How To Find & Keep Great Tenants: Premium Edition

By Jeffrey Roark and Jeff Rohde

The Premium Edition of How To Find & Keep Great Tenants also includes the bonus book Investment Real Estate Analysis: A Case Study.

Here's an excerpt from How To Find & Keep Great Tenants:

If real estate is all about "Location, location, location", then finding & keeping tenants and managing the rental house to maximize its value is all about Marketing.

Over 25 years ago I received my real estate license, and from day one I was amazed at the number of businesses that feed off of the real estate broker!

Admittedly I've always been a little skeptical of the real estate industry, its associations and numerous designations, and the myriad of services that spring up to provide services to the industry.

The biggest mistake real estate marketers make is to provide too much up-front information about the house for rent. This happens because they do not have a specific objective for their marketing initiatives.

With advertising and marketing, it's important to closely track the ratio between dollars spent and income received as a direct result of each marketing channel.

From Investment Real Estate Analysis: A Case Study:

It's a well kept secret in buying investment real estate that you are almost always buying the seller's problem.

Think about it this way:  If a property has good tenants, is for the most part trouble-free and is cash flowing, why on earth would the current owner want to sell?  Sure, there are some legitimate reasons, but even those innocent sounding excuses for selling can hide a hidden agenda.  It's safe to say that 99% of the time the new owner is going to face problems with their property purchase, probably sooner rather than later.  

Now, the fact that problems may exist doesn't mean an investor shouldn't buy a property.  For example, let's say the current use for a building is a multi-tenant office property with a high vacancy rate and you (as the buyer) want to turn it into offices for your business.  Or an apartment building needs significant capital improvements, such as a roof repair or replacement of a majority of the HVAC units.  Or a retail property sits very close to a school or to a church, a situation that current zoning laws may prohibit your leasing to certain types of tenants, thereby reducing the number of potential business types you can market your vacant retail suites to.

The key is to accurately identify the existing and potential problems, and the likely costs associated with solving those problems.  In The Real Estate Property Management Guide I discuss all aspects of property management, including the steps to take when considering what type of investment property is right for you.  After all, just because you can buy or finance an acquisition doesn't mean that you should actually invest in it.

In this book, Investment Real Estate Analysis: A Case Study, we drill-down on the specific analysis used by all professional investment real estate brokers and buyers to determine the strengths and weaknesses - and to identify the hidden opportunities - when deciding how to position a piece of real estate for sale. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeffrey Roark
• Release date: Oct 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519979452

Jeffrey Roark

Writing under the pen name Jeffrey Roark, Jeff Rohde has over two decades of extensive experience actively working in and writing about all aspects of the real estate industry: Residential, multi family, commercial, leasing, renting, selling, group investing, business brokerage and property management. Jeff began his real estate career over 25 years ago in the Midwest by investing primarily in own investment portfolio.  Over the past 15 years he has personally brokered tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate sales and lease transactions for his clients - and for his own portfolio - in retail, office, industrial, single-family and multi-family residential income properties, and in raw and subdivided land.   Jeff Rohde is a Certified Commercial Investment Member.  The CCIM designation is held by only 15,000 commercial and investment real estate professionals worldwide and is the highest professional certification one can earn in commercial investment real estate. In addition to over 25 years of experience working in investment real estate, Jeff has written several very popular real estate books under the pen name Jeffrey Roark - The Basic Property Management Guide, Investment Real Estate Analysis: A Case Study, How To Find & Keep Great Tenants, and How To Make Money In Property Management.  These can be found through all of the major book distributors in both ebook and print formats. Jeff also operates J Scott Digital, where he specializes in content creation, editing and proofreading in the real estate, finance and investment, and general business sectors for clients around the globe.   To learn more about Jeff Rohde and to view his weekly blog posts visit JScottDigital.com

Book preview

Table of Contents

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How To Find & Keep Great Tenants

It's All About Marketing!

The #1 Marketing Technique

Top Five Marketing Tools

Top Six Items to have on your Website

When Prospects Call - Top Three Objectives

Top Two Ways to Set the Hook

Knowing Your Competition

Multiple Marketing Messages

Do You Want To Get Paid?  Then Close The Deal!

