Brendan O'Brien asked:
Finding a good property manager is like any other vendor search - it’s worth your time up front to make the best possible choice. That’s because a bad manager can cost you a lot of money, up to the entire value of your rental property investment. Consider:
o Your property manager will be receiving rent and fees on your behalf. A crooked manager could steal you blind.
o Your manager will be in charge of finding new tenants. A na?ve or slipshod manager could bring in bad tenants who trash your building.
o Your manager will handle maintenance. A greedy manager could charge a fortune for simple repair jobs.
Here’s a thirty-question checklist for interviewing prospective property managers. The answers you get will provide a very solid understanding of each manager’s qualifications. You can also get an impression of a prospective manager from other cues - I’ll explain those at the end.
Finally, remember that you have to compare managers to others within an area. It’s possible that none of the prospective managers in one city will match the high standard of your terrific manager in another. On the other hand, if you can’t find a good manager in a city where you plan to invest in real estate, maybe you shouldn’t invest there.
The first questions have to do with finding good tenants, which I think is the key to a happy building. A building with good tenants tends to have fewer maintenance and other issues.
o How many vacancies do you have right now? Out of how many total units that you manage?
o What is the average length of time it takes to fill a vacancy?
o Is that average time getting longer or shorter?
o How do you market your rental units?
o Do you require an exclusive arrangement for marketing to new tenants?
o How does your web site look?
o What factors would make you reject a prospect?
o Would you accept a tenant who met your qualifications in some areas, but not others?
o Which qualifications are most important to you?
o What screening methods do you use?
You want a manager who finds good tenants reasonably quickly. He should use a variety of methods to find prospective tenants, such as a web site, Craigslist postings, newspaper ads, signs, flyers and more. Your manager should follow an extensive screening process, but be willing to accept a “maybe” tenant if the situation is right. You want a look at the web site to make sure that is inviting to prospective tenants, and constantly updated.
As for the exclusive arrangement, property managers never mind when you or somebody else finds prospects for them. However, in almost all cases, they will still want a rental fee for moving the prospect into your rental unit. Make sure you have a clause that if the unit hasn’t been rented for some time, and you or someone else you find brings in a new tenant, the rental fee is cut in half. You don’t want it cut to $0 because the manager will still have to screen prospects.
The next questions relate to tenant management. It’s just as important to keep good tenants as it is to find them.
o What does your lease look like?
o What is your late rent policy?
o What other rules do you set for tenants?
o What percentage of tenants do you have to evict?
o How does the eviction process work here?
o How do your tenants contact you?
I recommend sticking with the manager’s preferred lease, late rent policy, and rules unless you have a really major objection. If the manager is really experienced, chances are they’ve developed smart rules and policies over time. Tenants should be able to contact the manager through a variety of ways during the day, and have an emergency number for off hours. If the manager is always evicting tenants, he’s bringing in bad tenants.
The next questions relate to maintenance.
o Which kinds of maintenance jobs are handled in-house?
o Which ones do you use an outside handyman for?
o Which ones do you use professional contractors for?
o How many quotes do you get for jobs?
o How expensive does a job have to be for you to contact me before doing it?
o What are your rules for contractors being inside occupied rental units?
o Who are your preferred contractors?
Managers should have a well-thought-out system for assigning jobs to different parties - in-house employees, handyman and professional contractors. Almost any plumbing, heating, or electrical job should be handled by a professional. Other jobs, such as paving a parking lot, require special equipment that usually only professionals have. But most small jobs can be done by handymen who will cost you less.
You want multiple quotes for major jobs - say, anything over $500. You should also have a rule that contractors can never enter an occupied unit -even if the tenant is not home at the time - without a manager’s representative being there. Finally, you want the names of preferred contractors so you can run a quick check on them.
The last group of questions relates to experience. You want managers to know the local real estate world inside and out.
o How long have you been a property manager?
o How long have you been a manager in this area?
o Can I see some of the other properties you manage?
o Do you personally invest in real estate in this area?
Finally, you need to understand your arrangement with the property manager.
o What is your fee structure?
o How will I get reports?
o Do you require an exclusive arrangement to broker the property?
o How much notice will you give before terminating a contract?
