Alfonso: We're going to be talking to our amazing property management experts from across Canada share their insights and ideas on managing properties in these difficult times and preparing for the future.
Georgio Kosmidis – Ontario
Jenna Ross – Halifax
Donna Monkhouse – Alberta
How to be proactive and plan for when life or the economy of crisis hits as part of our sustaining and building crisis, we thought, why not? Let's have some of the experts, people that are out there doing what everybody's talking about or reading about these guys are actually doing in their business are operating in all of this.
We've been professional experts from across the country. This evening, no matter where you are in Canada or even beyond, if you're listening in from afar, let's get into a competition going up there. How far is the furthest person that's calling from Burlington. I guess you have to preface that. How far is that hometown for The REITE Club? So, how far are you from Burlington?
No matter where you are, there's going to be some amazing tips, tricks, strategies to incorporate in your book. But let's get to some housekeeping items first. Like I said, identify where the chat is and the Q and A. We're going to try to get to some of your questions, make sure you put a queue with either Georgio, Donna, or Jenna's name or Laurel or Alfonso, any of us, or if it's a general question for everybody, but make sure you put a big queue there and as well to what we'd like to see is we want to see where you guys are tuning in from today.
Make sure to get on social media, Instagram, Facebook, if you guys can hashtag REITE Club, that would be awesome. So, #REITEclub, let's see where you guys are enjoying it. Join in learning tonight. Tonight's going to be one hour. So, we're going to try to get to all the questions we've had so many amazing feedback and questions.
We put together some questions. We've got some from REITE club members in the community that we want to ask that we've heard from. So, we're going to try to get to all that. Don't be afraid because if we don't, because we do get it, we're going to provide everybody's contact information up here generally.
George and Donna, we're going to provide all their contact information so that you can get in touch with them. And they're going to be hanging out a little bit towards the end of the night as well, and answering on the chat as well, too. So, if you have a burning question because it's a really hot night tonight.
You guys are taking the time to be here and joining us. So, let's make sure we get your questions. So, without further ado, I'm going to pass it to Laurel, to introduce our amazing property management panel.
Laurel: We have three great people this evening, and I'm going to go from West to East, right? Edmonton, we have Donna Monkhouse, who is the Executive Director of Alberta Residential Landlord Association, 35 years in the property management business. And you know what we did, we asked all our panelists for some fun facts. And so we're gonna pull back the curtain and expose you guys. Donna was actually an Edmonton sunshine girl. Good for you, Donna.
Donna: When I was 20.
Laurel: she taught the two steps in several establishments. I'm not sure what establishments means. I'm thinking about bars and whatever. Next in the Golden Horseshoe, we have Georgio Kosmidis, with Arthex Property Management, Niagara executive rentals. Georgio has a mixed career. He hosted Robert and Kim Kiyosaki and we can train in a seminar in Athens, that's Athens, Greece, not Athens, Ontario because there is Athens, Ontario, a very small place.
He began his first career in the hospitality business at 10 years old. At the age of 10, he seriously considered becoming a Greek Orthodox Bishop, but quickly realized that he couldn't grow a beard. So, it wouldn't work. But when you have to realize that the next point is what's really important. He loves to disco dance and I really can't see a Greek Orthodox Bishop disco dancing. So, anyway, just the whole thing makes me laugh. I think it was also a torchbearer in the 2004 Olympics games in Athens. Welcome Georgio.
Next we have going farther East Jenna Ross in Halifax, who runs and owns Happy Place Property Management. And she's the host of your Happy Place podcast. She's the co-founder of the Halifax Real Estate Investing Group, which started in January, 2019. And she's been a real estate investor for nine years and it's just causing her 13th long-term rental and uses the BRRRR strategy. She was a cheerleader at the University of New Brunswick and she loves water sports and boating and wakeboarding.
Welcome all of you. It's so great to see you here. So, we've got some questions for you, and I know we are going to get questions from our attendees and I'm going to start off. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you the question and I'll ask you individually. We'll keep the conversation flowing.
If one of you really wants to jump in and say yes to put back, but don't put your head or something, let us know and we'll just get it going. Let's start with, how about you, Jenna? Welcome. And so what's the biggest property management issue you're seeing right now?
Jenna: Thank you for having me Laurel and Alfonso and the team. The biggest issue I'm seeing right now, honestly I think it's stress. I think stress is the biggest issue I'm seeing with my tenants and with my landlords alike. That's really what I'm seeing. I anticipated that it was going to be that, tenants wouldn't be able to pay their rent and the owners wouldn't be able to keep their houses.
Stress seems to be the biggest thing right now, especially in Nova Scotia, we've had a really challenging spring. A lot of sad things happen in Nova Scotia. And so everybody's on edge and stress seems to be the biggest thing right now in managing properties.
Laurel: That's really interesting and I'm not surprised. And yet I was surprised at the answer because I was expecting something like you said, would it be red or whatever, but I think we all understand, especially now with some of the tragic events that have happened in Nova Scotia. The pandemic has not made that any easier at all. Donna, what about you?
Donna: That's what I'm hearing here too. There's a lot of stress. Stress is high outside of a lot of mental health issues are coming to light more and more. And the one thing with property though, let's go property is the vacancy is going up? People are leaving. People are moving in with mom and dad. There's movement, so people are renting, but they're just shifting all over the place.
