Posts by James Barrett

Showing a rental property can be risky. Agents are sometimes targeted by criminals that see rental showings as opportunities. At a showing, there’s usually only one person and an empty property, creating a prime scenario to take advantage of that person or the property.

When I first started as a landlord, I remember being surprised how empty and dirty and dusty a vacant home is. It highlighted the feeling of risk of not having someone in there, and the worry about paying the mortgage. What if the hot water heater breaks while the house is vacant and I don’t know about it? New floors aren't cheap!

The problem with property leasing is that it all seems to happen in a black box you can’t get into. You post a listing on Zillow. Does it go live? Maybe. It seems like you aren’t getting a lot of rental leads. Is that because your paid ads are all wrong? Maybe. What’s going on with the viewings? You’ve had plenty of inquiries, but the property is still listed. Where’s the breakdown occurring? Who knows? How great would it be if you could actually see what’s going on with each of your properties — really see what’s working and what isn’t, all along the path from beginning to end?

Brace yourselves for more listing site shake ups We all felt the splash when Zillow Group began charging for single family listings in 2019, and over the course of a year became a fully monetized platform. It was a tough pill to swallow for property managers who relied on Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads as their primary source of free leads. Luckily, there was a hero waiting in the wings: Zumper to the rescue! Buttressed by their unique partnership with Facebook Marketplace, leads still flowed without paying for listings.

True confessions moment: how many times have you let a call go to voicemail, because it was a property owner you didn’t want to deal with? You knew why they were calling — they wanted an explanation why their property still hadn’t been filled — but you just didn’t have the energy for that conversation.

Maybe you’ve heard the stats before: if you don’t follow up with a tenant lead within one to two minutes, your chances of connecting with them drops fast — by as much as 40 percent in one day. Even after just 30 minutes, you’re 10 percent less likely to connect. How are you supposed to keep up at that pace?

When your rental property business grows, you may be debating the right time to add staff. However, as you grow your staff you also incur costs that can eat into your profits. The best strategy to maximize your rental income profit is to keep your property management team as lean as possible. But that’s easier said than done when everyone is working long hours to keep up with demand (especially these days, as we’ve seen a marked increase in leasing activity). So, is hiring another property manager actually the right solution?