The manager’s fees aren’t really important unless they are much higher than everybody else’s, or are so high that you really can’t afford them. Reports are very important because they are your only window into how your investments are performing. The best way is to get them on your own computer, on your time - as may be the case if they use on-line property management software.
You should not accept any exclusive arrangement to broker properties unless they have a limited term. In other words, if the properties don’t sell after a certain time, you can re-list with a different broker for no penalty.
Also, you should require good notice for the contract to be terminated - at least 30 days. That gives you time to find another manager.
Here are some other things to watch out for:
o A manager with a messy office or personal appearance. Chances are he doesn’t much care about the condition of the properties either.
o A manager you have a hard time reaching by phone or email. If he won’t return your messages now when he’s trying to get your business, what are the chances that he’ll do better later?
o A manager whom you sense is trying to intimidate you with knowledge. The “don’t ask stupid questions, I know all about this” approach is often a cover for not really knowing much at all.
Mike D Tucker asked:
If you get harassing or unknown calls and want to find out who has been calling, here are some tips for tracking cell phone calls. Prank callers think they are safe by using a cell phone, but they are wrong.
There is nothing more annoying then getting constant prank calls or hang ups. You get their number and call them back only to get their default voice mail, no answer or they pick up and don’t say anything. Ever have this happen to you? Well there is a way to turn the tables on the unknown caller.
Using a reverse call search service will tell you the identity of any phone number. It will work for any landline, cell, pay phone, business phone and even some pre-paid cells. You can try Google first. Just enter phone: 555-555-5555 and hit search (of course you will want to replace this with the unknown callers number.) If you do not get any info back you will have no other choice than to use a paid phone search service.
There are a lot of so called free services out there but they are pretty worthless. All the free ones use the same data base, so if one does not work the other ones will not either. Or they take you through the whole process then want you to pay for the good info. If you use one of the top paid directories to start with you will be amazed at the info you can get back on any number.
Insert the prank caller’s number and you can find out their name, address, service provider, and in some cases, where they work, relatives, marriage records, court and criminal records, financial records and more. Just imagine the shock on their face when you call them back and start reading off all the info you have on them. I can almost guarantee you will never get a call from them again. This will scare most people off.
If not you have all the info you need to file a report on them or take legal action, no need to change your phone number. Once you are a member of a good paid look up service you will find yourself looking up friends, coworkers, boyfriends, girlfriends. See what they have been hiding.
You used to have to hire a private investigator to get this information but now anyone can get access to the same info. All services are not created equal however, so do your research before joining.
Michael Russell asked:
Very simply, a project manager is the person who takes responsibility for everything. This is not to say “the one who does everything”. It is not too likely that a project manager even has the skill sets that would make her capable of doing everything that need to be done for a project. She’s simply the place where the buck stops. Have you been watching The Apprentice? When a project fails, who is the person most likely to hear “You’re fired!” Unless she is exceptionally good a deflecting blame, it is the Project manager!
So what skill set does a successful project manager really need? One skill or art is the ability to be a good team leader. Among other things, a project manager requires an inquiring mind. You must be able to gather information from the right people and to assimilate this information quickly in order to make projections and wise decisions. All this is needed in order to plan and develop a project. Plan, plan, review and plan. If you are not good at planning and scheduling in detail, you might want to reconsider being a project manager. Often a project manager must also present and sell the plan to her manager and /or customer. Thus good presentation skills are also needed.
Once decisions are made, she must maintain vision while also maintaining an impartial view of progress and making proper adjustments all while keeping the team motivated, updated, focused and within budget and time restraints. Decisiveness does not mean stubbornly proceeding in a direction deemed to be ineffectual. Constant quality assurance and quality control is essential. Quality is a team process and should be part of the project plan and schedule. Good pre-planning with the team should eliminate or nearly eliminate ineffectual actions. The project manager is in charge of maintaining scope of the project, writing the plan and maintaining change forms. Within the plan she must define project objectives and steps for reaching those objectives, describe the deliverables, manage the processes and avoid scope creep. She and the team must identify risks, have a contingency plan and be able to execute the contingency plan if needed. Changes in scope made in conjunction with the client must be agreed upon, priced and documented.