It's mostly the vacancies and closest to our educational facilities. Our universities, our colleges, those rents, those vacancies are just skyrocketing. There's buildings in the smaller towns that are just completely empty right now. That's the biggest one and costs, expenses are going up where they're going a little bit over, extra PPE, extra stuff to do cleaning, extra time you're spending with showings and everything. There's a lot of extra costs as well.
Laurel: Okay and Georgio?
Georgio: First of all, thanks for having me as well. It's more limitations of having access inside our units for repairs and maintenance issues specifically for emergency situations like water. With the heat wave that we've been having air conditioners has been a big one for us. And organizing like fire safety inspections, making sure that it's been a little bit of a challenge for us overall. We haven't seen an honest talk about vacancy.
We have a very low vacancy rate right now and although in the beginning we had to know what I wanted it to move. They decided to stay. But I agree again with Jenna, there's certainly more stress because it's a lot more challenging to deal with situations. Not only with the owners, with the tenants, with the contractors, even then, they're so frustrated. I was with an engineer and a group of contractors today that we're looking at starting a project on June 15, and even with their masks, with this weather, they can't wear it.
We can't work more than an hour or two, but we're going to quit. It's frustrating for them. There's frustration. I see it currently, so, for us, it's more of the repairs, maintenance, renovations. Because this time of year is when we're doing a lot of that outside, but internally as well, when we have to do emergency repairs.
Laurel: I am reminded about what happened last week, when we did our mind estate state webinar and Nancy Morris, I think it was Nancy who said, we have to take extra care when we're dealing with people right now. And it's stuck in my head, before you say anything, make sure what you're saying is true. Be kind and is it necessary to say? So, I think that is a really good mantra to follow, especially at all times, but especially now when people are so stressed.
Alfonso: Absolutely. The whole world has been forced to change, right? This has been brought upon us. We've all known things that we're planning on doing, or yes, things were getting more digital, but it was all forced upon us and how quickly we can adapt and within our own businesses for the properties that we do have. That's the one question, I wanted to talk to Georgio first, because I know you're in the Golden horseshoe here. That's where I know the most about.
I'm gonna start with you on this one here and then we'll go across. But what are some of the best practices? The one when you're showing the units, especially, obviously we mentioned PPE and the precautions and all that kind of stuff, but what are your kind of quick best practices, even for setting up appointments, obviously several people going through, hopefully that's what you want is a desirable unit. So, what are you guys putting in place?
Georgio: That's a great question Alfonso, and for us, I think it starts with the vetting process, making sure we come down to a short list. We were the ones that were actually going to be allowed to see the unit. That's number one, number two. Is making sure that we give ample notice to the current tenant. Not before you know that we're coming in and if they could leave the premises, number three is ensuring that we have gloves and masks on hand. Even if they come with their own gloves, we actually have them remove their gloves and sanitize their hands and put new gloves on just because we don't know what those gloves have touched.
We don't allow them to touch anything within the unit. If they want to see something we're with them, we say, please don't touch anything. And if they do accidentally, we make sure that's been pointed out to the current tenant so they could clean it up. One of the things that we've been using for a few years now is when we're showing you and it's a Matterport technology? I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.
Usually real estate realtors use it when they're selling homes where we've been using it. Showing you and Laurel knows that we've been doing that with one of her units specifically so that people can virtually walk through the house and see the whole house before they even get there.
And so these are some of the practices that we've been trying to make sure that they're in place and make sure that they're safe. So, we're not having a whole bunch of people going as a short list. We're going to show the unit and make sure that everybody's safe, which is our number one priority.
Alfonso: A little bit of extra prescreening to decide who gets to the appointments. Let's go to Donna in Edmonton and say, okay, so you said, maybe there's some more vacancies, right? Obviously, lower the rent, but you don't want to be in a negative position. What are some credit strategies that you guys are doing, showing the units or, to get the vacancies work for your clients?
Donna: Basically the same thing, Georgio said too, is a pre-screening. Making sure that people coming in are actually really interested in renting the suite to begin with number two is, is just making sure that they're not, they're trying hard not to show occupied suites. A lot of people have a show suite set up, they make sure the cleaners go in before they make sure the cleaner's go after.
There's a lot of extra care that your staff are giving that suite or that building before anybody comes in and goes out. It's just exactly what Georgio says. Just taking those extra steps. To make sure that everybody's safe. If you have to show an occupation, they're trying to work with the tenants there.
They're making sure that the tenants open all the cupboards and open the closets, if they can to let people see it so they don't have to touch anything. Trying to get rid of the touch points is the most important thing. The less things people touch, the better.
Alfonso: Yeah, absolutely. And you guys both said it and I'll let Jen answer the question later. I got a quick follow-up for all of you about the prescreening, right? What are some quick things but Jenny, yeah. So, some of the best practices to get these units tenanted and while you're showing them some of the things, if you can add.
Jenna: A lot of the similar things we're doing here. We had a lot of tenants move for June 1st. It was a wild time. We're seeing that our properties are flying actually. We're not seeing a lot of vacancies, things are moving really quickly, which is really promising. And we do a YouTube video, but I do like the idea of the Matterport. That's really cool. And I was reading something that another landlord had shared about even opening cupboards for people.
Going in ahead of time with your masking and your gloves and opening it so they don't have to touch anything. But we've been lucky that we haven't had a lot of tenanted places that we've shown and we've had the ones that we've had. We've had the tenants even suggest that they take their own pictures, their pictures weren't good.
