I greatly appreciate all the knowledge and wisdom that PropertyManager freely shares with this forum. I’m also an avid reader of his blog, which is the reason for this post.
For those of you unfamiliar with his blog, here’s a quick summary. Recently he has been discussing his recent purchase of a 7 unit apartment building that is currently in bad shape. He has talked about the actions he is taking to correct the problems: current tenants are involved with drugs which leads to criminal activity and the poor condition of the property as a result of poor re-active management. Being able to solve these problems effectively requires pro-active management which brings me to my first point.
Mike says that “the best defense is a good offense.” He says this when discussing a recent threat from a tenant to call the building inspector. Instead of calling the tenants likely bluff, Mike is proactive and contacts the building inspector himself to alert him of the situation and prepare him for a possible claim being filed by an angry tenant that is in the process of being evicted. This leads me to my second point.
Your reputation and word are extremely valuable assets that most people do not recognize the value in. If the building inspector does not know Mike or that Mike has cleaned up crack houses in the past, the building inspector doesn’t give much weight to what Mike has to say, regardless of Mike being proactive.
Propertymanager’s blog is constant reminder of what it takes to run a successful business in general, especially one related to real estate or property management more specifically. I’m anxious to read his next update to see how things turn out.
If your reputation has ever been an asset anything real estate related, I would love if you would share them with the forum. Also, any positive experience you have had as a result of being proactive that you would have missed if you were reactive.