In order to be a good leader, a project manager needs to be able to evaluate a team’s strengths…and weaknesses as well as the individual team member’s and use this information to get the best results out of the team. Diplomacy mixed with well timed assertiveness (not aggressiveness) serves a project manager well. A project manager must develop a clear line of communication with and within the team. Developing and maintaining a schedule is something that, while the responsibility of the manager, should include team members in order to have bought in to maintaining it.
Project Management Institute (PMI) was developed in 1969. Their premise was that a certain set of skills and actions were needed in any industry in order to be a successful project manager. As a result in 1981 the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of standards and guidelines for project management. This became know as A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This is reviewed often and should be studied if one plans on pursuing project management as a career.
Mark Stockdale asked:
Asset management represents a concept which people are frequently leery of. Though they do desire their tough earned money to bring forth large yields and interests, folks are not always at ease with the thought of others handling their money. But asset management should not embody something which you have to be scared of. As a matter of fact, it could be pretty rewarding financially because you can disperse your income across various investment products. This is more effective than placing your money in banks where the payoff is not even adequate to fight the rates of inflation of the currency plus the increasing costs of living.
When practiced the correct way, your money can suffice you until your retirement.
Below are a few examples about how to begin and endure asset management.
1. Select your mangager wisely
When employing an asset management individual be sure that you know him or her. If you do not know anyone who can do it for you, invite people to recommend managers which are dependable. Don’t just be satisfied with one referral. Acquire a lot then compare each one to the other. That way, you are able to choose the person which you sense represents the best among the best.
2. Make sure you have a say
A frequent mistake of a lot of people who hire asset management people is when they acquire someone, they wash their hands off the whole thing. Don’t. Demonstrate them that you would like to assume an active role in managing your assets. Don’t give complete control to the manager when it concerns making investment determinations. The ultimate say must be yours.
3. Learn the biz
It’s not adequate that you recognize the goings on of asset management, you likewise need to understand it.
Remember that although you’ve worked with the same individual for a long time or a acquaintance of yours know him personally, he or she could still rob you of your income. Asset management comprises a hazardous and unkind business.
Nazir Daud asked:
Managing a business requires a wide range of skills and experience. All managers will have things that they are good at, and things that they are not. In this article I will examine the key skills that you should look to develop as a manager, and, if you’re an employer, the skills you should expect your managers to possess.
Delegation
All good managers should be able to effectively delegate responsibility to appropriately qualified staff within their business. Good management is about ensuring that a project or goal is successfully achieved, however it rarely means a manager should do it on their own. That’s why they have to be good at picking the right people to do the job, and managing their execution. Being good at delegating can also mean being good at understanding someone’s strengths and weaknesses.
Accountability
A manager should be able to hold themselves accountable for things that they are given management responsibility for within their business. Although it will not always be their fault directly, they should be willing to take responsibility when it’s someone they are directly responsible for that’s failed.
Foster Team Spirit
A good manager will be able to foster a good team spirit, and ensure that everyone is comfortable performing their duties within the team. As a manager will generally be overseeing the execution of a project, rather than doing it directly, they should also be good at planning & evaluating a team’s progress towards the goal they have been assigned responsibility for.
Calm & Collected
If a manager is not able to remain calm during difficult times, it will be hard for their staff to do so. That’s why a manager should be able to show strength during difficult times resisting the temptation to lose mental control when the going gets tough.
Loyalty
It’s important for a manager to show that they are loyal to their staff. This can be done through showing appreciation for things that they do well, and also rewarding them too. If a member of staff is having an issue, a manager that is readily available and genuinely helpful will be able to cement their pivotal role as a leader within the business through addressing this issue quickly, before it gets out of hand.
Respect
It’s important that a manager is respected by staff and other members of the management team. This can be affected by a number of factors, such as: whether or not the manager is good at their job; the way the manager acts towards their employees; their commitment to their job; how the employees perceive the managers out-of-work behaviour, and many more factors.
Distance versus Friendship
Some managers believe it is more important to be friendly with their staff, while others prefer to keep a distance - claiming that if you become too close to your employees, they will expect far too much and take more liberties.
Although there is no right answer, both techniques can work better depending on the type of team that you’re dealing with. When you are working with a self-motivated team, it can often work well to develop a close personal bond with them. However, when your team need more day-to-day management in order to do their job, it might be preferable for them to keep their distance. It is a good idea to analyse each situation accordingly, and work out the best approach to take.
