January 19, 2021 • 31 mins
In the world of being a Landlord, we get busy being in our worldview and tend to shy away from difficult conversations and/or accountability conversations all while trying to maintaining a solid professional relationship with tenants. Some say "that's their job, I should not have to talk to them" whereas others will say "I want to be a nice landlord". In reality - we "The Landlords" are leaders of our rental properties and we must take appropriate actions in order for the property to hit its goals, otherwise, we are not leaders at all.
Recorded:
Recorded July 2020
Host:
Kassandra Taggart
Dubi Rivera
Links:
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Book: Pain or Profit
Sponsor:
Real Property Management Last Frontier
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kassandra Taggart (00:31):
We have another special guest that I'm
very excited to introduceeveryone to her name is Doobie.
What's very special about her isher amazing people skills.
The skillset is something thatmany landlords need to have or
develop because it helps in manydifficult and frustrating
situations with tenants insideof our company here at Real
Property Management in Alaska,as a result today's conversation
(00:53):
is all about havingconversations with tenants.
Deescalating situations and howthe power of communication
builds trust, avoids headaches,and grows our profits.
So welcome today.
Doobie.
How are you?
Dubi Rivera (01:07):
I'm good.
Thank you for having me.
Kassandra Taggart (01:11):
What is your current role inside of Real
Property Management?
Dubi Rivera (01:15):
I am, I'm one of the licensees resident
coordinator.
I basically enforce, helpenforce the lease and basically
servicing tenants, helpinganswer any of their questions
and tenant retention.
Kassandra Taggart (01:27):
It's a busy role, especially with how many
tenants we have these days.
So, how does your role in thecompany provide insight or help
the, do it yourself, communityof landlords or landlords out
there listening to those showtoday?
Dubi Rivera (01:41):
Basically, when there is an issue that comes up,
when with a tenant or has todeal with like an HOA or, any
sort of issue that comes withthe lease agreements.
A common thing that DIYlandlords have to face is,
having to bring that up to thetenant and making sure that they
don't jeopardize the workingrelationship between themselves
(02:02):
and the tenant.
Bring something up to enforcethe lease, provide notice, or
anything regarding that doesn'tmean that you have to, ruin what
you have with that tenant.
Whether it was a greatrelationship beforehand, or if
it was already, not really thebest and, you feel like you're
making a worse.
So basically it's being able tosay no being able to stand your
(02:24):
ground and, just being able tohelp explain that and how to do
that accurately.
Kassandra Taggart (02:30):
Yeah, I agree with you that it's difficult to
say no while still maintainingthe relationship and not
jeopardizing it to be adifficult relationship for the
remaining part of the lease.
So it's a balancing act.
That's for sure.
I agree with you.
I believe every landlord has atenant and I'm pretty sure many
listening today will hear me onthis one that likes to submit
(02:52):
many work orders over and overand over.
And they become picky orannoying.
what are some of the tactics athandling the stress of a picky
tenant
Dubi Rivera (03:03):
Most of the time when they're freaking out
because they, want somethingcompleted.
A part of that kind of helpswith that is if you explain to
them the updates and.
The process of how to completewhat they're asking for.
It usually does help themrealize the realities of certain
things, we can't change yourhome floors like overnight.
(03:25):
Sometimes it does take timethere's so many different parts
of the process that need to betaken care of and that need to
be done so that they don't endup with a half done job or with
a poorly done job or somethingalong those lines.
Another thing is you also wantto make sure that you're
completely listening to them.
Sometimes their concerns they'llkind of mask it with just anger
(03:46):
and wanting it to be done, butsometimes it could be they're
really thinking about the safetyfor their other kids or.
There's something else going onin their lives.
And they're kind of justbringing that up at the same
time.
It's kind of something that youreally need to look at and you
want to make sure that you'regiving them time to explain,
versus just instantly writingoff all of their concerns or,
(04:08):
any questions they may haveSometimes they need to be
brought back to realizing howthings do work.
And sometimes what they might behearing is a no, but really it's
not a no, it's just.
We're going to have to wait atthis time or, it's going to have
to be postponed.
And then that could be for a lotof different reasons.
And I bring that up because forexample, there's one time where
(04:30):
we did have a tenant and it wasit was the wrong middle of
winter.
And they did have, a porchconcern where the porch did not
seem as if it was as stable asthey would like it to be.
And.
The tenant, they really, reallywanted it to be fixed that same
day.
They wanted somebody to go outand to deal with it, but our
vendors, they were all there.
All of their recommendationswere, Hey, we should probably
(04:52):
wait until the summer.
it's really, really cold in thewinter for Alaska.
It's, you're risking, lots ofmoney than doing it in the
summer to, possibly not get thebest result.
Like you could, if you were to.
Complete this, and then summer,the tenant did have other means
of access to the property.
And it was something of like,Hey, we're, we're not saying no,
(05:13):
it's just, we want to make surethis is done right.
And it's done right the firsttime for you.
And so we're going to wait untilthe summertime so we can get
this completed.
And the tenant was actuallyreally understanding at that
point.
They really, they reallyunderstood why they needed to
wait and the.
They were really happy and didmake the, the accommodations to
be able to access the property,with the other the other
(05:35):
entrances and the tenant issuper happy and the job looks
really great.
But it would have been, muchmore time.
It would have been just a lot, abigger scale, For doing
something in the winter thatsecond, because the tenant
wanted it that second versusjust waiting a short period of
time to be able to get it doneright.
Once and done completely.
(05:56):
And, and this tenant they alsohad those concerns because they,
the, the property, during theearthquake, it did have a little
bit more cosmetic cracks andthings like that.
So they were also kind of justworried that.
their, their property that they,that they were living in was
probably unsafe.
We ended up getting that checkedout and everything was good
though, but that's also anotherpiece of that puzzle was, they
were just feeling as if theproperty they were living in was
(06:20):
maybe not the safest and didn'treally understand the realities
of that scenario and thatsituation.
And the greatest thing was, isthey were safe in the end.
Kassandra Taggart (06:59):
You did a beautiful job of explaining,
like the story in the sense ofhow it started explaining
education is the power of thiscommunication.
And in this particularsituation, what a lot of people
may not know is that that tenantwas so upset in the beginning,
they were doing multiple emails,multiple phone calls, just
harassing and haranguingeverybody, because they were.
scared, so that we're acting outof the fear of being scared and
(07:22):
they were using the method ofbeing angry to get attention, to
get something done.
So sometimes just listening andthen starting the education
process is the thing that canget them over and forward to a
solution.
But you have to be patient toget through all of them.
Fears and their emotions andtheir, and their tactics of how
(07:44):
they communicate to get theirattention before you can get to
a solution.
