SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 340: TENANT PRE-SCREEN HACK AND THE EFFECTIVE USE OF SECURITY CAMERAS

Getting and keeping good tenants who renew year-after-year is critical to successful real estate investing.  In this podcast episode, Bill shares insider secret hacks on finding the best tenants for your rental property as well as highlighting the benefits of security cameras for your tenants’ safety and your personal piece of mind.

1. Tenant Pre-Screen Hack

Anyone who listens to this show regularly knows that I have had a few challenges when it comes to property managers over the years.

• First, when I purchased my first turn-key properties. After I bought the properties, the PM just didn’t seem to care.
  • Long term vacancies for months
  • Placing high-risk tenants
  • Exorbitant turn-around expenses
  • Double billing
  • Poor record keeping
  • Terrible communication
  • And the list goes on and on

So, there have been multiple times when I was either “in transition” – between property managers or waiting for the 30 or 60 day period having given notice to a property manager.

Also, there have been times when my PM has no tenant prospects and are just doing nothing and I need tenants, so I’ve taken on a search of my own.

Stealth Tenant Marketing

When I was experiencing difficulties in my 22 unit in Indianapolis, I moved into one of my apartments for 30 days to:

• Better understand the area
• Better understand my tenants
• Aggressively recruit new good tenants
• Spend time with property manager
• Do rehab
• Market aggressively:
  • Place multiple ads online (Apartments.com, Hotpads.com, Trulia, Zillow, etc.)
  • Flyers posted on grocery store, Startbucks, big company HR bulletin boards, etc
  • Lawn signage
  • Targeted websites
• Meet with major employers in the area and other sources to help create a “tenant lead tunnel”
• I labeled the experiment “Stealth Tenant Marketing” – a serious of multiple “outside the box” creative strategies to create a steady flow or funnel of good qualified tenants.
• Here are some links that share the results of that effort:

  • 038: Stealth Tenant Marketing – October 7, 2016

  • 044: View From the Trenches – Stealth Marketing Update From Indy – October 28, 2016

  • 048: Stealth Tenant Marketing Update – Back in California! – November 11, 2016

Getting Good Tenants is Only Half the Challenge

• You aren’t doing well as a landlord and real estate investor unless you can KEEP your tenants
• Unless they renew their less every year, you are not really making the money you should
• What is a “Good Tenant:

  • 298: Who is the Perfect Tenant and Where do You Find Him or Her? – April 5, 2019

  • 129: Finding and Keeping Great Tenants – August 21, 2017

You Need to Learn How to be a Good Landlord

• Get educated
  • Read “The Book on Managing Rental Properties” by Brandon and Heather Turner
• Try managing one of your properties without a property manager
• Set up systems to more efficiently manage
• RentPrep – Great resource for screening tenants to get the best tenants
• SmartMove – A screening system that provides excellent data on potential

Even if you have a property manager, you can do this if…

• You have a lot of tenant turnovers
• Your property is vacant for too long
• You are not happy with the tenants you have
• You are having trouble finding tenants
• You want to upgrade your tenant base

The Reason Property Managers Have Trouble Finding Good Tenants

• They can only show apartments during the business day, not in the evenings and on weekends
• A good tenant is generally working during the business day and is only available on evenings and weekends
• If they take time off of their job, they may not be the greatest employee
• I want the kind of employee who is conscientious about their work and would not take time off to view an apartment
• THIS IS THE BIG PROBLEM!
• So they can only show the apartments to people who aren’t working, are self-employed or are on government assistance

How to Fix the Problem

• You do the showings
• Or you get someone on site that can do the showings

Facebook Marketplace

• Great place to find good potential tenants
• You can click on their profile and see what they’re about
• I’ve seen great people with pictures with their family, doing family vacations, shown at their work – enjoying their job, lots of pictures and comments that show their character
• I’ve also seen some potential tenants who’s profile was not so positive
  • Gangster’s waving 9mm handguns with drugs hanging out of their mouths
  • People talking about how they hate their jobs, landlords, wives,  husbands, kids
  • One tenant had a survey going on asked her friends post their least favorite bill to pay and the lady who inquired about the apartment said her least favorite bill to pay was RENT

2. The Effective Use of Security Cameras

As an out-of-state investor, I am thrilled that I spent the money to get security cameras installed.  One of the best investment decisions I have ever made.

Why would you get security cameras?

• Boost tenant and property security
• If safety is an issue in your area, help boost vacancies
• To deter crime
• To deter wrong tenant behavior
• If you are out-of-state investor
• Property is too small to warrant onsite PM

Things we seen:

• Tenants dealing drugs
• Caught thieves in the act of robbing an apartment
• Drug addicts that have broken in to do drugs in the building
• Contractors who say they worked on a certain day and time, yet the cameras showed otherwise

What’s our system?

• W/Box software
• Dahua 16 channel DVR w/1TB hard drive
• 8 2-megapixel dome cameras
• Cables, connectors, lock box with fan
• Labor
• Total cost: $2,262

This show was sponsored by SMARTMOVE

SmartMove is part of Transunion, a trusted consumer reporting agency with more than 4 decades of experience.  They built an online screening service for independent landlords that delivers critical credit and background reports to you in minutes. It is a really valuable tool to have when you are trying to decide who to put into your rental property.

And they can help you find your next great tenant.

• Only SmartMove has a credit score built specifically for rental screening called ResidentScore, which can identify eviction risk 15% better than a traditional score.
• With the SmartMove report you’ll also get a criminal background check, eviction history report, as well as a full credit report.
• And, only SmartMove has Income Insights, a report enabling you to analyze renter income to determine if further verification is needed.

See why 9 out of 10 users recommend SmartMove and more than 4 million landlords have used SmartMove to make better leasing decisions.

SmartMove has a special offer just for Old Dawg listeners.  Go to tenantscreening.com, enter code “OLDDAWG25” and you’ll get 25% off your next screening.

SmartMove.  Reduce your risk of Non-Payment and Evictions.

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Additional Episode Sponsor: Meno Studio – menostudio777@gmail.com