Category Archives: Property Management

I am so excited that next week I’m going to be in Las Vegas while the troops here in the office keep up the good work.  I am going to the NARPM Broker/Owner’s retreat for a little (hopefully a lot) of property management education.

Real estate investing leads to property management like sex leads to babies.  I wrote that back in June of 2014. See, new investors seldom seriously (I mean in detail) think about property management.  And neither did I, at first.  Heck, I sold investment property for years trying to shirk my continuing commitment to my clients to make sure those properties were correctly managed in the coming months/years.

I would refer the work out.  But the comments (complaints often times) kept coming back to me.  After all I was the one who sold them the rental house. Couldn’t I help them?

What I am trying to say is that property management in Kansas City was an accidental business for me.  I didn’t grow up wanting to be Kansas City’s property manager.  But now that it is here and in my lap I want to do the very best I can for my clients, my business and our collective futures.

Yes, we still do investment property sales.  Heck, I sold 70+ investment units last year in addition to my “regular” sales.  But our propery management business, KC Property Manager, has continued to grow and grow. And now we, I, need to get better and better at it.

Wish me luck this next week.  It could be for your benefit.

Chris Lengquist
Ad Astra Realty, Inc
Olathe, KS
913-815-3473

You need to know about insurance and how it relates to your property manager.  Insurance in this business is your friend, not your enemy. Reducing your liability, and that of those who work with you, is a team effort.

One of the best articles I’ve ever read on the subject was published recently over at Certified Property Solutions of Hawaii’s blog.  You can find the link here.

But I couldn’t help but wondering when I was done reading the article in why I manage properties in Kansas City and they manage properties in Hawaii.  I think I am doing this wrong!  🙂

Back to the point, read the article.  It says it better than I ever have.

So sometimes, even I am shocked by what I find when I stare at the realities of what we’ve accomplished these last few years.  What you see above you is a map of where our owners are located in the US and throughout the world.  I honest to God thought more of our owners were located on the west coast.  But as you can see they are literally from everywhere in the US. And one even over in the Middle East.

This map represents the 104 owners that we work for taking care of their 235 (as of 1/10/2015) income properties.  Maybe soon I’ll share a map of where our properties are located in and around the Kansas City area.  That may tell a story, as well.

KC Property Manager
Ad Astra Realty
2011 E Crossroads Ln #305
Olathe, KS  66062
913-839-2953

Maintenance can make or break your investment property. And yet it is one of the things as a professional property manager that I seem to fight with owners the most about  Well, maybe fight isn’t the right word.  But sometimes it can be like pulling teeth.

Look, if you are going to get top dollar for rent and top dollar when the time comes to sell your rental house isn’t it going to have to be in good to great condition?  Or are you one of those sellers that thinks tenants should pay the highest rent for a house where maintenance isn’t kept up?  Or that buyers won’t notice the overgrown shrubs rubbing against the house causing all that wood rot? Come on.

Whether you manage your own rental property or use a property manager keeping up with maintenance is a must.  And if you keep up with it then it’s not so expensive when you do it all at once…and have to do more than you would have if you had just kept it up.

From our point of view as property managers, we spend more time on maintenance issues than any other category of our job.  Heck, even leasing doesn’t take up as much time.  Coordinating schedules and payments takes quite a bit of man power.  Maybe that’s why so many others shy away and defer rather than just the money.  But I implore you to keep up on the maintenance of your investment property.  You will thank me later.

I sat down with a very nice retired man the other day to discuss his eleven rental properties that he manages himself.  A fellow realtor was trying to convince the man that he shouldn’t be managing his own rental properties because it was costing him money.  And after hearing all the facts, the realtor was correct.  This man was costing himself a considerable amount of money by not letting myself or another property manager manage his rentals.

You see, he has a tenant who has only been partially paying for the last year.  I said year! When I learned additional facts about the story I knew that the situation was even worse, but I won’t go in to those here.  But suffice it to say the tenant was short paying by about $400/mo leaving a deficit of about $4,900 for the last year.

Then there was the additional tenant staying in the home causing damage.  Then there was another of his eleven properties that had pets that he didn’t initially know about. And he has two vacancies.  So, essentially, he has 4 properties under-performing.

Now, one vacancy out of 11 isn’t too bad, normally.  But both of these vacancies have been for many months.  And now it’s mid-November.

His chief objection was that a property manager costs him money.  And he’s right.  But as near as I can tell, he’s losing about $3,150/mo not using a property manager.  My cost would be somewhere around $780/mo to manage those 11 properties. Throw in some leasing fees and you might be up to $1,100/mo.  Might.  But he’d still be in the black by about 2K a month on his rental properties.

So is property management costing him money?  I’d say “no”.  But, I was unable to convince him of the value of my services.  He’s concerned about the monthly fee and being nice to his tenants, the same tenants who are breaking his leases and abusing his demeanor.  I wish him the best.