James Robbins asked:
In today’s work environment that ability to be an effective manager is crucial. Surveys have shown that a key factor in an employee’s happiness is their relationship with their direct supervisor. It has also been said that people don’t quit jobs they quit managers. As managers we must continually commit to growth both personally and professionally.
Often the problem is not that we don’t know what to do, the problem is that we do not do it. Take for example the concept of recognition. Everyone knows how important recognition is to employees and we also realize it is the easiest and cheapest thing we can do to inspire, motivate and keep our employees. Yet despite this the average manager gets a failing grade in the department of recognizing and rewarding their employees for a job well done. As leaders we are so trained to fix what’s wrong that we often lose sight of all that is good.
If you desire to change this about your management then you need to use goal setting. Goal setting is really about accountability and habit change when you use them properly. When people set goals, most do not use the proper techniques for goal setting and fail to get the desired results. You cannot set a goal to ‘be a better manager’ or ‘Recognize good work at the office.’ Goals written like this are too vague, give us nothing to measure and are not very motivating.
Let’s say you want to become more rewarding as a boss, here are some examples of goals you can set that are specific, measurable and by committing to them will actually begin to be a part of your normal routine.
1. Everyday find someone who is doing something right and reward them.
2. Each Friday find one employee who has been working very hard lately and recognize them publicly.
3. Schedule one lunch a month with an employee who deserves some special attention
4. In every managers meeting always ask for a list of employees who have done something great which can be recognized. Then recognize everyone on the list within two days.
5. Give each of your managers 5 Reward Tokens and tell them they cannot come back to staff meeting the next week unless they have handed them all out.
The list is only limited by your imagination, but if you choose just one or two of these and commit to them for a period of two months, they will start to become part of your daily routine. Once something becomes part of your routine, it becomes automatic and part of your behavior. Once it becomes part of your behavior, it becomes part of who you are. A manager who excels at rewarding and recognizing employees, is a manager who is going to produce some impressive results.
Saif Chy asked:
Managers are the key drivers of an enterprise. Some managers make the grade and continue to be there on the job, but a few excel and leave an indelible mark on the fabric and culture of the organization for decades to come.
Great managers inspire their teams perform at peak levels always. They are ‘hands on’ managers and work with team. They observe every aspect and detail of the task and then make appropriate suggestions for the team to improve its performance.
What differentiates a great manager from a run-of-the mill type? Managers have their jobs cut out for them. They just set out a specified time for a particular task to be completed. They are given the ‘hiring-firing’ authority to get staff in line production of objectives. Managers of such type are seen as a ‘ring master’ in a circus, who cracks the whip to make the animals perform. There is neither dialogue nor appreciation for the team. Team bonding is nil and each member in the team just wants it complete the task allotted. When issues arise, the team waits for the manager to take decision. Nobody is willing to help the manager arrive at a quick solution.
Team members perform in isolation and fear. There is no collective thinking and team goals and objectives are only known to the manager who seldom communicates his ideas to the team. Production only stays stable but does not move to higher levels. Often, teams managed by such autocratic and ’stonewall’ managers disintegrate to the consternation of the upper management. Despite production not being hit, people seem to want to get out of that team or even out of that organization.
Great managers on the other hand inspire their teams perform at peak levels always. They observe every aspect and detail of the task. They make appropriate suggestions for the team to improve its performance. They constantly review the team performance at all levels and these reviews are participatory. The manager gives everyone time to have his say, new ideas are welcome and the first chance to implement a fresh idea is utilized. Ideas that work for the organization and the team are appreciated and rewarded.
Criticism is delivered in a painless manner, so that the person at the receiving end does not feel humiliated. It acts as positive feedback to enhance clearer thinking on the part of the team. A great manager understands the expectations of each member in the team and honestly works towards meeting them. Where the expectations are not met, he explains to them what prevented the same and how together they can rectify the situation.
A good manager commands respect for his knowledge, skills and team player ability. He wins accolades for sharing knowledge and acknowledges the contributions of individual team members.
Norma Smith Davis asked:
Delegating successfully is one of those things we all know we should do. So why don’t we actually do it? Here are seven tips and techniques to help you get better, faster results when you delegate.