We worked with it and successfully rented a place that we couldn't really use the pictures because they just weren't at the level that we would want. And there's a lot of clutter, but we kinda took a picture of the outside and the front and the back of the house and a couple of pictures and the applications, and we thought it was incredible.
And then we were able to finally show the place. We had the person, we did a video call with them and we had them screened and accepted and waited to see it at the last second. They saw it before they signed the lease and we lined it up and it worked and people are our patient and they understand and they hate to have to move right now, but they're happy that they can move into a place. So, people are generally patient and we try to work with everybody, but it's a high stress time.
Alfonso: I'm going to go really quickly and maybe in one or two words for all of you, what's a quick little pre-screening piece of information that you say, if the client doesn't want to send this, or you ask them just off the top of your head. Let's go to Georgio first.
Georgio: For me, number one is confirmation of income.
Alfonso: Okay.
Jenna: Confirmation of income. We rely heavily, especially now on the landlord reference. Like why are they leaving? The income, that's a sensitive one because somebody might be on a Serb and if they have reason to, and they're gonna go back to work, that's okay.
Alfonso: Okay, great, Donna?
Donna: All those, and since I was in the industry a long time ago, a good gut feeling is always a good thing as well.
Alfonso: Nice. Thanks guys.
Laurel: Talking about tenants is a really good sort of lead into the next question. So, how do you find and attract high quality tenants? We talked a little about screening, but is there any special documentation other than the standard documents that would help with screening? But I guess really the question is about the high quality tenants because that's what everybody wants.
It's the really good ones. And there's lots of people out there who are great and they don't want to buy for whatever reason. There's all kinds of reasons. How do you find those people? How do you attract them? So, Jenna, let's start with you.
Jenna: A quick tip for me, like Donna mentioned a gut feeling we named our company based on, we're looking for happy people to rent, happy places.
Laurel: How do you find them?
Jenna: We put ads out there and we go through everything. It starts with an email back to us. Usually our inquiries come through email and I'm looking for someone to, not just asking in response. Oh, is it still available? Okay. Yeah, clearly it is. I just posted it two seconds ago, but I like it when people offer something, say, oh I'm Jim and Sally and I'm relocating from Edmonton. I'm going to be working here. We have two dogs and just something to work with, to identify that there's a human and something about them on the other end.
But what I really look for when I know that I've got a home run right now is that it's difficult because I like to see people and I like to go through that and get that gut feeling. But I'm looking for when we call the landlord reference that the landlords you can tell when they say, oh my gosh, I'm sad to see them leave me. You know what I mean? Like I want them to tell me that. And then usually that's a really good sign. So, that's what I look forward to.
Laurel: Okay, thank you. Donna, what about you? How do you attract those high quality tenants? What do you look for?
Donna: I was always one that I wouldn't even know when I went to rent, because I recently sold my house and I started renting. I looked for good customer service. I looked for that person on that phone being friendly, being kind, asking questions that were pertinent, and accommodating me. It was good customer service and a good building. A good product sells a good quality tenant. Good quality tenants will come.
Laurel: Georgio, what about you?
Georgio: I agree with both Jen and Donna. So, I guess the biggest thing for me is if you want quality tenants to have the following profits, let's start with that. We're particular with that, maintaining the property, having a good quality property and at the right price. I gotta tell you, first impressions are everything for me and I'm a local guy, so I like the facts. So, I love credit checks, reports. I really like to analyze them.
I feel if somebody is really making sure that their credit rating is good, that they're gonna continue having that. That's important to me. Of course the references are very important. I just, sometimes get such great references, and I go, man, are these setups or not? So, the biggest thing with me is I want to meet them because I find when I meet them, it doesn't take me long. I'm a people person and I ask questions, I'm easy going.
If they're going to get it, I'll do a little lie or a small lie. I look at the deal without them realizing it. But I look at them, are they clean? Are they organized? That I look at their car or they, they put together. How do you do anything in life? That's all you do in life. So, that's how I see it. It's how you do anything is how you do everything. So, I really go with that gut feeling. I want to see them and I want another story.
I like, honestly, if they tell me, hey, you know what, my credit ratings are not good because I just went through a terrible divorce, but let me show you my bank account. And they gave me a statement because they just split their assets. I'm willing to work with those people. So, I'm always open. But I think with me, it's having pride and making sure that the property that you're renting is quality and clean. And that's, you're going to attract the same person, like attracts like.
Laurel: I really like what you say about that gut feeling, because you can look at paperwork, all you want, and you can see reports and this and that, and they can have a great credit score and this and that and perfect references. And then you meet them in person, quote unquote, and you go, something. Just something doesn't sit right. Or it can be the reverse because I've had that happen where the credit was not that great.
And yet you met these people and you just went, wow. These are people I would want to be my neighbors. I would want to be my friend. It's really amazing how we can pick up on cues that don't always come through when a piece of paper, which I think, and again, and what you said about having a quality product. Yeah. The quality product is going to absolutely attract quality people. If that's just the way the world works.
Alfonso: Absolutely. You know what? As you're saying, talking about the references and the gleaming references and it makes me think back to like Seinfeld and you want to be my latex salesman. And there's a little bit of nuggets, because even through JAG, the rental owned business, we've screened and looked at so many clients on the deals that we've done and turned away probably 4, or 5, 10 times the amount of actual projects that we move forward. A little nugget.
I want to know if any of you guys have ever tried this, but on the reference typically it's like how long you've known the person. So, if I say, hey, I know I have known Georgio for 10 years, there was a little trick that somebody taught me in my education, which is that you say the wrong number and either more or less say that.
