me and I just think of, you know, nice things to say about the house.

Okay, do you put that it's an open house at any given time. Do you hold open houses? You used to. I know, years ago.

No, I just had everyone show up at the same time. Once I got my signs out, I said come on over now.

You don't do signs now though. Yes. So. So now it's just strictly online. But basically do you put in the posting? Because I did this on my self managed properties and I had my real estate agent that, by the way, if you remember the empowered investor inner circle, you heard him interviewed on one of our monthly zoom meetings. Basically I just had him schedule a couple of times where it was instead of an open house, it was called a property tour. And it would just be a time and everybody would show up at the same Time, So it's not like they're wandering through. He doesn't have to spend three hours there. It's just a scheduled time on, you know, Saturday afternoon at 2pm Everybody's there, and all of these tenants there at once. Makes it like a bidding war. It's great. Tell them about that. You had people, you have people all over the house with your printed applications. They're using the, the tank on the toilet to fill out their application. The kitchen counters, though. Tell us about that.

Yes, I have a lot of pens and I have a lot of applications. And after they go through the house, I say, and would you like to live here? That is a really important phrase. Which, would you like to live here? And they say, yes. And I say, okay, let's fill out an application. I give them the application. If there's someone in the bathroom working on it, if someone at this counter working on it, I find them another counter and I have several people filling out applications at the very same time. And then I'm able to go over each application with them right there on the spot. And you know what? Before the day is ended, you have a pretty good idea of perhaps who you are going to choose once you run that credit report.

Yeah. Okay, so then you subscribe to a credit reporting service through the Apartment Owners Association. There are lots of websites for this, as you know, from our empowered investor. Zoom call. If you're, if you're a member, you know the, the system that I use that does a credit report, a criminal background check, eviction history, unlawful detail. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, right.

Okay. So it does all three, but lately you're just using the credit report only. I noticed.

Yeah, well, I, I always only use the credit report because before they change the law where you couldn't report evictions on the credit report, you can really tell what it is anyway. It'll be a public something or other, and it'll be an amount like what would be normally for a rent. Okay.

It would be a big enough amount.

So you just.

Yeah, if it's, if it's sixteen hundred dollars, you know, it's probably rent, right? Yeah. Okay, got it. Okay. So screening the tenant. So you, you pick a tenant and you've met them all. In your case.

Yes.

In, in your case, if you're using a hybrid approach, which I recommend, and you're not going to go to the property like she is, I mean, she's retired. Right. This is so she, she's not working a job. Right. If you're doing the hybrid approach, you get the impression from your real estate agent. Your real estate agent tells you, and you get to run that credit report yourself. So you're not relying on some third party. You have all that tenants data in your own file, so the manager can't say, oh, we don't want to give you the information or whatever. Right. It's your deal. You run it and you are in control. You know, of my ten commandments of successful investing, number three, thou shalt maintain control. This is how you maintain control. We really like being in control of things. Okay, so you've chosen your tenant and then you send them a lease.

Well, here's something. You know, when, See, I see those tenants in person and what seems to work, I, I have another phrase, the other phrase, besides, do you, do you like the house? Would you like to live here? I always say I am a stickler for getting my rent on time. I like to get it on or before the day of the rent that it is due.

And you, you make them all due on the first, right?

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

Oh, yes. There's no grace period.

And by the, by the way, we'll. Well, I'm not talking about that. But you don't have them due in funny times in the middle of the month. If, like, say they take possession on the 15th of the month, it's not going to be due the next 15th. Because I do want to mention how you manage that proration issue, but let's not do that yet.

Okay?

Just you, you make them, you make them all prorate to the first, right?

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. That's a good policy. I think. So you know when they're all due. There's no guessing.

Oh, yeah, right.

Okay. But you say that to the tenant, that you're a stickler.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

I, when I was inexperienced, God, I was waiting forever for my rent.