So, that's the reality, and Ithink your, your advice is very
accurate that listen first, thensolve and go from there.
I want to go onto the nextconversation cause a lot of the
landlords have this issue and.
They use excuses to not pick upthe phone and have a
(08:06):
conversation.
They use the excuses becausethey're scared to call people
and say pay rent.
But one of your earlyassignments, when you started
here at real property managementwas calling tenants and simply
asking for the rent paymentsand.
I know when we first gave thatassignment to you, it was a
little daunting, but why don'tyou share some light of what
(08:28):
went through your head?
What would through the processand how it actually happened
when you started making thosephone calls and building the
skillset of, of having theconversation about pay your
rent?
Dubi Rivera (08:38):
Well, it was definitely, a first it was kind
of my first time really intolike property management.
And I think the DIY landlordswill be able to really relate to
this a little bit because,sometimes they're, they're just
new, they're new to the wholescene and getting to do that.
And sometimes, you might buy aproperty that already has
tenants in it, and it's just,having to put things together
(08:58):
and fit the pieces to.
Figure out what had happenedbefore you even knew anything
about it.
And for me, it was a lot ofhours of just listening to
tenants and.
what they had to say about theirsituation.
I think there is a great thingabout being someone new to a
property and being another ear,because it does give tenants
(09:19):
more of a sense of trust andunderstanding that, Hey, there's
this, this person, might be ableto understand what, where I'm
coming from and understandwhat's happening.
And it was.
just really realizing they needan outlet to be able to
understand where their currentfinancial situation is.
And most of the time they reallysay more to really help you when
(09:40):
you really listen to them on,their concerns, whether,
sometimes it's just a familystruggle, there's a, our father
had passed away and he he'd mademost of the money and now we're
just scrambling and, and reallygetting to understand.
Where the beginning of the, theproblem was and where they
started to go downhill in theirrent payments.
(10:00):
Sometimes it was, really easy aslike, sometimes we're like, Hey,
I'm sorry, I'm late all thetime.
My.
Paychecks have changed.
I now get different pay dates.
So now I have to split moneyhere and I have to split money
there, and this is kind of howit's working.
And sometimes it's, it's those,those answers sometimes it's a
personal one that sometimes it'sjust, it's all sorts of
(10:22):
different things.
And so really understanding,and, and not being there to be
this mean.
Like person of like, you need topay rent.
Now I'm going to evict you.
It's more of coming to them andbe like, Hey, what's going on
with your rent?
Let's let me know what ishappening here.
Let's see how we can fix it.
Let's come together.
let's have this conversation sothat we can.
(10:45):
Trying to help you out in yourin your, your account here in
your, you don't want to be sentto collections in the future.
Let's see what we can do toavoid that.
And knowing them, knowing thatyou're there to help them and
not necessarily, want to kickthem out.
The second that, you see howmuch they owe kind of gives them
a more kind of gives themencouragement to want to bring
their balance down and to, feellike there's hope for them that
(11:08):
they can actually do that andachieve that.
Kassandra Taggart (11:13):
I agree that just having the conversation as
the first step, the second stepis once again, listening to the
story and engaging in the storyand walking them through that,
there is hope, but they justneed to communicate and find a
solution together.
How a, we all know that sometenants.
(11:34):
Sly some tenants don't tell thefour story and because they do
that to delay or create tacticsor for many reasons.
So how have you grown theexperience of knowing when
they're lying or telling thetruth?
So that way you can makedecisions to create payment
plans or arrangements to avoidcollections and evictions at the
(11:56):
same time, make a win-win forthe landlord where they're
collecting some money.
So, what have you learned to getthrough that
Dubi Rivera (12:04):
most of the time?
You.
And doing this for a while, youstart to realize that the reason
why tenants lie in the firstplace, it's just a reaction to
them being scared.
This is their home.
This is, their, their safespace.
And now that they're safespaces, in jeopardy, they, they
want to do as much as they canto, hold off on having that hard
(12:27):
conversation of.
this, this safe space of yourscould be taken away because of
what's going on right now.
And so they're scared and, andthat's just the, their instant
reaction to being that is justto lie.
And sometimes, they'reembarrassed about mistakes that
they've made.
They're, just going through alot, in a sense of, their
choices or, what just happens tocome about in their lives.
(12:51):
And.
One thing that is crucial isreally just to let them know
that, when you're coming tothem, that it doesn't have to
end in eviction.
And it doesn't, it really doesnot have to end in eviction and
it can be a situation where apayment plan can be, can be made
for this, this tenant.
(13:12):
As long as.
You started off with let's dosome contingencies first, you
don't want to instantly openyour arms to someone who has
been, very closed to you or notreally wanting to also help
themselves.
So that's something also toconsider.
I would normally start off witha, like, if you make this
payment, so like you can do,let's do, let's do a 10% down
(13:37):
and then let's get you on apayment plan or, If you pay, a
hundred dollars today.
And you do, 200 tomorrow thensure.
Let's get you on that.
And that's starting that trustis, is that starting to build
that and you're starting to seewhether or not this tenant is
true and is real to wanting tokeep their place.
(13:58):
And that's a really greatstarting point.
And I do that a lot with tenantsjust to really see if, cause you
don't want to spend the nextcouple months.
Trying to see if they're willingto bring their bones down or to
take that chance because you'vealready lost, however long it
was since their last payment.
So working with them does, doesreally, really help.
And just really.
(14:19):
Understanding their situation,like I've said before in, in to
getting there.
I do remember I did have thesetenants, so it was a family
situation that had happened andthey had to go down to the lower
48 and everybody knows howexpensive that can be and how
expensive Alaska is altogether.
And so they did have to takesome time down there and they
(14:39):
really just, they didn't haveeverything set up to do that,
but I mean, family comes first,So they did, they just took the
chance they went.
they, they.
Did everything that they had todo during that time.
And we had lost allcommunication with them.
They were not responding to us.
they were just completelycutting us off.
We would, we would knock ontheir door.
No answer.
No ratings slowly the, thephones started to say that they
(15:02):
were no longer in service.
And then we only had one numberthat we believed worked, and yet
that one was always sent tovoicemail.
And it was just a constantstruggle.
And then.
Finally, when they did comeback, and, and they spoke to us
they had explained what wasgoing on, after some time of
trying to, Dodge us because theywere embarrassed and scared and,
(15:24):
and everything.
And then eventually we, we.
Did a percent down like, Hey,we're going to 15% down of your
total balance.
We'll do that.
And we'll start a payment plan.
And I started to kind of get inwith them, the explanation of
how this payment plan is goingto work.
The payment plan specificallywas fitting when their pay dates
(15:45):
were so that they knew once theygot paid that, Hey, I remember
I've got to pay this now.
