February 18, 2021 • 41 mins
Sometimes we look at management companies as an expensive line item on the budget. However - I need to ask you - Are they really that costly?
Recorded:
Recorded Jan 2 2021
Host:
Kassandra Taggart
Dave Stroh - KBYR Radio
Links:
The Landlord's Almanac
Facebook Page
Website
Property Management
Donations
Sponsor the club
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.
Dave Stohr (00:00):
Good morning.
And welcome.
I want you to be my co-host thismorning.
Kassandra Taggart is thepresident of Real Property
Management Last Frontier, aproperty management company here
in Anchorage.
She is also the president.
Of the landlord's Almanac, oneof the largest landlord clubs in
the country dedicated tonetworking, supporting, and
training professional landlords.
And she is the author of thepopular book, paint or profit
(00:20):
secrets of profitable rentalproperty investors.
She joins us now from the safetyof her home office
Kassandra Taggart (00:25):
Good
Dave Stohr (00:25):
morning well, if you listen to the radio
specifically, K B Y R, then youknow, that real property
management last frontierprovides professional property
management services, but you canonly learn so much in just 60
seconds this morning, we take anin-depth look at just what it
is.
That real property managementlast frontier does for each and
(00:46):
every client that employs theirservices.
It is the topic of our firstconversation this morning with
Kassandra, you get to talk aboutyourself this morning.
If a landlord and or investorwanted to make more time in
their life for the living oflife, then wouldn't hiring a
property management company likeyours.
Be the way to go about living alife filled with more time.
Kassandra Taggart (01:06):
When you think about time, time, and
money is valuable these days,you know, you want to spend time
with your profession, with yourfamily, with your friends and
rentals do take a lot of time.
It's the business.
And sometimes it's a lot moreaffordable to hire a third
party, to help do all of thelittle knickknacks things like
(01:28):
keeping track of papers.
so that way you don't have to,you can get back to your life.
Dave Stohr (01:33):
You know, when I broke it all down, Kassandra,
all the services that youprovide to landlords and or
investors, it's a wonder theycould do anything at all, but
manage their properties on afull-time basis, which is a job
that they probably left topursue a life of freedom.
What does a property owner haveto do after they have hired real
property management, lastfrontier.
Kassandra Taggart (01:52):
So after they hired
Dave Stohr (01:54):
us,
Kassandra Taggart (01:54):
basically, really what they have to do is
what we call managing of themanager.
And you have to remember, youare still the landlord, you
still own the property and youstill make the decisions on the
property.
The things that we take off yourplate is like recordkeeping
accounting.
A lot of the tenant phone calls,how do I pay my rent or has to
deal with those phone calls youno longer have to deal with.
(02:17):
Showing up at the courthouse,you just have to say, Hey, my
goal for you in the courthousetoday is to get that tenant out.
So do whatever it takes to makethat happen or maximize my
dollar.
That's what I care about.
And then that's what we'llnegotiate for you without you
having to be in all theday-to-day details.
So it gives you your time back.
Dave Stohr (02:37):
I want to delve into each of those separately.
What is your company'sdefinition of ongoing
communication and between whatparties is that communication
happening?
Kassandra Taggart (02:45):
There's a couple of different ways.
We do that to make it to whereyou're always informed on a
property.
So the first one is the onlineportals.
Online portal allows you to seeyour accounting statements.
We produce the accountingstatements three times a month.
So every time there's anyactivity going on with the
financials, you'll see it rightaway on your portal.
Whenever you wish to log in, tolook at your stuff or your
(03:08):
financials.
We also have a system whereanytime something happens to
your property, you will benotified automatically by email.
So for example, 10, it getsnotice.
She'll be notified by email.
We take a deposit on yourproperty.
You will be notified.
You get a work order.
You're going to get an emailnotification about it.
A lot of the notification, we'regoing to go ahead and take care
(03:30):
of for you, but you will beinformed of it.
So you can.