Yeah, right. Okay. Okay, so let's talk about that proration issue now. So what you do, and you want to be careful of this because sometimes tenants will take possession in an odd date on the middle of the month. Maybe they want to move in on the 17th of the month. Okay. And so that's great because you don't want to wait till the next first of the month for them to take possession. You want them to move in sooner. Right. So you move them in on the 17th. Awesome. They've got the possession date of the 17th. But then the question comes, do they not pay rent until the 17th of the next month? No, you want to get it prorated on the first. What Tenants would love to do, but you don't want to let them do is they would love to pay you the security deposit plus maybe the last month's rent if you're collecting that way. And then 13 days of rent, right? No, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. You make them pay a full 30 days of rent. So for example, on the properties that I just leased up, just did the hybrid self management. Went through it all on our monthly zoom call for empowered investor inner circle. Join our community. If you're not a member, it's the best bargain you'll ever have. You will save so much money on property management even if you don't self manage, even if you never self manage, you're just going to be a much better investor. So join the empowered Investor inner circle. Empowered investor.com. anyway, what you do is you have them pay the full three months. Okay? I collected first month, last month and security deposit of one month. Plus if they had pets, I charge them pet rent, which a lot of managers will object to and try to talk you out of because they're idiots. And they paid all of that. They paid, you know, nine, four hundred dollars to move into my house many times, right? And I prorate the second time the rent is due, not the first time. In other words, you get that full first month even if they move in in the middle of the month so that they are moving in with more money, meaning more security for you, you don't let them move in paying 13 days rent. Okay? Never ever do that. And also make sure you have good funds. Of course, before they move in, that money needs to be deposited in my bank account. And if you bank at a national bank for your properties, then they just go to a branch in that city, wherever the property is, and they just put the money in your account. It's real easy.

Okay, let's clarify this proration a little bit more. All right? Say the person moves in on the 17th of the month. So they pay the rent from January 17th until February 17th. Okay? But on the 1st of February, they pay the remainder of that February 17th rent to March Rent on the first day of February.

Okay?

So just to make that clear, that that's how that proration works, right?

So you get the money up front though, you get three months up front and a lot of managers will let them move in with less. You're in control of this stuff. You're renting a single family detached home. This is not some crummy apartment where they get to move in for 99 like those signs you see on the, you know, where they hang the banners outside of the apartment complexes. No way. This is a good quality single family home. Okay, They've moved in. Anything else? Utilities Now. Nothing to talk about there, I don't think, but how about just managing the ongoing relationship with the tenant and we'll wrap it up with that.

Well, one thing that you need to check on immediately is that the tenant has changed the utilities into their name. Because I've had this go for a month sometimes because. Yeah, but did they reimburse you? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. But make sure that they. You just call the utility company and check it out. Okay. That's the easy way to do it.

All right. Ongoing relationship with a tenant, you know, collecting rent every month. What do you, you just have them deposited in your bank, right?

Yes. Oh, well, basically what most of them are now doing is Zelle. And if they don't do Zell, there are. My bank is everywhere. Okay. So they just go to the.

So Zell is that payment system that a lot of the banks have now. It's great. It's super convenient. Most of the banks have it nowadays, totally free. In the beginning it was just the big banks. Now a lot of them have it and they send the money. It's Zell Z E L L E, just in case you're not familiar. And they just send the money from their bank to your bank. It's good funds. So no check has to clear, no funny business. When the money's there, it's there and it's done. Okay. I've never heard of a Zelle payment being reversed. I suppose it might be possible, but I've never heard about it.

Yeah. And it's there within minutes.

Yeah. Yeah, Good. So you get a notification right away. So.

Yeah, that's great.

Okay, good. Anything else? What about late payers? And, you know, what do you do, do you call them up? I mean, do you, you check your account the first of the month to see all the payments are there?

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Yep. You're, you're, you're getting into your little account the first of the month. Many, many times during that day.

I got to tell a story about that. So my mom had surgery about seven years ago, a pretty significant surgery. And I remember you in the recovery room at the Cleveland Clinic. After surgery, she's. Jason, give me my phone. I mean, literally, she was in the recovery room. I was there. So was the dog.

Okay.

And you, you. I took a picture of you checking because it was the first of the month. It was July 1st. I remember it.

Yes. And I wanted my sheet of my renters.

And. And you checked. You were on your phone checking to make sure you got all your rents and one of them didn't come in. And you just called them right from the bed of your recovery room. I remember that.

Natural.

Unbelievable. Okay. Anything on the ongoing relationship?

Well, the other thing is, you know, you want to have a good relationship with a tenant. So if something breaks, fix it. If it is your thing to fix. Okay.