I don't want to, we don't wantto give them the ability to,
have some, some days to be ableto just, put that money
somewhere else.
And it fit really well with, howtheir, their payments were
coming through and believe it ornot, we are now$2,000 down from
(16:07):
their original balance.
They pay rent.
On time each month.
And they actually pay more thantheir scheduled payment plan now
then then.
What they would have been doingif we hadn't, stepped in and
talked about it now that wasable to allow us to avoid the
eviction.
We now receive rent payments ontime each month, plus for past
(16:28):
balances.
And now these tenants, don'thave to go through, having that
on the record.
There's nothing sent tocollections and hope that we
receive that money.
There's something in placethat's helping us.
Get that for the owner.
It did take some time, but wefinally got there and it is so
much better than what itcould've been and taking that
chance and being able to workwith that tenant.
(16:49):
And once they really feltcomfortable in the situation,
they, they really, they enjoyedit and they are really, really
happy right now.
And they're so happy thatthey're even paying more than
what they're they're scheduledto do.
So they're actually going to bedone with their payment plan
here soon.
Kassandra Taggart (17:04):
I think you said it well, when you said what
I like to call the carrotapproach.
It's okay.
You want my carrot and you wantit more than anything.
So I'm going to give a littlepiece of the carrot to you.
And if you reach out and try tograb that carrot and we start
building this trust, that's howyou can tell the liars from the
(17:27):
ones that are really trying, andthen you can eventually give
them the carrot.
And then we're all happy.
Cause they're fed and they gottheir carrot and we can keep
growing more carrots to give tothem.
So it's the carrot approach.
So.
The the reality is, is theeasiest way to tell the
difference between the liarsversus the others is written
agreements.
And they actually do, Hey, I'llgive you this.
(17:49):
If you give me this and you dobite-size until they can finally
wrap their head around it,everybody builds trust with it.
And we start making progressbecause if there's no progress,
obviously the eviction is theroute.
So I think that's an amazingstory because you're right.
Doesn't have to end in aneviction.
I think would be helpful forothers to hear about is that at
(18:10):
our company, at real propertymanagement, we make it mandatory
to have renter's insurance.
We don't make it mandatorybecause we're mean evil property
managers.
We don't do it because we'retrying to be mean landlords.
We do it because we're trying toprotect the financial interest
of all parties involved in thetransaction of managing and
leasing of real estate.
Right.
So how are you able to talk totenants about renter's insurance
(18:36):
and about the processes of itwhen they're upset
Dubi Rivera (18:39):
most of the time, their main, questions and what
kind of gets them.
Upset is really why do I need tohave renter's insurance?
why is this a requirement?
And the thing is on that one,it's basically, it's, it helps
everybody involved wheneverthere's an accident or, there's
(19:02):
something that was not expectedthat happens at the property
either by the tenant or, by aneighbor or something along
those lines.
And that is like an extra layerof protection for both the
homeowner and the renterthemselves.
for example, you want to makesure if, if you're a renter and.
Let's say that you, youaccidentally leave a, a stove
(19:24):
running and things catch onfire, which is a really common
thing that happens.
everybody's gone through atleast like almost a scare of
that, if not the real deal.
you want to make sure that youhave that coverage to you.
Don't have to pay that out ofpocket.
You don't have to you didn'tjust lose your entire kitchen
full of, all this food and allof these items you would
purchase.
you would want to have thatgetting taken care of for you.
(19:48):
And that's really what thatrenter's insurance does.
And you having to owe all ofthis money to the landlord,
doesn't have to be a reality.
Your insurance company can haveit be taken care of for you.
You can have this safety blanketfor you that can take care of
these situations that are.
Very real.
And they do have been, andsometimes people are like, eh,
(20:09):
it's not going to happen to me.
And then, it could, it couldhappen.
That's and that's the thing thatpeople need to really understand
is that it's helping people andit helps people every day.
And we want to make sure thatour tenants, if anything were to
happen like that, they wouldhave that safety blanket.
They have that something tolatch onto.
That's not going to.
Yeah, make them homeless or, getthem in that financial distress
(20:33):
to, be open to any sort of likelawsuits or to anything.
And that's essentially reallywhy we require it.
And we always make sure that thetenants are up to date on their
insurance.
So what happens there is if weget at RPM, a notice of
cancellation from the renter'sinsurance company, usually what
(20:54):
that means it could mean that,the tenant had just canceled
their policy and they're goingwith another another company, or
it could be that theyaccidentally missed a payment.
and didn't really realize it,or, anything along those lines,
it could be a number of thingswhen we receive that.
We always reach out to thetenant and we're like, Hey, we
just received this notice ofcancellation.
We need you to turn in newdocuments.
(21:16):
And most of the time tenants arelike, well, I've already
renewed.
And the issue there is it kindof, it leaves something open of,
Hey, your insurance company toldus that it's being canceled.
You want to make sure that youdidn't just get someone on the
phone and told them who told youeverything's all right.
You want to make sure you havebeen in writing.
You want to make sure that ifsomething were to happen.
The next day they can't, go backon their word.
(21:38):
They can't do anything else orsay anything else, aside from
what you remember, you weretold.
And there's also that level ofwell, did I understand
incorrectly?
Did I really, know what theywere trying to explain to me
when they were saying this and,and things like that.
So if you, you get thatdocumentation, if you get it in
(21:59):
writing.
That's like another level ofsafety for you for your policy
itself.
And so we always require fortenants to turn in a renewal so
they can there's a reinstatementpolicy form as well that we get
sent over from the insurancecompanies.
Once payment is made.
Also if they switch over to anew insurance company, just
(22:19):
sending over a new declarationsof the policy is another great.
Proof of insurance.
And things like that that reallyeven keep the tenants to make
sure that they're up-to-date andthat they have everything
correctly done.
And then sometimes it also hasto deal with having to explain
it to them.
what certain pieces theinsurance is.
(22:39):
I mean, we're not insurancelicensees but we can be able to
help them make sure that theyget certain levels of coverage,
and for example, like we require300,000 personal liability
coverage so but ultimatelyhaving renter's insurance making
sure that your tenant is up todate on it is very important,
(23:00):
making sure that they areaccountable for their renter's
insurance.
And making sure that all of theinformation is up to date is
really important.
Kassandra Taggart (23:09):
Well, let's talk about the scary, scary
conversation about leaseenforcement.
Every time there's a chat on thelandlord's forum, it's usually
around how do I do leaseenforcement?
We're typically findingviolations by doing property
walk.
Throughs, but performed bymaintenance teams or other
tenants complaining about theother tenant would drive by and
(23:32):
notice something.
Or third party happened to gointo the property and report
something.
Or we get the phone call fromthe police department.
So we hear about the violationsall the time from different
avenues, different places.
