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everybody mark Cunningham with grace property management so last week I had the pleasure of being out in Palm Springs California and speaking to a property management group there at their state convention that narpm that was a great time great location great people then maybe that's why I'm still not wearing a tie I mean that laid-back California lifestyle but while I was there one of the attendees said hey mark your video last time on things not to say to a owner client was great why don't you do a video about things not to say to tenants I thought that's a great idea so here we are you ready we're gonna up at one we're gonna do four last time we did three four things you never want to say to attend it now before I jump in let me thank the sponsor for this video latch --all latch 'el solves one of the biggest problems we have is PMS which is maintenance how do you handle it when you take the calls how do you dispatch who answers the call at 3:00 a.m. well flagyl can answer the call at 3:00 a.m. visit latch I'll talk to Jen at latch 'el she's amazing their product is top they can do they have a variety of things they can do just like take your after-hours calls they can take all your calls they can do your scheduling they've got a lot of different options for you as a PM company so contact Jen sells with latch all she can help you out tell her that mark sent you she'll take good care of you so here we go you ready number one do not say let me check with the owner do not say let me check with the owner why don't we want to say that well instead we want to be able to give the yes or no see when you say this let me check with the owner you are undermining your own authority and I understand the temptation is to you don't want to be the bad guy and mr. tenant says well can I get all new carpet or not you say well let me check with the owner and see don't do that why do they go to you in the first place because you are the authority you need to be able to make that decision this means you may need to still check with the owner but you don't want to be that go-between to where the tenant is just sending you back to the owner you can say let me find out let me think about that let me get back with you on that but don't say let me go to the owner why because again you're undermining your authority you're the authority you make the decision you tell the tenant you're the authority number two don't say sure you can do that repair yourself and deduct it from your rent sometimes ten oh so wanted to do repairs and then think they can just deduct it from the rent not a good best business practice in our opinion instead you may just want to say something like this hey thank you for offering to replace the hot water heater and deduct it from your rent but to ensure we stay in compliance with our lease we'll send out one of our preferred vendors for that repair now we have to be realistic right so when the tenant calls and says hey the kitchen sink aerators broken I need a new $3.00 aerator can I buy that and deduct it from my rent yes don't send out a repair person for a $2 or $3 aerator have the tenant do that use some common sense here but things that are actual repairs that require a high degree of difficulty or something you just don't trust a tenant to do don't get in the habit of allowing your tenant to make repairs and deduct it from the rent you want them to pay the full rent you send out the appropriate vendors to do that they'll just make things longer any things making it's easier in the long run okay here we go number three don't say sure I'll waive that late fee we all want to be nice and I get that and from time to time maybe you even do but the reason the owner hired you is because they had trouble saying no to things like can i waive the late fee can I pay rent late you're the professional instead we want to say something like this I'm sorry but we're required to enforce the terms of the lease agreement so we can't get out we can't waive the late fees I could however split that payment into two months if that helped you and the reason we say this last part I could split it is because we want to pivot to something positive all right if you're gonna enforce the late fee that's great but give them a little bit of leeway on that maybe light let them pay the late fee on the 20th of the month they're splitting into two payments or whatever your system or process allows so just documented so it's a documented part of what you will allow as it comes to payment don't make it up as you go but don't get in the habit of thinking about it don't get in the habit of saying well let me check with the owner that's the worst thing you could say here you're the decision-maker you enforce the late fee as it relates to your tenant number four don't say sure you can join me at the move out for the walk through so this is at the end of the lease the tenant has vacated the property or they're going to be vacating and they want to be present for the walkthrough of the property so why so they know how much their security deposit they get back now I understand in some states you may have to let them be present and if that's the case then obviously you want to allow them to be present if your state doesn't require it we don't recommend that you do it maybe instead you want to see something like this once you've turned in your keys to the property you've legally given up possession of the property in addition we don't know exactly when someone will be by for the walkthrough nor are we able to discuss your security deposit at this walkthrough because that's what they wanted you don't think they want to confirm and make sure they're getting there so full security deposit back you don't want to have that conversation there so if you are allowing them to be present during the walkthrough don't even discuss the security deposit just say you know what I can't discuss that I'm only here to do a checkout kind of play dumb and someone else will be coming in to do a checkout as well looking for things so we can't allow you to make final cleaning items while you're here you can be present as I walked through the property but nothing good comes of the tenant being present I want upon the move out inspection it's just nothing good comes of that all that can potentially happen is they want to hear you say you're getting your deposit back that's all they're there for so we recommend is the best practice you don't do that now let me just pivot for a minute here and as it relates to dealing with our tenants address this issue of tenants versus residents see we have a high respect and high regard for our tenants in our properties we do because they're the ones that pay us and they're the ones that make our business work and I hear too many property managers looking down speaking poorly of their tenants they pay late they do this they do this I don't like that concept in our office one thing we try to do to combat that a little bit is we don't call them tennis they're not tenants they're residents now you say old mark isn't that just kind of nitpicky well maybe it is but I think the concept of a resident to denote something a little bit higher than a tenant when I hear the word tenant I think about somebody that pays their rent late and knocks a hole in the wall and it breaks their lease that's a tent a resident a resident is somebody who you value somebody who takes care of the property somebody who you treat with respect we need to be treating our residents with respect so if in your office you're getting in the habit of bad-mouthing your residents or tenants or somebody comes in and says something and you talk to one of your fellow employees stop stop doing that it's not appropriate it's not professional you have valuable residents treat them as such regardless of who they are how they are their residents so it's just a little thing that we've done to help us psychologically as well as practically take better care and give the higher degree of respect to our residents so some thoughts on that if you haven't signed up yet for pulling back the curtain for taking place in Denver August 24th through the 26th I encourage you to do so let me highlight real quickly one of our speakers that's a picture of Steve Murray now Steve Murray is the president and CEO of real trends real trends is a national company they just happen to be based in Denver national company and they do property value a property management and real estate company valuations and they also do market data of trends in our industry so Steve's gonna give a presentation on two things number one what are the trends the big trends that are taking place in the real estate industry and number two how do you value a property management company on day to either be talking specifically about things you can do to increase the value our company I'm excited for that I want to know how I can increase the value my company they've done over 3500 valuations 3500 valuations they've done over 750 mas merger and acquisitions the knowledge this guy has is amazing you want to be here even if you get nothing else that will be worth it so if you want to sign up go to property management system dot o-r-g go down to the events tab get signed up for that but regardless if you want to make sure you never miss one of these videos either hit the subscribe button you'll get notified by a YouTube or go to our property management system to our G page and on the video screen you can enter your email to make sure we'll e-mail you when these come up if you have a suggestion a suggested topic for a future video drop me an email let me know be happy to hit that but I hope this is helpful for you as you treat your residents with a lot of respect and as you are effective in your communication with them