When you call the reference also, I see that you've put Georgio you've known him for five years or you've known him for 12, if they correct you, right then, that they're honest. You say the wrong number on purpose to see if they correct you. So, just a little nugget, when I was calling and I love handwritten applications.
I know in technology it's harder and harder these days, but that's just a little nugget with the references or that kind of thing. So, I don't know, I'm not a property manager like you guys, but with our rent to own, we've seen a Luff, people that bend the truth. But, okay. Yes, we want to find those good clients. We'd love them. Let's make this place amazing and all that kind of stuff. But we know some clients are, they can really pull the wool over our eyes.
There's some good actors. There's some great online acting courses that I've seen lately as well, too. What about a screening guarantee? Eviction warranties are those, is that like the Sasquatch or like the next monster or something like that? Are those real? Are those actually happening? Do you guys put those in your contracts or are those just all you have to find somebody to do that? Donna, you're laughing. Let's start with you.
Donna: I love it because one of our members that we have on our TVs, they're called lock best and really they're called lock best. If you look them up, they're one of those guaranteed places. They've been gaining great ground here in Alberta. Especially with our membership they've been doing a lot of work. The tenants go to them. They screen them, they pay their deposit, they put a security on it. They pay for damages. If the tenant does it. And the smaller landlords, I find the one unit to 20 units or 30 units, they're the ones taking full advantage of that opportunity to free up their money. They don't have to be responsible, but they're actually called loch ness. Just look him up.
Alfonso: Nothing better than a witty name. I love that. Oh, they don't exist. Yeah, we do. They're the luckiest. I love that.
Donna: The loch ness monster. Whoa. I believe in the Loch Ness monster. There really is what. I've seen it.
Alfonso: For sure different podcasts, but I guess it confirmed life species. Who knows, but how about you, Jenna in Halifax? Is there some type of guarantees or warranties that are commonly offered and cannot be negotiated? If I'm an owner and I'm coming to you as my potential property, is that something that I can negotiate a good one, good property manager would, or would it, how do you?
Jenna: My business, we do guarantee our tenants. We do have maybe a higher placement fee for our tenants, but when we play someone, we will guarantee that they will be placed for a minimum of 12 months. Because if an investor is spending that money up front, of course we have to stand behind the person that we choose and we can't be blaming the owners if we chose the person.
We handle it in the way that we have a professional and we're small enough to do this, but we have a professional friendship with our tenants. We screen them. We do normally get to meet them face to face and have that gut feeling and feel good about them. And so if they have a life circumstance, someone dies, a divorce, they lose their job, any of those things or get relocated, then they'll let us know and then we can help them out instead of chasing a tenant. That's committed to this 12 month lease, then we can get in action.
It doesn't really cost us too much to replace them, but we'll do that. Just to try to energetically move things along and set it up so that our owners don't lose money because at the end of the day, it's for the benefit of our owners. And it's also for the benefit of the tenants, because it doesn't feel good too.
I was in a situation before, when I got a good opportunity when I was in my early twenties and had to leave a lease and was made to pay in a city. I didn't live like for nine months straight, I paid my lease of a place I didn't live in. It doesn't feel good. And I still think about that. I think about that and I just think that it is a guarantee that we offer and it's been a successful one. I think there's a lot of value.
Alfonso: That's great. And you're building that true partnership with your investors, the property owners, to build that long lasting. Georgio, how about our effects? How do you guys approach that?
Georgio: Yes, we do. I guess with me, it all depends on what we're looking at, because it depends on what type of property, if it's an apartment building, where, what type of an apartment building, if it's a single detached, if it's an executive rental. We've been playing with this for years.
And we customize our contracts. We're not cookie cutter. I don't have a small, medium, large and people pick the medium. I basically want to know who you are. I want to know what kind of property, so I can tell you if I will, or if I won't, and then I want to know your vision and your goals.
According to that, we will put a cost to it, depending on you. And I always discuss this because of course they asked me what if here's the question? What if the tenant does not stay for 12 months? Are you going to charge you? Because we do charge if we're going to be doing the renting and we're going to be putting them in there because we do have, we acquire already tenanted properties, but if we're doing it and we tell people, we don't have to, we do charge.
When we charge for that fee, then we do have guarantees involved. And we find that we do charge extra. So, after we discuss our process with our owners, the majority decide to not get charged that extra fee and trust that we will put a great tenant in there that we're not going to have challenges with.
I'm not going to say a hundred percent, but 95% of the time, because we vet them very diligently and we don't get too excited. We don't jump with the gun at the bit, just to get the place occupied. We want to make sure we put the right person in. It's the foundation. You can put the right person in there.
I've got tenants. I've been there for 25 years. Yes we do, it's customized. But again, it depends if you're doing in a lower economical area and lower rates and you can't really guarantee that, although those properties, we don't have a problem because they rent very quickly as well. So, I don't know if I answered your question, but basically. Yeah. Okay.
Alfonso: Absolutely. And for all three of our panelists, but Donna, Jenna, and Georgio, that's really, if you guys are going to be out searching and screening the clients, you guys are going to stand behind the decisions that you make. I can't be a landlord coming in and giving you all my existing tenants and saying, oh, now you have to guarantee me these rents.
