Bookkeeping How do you account for your income? How do you account for your expenses? The challenge comes in when you have multiple properties and you need a way to keep everything itemized by property, and you also need to have reporting because you don’t just own one or two properties now. Maybe you own ten properties. You need to know what your position is at any given moment. What is your...

Maintenance and Repairs Maintenance and repairs; the bottom line is when you own a rental property, just like your own home, just like a car, it’s going to require maintenance and repairs. Now, for some reason, it seems like rental properties require more maintenance and repairs than any other property. Your income must exceed expenses, and the reality is if you don’t keep control of it,...

PETS, SMOKERS, AND NUISANCE CALLS My first pet policy was a no-pet policy which was what most of us do.  I discovered over the years that even though I had a no-pet policy, I still had pets in my rentals. Smokers are not a protected class. You can have a policy that says “no smokers allowed” in your rental properties, but just like pets, you might find from time to time, even...

Lease Rules and Regulations I have a list of rules and regulations that I put in place in my leases. This is something you can do. It doesn’t matter what lease you have. Again, you’re going to use a lease from your state board of realtors or your local board of realtors, and you’re going to add onto that what we call rules and regulations. Guess what? Yes, you’re allowed to do that. You take the...

Rental Leases No matter where you are, we always recommend you use the lease from your state’s board of realtors. Sometimes, you may have multiple boards of realtors in a state, so whatever board your area is serviced by, use that board’s forms. And I’m going to emphasize that again. Always, always use the forms that are already pre-approved and provided for by your local board of realtors....