Property Management Brainstorm

In the crowded space of the property management industry, making sure your company is standing out in the crowd is more important than ever. Tech savvy property managers are using digital media to snag single family owners with through their online presence. So, what about you? Are you putting your best foot forward with digital marketing? On this episode of Property Management Brainstorm, Bob dis...

California's Proposition 19, goes into effect on April 1, 2021,  offering many protections to California home owners. If you are a California homeowner or investor, could you take advantage of the new benefits provided under this new law? Today's Five Minute Friday offers a quick summary of what Prop 19 is all about.  1. Senior citizens often live in homes that are no longer a fit becaus...

So far in 2021, we have been featuring new opportunities in the property management industry. One area not yet explored on the show is Real Estate Syndication.  As a general definition, real estate syndication is a partnership between several investors. They combine their skills and capital to purchase and manage a property they otherwise could not afford. If you’ve got an eye for a good deal and...

For the listeners who know Bob and his involvement in the National Association of Real Estate Property Managers, NARPM, you will remember that he is currently the President of the California Chapter.  Last week was the CALNARPM annual conference and it was quite an event!  For those who were not able to attend, Bob is dedicating this week's FMF to a quick overview of the conference and provid...

Most everyone would agree that 2020 was a challenging year for running a business, regardless of industry.  For many property managers, it’s great to still be standing after all of the challenges presented from the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter 2021, maybe in the midst of planning and goal setting for the year, there is no better time to be pondering the business opportunities available in the pr...

Landlords have many responsibilities when it comes to renting their investment properties, working with their tenants, and keeping the property well maintained.  On this episode of Five Minute Friday, Bob Preston provides his Top List of 8 Critical Landlord Responsibilities. 1.  Comply with Anti-Discrimination Laws 2.  Preparing the Lease or Rental Agreement 3.  Make Legally Required Disclosures 4...

How much should a landlord expect to spend keeping their home maintained? It's a common question and there are some rules of thumb and considerations owners of rental properties can keep in mind when setting aside reserves to handle unexpected reserves. The 1% Rule:  this popular rule says that 1% of the purchase price of your home should be set aside each year for ongoing maintenance. Using...

On this episode, Bob discusses the evolution of the property management software market with his  guest, Joe Easton, Channel Partner Account Manager, at one such solution called Rent Manager. Joe shares his views about the property management software market and about Rent Manager,  which combines many features needed by property managers to run their businesses into a single integrated solution....

On January 28, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom extended the state's eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021, by signing legistlation enacting the new SB 91.  In this FMF, Bob Preston does his best to review key elements of SB 91 which combines with the previously passes AB 3088 to provide tenants with rent cap and eviction protections.  Pauses evictions for tenants with an inability...

Eviction law in California has changed quite a bit over the past year, first with “just cause” legislation introduced as part of State Assembly Bill 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, and then with moratoriums introduced as part of the Governor Gavin Newsome’s state orders by signing the Covid-19 Tenant Relief Act (AB2088) into law in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  On this episode, Bob...

We are so proud to announce that this is our 50th Five Minute Friday! When combined with our 50th full episode from last week, Property Management Brainstorm, TODAY is celebrating our 100th published podcast. Wow, our 100th episode, hard to believe but a great way to kick off our first FMF of 2021. And what better topic for our 100th episode to tell you all that the speaker slate has been finalize...

We are proud to kick off 2021 with the “Best of Brainstorm”, snippets from our top guests of 2020. Topics Covered [3:48] Episode 42 featured Andrew Smallwood of Second Nature, who knows a lot too about why air quality is so important in rental properties.   [5:35] In Episode 44 , our guest was Citizen Home Solutions, featuring Peter Hernandez. Citizen provides a concierge onboarding service for ne...

Hello Brainstormers!  We are taking some time off from production during the holiday season but will be back with our normal Property Management Brainstorm programming in January 2021. Until then, happy holidays and we look forward to having you back with us in the new year! Connect with Bob Preston https://www.propertymanagementbrainstorm.com/ This episode is always available for listening, shari...

On this Five Minute Friday, Bob discusses facing fears in our property management businesses as we head into 2021. Simply put, the  issues we fear the most are the ones we  most need to discuss and resolve! Are there areas of your business that need attention which  you’ve been avoiding during the pandemic? What better time to focus on these items than now as we are working on our new year resolut...

On today's FMF, Bob Preston speaks about the importance of relationship management in every business. Most of us would agree that Property Management is a “relationship business”. Imagine the number of people your team interfaces with daily in making your business successful: property owners, tenants, vendors, prospective tenants, HOAs, and more.  This amounts to literally 100s of individual...

In this time of gratitude, I wanted to say thank you to all of our listeners who tune in for Property Management Brainstorm. Counting you among our listeners is something for which we are especially grateful! This has been a trying year on all of us in property management, so, I’m also wishing you the gift of faith and hope as we gather with the family we love, the friends we cherish, and for the...

What the heck is normal (or ordinary) wear and tear? This term is used in many of our states where we practice property management and is often the cause of misinterpretation, conflict, and disputes. In today's Five Minute Friday, Bob describes his "common sense" rule as it applies to determining what is normal wear and tear or what otherwise might be considered damage. This topic i...

Bob has been addressing "process" in the past few episodes, speaking to why it is so important in property management. But what if many of those processes could be “automated”? The concept is to let technology handle your repetitive tasks. Might this allow your property management business to work smarter, not harder?  In this Episode 49 of Property Management Brainstorm, Bob discusses t...

Today's Five Minute Friday poses a hypothetical questions. There is no right or wrong answer, only personal preference of how you think a property management company should be run. A lot of companies have come into our property management space offering technical solutions based on automation and artificial intelligence. The concept is a sound one, what tasks in your property management workf...

Exciting news!  The Calilfornia State Chapter of NARPM® (CALNARPM) has announced its theme and the dates of its annual conference. This will be a virtual conference, titled "Embracing Change", to be held March 11-12, 2021.  Embracing change is something all property managers have had to do during COVID-19 and may need to do more than ever as we come out of the pandemic next year. We will...

Real estate brokers and property managers receive what are known as “trust funds” in the normal course of doing business. These are typically deposits and payments received and held on behalf of others, thereby creating a fiduciary responsibility to the funds owners. In our business as property managers, we must handle and account for these funds according to established legal and accounting stand...

The role of being a landlord comes with many financial, legal, and ethical obligations. As an owner of an investment property, time is money.  There are two ways to go, managing the property yourself or hiring a property manager. On this week's Five Minute Friday, Bob poses a question to real estate investors:  should you manage a rental property yourself or should you hire a property manager...

In this week's Five Minute Friday, Bob reviews and gives his position/endorsement for either a "yes" or a "no" on four California Ballot Measures in the upcoming election on November 3rd, that he believes to be  significant to landlords, real estate investors and owners of rental property. Bob provides his opinion from a nonpartisan, independent position, as the owner of a...

What is a "process" and why do we need it as a landlord or property management company? Webster’s defines process as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. All you property managers out there, sound familiar? Our daily workflow in this business requires us to follow certain steps for several reasons: legal compliance, efficiency, profitability to name ju...

We've been getting a lot of questions this month about the new eviction protection laws recently passed by the CDC and in California so we wanted to provide an overview to California landlords and property managers on this episode of Five Minute Friday. Full disclosure, Bob Preston, the host of the show, is NOT an attorney so this episode should not be take as legal advise. It offers only his...