How would you describe.
The conversation, bringing upwith the tenant about lease
(23:52):
enforcement when you're havingto give them the bad news that
they broke it.
Yeah.
We had to find for it and wherewe go from here.
Dubi Rivera (24:00):
So it really just depend depends on what stage you
are with the tenant themselves,are they new?
Like in this scenario, let'spretend that they're a new
tenant.
They were just placed, they'reexcited about their new place.
They're going to start doingwhatever they need to most of
the time you really want to be,you want to make sure that
you're not Making them feel asif you're, going to be
(24:22):
critiquing everything that'sgoing on.
cause they, they, they do wantto be able to have their own
lives and they are just gettingtheir first new impressions of
this property.
And the owner itself you do wantto make sure that you just.
You've provided them all of thedocumentation that they need,
whether it is like HOA rules,whether you have house rules
itself, make sure that they havethat ahead of time, because that
(24:44):
really will help you be able toexplain, Hey, I've got this
paperwork here for the HOA.
These are some kind of rules.
It does look like you're doingthis one right now.
Can we please, figure somethingout so that it doesn't happen
moving forward.
And most of the time,surprisingly, you'll actually
get tenants who will understandwhat's going on.
I've gotten several tenants whowere really awesome.
(25:04):
They're like, Oh my goodness.
I am so sorry.
I didn't know that that was athing I skipped it or something
along those lines.
And then they're really.
they're really awesome.
And you can, you can kind of gofrom there.
Now, if you have a tenant whois, consistently, violating HOA
rules, violating your houserules and things along those
lines one of the main thingsthat you really want to do is
(25:27):
make sure that you stay stickwith your word?
I, lot of owners will be like,well, where we're going to,
we're going to post this.
I promise you, we're gonna,we're gonna do it.
And just continue to givenotices.
You do want to make sure thatyou have to backfill those, if
there's an HOA fine, you have torealize that you can back bill
(25:47):
the tenant for that.
And you want to be able to startdoing that because once they
start to see those fines,they'll start to realize that
it's no longer just a piece ofpaper being thrown at them at
their door or being posted ontheir door or hands.
Or anything it's, it's areality.
It's something that they'redoing that they need to stop.
And that kind of kicks them tothat.
Now that does also start theconversation of, this tenant is
(26:08):
not mad at me because I'm being,they know they're being charged
this, but having thatconversation of explaining to
them, Hey, you're the ones whoare causing this one.
I did give you this manynotices.
I did, come to you.
And I explained this to youseveral times.
Unfortunately, It's about fillon your account and you have to
pay for that.
(26:29):
And just really telling themwhat is going on, just why it's
happening.
Just going into detail on thatone.
And, and essentially that's, it,it's a difficult conversation.
But ultimately, I mean, I'venever had A tenant, go,
ballistic in, in, in the sensethat they, stopped paying rent
(26:49):
altogether.
That's never happened.
they've been, Oh, that's, that'ssuper annoying and have
threatened to do so and havethreatened to, all these sorts
of things, but ultimately.
Most of the time, those peopleknow that this is their home and
this is just one fee.
And that moving forward, theyhave to adjust themselves.
They have to fix it.
And ultimately it does get done.
Kassandra Taggart (27:10):
You're correct that you got to hold
people accountable and then walkthem through it.
And if you say you're going tomake a threat, you need to do
the threat.
You can't just sit there and notdo the threat, and then you have
to hold them accountable.
It's not about being mean it'sabout holding people accountable
and there's a process to it.
And if you don't hold yourselfaccountable to holding them
accountable, Nothing gets done.
(27:32):
That's the reality of being in atenant situation is that you're
now like the mom or the dad thathas to enforce tenant behavior
and you got to come through withit and you have to have the
courage to do so sitting backand not doing something is worse
than Speaking up and being maybewrong about what you said.
(27:52):
So in my opinion, what needs tohappen is landlords just need to
have the conversation.
Dubi Rivera (27:59):
Yeah, I would say that that's a great way to
approach it and really just.
Making sure that you're notbeing vague with what's going
on.
you don't just tell them.
Well, you have, there's aviolation with things that you
have on your porch.
And it's like, Hey, we're notallowed to have grills on the
porch specifically, and we'renot supposed to have these, a
(28:23):
propane tanks and things likethat is making sure that they
understand even exactly what therules are and what exactly
they're violating what rulesthey're violating because that
also makes sure to them thatthat specific thing isn't being
done And then if it is, forexample, everything on a porch,
let them know, Hey you, this iswhat you have on your porch
(28:45):
right now, but there's nothingcan be on there moving forward.
Those are just the HOA rules andwe all know how hos are with
their rules and everything.
But really.
Having that conversation andexplaining and holding onto your
word is really the best thing todo when having to enforce fees
those certain violations on thelease agreement.
Kassandra Taggart (29:08):
It's one of those things where I think you
make a really good point bysaying, you have to be clear if
the HOA is intending foreverything on that deck to be
removed, don't just say, Hey,clean up the deck, say
everything on that deck needs tobe off, except for one chance.
And be that clear because a lotof the problems that we have at
(29:29):
least enforcement is being clearenough to where they understand
so they can behave accordingly.
And just because you think youexplained yourself well doesn't
mean that they understood whatyou've explained.
I mean, it's just, communicationgoes both ways.
It's just as much as being ableto have the conversation as it
is to be able to make sure thatthey comprehended the
conversation to proceed fromthere.
(29:50):
I'm going to wrap up with onefinal question for you.
And it's a difficult question.
No, I'm kidding.
So what would you say is thefinal thought that you would
want to give or share with ourlisteners today that that's that
one tip or that one idea thatcomes to mind to help them be as
(30:10):
good as you.
Dubi Rivera (30:12):
I would say always try to understand where your
tenant is coming from.
If you always try to take intoconsideration their thoughts and
feelings, you're going to have agreat.
Relationship with that tenant.
And hopefully a great tendency,but if you only think solely
about how it will affect you andyour situation and not also
(30:36):
considering the tenants it canbe a Rocky a Rocky relationship.
Kassandra Taggart (30:40):
I think that's an amazing advice.
A lot of times people get sowrapped up in the emotions of
their world and their managementstyle and what they would do if
they were the tenant.
And it has nothing to do withthat.
It has everything has to dowith, are we communicating?
Are we honoring the contract?
Are we holding peopleaccountable?
(31:00):
To the contracts and making it abusiness decision.
Did we get as much informationto be able to make up as this
business decision and actuallydoing it?
It's, it's not about you at all.
This is business and you're nothere to be me, not here to be
hurtful, here to express youremotion.
(31:21):
You're here to conduct businessas a professional and get things
done.
So let's all make profit.
Well, thank you so muchlisteners for listening in
today.