But not if it's their thing.

But not if it's their thing to fix. For example, I had to put a brand new for H Vac system in a house right after the tenant was there Another, another thing that happened with this tenant? She's supposed to take care of the yard, right? Well, the association came around and said that the sprinklers or, or the turf or the. What do you call that? Those, those sprinklers, those chips that you put on the dirt.

Wood chips.

Wood chips. That the gardening was lacking. That. And so she sent me an email how much it cost. And I said, I sent her an email saying, I will take care of the sprinklers, but the turf is part of the gardening and that is your responsibility. The wood chips, yeah.

Right.

The wood chips, yeah.

Okay. The H Vac, you reminded me of something on one of my self managed properties. This was maybe three years ago or so, or maybe even four years ago. You know, the property was probably 16 years old at this point and it needed a new air conditioning. Okay. And because it's in one of these areas where the air conditioning just runs a lot. And so I remember my tenant. Your tenants will help you many times more than your property manager would. It's truly amazing. Most tenants are great people. They're good people. They just want a nice place to live and they'll pay a fair rent. Okay. You know, you hear horror stories. Of course there's always bad people, but most people are not bad people. They're good people. And they literally. I didn't even ask them for this. They went and got me quotes.

That's it.

On new H Vac. They. They called a couple of con H Vac companies and, you know, they got bids on the air conditioning. They told me which one they thought was the best deal, which one was the most professional by how they showed up. Did they show up on time? Like they did this all without me even asking them. It's amazing. Your tenant is. Your tenant is the watchdog of your property. Believe it or not, your property manager is not the watchdog of your property. Your property manager is maybe never there. Maybe they do one inspection a year. Your tenants there every day, they're inspecting the property all the time. How do you think the property manager ever finds out that there's an issue? They find out from the tenant. Okay, that's, that's the tenant is the one watching the property. Okay. And they will do a lot of the work for you. And it's interesting because you try to hire tenants who are handy. Now, I don't know that this is a protected class. Okay, this is sort of funny.

That is one of the questions I usually ask. Can you do things, are you handy around the house?

You like the handy people, right?

Do like them a lot.

Good stuff.

Some of the. Sometimes the women are very handy.

Yeah. Okay. Good, good stuff. All right. And there's a bunch of YouTube channels obviously now and a lot of house flipping and fix up shows. So a lot of people have become much handier at this type of stuff because they've been watching those shows and watching those YouTube channels. So good, good stuff. Okay, mom, anything else? Should we wrap it up?

I think so.

Okay, one more thing, One more thing, folks. We've got a virtual event coming up. It's our second virtual event and it is Creating Wealth. Now, this has been my longest taught and most attended. Thousands of people have attended the Creating wealth event over the years. And we really go into a lot of the macroeconomic stuff that's affecting our investments nowadays. The real estate market, a lot of the trends, the future, what we think of them, how to deal with inflation. That's becoming a very, very significant issue. Really taking a deep dive into my refi till you die technique, my inflation induced debt destruction technique, and my Hartman risk evaluator technique. These are all very original cutting edge investment strategies that I've been teaching for probably 18 years now. And this event is coming up January 28th and 29th of 2022. So January 28th and 29th. And it is super inexpensive on early bird pricing. Now it's only 97. Super convenient virtual event. It's on zoom. We'll have networking, we'll have lots of learning. And we space it out over two days. We might even do a follow up session. Sometimes we throw one of those in as a SP surprise. Maybe a week after the event. You'll just love it. So do not miss this. I have literally at least two of those big bankers boxes of testimonials from this event that I've collected over the years on paper and it is just such a great event and I haven't taught it in a while so I really want to get back to this. Of course lately we haven't been doing much in the way of live events. We had one last year, we'll have another one again this year of course, if not maybe two. But this one will be virtual so it's super convenient. You can attend from anywhere. Just go to jason hartman.com it's right there on the front page of jason hartman.com you can register only $97 early bird pricing but do it today because that early bird pricing will expire and we also offer the recordings to our early birds as an option at the end when you register you can get those super super inexpensive as well. So Jason hartman.com for creating wealth, live and virtual and you'll love it. So join us for that and until next time, happy investing. We'll see you soon. Thank you.

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