Getting a coin-operated laundromat is a profitable strategy for rental properties. There are many reasons to get a coin-op laundromat, but we cover the major benefits in this article.
Why Get a Coin-operated Laundromat
As a landlord, I frequently hear, “I don’t have laundry in my building,” or “I have regular laundry that isn’t coin-operated.” Should I switch or add coin-operated laundry?” ”
In every single building that I manage or own myself personally, I always switch to coin-op laundry. Here are the reasons why.
1. You can save on bills and repair costs.
Normal laundry increases your bills. When you have laundry that isn’t coin-op, your water bills will skyrocket.
In addition, regular washing machines are additional appliances that you will have to repair. For a two or three-family home, instead of having one laundry in the basement with a coin-op that I have to take care of, I might just have one in each unit.
That means I have three sets of washers and dryers to fix or replace if and when these things break down.
2. You can prevent floods.
Normal laundry machines being on higher floors makes your property prone to floods. This is because there is a lot of water transitioning through these machines when laundry is done.
So what does that mean? Potential floods. Especially when you have the laundromats on higher floors. Imagine a waterline bursting—which insurance companies hate—flooding your other units. It will cause damage, and your tenants will have to move.
We want to try to avoid that. So we put the coin-op laundromat in the basement and have it on a platform. So even if they did burst or we have water issues, it will just be in the basement and won’t affect units on other floors.
3. You get an additional income stream.
Instead of the water bills being paid for out of your pocket, you can help offset that with coin-op laundry. Most machines will limit between $2-2.50 cents per load, which means about $4-5 loads with a washer and dryer.
But if you have some of the higher-end models, you can digitally set them out to what you want. Depending on the distance between where your other laundromats are and your competition, you can set that amount higher or lower.
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To know more about the steps of obtaining and installing a coin-op laundry set, join the Landlord Tutor community and sign up here.
Are you thinking of hiring a general contractor? Your Landlord Tutor is a general contractor as well! So if you need general contracting services, here are the things to look for in a general contractor to take charge of your property renovations.
Why You Need a General Contractor
Now maybe some of you don’t need it. Perhaps your properties are brand new, and you don’t need to work on them. But in the city of Boston, getting a good property or one with good value will require some renovations.
You may have heard that general contractors sometimes aren’t responsive, are very expensive, or their guys don’t show up on time. Sometimes the costs go over budget, or the project goes over the timeline.
So how do you resolve that when picking out your general contractor?
What to Consider When Hiring a General Contractor
Here are some things you should consider when picking a general contractor to take charge of the work needed for your property.
1. Find a reputable general contractor.
When trying to find a general contractor, talk with several contractors. Check their references, go online, find some reviews, and even call up their former clients.
The key is finding someone you’re comfortable working with who will give you the service you need. You are probably spending a lot of money on it, so don’t just call one person who might claim someone is the best person in the world to do your work.
2. See their work in general.
If they know that they specialize in a certain area, go talk to the building inspectors even. Talking with them is a great approach to finding out how general contractors do their job.
If you’re new to the world of general contracting or just curious about the effect a change or delay can have on the process, ask them if they can provide a timeline. What happens if there are changes or delays? Do they get penalized at all?
The answers you get will give you an idea of how they approach their work and help you determine if they are the kind of service providers you want to work with.
3. Ask about their team.
How many people are they working with, subcontractors versus employees? You have to know this because they can control employees.
Most contractors use subs that are in their own world. When issues happen, they are not liable for it, and they are just going to pass that buck.
Furthermore, typical contractors bill by the hour. Many rookie contractors have never worked on a home improvement project before, so they have no idea how long it will take or how many people they need on their team.
You want a team that remains engaged throughout the entire renovation project to ensure that you finish on time and save money in the process.
How Your Landlord Tutor Can Help
Among my many certifications, I am also a general contractor. I can guide you through selecting one and looking through a renovation: seeing what you need to do, and looking at the numbers with you.
And if you’re in the city of Boston, I might be able to help you out because, at my property management company, we manage properties that we do general contracting on.
We only provide general contracting services for properties under our management. This allows us to control the timeline and the cost to know that the work will get done because we will be liable for more than just the renovation project.
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If you or anyone else you know is looking for help with renovations and guidance on selecting a general contractor, join the Landlord Tutor community and sign up here.
There are two most common options when it comes to leases, and each has its pros and cons. Today, we are covering how to decide between a joint or individual lease.
What is a Lease?
In real estate and property management, a lease specifies the conditions under which one party (the tenant) agrees to rent a property that is owned by another party (the landlord).
It ensures that the tenant will reside in the property and make monthly payments to the landlord.
Deciding Between a Joint or an Individual Lease
Choosing the type of lease for your tenants can be tricky. Bu it is one of the first things you need to do as a landlord or property manager.
It makes a big difference in determining how much work you will need to do for your tenants.
Usually, we have our tenants sign a single joint lease. It makes everyone liable for rent, utilities, or other obligations.
With a joint lease, you won’t have to worry about different lease break end dates or having different rules and regulations. A joint lease will maintain uniformity among all of your tenants.
We just ensure that residents pay the complete rent and utilities. A joint lease means that if someone in the group doesn’t pay, everyone else will be accountable for them.
So as a group, everyone on a joint lease collectively wants their obligations as tenants to be settled and paid for.
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To know more about leases and if you should put your tenants on a joint or individual lease, join the Landlord Tutor community and sign up here.