You guys are going to be doing the screening properly. And the diligence that it takes to do that. You are going to stand behind that work. If you guys are choosing it, it's not foolproof, but you guys have your systems of what you guys have done and continue to do. Thanks guys.
Laurel: Okay, so, now I just see some questions popping up on the chat. I think we'll handle some of them at the end, because we'll get through these, but we will do our best to get through to those questions. This is a bit of a technical question. Then what is the general rule of thumb when it comes to determining optimal income for monthly rental? The example I think we give is that gross income is $4,400 and the rent is $2,200. So, that's a 50% ratio. Is that too high?
I know it's different than maybe it is, I'm making an assumption here. Is it, do you use the same rules that you use that we would use for trying to figure out what the gross annual income is TDS and GDS for buying a property or how does that work? Donna, I want you to start with that one.
Donna: The rule of thumb here is 2.5% or 2.5 times. You need to make 2.5 times the rent. So, if the tent's a thousand dollars, you need to make $2,500.
Laurel: Okay, fair enough. Georgio, what about you?
Georgio: With me, I'm not black and white, I'm gray. We do, it's between 20% and 35%. Again, it depends on the individual. It depends if they're retired, it depends. If there's so many, you have to look at all the aspects. However, I don't like going above 35%. Okay. I guess that's how we look at it. 50% of me is high. Maybe this property is not for you because we have to take into consideration that it's not.
They're renting the unit, they gotta pay utilities. They'd have to have a car lease that they got to eat. And so, some people just want the property because it's beautiful. And I hate telling them no, in those situations, we'll say, what? Can you get a co-signer? We try to work with people, but I do not like going above 35%.
Laurel: Is that gross or net income?
Georgio: That's gross.
Laurel: Gross. Okay. Jenna, what about you?
Jenna: Similar. My simple rule that I calculate is, I'm calculating their net, like their take home income. I want to see the rent B. So, if the rent is a thousand dollars a month, I want to see that they take home $3,000 a month. So, they should be making take home three times. The monthly rent collected is how I look at it.
Laurel: Fair enough. It's just a good idea. It's just good to get an idea, because I know you can flex, as Georgio says, and it does depend on certain things, but like everything else, we have the brain and we can figure it out, as required and as the basis.
Alfonso: That's right. And that's amazing to hear from three amazing experts that are all amazing in their own rights, in their own areas. Having a little bit of a different opinion, there really goes to say that there is no one way, or there's not a right or wrong, when you're working with your property manager or if you're going, if you're self managing.
I know I do that too. Is that good enough? Or is that great? And you get other opinions, but you have to feel it yourself. No one can tell you to think a certain way, if you don't believe it. If you get that, we're talking about that gut feeling and everything's gotta go right.
To get there, you're setting yourself up for, maybe some misprints, so doing that leveraging, and maybe it's good for a few months. But then, you're right back where you started. Thank you guys for, I love seeing that perspective, and this is exactly why we do these panels, right?
Amazing experts that have different views and all have done amazing jobs for their clients. You guys offer, screening the tenants, collecting the rents, and physically taking care of the structure. This is the common thing everybody knows a property manager does.
But what is the kind of the miscellaneous associated with the source of that you want to maybe outline in an agreement or a contract or things that do come up, are there other markups for service fees, contractors? Like how does that break down kind of work or those things like, even on the opposite way or are there some cases where you're working with your landlords or owners and saying, hey, if you did this, maybe we can optimize that kind of stuff. Let's start with Jenna in Halifax.
Jenna: Yeah. I come at it sometimes with a different length, because I'm a real estate investor as well. I'm always looking at properties. I'm always looking at trying to maximize the rents. We have good success here almost like sometimes somebody will come to me with the property and we'll look back in the Halifax area and break down their monthly expenses, add in property management.
We want to have cash flow for them and that's how we set the rent. And then, we have really good success in looking at a property and getting that rental now. And then sometimes I'll go when I get a chance, sometimes there'll be a tenanted property.
Like one just came up the duplex. I was talking about that. We got a lot of inquiries about it, and I said to the owner, let's freshen the paint because we haven't had a chance to do that. Let's refinish hardwood floors because they look terrible. And the next time around he was shocked because we raised the rent. It was $350 a month and then you could even go higher if you do a quick finish to the kitchen because it's old and tired and very basic. It's that kind of stuff that we look at.
Alfonso: And that's so important. And I love that. You mentioned, we always talk about that when you're working with your power team, whether it's a property manager, realtors, mortgage, brokers, lawyers, accountants, you name even home inspectors, all the people that we're working with, they have to have that industrial mindset.
They have to be an investor themselves as well, too. Donna some miscellaneous, some other items, besides the tried and true things that the conventional property manager does. What are you guys offering?
Donna: You know what? Asset management companies need to offer value added because there's lots of them here in Alberta. You need to offer a lot of value added, just so you attract clients. Exactly. So, I find some of them are starting to offer. I think the tenants are looking for one of the property management companies that is offering a pet service and a cleaning service. So, they hired us. To do this stuff for the tenant.
And so they offered in their contract free of charge to the property owners and they say, oh we'll offer this to the tenants free of charge. So, the tennis bay for the extra charge costs nothing for the property owners, but it's a value add. So, it's figuring out that value add that tenants are looking for. And so, I'm a believer in a value add, because if you have a good property management team, you collect that you do all those things, but you need to attract those clients.
Alfonso: That's right. I've heard Georgio said on our stage and having several conversations with him as well as treating them like customers. They are your customers, if you're not providing the product, the service that they want or need, they're going to find somewhere else. Georgio, I'll pass it to you.
