Commercial Property Management Guide

A Word On Investing
What?!  A word on investing!? Isn’t this the commercial property management guide?!
Yes, it is.  And, investing is a part of landlording; landlording includes investing.  Any and all landlords, if he or she owns the property, can also be considered a real estate investor, for he or she owns property that he or she does not reside in.   So then, why should we focus on investment?  Part of being a  good landlord is being a good investor.  You will be miserable if you have a bad investment property, just as you will be miserable if you have bad tenants.  So, we’re focusing on investing this post.
If you’re good, you own a property whose operations of physical state needs improvement.  You can learn more about investment properties at Investment Properties Guide

So, you are looking for a home or other commercial building, and you have found one that needs physical improvement.  The financing works out and the deal looks good from an investment standpoint, so you take control and you keep the current tenants; if there are no current tenants, you put them in there.  In either case, you want to make sure that the tenant’s rent covers the property mortgage as well as all your expenses, except perhaps the improvement expenses.  These can come out of your pocket.  A lot of times, in commercial property management, you will have to spend your own money; the investment can’t make all the money you’ll need.

So, what do you do with the tenants in your property?  You leave them!  Tenants don’t mind you coming in (of course, you have to ask them and schedule it with them first; don’t forget to be polite!) if you are coming to fix and improve where they are living or working.  Just be sure not to get too much in their way.  If you need to do repair something like the flooring, you obviously must wait until in between tenants, or schedule it for a day where they will be out of town.

When you invest in real estate, the goal is to increase the value of the property.  Well, real estate property is valued by the amount of income it can bring in (for investment property, anyway).  Your goal is to increase this.  After you make the repairs and the property improves, you can justify increasing the rent.  This will be to your advantage, as the property value will go up along with it.  Just be sure that when you’re buying the property you calculate this out, as you don’t want this raised rent to be any higher than average rent in the area.  Having it still below average is the best bet.

You will have to break the news to your tenants that their rent is being increased.  They may fuss a bit, but that’s okay, you can’t blame them.  Still though, you must stand firm.  You are not running a charity – your primary mission is to make money for yourself; this is an investment.  Often though, when handled properly, you can keep the same tenants in place.  Be fair with them, and be polite; things should go your way.

written by admin \\ tags: income, investment, investment properties, investment properties guide, real estate investment, real estate property, tenants

So, you’re ready to take over the building, and you need a short guide to commercial property management. It could be a house or an office building; it doesn’t matter, because you are still nervous. You’ve done your research; you have poured through what feels like at least a hundred different books on landlording, and you have devoured the internet in search of material. You’ve figured out where the rent money will go, how often you’re going to contact the tenants, when you are going to make repairs, how you are going to pay for utilities, what you’re going to wear when you introduce yourself to the tenant, and what you’re going to say. You are ready.

You introduce yourself to the family or business residing in your property, just like you read in the short guide to commercial property management. Everything goes just like you planned it; they smiled at you, greeted you politely, and offered you to come inside. You did go inside, but not too far; you didn’t want to infringe on their private space. You understand that even though you own the property, it is still their space; if your tenants do not have privacy, they will probably leave. And that goes for a family or a business; the family has private, personal things that happen behind the walls of your house, and the business is going to run a company without you in the way.

So, it’s all peachy. You’re a landlord, and everything is going smoothly.

That is, until your phone rings at three in the morning. The little boy in the family has clogged the toilet, and they want you to go fix it. “Use a plunger,” you tell them, but they insist that you come unclog it for them. Or, things are going fine, and the business says to you, “We are very successful and need a larger property, we’ll be moving.” You realize then that it will be very difficult to get a new company in your walls, but you need on in their now. These scenarios start happening more rapidly. The more comfortable the tenants are calling you, the more they call you. Sometimes you get so frustrated with them you want to curse at them and kick them out of the house. You don’t know what to do.

These kinds of scenarios are common for new landlords; this is a fairly normal set of circumstances. What do you do? We will be posting more information to help you deal with exactly these kinds of problems.

written by admin \\ tags: house, landlord, landlording, office building, property, run a company, tenants