Property Management News

Becoming a landlord is a lot like being pregnant: When you make your announcement, everyone wants to tell you their horror stories. There was the aunt who had not one, but two tenants die unexpectedly during her first year as a landlord. Or, my personal nightmare, the neighbor whose tenants let their pet snakes roam freely about the house. Then, there’s the run-of-the-mill disaster stories about tenants who trashed a home or didn’t pay their rent. Despite hearing all these, my husband and I decided to move ahead with renting out our first home when we upgraded to more square footage earlier this year. We had bought the house — a 900-square-foot ranch in a medium-sized New... Read more

Many landlords wish they could communicate better with challenging tenants who pose a number of problems for management. As a landlord, you may occasionally encounter tenants who bring a range of issues with them, like missing rent payments or keeping pets when the terms of their lease don’t allow it. You don’t have to dread dealing with problematic renters, though — especially if you put precautions in place to stop bad behavior before it starts. When communicating with challenging tenants, you should practice patience, professionalism and understanding. It may be tempting to ignore a situation, but this only exacerbates tension and makes the renter likely to move. And although... Read more