I'm with Doobie.
She's an amazing skill withcommunicating tenants and
keeping them on the same pagewith the landlord so we can push
forward in our lives.
(31:41):
Debbie is a valuable person tolisten to.
I hope that you save thispodcast for the future.
I do anticipate her coming backso we can talk about the depths
of other conversations thank you
We have another special guest that I'm
very excited to introduceeveryone to her name is Doobie.
What's very special about her isher amazing people skills.
The skillset is something thatmany landlords need to have or
develop because it helps in manydifficult and frustrating
situations with tenants insideof our company here at Real
Property Management in Alaska,as a result today's conversation
(00:53):
is all about havingconversations with tenants.
Deescalating situations and howthe power of communication
builds trust, avoids headaches,and grows our profits.
So welcome today.
Doobie.
How are you?
Dubi Rivera (01:07):
I'm good.
Thank you for having me.
Kassandra Taggart (01:11):
What is your current role inside of Real
Property Management?
Dubi Rivera (01:15):
I am, I'm one of the licensees resident
coordinator.
I basically enforce, helpenforce the lease and basically
servicing tenants, helpinganswer any of their questions
and tenant retention.
Kassandra Taggart (01:27):
It's a busy role, especially with how many
tenants we have these days.
So, how does your role in thecompany provide insight or help
the, do it yourself, communityof landlords or landlords out
there listening to those showtoday?
Dubi Rivera (01:41):
Basically, when there is an issue that comes up,
when with a tenant or has todeal with like an HOA or, any
sort of issue that comes withthe lease agreements.
A common thing that DIYlandlords have to face is,
having to bring that up to thetenant and making sure that they
don't jeopardize the workingrelationship between themselves
(02:02):
and the tenant.
Bring something up to enforcethe lease, provide notice, or
anything regarding that doesn'tmean that you have to, ruin what
you have with that tenant.
Whether it was a greatrelationship beforehand, or if
it was already, not really thebest and, you feel like you're
making a worse.
So basically it's being able tosay no being able to stand your
(02:24):
ground and, just being able tohelp explain that and how to do
that accurately.
Kassandra Taggart (02:30):
Yeah, I agree with you that it's difficult to
say no while still maintainingthe relationship and not
jeopardizing it to be adifficult relationship for the
remaining part of the lease.
So it's a balancing act.
That's for sure.
I agree with you.
I believe every landlord has atenant and I'm pretty sure many
listening today will hear me onthis one that likes to submit
(02:52):
many work orders over and overand over.
And they become picky orannoying.
what are some of the tactics athandling the stress of a picky
tenant
Dubi Rivera (03:03):
Most of the time when they're freaking out
because they, want somethingcompleted.
A part of that kind of helpswith that is if you explain to
them the updates and.
The process of how to completewhat they're asking for.
It usually does help themrealize the realities of certain
things, we can't change yourhome floors like overnight.
(03:25):
Sometimes it does take timethere's so many different parts
of the process that need to betaken care of and that need to
be done so that they don't endup with a half done job or with
a poorly done job or somethingalong those lines.
Another thing is you also wantto make sure that you're
completely listening to them.
Sometimes their concerns they'llkind of mask it with just anger
(03:46):
and wanting it to be done, butsometimes it could be they're
really thinking about the safetyfor their other kids or.
There's something else going onin their lives.
And they're kind of justbringing that up at the same
time.
It's kind of something that youreally need to look at and you
want to make sure that you'regiving them time to explain,
versus just instantly writingoff all of their concerns or,
(04:08):
any questions they may haveSometimes they need to be
brought back to realizing howthings do work.
And sometimes what they might behearing is a no, but really it's
not a no, it's just.
We're going to have to wait atthis time or, it's going to have
to be postponed.
And then that could be for a lotof different reasons.
And I bring that up because forexample, there's one time where
(04:30):
we did have a tenant and it wasit was the wrong middle of
winter.
And they did have, a porchconcern where the porch did not
seem as if it was as stable asthey would like it to be.
And.
The tenant, they really, reallywanted it to be fixed that same
day.
They wanted somebody to go outand to deal with it, but our
vendors, they were all there.
All of their recommendationswere, Hey, we should probably
(04:52):
wait until the summer.
it's really, really cold in thewinter for Alaska.
It's, you're risking, lots ofmoney than doing it in the
summer to, possibly not get thebest result.
Like you could, if you were to.
Complete this, and then summer,the tenant did have other means
of access to the property.
And it was something of like,Hey, we're, we're not saying no,
(05:13):
it's just, we want to make surethis is done right.
And it's done right the firsttime for you.
And so we're going to wait untilthe summertime so we can get
this completed.
And the tenant was actuallyreally understanding at that
point.
They really, they reallyunderstood why they needed to
wait and the.
They were really happy and didmake the, the accommodations to
be able to access the property,with the other the other
(05:35):
entrances and the tenant issuper happy and the job looks
really great.
But it would have been, muchmore time.
It would have been just a lot, abigger scale, For doing
something in the winter thatsecond, because the tenant
wanted it that second versusjust waiting a short period of
time to be able to get it doneright.
Once and done completely.
(05:56):
And, and this tenant they alsohad those concerns because they,
the, the property, during theearthquake, it did have a little
bit more cosmetic cracks andthings like that.
So they were also kind of justworried that.
their, their property that they,that they were living in was
probably unsafe.
We ended up getting that checkedout and everything was good
though, but that's also anotherpiece of that puzzle was, they
were just feeling as if theproperty they were living in was
(06:20):
maybe not the safest and didn'treally understand the realities
of that scenario and thatsituation.
And the greatest thing was, isthey were safe in the end.
Kassandra Taggart (06:59):
You did a beautiful job of explaining,
like the story in the sense ofhow it started explaining
education is the power of thiscommunication.
And in this particularsituation, what a lot of people
may not know is that that tenantwas so upset in the beginning,
they were doing multiple emails,multiple phone calls, just
harassing and haranguingeverybody, because they were.
scared, so that we're acting outof the fear of being scared and
(07:22):
they were using the method ofbeing angry to get attention, to
get something done.
So sometimes just listening andthen starting the education
process is the thing that canget them over and forward to a
solution.
But you have to be patient toget through all of them.
Fears and their emotions andtheir, and their tactics of how
(07:44):
they communicate to get theirattention before you can get to
a solution.
So, that's the reality, and Ithink your, your advice is very
accurate that listen first, thensolve and go from there.
I want to go onto the nextconversation cause a lot of the
landlords have this issue and.
They use excuses to not pick upthe phone and have a
(08:06):
conversation.
They use the excuses becausethey're scared to call people
and say pay rent.
But one of your earlyassignments, when you started
here at real property managementwas calling tenants and simply
asking for the rent paymentsand.