In today’s session, I will cover the top questions we ask during a landlord reference.
What is a Landlord Reference?
A landlord reference is when we call a previous or current landlord to verify a tenant’s qualifications.
As a property management company, we want to call two landlords. Why? Because the first current landlord, if you have a horrible tenant applicant, is going to say anything to get their tenant out of there.
“Yes, they’re fantastic,” or “Yes, they pay their rent.” With those answers, you will take them in, and then you will assume the problems that these people want to get rid of.
If we go back to two landlords, what ends up happening is that the previous landlord doesn’t have to deal with them anymore so they will tell you the truth. We always like to see a history of that.
Sometimes, it is not possible if they have lived there for a long time or are newer renters. But what we do, no matter what, is we check our references.
Questions to Ask Your Tenant’s Former Landlords
We ask previous or current landlords the following questions to check and ensure they have a good landlord reference.
Have the tenants paid their rent on time?
You don’t want to have a tenant that is late when it comes to paying their rent.
Have they paid all their rent, not just on time, but in general?
It is critical that you know when a tenant has gone above and beyond to pay their rent on time.
How have they been as residents? Has there been any neighbor complaints?
You want to ensure that the residents you are moving into your building aren’t causing issues for other people.
Do they take care of the property?
Are they treating it like a house, or are they trashing it? There is no point in maintaining curb appeal if your property is left in a mess by a difficult tenant.
Would you rent to them again?
And I think this is a huge one. And again, you want to hear from pauses. Everybody might say, “yeah, we’d rent to them again.”
That hesitation might mean something, so you should ask them, “Okay, what is it that you wouldn’t rent to them again? What about them would you change?”
Have they fulfilled every lease obligation or broken any rules and regulations?
And again, if there is any hesitation, you might want to dig further into it. And if not, great.
So if they get green flags and the right answers for all of these questions that we currently ask their current or previous landlord, then that’s definitely an OK to keep proceeding with the applications and approve them.
But if any of these are red flags, if you don’t get good answers, or if there is hesitation, issues, or problems that come up, you should consider their application and debate if you want to approve them moving into your house.
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To learn how to spot problem tenants in advance and not have to deal with them in the first place, join the Landlord Tutor community and sign up here.
Most of my landlords come, and many will try out property management themselves. So they ask me, “Jarrett, should I self-manage my property or hire a property manager?”
Property Management Is Not for Everyone
The thing is, property management is a full-time business.
So I’m partial, obviously. I’m a property manager. I love to help out other landlords. But at the end of the day, if you have the time, ability, skills, knowledge, and experience—which is a lot— to manage your property properly, then go ahead and self-manage.
But you have to realize that to do it right. You want to make sure that you are not putting yourself in a standpoint of liability because you can do a million things wrong.
The state of Massachusetts is not very landlord friendly; it’s actually a very tenant-friendly state. And if you mess up things, you can be reliable for triple damages. Imagine a security deposit that’s $3000, then paying $9000 as a result of it, tenants that are withholding.
Again, property management is a full-time job. It should be done professionally.
You don’t go to the dentist or the doctor saying, “well, I googled that. I kind of know how to do it.” And I’m not saying that there aren’t millions of landlords out there that don’t do it fantastically.
But for the small price you pay when you hire a property manager, it gives you peace of mind.
What a Property Manager Does
A property manager will take care of things such as your financials, bills payment, and rent collection.
Generally, they make sure things are easy and set up. They will ensure all the security deposits and last month’s rent are handled properly.
They will also be responsible for marketing the property, the renewals, paperwork, and compliance requirements that come along with it.
They also guarantee your property gets out to other agents to maximize your exposure. More importantly, they qualify the residents and ensure they meet certain minimum requirements.
Landlords don’t have the same ability or knowledge to do it. At the end of the day, the hardest one is probably maintenance: finding vendors to make repairs and checking that they are doing right. You don’t want to get hosed by a plumber or electrician and wait for them all day.
These are the type of things that are property manager does. And they usually handle it for a very small percentage or a flat fee, such as us at our company.
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If you or anyone else you know is trying to consider whether you should self-manage or hire a property manager, join the Landlord Tutor community and I’d be happy to walk you through the process.
People always ask me, “why did you get into owning investment properties, and why should I?”
Where It All Began
The story behind this is that my grandmother bought a property for $10,000 in a brown paper bag in one of the worst parts of Boston. When they came over as immigrants, they did not speak English.
Over the years, this building has helped feed my family. It has provided so much for every single generation after my grandmother. The building is now worth over $3 million, which is just crazy to hear.
To think that this all started with one person buying a property—one property—and to be able to pass it through generations where I am still benefiting from it. My grandchildren hopefully will as well.
And all you need to do is to take care of it. Whether you do it yourself or hire a property manager is up to you.
Freedom With Owning Investment Properties
Now, think about it. If you buy a property every few years or every year, what you can do for the next generation is to be able to give them a choice.
I saw this, and I started buying investment properties myself because I want to have the freedom of choice and the ability to do what I want.
So now, my team takes care of my properties, and I can do what I love: travel the world and serve.
I can do this remotely because most of the time, all I need is an admin staff to be in charge of the property: making sure the maintenance is taken care of and that we lease it out once a year (because it’s a 12-month lease).
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If you or anyone else you know is looking for this type of freedom of choice to be able to give and, perhaps, benefit the future generations in your family, join the Landlord Tutor community, and I’d be happy to help you.