Managers and supervisors are paid to accomplish results through the work of other people. People who delegate well are more apt to be promoted and certainly able to have a less stressful work life. Yet so many managers and supervisors don’t do it. Here are seven tips that make delegating a successful endeavor that brings great results.
Delegate, Don’t Abdicate!
It’s important to give the employee the proper details, parameters, people to consult, where to find information, due date, and other details.
Provide a Mid-Course Check
Somewhere in between the day of the assignment and the due date, schedule a mid-course check (or two) to make sure the employee is headed in the right direction and on track.
Resist the Urge To Do It Yourself!
Taking the time to train a person to do the job will pay off down the line when they can relieve you of the task and you can feel confident that it will be done well.
Give the Right Job To The Right Person
Try to match the task to the right person’s strengths. Don’t give a big picture thinker a complex, tedious project
Set Clear Expectations
Tell your employee exactly and precisely what a good job will looks like. You may think that the assignment is just common sense, but time and again we learn that what is obvious to us is quite different to others.
Don’t Allow “Reverse” Delegation
Some employees are excellent at getting you to take the job back by asking a million questions, sighing deeply, acting put out, doing only half the job and other ploys. Resist taking it back! Tell the employee you have confidence they can do it and give it back.
Check Your Own Fear Factor
Many managers and supervisors do not delegate and the have a variety of reasons. Hidden beneath their “reasons are” fears and concerns, mostly unexamined. One of the biggies is the fear that the employee will do it wrong and that you will be blamed for it.
Some Other Fears: I’m afraid that others will think I just can’t handle my work. Or, I’m afraid I will look bad because I’m foisting my work on others.
Think of the reasons you have for not delegating. Is there a fear or concern connected to it? If so, is it a reasonable fear? What are the pros and cons? What might you gain from delegating some of your tasks? What might you loose? A little introspection in this area can free you up to be a better, more effective leader of your group, division, department or organization.
William Grigsby asked:
If you receive on your phone persistent calls from unidentified people, from marketers, from pranksters, from a harasser or from any other kind of unwanted caller, and the calls are being made from a cell phone, you’ll have a lot of trouble trying to get a cell phone number look up to find out the callers identity. You could have a number and you could call 411 to try to get the name and address of the caller. But there you would find a huge obstacle. Cell phones, unlike other kinds of phones, are not part of the public domain, so there is no way that the directory service at 411 can do a cell phone number look up for you.
Although several phone companies have been discussing the idea of creating a 411 database to provide a service of cell phone number look up, so far they have done nothing. So cell phones are still not listed in a database like landline numbers are, which is to your advantage because your cell phone number can never be made public. The downside of cell phone numbers not being in the public domain is that it becomes hugely difficult to identify an unknown caller. Such a situation can be very frustrating - doubly so when you want to find whoever is making your life miserable with their harassing or prankster calls.
Identifying unknown callers is done by a “reverse phone look up”. It’s “reverse” because you start with a number and look for a name, - the reverse of a phone book. You can find on the web a few online services that have developed their own systems for providing a cell phone number look up, a jump ahead of the phone companies that are still discussing the problem.
The websites offering a cell phone number look up service charge fees, but you will find that prices vary widely. At the highest end, there’s a site charging 95 dollars for a single look up on a single number, with results available in 1 to 3 days. The best deal I’ve been able to find on the web starts at $29.95 for a year’s unlimited look ups and has another option at $39.95 for lifetime unlimited searches.
Regardless of the amount you’re able and willing to spend on a cell phone number look up, you should look very closely at:
a) what the service provider offers for the price and
b) what it explains about its system and sources of information.
This last point is very important because you need to be sure of the complete legality of the service’s sources of information and how it accesses those sources. To ensure an accurate look up result, the service provider should have access legally to a database that includes landlines, cell phones, business phones, pagers, toll-free and even unlisted phone numbers.
Whatever your particular need may be, whether it is: to stop a prank or harassing caller, locate a person’s exact address, find out who made those “missed calls” or investigate an unfamiliar number on your caller ID, see who owns an unlisted number, or even find an old friend from the past, a reputable cell phone number look up service can come up with the answer.
David M Peters asked:
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This new tool, flauntR can help you an endless number of ways. A new site on the scene, flauntR offers a vast number of tools to make your digital photo editing simple. If you ever needed a professional photo design with only a single click then check out all the things flauntR can do.
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