Georgio: Some of the extra things that we do, that it depends on our clients. One of them is, we take care of withholding taxes for non-resident Canadian owners that live abroad. We have quite a few of them. We have access to income generating properties. We work with builders and developers. We arrange contacts from simple stuff like snow removal and lawn cutting into a lawn maintenance pest control. And to insurance, but we also set up like like you said, about cleaning, we do janitorial service at work. We do fire safety inspections. We set that up.
If we're doing a large balcony renovation on an apartment complex, we use professionals, engineers. We have that. We have access to engineers to prepare the specifications, can get closed bids and can even manage the whole project. We're the liaison individual. We don't charge extra.
We'd like to be a one-stop, here's what we charge. Here's the price we like to be clear. I think it's so important from the beginning. We're not the cheapest but we're good, I want to be clear. Here's what we charge and this is why we charge this amount of money. And that's why it said again, it all depends.
When I meet somebody and I go, okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you going? Where are you going to be in three years? What's going to happen for you to be happy three years from today, so that you and I vote. And it's got to be the biggest thing for me is creating value and where we are, where achieving a win-win when related to between the owner, the tenant and myself, and then anybody else that's involved.
We also do preventative maintenance. To me, it's big. I have my own properties. I know the importance of at least once a year, getting the HVAC, the furnace, we do tell them to change the filters. Are they changing them? You know what I'm saying? Air conditioners, like making sure that each is cleaning on mature tree areas. So, it is important to clog up the stuff and make sure the downspouts are not going into this. So, there's things that we do that are preventative that are extra services and perks.
Now, we'll do other stuff as well. We'll take a house and we'll make it a full, furnished unit and we'll decorate it. We talked a little bit. I guess we customized it, depending on who you are. What are you looking for? We're solution oriented. We'd like to transform your idea of property management.
Laurel: I'm going to jump in here and say that Georgio, his company, they actually decorated a house or an executive rental that we have just a couple of doors down from us. It was so nice, but my husband wanted to move in and I said, no, like we could move down here. We're not moving again.
Alfonso: This one's for cash flow but I love that. And being creative and offering different things, Donna mentioned like a dog-walker, I just thought about like, why not have it like a dog walking expense? Jeez, obligated at least 10, have a nice drink walking down the street.
I'll do that for my tenants, a dog-walking service. But this is actually another quick question. I'll pull you guys. I want to know percentage wise, because again, with so many rentals in so many properties, all of us have in our portfolios. Percentage of people or tenants that have a pet, at least one pet, a dog or a cat percentage-wise. If you guys have your number, Georgio? just quickly.
Georgio: Wow. I don't have a clue.
Alfonso: We have off the top of your head. Just off the top. There's no exact answer. Jenna?
Jenna: For us, it's probably 95% pet friendly.
Alfonso: Okay, and Donna?
Donna: I'm gonna say 60% at least have pets.
Alfonso: Okay. Awesome.
Donna: Those are the only ones that they hide a lot. People hide their pets.
Alfonso: The ones you have, that's why at least. The best is filling a vacancy. You're going through all of them and they suddenly get points. It's oh yeah, I'm there just on their way out of the door. They're like, oh yeah, I had my 70 pound dog or two and a half. Hey, we love dogs. But if some of them are ponies, maybe it's a different type of property they should be looking at.
Donna: Or when you go to inspect you, didn't all of a sudden, instead of fighting one cat, you find six under the bed. That's not a good thing. Or the kittens, I felt that.
Laurel: What should people look for when they want to hire a property manager? So, I'm going to turn this around a little bit and actually ask. So, what questions would you ask a property manager if you were integrating one to find someone to look after your properties. Jenna, let's start with you.
Jenna: It's so funny because I'm a property manager, but we self-manage our own properties even now. It's just funny, like they're not under my company. We self-managed them. Gosh don't you just love property managers? I think everybody on the call, that's listening. If you have a property manager, you should give them a really big hug because they do things that you don't even know they do for you.
A good one will do so many great things. And if I was to look to hire one, gosh, I wouldn't be able to duplicate myself or my company. But I'm just trying to think of what the most important thing is, I think it's probably what would sum it all up would be trust. And how do you ask a question? That's going to make you trust someone? I don't know. I'm not sure.
Laurel: Okay, fair enough.
Georgio: For me, because these are the unique selling features that I talk about, and this is the same question I would ask, are they certified to be accredited, do they have good referrals? Do they have good reviews from their tenants? I guess that's important. Are they insured, not only general liability, but do they have, we make mistakes for humans. Do they have an office? Do they have a team?
If we pick up the phone, when you know somebody's going to answer it, they have a 24/7 emergency line. Those are some of the questions, what type of rentals do they manage? Because you may have a specific type of rent that maybe you want the student rentals, we'll have you do some rentals. Do you do apartment buildings? Do you do commercial classes to make sure that they have experienced, those are the questions that I would ask.
You got to go with your gut feeling. You got to go with your gut feeling. Ultimately, but those are the things that, do they have a website, are they technologically inclined? Do they save paper? We're all about saving the environment. And also we love scanning everything and everything being done electronically. We were doing teleconferences and video conferences four or five years ago. We were using technology as an efficient way to be productive and correct.
Laurel: Okay, that's good. Donna, what questions would you ask?