I know when we first gave thatassignment to you, it was a
little daunting, but why don'tyou share some light of what
(08:28):
went through your head?
What would through the processand how it actually happened
when you started making thosephone calls and building the
skillset of, of having theconversation about pay your
rent?
Dubi Rivera (08:38):
Well, it was definitely, a first it was kind
of my first time really intolike property management.
And I think the DIY landlordswill be able to really relate to
this a little bit because,sometimes they're, they're just
new, they're new to the wholescene and getting to do that.
And sometimes, you might buy aproperty that already has
tenants in it, and it's just,having to put things together
(08:58):
and fit the pieces to.
Figure out what had happenedbefore you even knew anything
about it.
And for me, it was a lot ofhours of just listening to
tenants and.
what they had to say about theirsituation.
I think there is a great thingabout being someone new to a
property and being another ear,because it does give tenants
(09:19):
more of a sense of trust andunderstanding that, Hey, there's
this, this person, might be ableto understand what, where I'm
coming from and understandwhat's happening.
And it was.
just really realizing they needan outlet to be able to
understand where their currentfinancial situation is.
And most of the time they reallysay more to really help you when
(09:40):
you really listen to them on,their concerns, whether,
sometimes it's just a familystruggle, there's a, our father
had passed away and he he'd mademost of the money and now we're
just scrambling and, and reallygetting to understand.
Where the beginning of the, theproblem was and where they
started to go downhill in theirrent payments.
(10:00):
Sometimes it was, really easy aslike, sometimes we're like, Hey,
I'm sorry, I'm late all thetime.
My.
Paychecks have changed.
I now get different pay dates.
So now I have to split moneyhere and I have to split money
there, and this is kind of howit's working.
And sometimes it's, it's those,those answers sometimes it's a
personal one that sometimes it'sjust, it's all sorts of
(10:22):
different things.
And so really understanding,and, and not being there to be
this mean.
Like person of like, you need topay rent.
Now I'm going to evict you.
It's more of coming to them andbe like, Hey, what's going on
with your rent?
Let's let me know what ishappening here.
Let's see how we can fix it.
Let's come together.
let's have this conversation sothat we can.
(10:45):
Trying to help you out in yourin your, your account here in
your, you don't want to be sentto collections in the future.
Let's see what we can do toavoid that.
And knowing them, knowing thatyou're there to help them and
not necessarily, want to kickthem out.
The second that, you see howmuch they owe kind of gives them
a more kind of gives themencouragement to want to bring
their balance down and to, feellike there's hope for them that
(11:08):
they can actually do that andachieve that.
Kassandra Taggart (11:13):
I agree that just having the conversation as
the first step, the second stepis once again, listening to the
story and engaging in the storyand walking them through that,
there is hope, but they justneed to communicate and find a
solution together.
How a, we all know that sometenants.
(11:34):
Sly some tenants don't tell thefour story and because they do
that to delay or create tacticsor for many reasons.
So how have you grown theexperience of knowing when
they're lying or telling thetruth?
So that way you can makedecisions to create payment
plans or arrangements to avoidcollections and evictions at the
(11:56):
same time, make a win-win forthe landlord where they're
collecting some money.
So, what have you learned to getthrough that
Dubi Rivera (12:04):
most of the time?
You.
And doing this for a while, youstart to realize that the reason
why tenants lie in the firstplace, it's just a reaction to
them being scared.
This is their home.
This is, their, their safespace.
And now that they're safespaces, in jeopardy, they, they
want to do as much as they canto, hold off on having that hard
(12:27):
conversation of.
this, this safe space of yourscould be taken away because of
what's going on right now.
And so they're scared and, andthat's just the, their instant
reaction to being that is justto lie.
And sometimes, they'reembarrassed about mistakes that
they've made.
They're, just going through alot, in a sense of, their
choices or, what just happens tocome about in their lives.
(12:51):
And.
One thing that is crucial isreally just to let them know
that, when you're coming tothem, that it doesn't have to
end in eviction.
And it doesn't, it really doesnot have to end in eviction and
it can be a situation where apayment plan can be, can be made
for this, this tenant.
(13:12):
As long as.
You started off with let's dosome contingencies first, you
don't want to instantly openyour arms to someone who has
been, very closed to you or notreally wanting to also help
themselves.
So that's something also toconsider.
I would normally start off witha, like, if you make this
payment, so like you can do,let's do, let's do a 10% down
(13:37):
and then let's get you on apayment plan or, If you pay, a
hundred dollars today.
And you do, 200 tomorrow thensure.
Let's get you on that.
And that's starting that trustis, is that starting to build
that and you're starting to seewhether or not this tenant is
true and is real to wanting tokeep their place.
(13:58):
And that's a really greatstarting point.
And I do that a lot with tenantsjust to really see if, cause you
don't want to spend the nextcouple months.
Trying to see if they're willingto bring their bones down or to
take that chance because you'vealready lost, however long it
was since their last payment.
So working with them does, doesreally, really help.
And just really.
(14:19):
Understanding their situation,like I've said before in, in to
getting there.
I do remember I did have thesetenants, so it was a family
situation that had happened andthey had to go down to the lower
48 and everybody knows howexpensive that can be and how
expensive Alaska is altogether.
And so they did have to takesome time down there and they
(14:39):
really just, they didn't haveeverything set up to do that,
but I mean, family comes first,So they did, they just took the
chance they went.
they, they.
Did everything that they had todo during that time.
And we had lost allcommunication with them.
They were not responding to us.
they were just completelycutting us off.
We would, we would knock ontheir door.
No answer.
No ratings slowly the, thephones started to say that they
(15:02):
were no longer in service.
And then we only had one numberthat we believed worked, and yet
that one was always sent tovoicemail.
And it was just a constantstruggle.
And then.
Finally, when they did comeback, and, and they spoke to us
they had explained what wasgoing on, after some time of
trying to, Dodge us because theywere embarrassed and scared and,
(15:24):
and everything.
And then eventually we, we.
Did a percent down like, Hey,we're going to 15% down of your
total balance.
We'll do that.
And we'll start a payment plan.
And I started to kind of get inwith them, the explanation of
how this payment plan is goingto work.
The payment plan specificallywas fitting when their pay dates
(15:45):
were so that they knew once theygot paid that, Hey, I remember
I've got to pay this now.
I don't want to, we don't wantto give them the ability to,
have some, some days to be ableto just, put that money
somewhere else.
And it fit really well with, howtheir, their payments were
coming through and believe it ornot, we are now$2,000 down from
(16:07):
their original balance.
They pay rent.
On time each month.
And they actually pay more thantheir scheduled payment plan now
then then.