Basic Steps to Closing the Deal

Showing the Property

Qualifying the Tenant

The First Date Technique

I Need to Move Today!

Making It Legal - Applications & Leases

Residential Lease Documents

Tenant Application

Move-In Checklist

Tenant Handbook

Top Five Sources for Leases for Your Market

Service After The Sale - How to Find & Keep Good Vendors

The Spray Painted Bathtub

30 Must-Have Vendors for any Property

Top 4 Characteristics of Good Vendors

Top Three Ways to Keep Good Vendors

Top Three Ways to Find Good Vendors

Are You Really Making Money? - Tracking Income & Expenses

Profit & Loss Statements

Five Bookkeeping System Must Haves - Rent Statements, Balance Sheets, Reports, Budgets

Investment Real Estate Analysis: A Case Study

Overview

Site Analysis

Skills & Knowledge Sets

Outline of Assumptions

Analysis & Computations

Sales Comparison Analysis

Lease Comparison Analysis

Regional Analysis

Neighborhood Analysis

Linkage Analysis

Comparable Activities

Annual Property Operating Data Report

Read More

About The Author

It's All About Marketing!

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If real estate is all about Location, location, location, then finding & keeping tenants and managing the rental house to maximize its value is all about Marketing.

Over 25 years ago I received my real estate license, and from day one I was amazed at the number of businesses that feed off of the real estate broker! 

Admittedly I’ve always been a little skeptical of the real estate industry, its associations and numerous designations, and the myriad of services that spring up to provide services to the industry. 

Here’s a list of some of the items that today’s real estate practitioner can purchase to promote a house for rent:

Virtual Tours

YouTube Videos

Digital Magazines

Pre-paid Commission Services

Refrigerator Magnets

Brochure Tubes

Calendars

Business Cards, extra large, with 4-color glamor photos

Customized Websites with a monthly subscription fee

Professional Associations with monthly or annual dues

Numerous Professional Designations

Elaborate Property Flyers

Open House Signs

Sign Riders

Directional Signs

Name Riders

1-800 Numbers to call for recorded property information

Talking Signs

Smart Phone-friendly signs

Custom-made Sign Posts

Real Estate Advertising Magazines, 4-color & glossy

E-mail Marketing Campaigns

Proprietary Multiple Listing Services with a recurring access fee

All of these items were taken from the most recent issue of just two real estate trade publications. 

These items are visible signs of rental house marketing.  They create a good feeling for the real estate practitioner and the rental house owner because it’s something that can be seen.

Unfortunately this isn’t what gets deals done.

The biggest mistake real estate marketers make is to provide too much up-front information about the house for rent.  This happens because they do not have a specific objective for their marketing initiatives.

With advertising and marketing, it’s important to closely track the ratio between dollars spent and income received as a direct result of each marketing channel.

Often we’ll see real estate practitioners and rental house investors spend a lot of money each month on listing services and get nothing in return!

Sometimes these channels provide good marketing exposure.  The problem is, usually this is all that rental house owners will do, and then hope that the phone rings or the email inquiries come in. 

So What Does Work? - The #1 Marketing Technique

It's simple and pretty basic.  Simply, Answer the phone when Renters call!

This does not mean returning calls left on voice mail.  This does not mean screening calls with your caller ID.  This does not mean returning text messages left on your cell phone.  This does not mean responding to emails.  It means:

Answer the phone when Renters call!

If you repeat these six simple words . . .

Answer the phone when Renters call!

Until you’ve got them memorized, you’ll be in the top 5% of professional real estate investors, leasing agents, or managers anywhere and will be able to beat the competition hands down.

If your One and Only Marketing Objective is to get Renters to Call you on the telephone so you can talk to them about your house you have for rent, the question is:

How do you get them to call?

Top Five Basic Marketing Tools & Equipment

Here are the Top Five Basic Items to keep in your Marketing Toolbox. 

Use these and you’ll be more