Donna: I agree with all of them. I get this question asked of me a lot but usually, all of your questions, there's about eight pages that I believe people should ask before hiring any property manager. It's not just simple questions. I want to know what kind of financing they do, what kind of program they use for their finances.
I'm really picky about that stuff. I want to know that my numbers are accurate. I don't want to get five different pages. And then somebody says, oh we made a mistake. Or I don't want to have to correct your financial papers that you said you don't want to have to do.
And the next one is who is managing my property? Who is it? Who is managing my property? Because sometimes property management companies stand here and they get fancy papers and fancy bulletins and all kinds of things, but who is managing my property. I want to see that person. I want to meet them. How many years do they have the skillset? And so I want to know who I'm talking to.
Laurel: One question I like to ask, because I do think it's important as an investor is, do you own properties yourself? If the property manager doesn't actually own their own properties, I believe that it is harder for them to relate to property owners. Because it's both sides. You gotta be able to relate to both the tenants and the property owners.
Georgio: Sorry, that would have been the first one, are you an investor yourself? I'm sorry. I thought that was for granted since we're at the right question.
Laurel: Not necessarily for granted.
Alfonso: The other is posing as an investor. We're not like really honest people that I love with honesty. This is, who's actually managing who's that person there. And yeah, that's awesome. Okay. So, what's a single most important item that can make or break a relationship with either the property manager, tenants, the property managers and tenants and the property manager and owner.
Maybe from both takes of that, we'll start with you, Donna. The most important item like you mentioned is financials, the communication, getting all that stuff out, but from the investor standpoint and then also from dealing with the tenant standpoint.
Donna: For me, it's always trust, it's based on trust. If there's an issue where the trust is broken, that's where I would go sideways. It's if I'm asking a question and you don't give me the right answer, or if you're not doing something right, and you're telling me something different.
If I have any doubt in my mind that what you're telling me, isn't true. That's when I might have a little bit of an issue with that. And with the tenants, it's just providing them respect and good customer service doesn't matter, respectable.
Jenna: For me, I think it's it's recently I've been thinking about this and it's like respect. And it's not like, I have this conversation, it seems like recently on a daily basis with some of my property owners to say I'm not in this business, I didn't start this business to fight with people.
You have a nice property, we're maintaining it nice. They put nice tenants and they're paying rent. Like, why are we like what is there to fight about? I'm not big on that. I see Georgio laughing. I think maybe you can relate. It's just there's enough stress in the world that, if you're a property owner and you're making money. Like, why are we like, cause I don't nickel and dime people.
I'm very upfront about my fees. And like Georgio had said, I'm not the cheapest, probably not the cheapest solution. So, sometimes when people, you get a property owner and they're shopping around and it's very clear, because they're asking these questions and I don't mind answering all those questions.
Yes, we have liability. Yes, we are accredited. Yes, we have good reviews. We have a website, we have all the things, but if you're shopping based on price, then you're not seeing the value that we provide. So, it's like respect and I don't have time for people that are not being sensitive to human rights issues. If you don't want children on your property, then. You can't ask me to do that. I can't do that. I could get in a lot of trouble. And it's yeah, I think that's basically it for me. Yeah.
Alfonso: No, it's good. And having, and taking that moral stance and being that honest with them and not, you do get what you pay for there. There was a saying, my grandfather used to say it was an Italian and, I won't say it in Italian, but it basically translated that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Like that was the translation of it. Yeah, definitely, and Georgio, I know you have a great relationship with a lot of the REITE clubs, nation. So, what are the things that make and break the relationship with your investors? Maybe something a little different than Donna and Jenna.
Georgio: The biggest thing with me is communication. And I've always talked about property and communication. So, I guess, honesty and making sure that we give back, I think it's give back to not only the owners, but let's talk about the tenants right now.
If a tenant calls in, I respect every time because they might be an owner and they're going to be invested in the future and they're going to call me. That's how I look at it. Every individual is an opportunity. So, I treat everybody like I would like to be treated when I was a tenant, if I was a tenant once upon a time.
It's a communication, make sure we get back to them within, we have an SOP, standard operating procedure. We get back to everybody within 24 hours, unless it's an emergency, of course, we're going to get back to them right away, and I think it's respect, say please, and thank you, do what you say, finish what you start, basic stuff guys.
And your word is your word with the owners, I think. I want them to be honest with me and I'm going to be honest with them. And as Jenna says, I turn away a lot of people that want to be invisible when they start, oh, I dunno, nickel and diming and trying to micromanage. I say, here's my 90 days, or we can cut it off tomorrow.
I'm not as I like to keep an eye. I think there's a lot of opportunity out there. I think there's business everywhere. If you've got a scarcity mentality, you shouldn't be with me. So, that's how I feel about it. So, I think it's on both sides. If integrity, people with integrity expect to be believed. And if they're not, then let time prove them. So, to me, communication, integrity and honesty.
Laurel: You know what? You can't go wrong with that, like that works for everything, every aspect of your life and business. So, thank you guys. So, we're going to go to our last question, but just before I do, I just like to ask the panelists, if you could just maybe check the chat, there are questions that we did not have a chance to answer.
We'll go through this last question and then maybe you can just quickly go through. We will be taking some of these questions and some great questions that we will be using later. And also, we will have your contact information up at the end of the presentation, so, people can ask you, directly contact you.
Here we go. Last question. What's one thing that you'd like our community to know that we haven't already talked about. Jenna, let's start with you.