What they would have been doingif we hadn't, stepped in and
talked about it now that wasable to allow us to avoid the
eviction.
We now receive rent payments ontime each month, plus for past
(16:28):
balances.
And now these tenants, don'thave to go through, having that
on the record.
There's nothing sent tocollections and hope that we
receive that money.
There's something in placethat's helping us.
Get that for the owner.
It did take some time, but wefinally got there and it is so
much better than what itcould've been and taking that
chance and being able to workwith that tenant.
(16:49):
And once they really feltcomfortable in the situation,
they, they really, they enjoyedit and they are really, really
happy right now.
And they're so happy thatthey're even paying more than
what they're they're scheduledto do.
So they're actually going to bedone with their payment plan
here soon.
Kassandra Taggart (17:04):
I think you said it well, when you said what
I like to call the carrotapproach.
It's okay.
You want my carrot and you wantit more than anything.
So I'm going to give a littlepiece of the carrot to you.
And if you reach out and try tograb that carrot and we start
building this trust, that's howyou can tell the liars from the
(17:27):
ones that are really trying, andthen you can eventually give
them the carrot.
And then we're all happy.
Cause they're fed and they gottheir carrot and we can keep
growing more carrots to give tothem.
So it's the carrot approach.
So.
The the reality is, is theeasiest way to tell the
difference between the liarsversus the others is written
agreements.
And they actually do, Hey, I'llgive you this.
(17:49):
If you give me this and you dobite-size until they can finally
wrap their head around it,everybody builds trust with it.
And we start making progressbecause if there's no progress,
obviously the eviction is theroute.
So I think that's an amazingstory because you're right.
Doesn't have to end in aneviction.
I think would be helpful forothers to hear about is that at
(18:10):
our company, at real propertymanagement, we make it mandatory
to have renter's insurance.
We don't make it mandatorybecause we're mean evil property
managers.
We don't do it because we'retrying to be mean landlords.
We do it because we're trying toprotect the financial interest
of all parties involved in thetransaction of managing and
leasing of real estate.
Right.
So how are you able to talk totenants about renter's insurance
(18:36):
and about the processes of itwhen they're upset
Dubi Rivera (18:39):
most of the time, their main, questions and what
kind of gets them.
Upset is really why do I need tohave renter's insurance?
why is this a requirement?
And the thing is on that one,it's basically, it's, it helps
everybody involved wheneverthere's an accident or, there's
(19:02):
something that was not expectedthat happens at the property
either by the tenant or, by aneighbor or something along
those lines.
And that is like an extra layerof protection for both the
homeowner and the renterthemselves.
for example, you want to makesure if, if you're a renter and.
Let's say that you, youaccidentally leave a, a stove
(19:24):
running and things catch onfire, which is a really common
thing that happens.
everybody's gone through atleast like almost a scare of
that, if not the real deal.
you want to make sure that youhave that coverage to you.
Don't have to pay that out ofpocket.
You don't have to you didn'tjust lose your entire kitchen
full of, all this food and allof these items you would
purchase.
you would want to have thatgetting taken care of for you.
(19:48):
And that's really what thatrenter's insurance does.
And you having to owe all ofthis money to the landlord,
doesn't have to be a reality.
Your insurance company can haveit be taken care of for you.
You can have this safety blanketfor you that can take care of
these situations that are.
Very real.
And they do have been, andsometimes people are like, eh,
(20:09):
it's not going to happen to me.
And then, it could, it couldhappen.
That's and that's the thing thatpeople need to really understand
is that it's helping people andit helps people every day.
And we want to make sure thatour tenants, if anything were to
happen like that, they wouldhave that safety blanket.
They have that something tolatch onto.
That's not going to.
Yeah, make them homeless or, getthem in that financial distress
(20:33):
to, be open to any sort of likelawsuits or to anything.
And that's essentially reallywhy we require it.
And we always make sure that thetenants are up to date on their
insurance.
So what happens there is if weget at RPM, a notice of
cancellation from the renter'sinsurance company, usually what
(20:54):
that means it could mean that,the tenant had just canceled
their policy and they're goingwith another another company, or
it could be that theyaccidentally missed a payment.
and didn't really realize it,or, anything along those lines,
it could be a number of thingswhen we receive that.
We always reach out to thetenant and we're like, Hey, we
just received this notice ofcancellation.
We need you to turn in newdocuments.
(21:16):
And most of the time tenants arelike, well, I've already
renewed.
And the issue there is it kindof, it leaves something open of,
Hey, your insurance company toldus that it's being canceled.
You want to make sure that youdidn't just get someone on the
phone and told them who told youeverything's all right.
You want to make sure you havebeen in writing.
You want to make sure that ifsomething were to happen.
The next day they can't, go backon their word.
(21:38):
They can't do anything else orsay anything else, aside from
what you remember, you weretold.
And there's also that level ofwell, did I understand
incorrectly?
Did I really, know what theywere trying to explain to me
when they were saying this and,and things like that.
So if you, you get thatdocumentation, if you get it in
(21:59):
writing.
That's like another level ofsafety for you for your policy
itself.
And so we always require fortenants to turn in a renewal so
they can there's a reinstatementpolicy form as well that we get
sent over from the insurancecompanies.
Once payment is made.
Also if they switch over to anew insurance company, just
(22:19):
sending over a new declarationsof the policy is another great.
Proof of insurance.
And things like that that reallyeven keep the tenants to make
sure that they're up-to-date andthat they have everything
correctly done.
And then sometimes it also hasto deal with having to explain
it to them.
what certain pieces theinsurance is.
(22:39):
I mean, we're not insurancelicensees but we can be able to
help them make sure that theyget certain levels of coverage,
and for example, like we require300,000 personal liability
coverage so but ultimatelyhaving renter's insurance making
sure that your tenant is up todate on it is very important,
(23:00):
making sure that they areaccountable for their renter's
insurance.
And making sure that all of theinformation is up to date is
really important.
Kassandra Taggart (23:09):
Well, let's talk about the scary, scary
conversation about leaseenforcement.
Every time there's a chat on thelandlord's forum, it's usually
around how do I do leaseenforcement?
We're typically findingviolations by doing property
walk.
Throughs, but performed bymaintenance teams or other
tenants complaining about theother tenant would drive by and
(23:32):
notice something.
Or third party happened to gointo the property and report
something.
Or we get the phone call fromthe police department.
So we hear about the violationsall the time from different
avenues, different places.
How would you describe.
The conversation, bringing upwith the tenant about lease
(23:52):
enforcement when you're havingto give them the bad news that
they broke it.
Yeah.
We had to find for it and wherewe go from here.
Dubi Rivera (24:00):
So it really just depend depends on what stage you
are with the tenant themselves,are they new?
