residential screening
February 6, 2015
Below is an unaltered, unedited email from Ken Anderson, a Client of Polaris Property Management. Enjoy.} On Feb 4, 2015 7:08 PM, “Daniel Baldini” <dbaldini@polarisbrokers.com> wrote: Hey Ken, I need a favor from you, please. You have a unique situation as a landlord whereby you switched from an owner to landlord with a management guy, fired him, and hired us. I’d like to have your first-hand observations of the differences between the guy you used to use and your experience with Polaris. Would you be willing to type out your thoughts (even if simple, run of the spout stuff without editing) so we can help others understand why they should consider hiring us in the future? It would mean a lot to have it in your words, in your ideas… Dan Baldini, MBA (Ken’s response….) Sure. Here you go.. To whom it may concern, In the fall of 2013 I […]
April 8, 2015
Our daily interactions with Clients, peers, and prospects is always wickedly weird and unpredictable…. I got this text message from a friend of mine after he calls and I click ‘decline’ on my phone… Uh-Oh….. You can tell this isn’t going to be a good conversation ending well…. Take Away: When your Spidey-Sense goes into orbit, listen to it!!!
May 19, 2015
One of the most frequent questions I receive from novice landlords is what funds to collect at lease signing. As fast as an Indy 500 car slams into the 3rd turn wall I respond with “Security Deposit PLUS 1st Month’s rent”. The reasons are simple for why you should require both to be paid at once but they all congeal into one simple concept: RISK MANAGEMENT Successful real estate leasing is almost all about risk management and the simplest way to minimize this risk is to force the tenant to have skin in the game. Collecting essentially 2 months rent value at time of lease signing is plenty of skin for most tenants. It also sets the stage for the tenants to expect a certain standard of engagement with you as the landlord–you aren’t joking around with an important business transaction. Finally, it is an excellent secondary screening method–after all, if they don’t have […]
October 24, 2016
Landlords and Investors make money the same way airlines, hotels, and entertainment shows do–they keep butts in seats for as long as possible. For real estate, this means maximizing Days of Occupancy and correspondingly minimizing Vacancy Days. So this Fall let’s review some of the Best Practices to give your Tenants Treats instead of Tricks for their lease situation. 1. Advance Communication The saying, “Misery is the mismatch of expectations between two people”, holds true in rentals. If you are communicating with the tenants at the time of their initial lease signing that you’ll be recontacting them to begin discussing the possibility of renewing their lease 60-90 days before the lease ends, you’ve planted the seed early on that your not the kind of landlord who waits until the last minute for these conversations. Good for you. 2. Review of the Market Conditions Before you pick up that phone or begin […]
January 9, 2017
I love the movie with Bill Murray, don’t you? It’s a cute story filled with humor, lovey-dovey moments, and makes you feel good about your life and the chance to control the ending. Real Estate investing is similar to the movie, too…..you have those moments of lovey-dovey, you feel good about your life and the chance to control the ending–your Financial Freedom. And like the movie, it can easily repeat itself to the point of being quite annoying. Expensive, too. See if you can identify with any of the Top 7 most repeated rental property Groundhog Day-esque moments: #7: Slamming a marginally qualified tenant into a vacant property because it’s been vacant so long that the spiders and ants have begun playing formalized games of cricket and soccer on your carpets. Two months later, you end up evicting that tenant and you’re now worse off than before. #6: Ignoring that […]
July 13, 2017
The Indiana General Assembly finally passed clarifying language on occupancy standards. If you’ve had to battle this issue with prospective tenants applying for your property, crack open an adult libation to celebrate. This new language offers you better protection from Fair Housing lawsuits alleging discrimination due to disparate impact against families with children. Beginning on July 1, 2017 the below state-wide occupancy standard will go into effect. Sec. 7. (a) The residential landlord-tenant statute (as defined in IC 32-31-2.9-2) does not prohibit an owner or landlord from refusing to rent a rental unit on the basis of a reasonable occupancy standard. (b) For purposes of this section, an occupancy standard is presumed reasonable if: (1) it permits two (2) individuals per bedroom; and (2) the owner or landlord: 9100 Keystone Crossing, Ste 725, Indianapolis, IN 46240 (A) does not include infants less than one (1) year of age in the […]