Jenna: One thing, let's see, I think the one thing I'll make it Halifax .My area specific is Halifax, is there is a high demand here and it's someone was telling me just this evening on the phone and other property owner was saying, it's almost like where Ontario was 20 years ago in terms of the demand for properties.
Laurel I know you and Daniel had a client in the area that I live and there's such a high demand for rentals in this specific area that it's absurd, that the demand and the lack of inventory for single family rental. So, I think what I would suggest to people is that Halifax is really good. A really good place to invest for you.
Laurel: Thank you. We're going to go, so that was Eastern East. We're going to go, I just geographically challenged at the moment Georgio, you're next because now we're going West.
Georgio: I guess in light of current events please make sure when you're hiring a property manager or a property management company or property management firm that they're not discriminatory. I think Jenna talked a little bit about that. They're anti-racist they put human rights above everything.
They respect their own team with fair wages and zero tolerance. I have zero tolerance towards harassment. And to me, that's very important. If you're looking to hire somebody with that in mind.
Laurel: Thank you and Donna?
Donna: Oh, I just want everybody to know about property management. I've been doing it for a long time and it is a unique industry and you have to have passion and you have to be able to wear 30 hats at the same time. So, if you could find that property management company with people who have that skill set within them, you have a lifer because once it's in your blood, I'll look at those two. And they'll tell me that once property management is in your blood, it's there to stay forever. That's it.
Alfonso: Great advice. And you can tell the passion coming through all three of these amazing people tonight. Donna, Jenna, Georgio amazing advice. REITE club nation out there, whether you're a small landlord, big landlord, you're managing yourself. You're looking for a property manager. You're looking for a partner, reach out to these three people. They're going to get in touch with you. They're going to give you the resources.
They're going to stick around a little bit as well too, and try to get some of the questions up on the chat. If they don't reach out to them, they've been kind enough to share their contact information and their time with us tonight.
We can't thank them enough. Georgio, Jenna, Donna, thank you so much for sharing your time with the REITE club nation, giving us so many pieces of information and things that we can implement in our business. Now, we're filling our tenants, filling our vacancies, with our tenants, with our customers, right? Who do we want to emulate the professionals, the people that are doing it the best out there.
Laurel, we've been prepping for this. We've been talking about this and this on the calendar for a while. There's so many things that are going on right now and the typical things of your tenants and who your customers are, how the business landscape is shaping.
An amazing panel tonight. I really enjoyed it. Let's talk a little bit about yeah, maybe some of the takeaways are what you pulled from tonight?
Laurel: You know what, I think what resonated with me the most is that if you. Yeah. In the end, it's always about people, right? Numbers are numbers, but you can make numbers lie. Every good accountant knows. And I'm sorry if there's accountants or whatever, good accountant knows that you can make numbers lie, but the gut, right? The connection, the integrity, that never lies. I don't care what you're doing, whether it's property management or anything else.
To me, that's the most important thing, because from that all else flows, right? It's you know, if you have a great property manager who has lots of integrity and great systems. They have great relationships with their tenants and great relationships with their property owners. To me, that is absolutely the most.
Alfonso: Yeah, absolutely. That synergy that has to be there. That has to be working with that. That person's got your back as this is a world of abundance. I know we're going through some really tough times and from all different fronts, we're talking about pandemics and during a crisis and a lot of other global things that are impacting everything that we do in not only our business, but everything in the world.
When you're the beautiful part of, some of us are working full-time, some of us are doing this. Full-time some of us, it's a hybrid of both, but we get to choose. We get to make these choices. The people that we work with, there are so many different opportunities offered out there. We're happy that you guys have been here with us and chosen us, as a source of information, somebody that you guys trust. And we want to provide the best info. We got a bunch of stuff coming up. Laurel, let the REITE club nation know what we got going.
Laurel: First of all, we have podcasts coming up on June the 12th, Kevin and Gabriela Campbell, and then on June the 19th, Tony Miller. Don't miss those. And then on the 24th of June is our monthly live event, it used to be in person, but is now virtual. That's our big one, like two and a half hours. Don't lose that one.
Alfonso: I am super, super excited for that. When we're talking about marketing and branding guys. People that have been around the REITE club nation, you guys know, about marketing and branding with our guy, Paul Copcutt.
We're going to talk about how you're going to market your business. How are you going to do this? How you can come out of this right. And work with that. That's going to be a really good one on June 24th on the new things, on how to market, how to strategy, obviously being sensitive, doing, figuring all that, all those things that we talked about. A trust is not a pamphlet, it's backing up what you put on the pamphlet. Amazing stuff.
And yeah, guys amazing.
Thanks to everybody that joined us tonight. Katherine and Paul, thank you guys so much for doing all the amazing things that you guys do. Our sponsors have been there from pretty much the beginning, right? The people that we talk about that you want on your team, that you want to partner up with are investors that are worried about your business, right? Just as much as just as much as you.
Elevation Realty, Carson Law, Hub International, Mission 35 Mortgages, BDO Canada, the Windrose Group, Blackjack Contracting, Pinnacle Wealth Management, King Homes, and Legal Second Suites, Arthrex Property Management, The Cashflow Tribe, Private Money for Mortgages and ACISS Home Inspection.
Thank you, sponsors and thank you club nation. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you to my amazing co-host tonight, Laurel Simmons, and on behalf of the whole REITE club nation, have a great evening, stay safe and you know what? Just love each other out there. Guys, take care.
Laurel: Good night everyone.
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