Like in this scenario, let'spretend that they're a new
tenant.
They were just placed, they'reexcited about their new place.
They're going to start doingwhatever they need to most of
the time you really want to be,you want to make sure that
you're not Making them feel asif you're, going to be
(24:22):
critiquing everything that'sgoing on.
cause they, they, they do wantto be able to have their own
lives and they are just gettingtheir first new impressions of
this property.
And the owner itself you do wantto make sure that you just.
You've provided them all of thedocumentation that they need,
whether it is like HOA rules,whether you have house rules
itself, make sure that they havethat ahead of time, because that
(24:44):
really will help you be able toexplain, Hey, I've got this
paperwork here for the HOA.
These are some kind of rules.
It does look like you're doingthis one right now.
Can we please, figure somethingout so that it doesn't happen
moving forward.
And most of the time,surprisingly, you'll actually
get tenants who will understandwhat's going on.
I've gotten several tenants whowere really awesome.
(25:04):
They're like, Oh my goodness.
I am so sorry.
I didn't know that that was athing I skipped it or something
along those lines.
And then they're really.
they're really awesome.
And you can, you can kind of gofrom there.
Now, if you have a tenant whois, consistently, violating HOA
rules, violating your houserules and things along those
lines one of the main thingsthat you really want to do is
(25:27):
make sure that you stay stickwith your word?
I, lot of owners will be like,well, where we're going to,
we're going to post this.
I promise you, we're gonna,we're gonna do it.
And just continue to givenotices.
You do want to make sure thatyou have to backfill those, if
there's an HOA fine, you have torealize that you can back bill
(25:47):
the tenant for that.
And you want to be able to startdoing that because once they
start to see those fines,they'll start to realize that
it's no longer just a piece ofpaper being thrown at them at
their door or being posted ontheir door or hands.
Or anything it's, it's areality.
It's something that they'redoing that they need to stop.
And that kind of kicks them tothat.
Now that does also start theconversation of, this tenant is
(26:08):
not mad at me because I'm being,they know they're being charged
this, but having thatconversation of explaining to
them, Hey, you're the ones whoare causing this one.
I did give you this manynotices.
I did, come to you.
And I explained this to youseveral times.
Unfortunately, It's about fillon your account and you have to
pay for that.
(26:29):
And just really telling themwhat is going on, just why it's
happening.
Just going into detail on thatone.
And, and essentially that's, it,it's a difficult conversation.
But ultimately, I mean, I'venever had A tenant, go,
ballistic in, in, in the sensethat they, stopped paying rent
(26:49):
altogether.
That's never happened.
they've been, Oh, that's, that'ssuper annoying and have
threatened to do so and havethreatened to, all these sorts
of things, but ultimately.
Most of the time, those peopleknow that this is their home and
this is just one fee.
And that moving forward, theyhave to adjust themselves.
They have to fix it.
And ultimately it does get done.
Kassandra Taggart (27:10):
You're correct that you got to hold
people accountable and then walkthem through it.
And if you say you're going tomake a threat, you need to do
the threat.
You can't just sit there and notdo the threat, and then you have
to hold them accountable.
It's not about being mean it'sabout holding people accountable
and there's a process to it.
And if you don't hold yourselfaccountable to holding them
accountable, Nothing gets done.
(27:32):
That's the reality of being in atenant situation is that you're
now like the mom or the dad thathas to enforce tenant behavior
and you got to come through withit and you have to have the
courage to do so sitting backand not doing something is worse
than Speaking up and being maybewrong about what you said.
(27:52):
So in my opinion, what needs tohappen is landlords just need to
have the conversation.
Dubi Rivera (27:59):
Yeah, I would say that that's a great way to
approach it and really just.
Making sure that you're notbeing vague with what's going
on.
you don't just tell them.
Well, you have, there's aviolation with things that you
have on your porch.
And it's like, Hey, we're notallowed to have grills on the
porch specifically, and we'renot supposed to have these, a
(28:23):
propane tanks and things likethat is making sure that they
understand even exactly what therules are and what exactly
they're violating what rulesthey're violating because that
also makes sure to them thatthat specific thing isn't being
done And then if it is, forexample, everything on a porch,
let them know, Hey you, this iswhat you have on your porch
(28:45):
right now, but there's nothingcan be on there moving forward.
Those are just the HOA rules andwe all know how hos are with
their rules and everything.
But really.
Having that conversation andexplaining and holding onto your
word is really the best thing todo when having to enforce fees
those certain violations on thelease agreement.
Kassandra Taggart (29:08):
It's one of those things where I think you
make a really good point bysaying, you have to be clear if
the HOA is intending foreverything on that deck to be
removed, don't just say, Hey,clean up the deck, say
everything on that deck needs tobe off, except for one chance.
And be that clear because a lotof the problems that we have at
(29:29):
least enforcement is being clearenough to where they understand
so they can behave accordingly.
And just because you think youexplained yourself well doesn't
mean that they understood whatyou've explained.
I mean, it's just, communicationgoes both ways.
It's just as much as being ableto have the conversation as it
is to be able to make sure thatthey comprehended the
conversation to proceed fromthere.
(29:50):
I'm going to wrap up with onefinal question for you.
And it's a difficult question.
No, I'm kidding.
So what would you say is thefinal thought that you would
want to give or share with ourlisteners today that that's that
one tip or that one idea thatcomes to mind to help them be as
(30:10):
good as you.
Dubi Rivera (30:12):
I would say always try to understand where your
tenant is coming from.
If you always try to take intoconsideration their thoughts and
feelings, you're going to have agreat.
Relationship with that tenant.
And hopefully a great tendency,but if you only think solely
about how it will affect you andyour situation and not also
(30:36):
considering the tenants it canbe a Rocky a Rocky relationship.
Kassandra Taggart (30:40):
I think that's an amazing advice.
A lot of times people get sowrapped up in the emotions of
their world and their managementstyle and what they would do if
they were the tenant.
And it has nothing to do withthat.
It has everything has to dowith, are we communicating?
Are we honoring the contract?
Are we holding peopleaccountable?
(31:00):
To the contracts and making it abusiness decision.
Did we get as much informationto be able to make up as this
business decision and actuallydoing it?
It's, it's not about you at all.
This is business and you're nothere to be me, not here to be
hurtful, here to express youremotion.
(31:21):
You're here to conduct businessas a professional and get things
done.
So let's all make profit.
Well, thank you so muchlisteners for listening in
today.
I'm with Doobie.
She's an amazing skill withcommunicating tenants and
keeping them on the same pagewith the landlord so we can push
forward in our lives.
(31:41):
Debbie is a valuable person tolisten to.
I hope that you save thispodcast for the future.
I do anticipate her coming backso we can talk about the depths
of other conversations thank you
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