Chime in if you wish to or not,and get back to work.
And some of the other thingsthat we do with ongoing
communication is with yourtenant.
So the tenant is always meetinga customer service approach.
It's a lot of times the ownersare trying to manage their own
property, but they're at worknine to five.
(03:50):
They can't be taking phone callsright now.
Whereas we can take those phonecalls for you.
And help the tenant learn how toturn their thermostat on or off
or help the tenant learn how topay their rent.
For example,
Dave Stohr (04:02):
me there for a second, is it isn't hard to
contact real propertymanagement.
If you are a tenant of abuilding and have a problem or a
concern in a building thatyou're servicing.
Kassandra Taggart (04:11):
on the tenants and on the owner side,
we have multiple ways forcommunication.
We do a really good job attrying to make sure we satisfy
all the generations and all ofthe people's communication
styles that we have.
So we've got email, we've gotphones, we've got texts.
We've got portals.
We've got portals are greatbecause you could take a picture
or do a video and then submit itin online.
(04:33):
We've got.
Where you can come to ourDropbox locations and start
dropping off rents as well.
There's plenty of ways to getthe information to us, and then
we'll be responding accordinglyas fast as we can,
Dave Stohr (04:47):
since clients know what's happening on a day-to-day
basis on from those portalsconcerning their properties.
Do you take action in their nameand then inform the client what
has happened at theirproperties?
Kassandra Taggart (04:59):
here's a great example of where we do
that.
A tenant calls us and says, Hey,we don't have heat in our house.
And the temperature is 45.
Obviously, you don't want uscalling you and saying, Hey, how
do you feel about that?
Obviously you want to get thattaken care of before you start
having other problems.
So what we'll do is the tenantis going to notify us by phone,
(05:22):
emergency line text message orby email, however they want to
notify us.
And then what we'll do is sendyou a notification saying it's
happening.
Oh, but then the next thing thatwe're going to do is we're going
to actually start jumping on theissue.
We are connected with a wholebunch of maintenance vendors
that can dispatch to thatproperty and start fixing it
(05:43):
right away or drop off spaceheaters right away to avoid it
from becoming a pipe braids andbecoming thousands and thousands
of dollars of bills for you.
Sure.
When I was looking at yourcompany, I was surprised to
realize that you are acomprehensive marketing and
advertising company.
How does a client get theirproperty rented out more quickly
(06:03):
when they use real propertymanagement last frontier?
Another feature that we have asa full service management
company is our marketingplatform.
So the marketing platform thatwe do is we have the ability to
take one little rental propertyand blast it over thousands and
thousands of websites, becausefor us to pay a thousand bucks
(06:25):
on marketing for all of ourrental properties, and then we
can hit thousands of websitesbetween Facebook and Craigslist,
the paid advertising,apartments.com, realtor.com and
so forth.
Well, it's for you.
You paying a thousand dollarswould not be cost-effective and
therefore it makes it tooexpensive.
So then you're stuck with justdoing management of marketing
(06:46):
your property only on Facebookor only on the free website,
whereas us, because we have 20to 30 properties a month that
we're renting.
We go ahead and pay the thousanddollars a month on marketing,
which gives your property inadvantage and it makes it to
where you have the, themarketing horsepower of videos,
walkthrough, videos, schedulingtechnology, a wide angle camera,
(07:09):
picture technology watermarkingfor the scammers.
Technology where it says thewalking score to the local
grocery store, for example, allof that comes in automatically
within our system that you don'thave to worry about.
Dave Stohr (07:22):
It sounds very 21st century.
It really does.
What does real propertymanagement last front deer tier
do to make sure that a propertygets and stays rented?
Kassandra Taggart (07:33):
Many things.
on the process of gettingsomething rented we do a lot of
things to make sure that notonly do we find the qualified
tenant that can pay rent, butalso make sure that we're
maximizing your dollar.
So when we go to Mark as yourrental property, we'll get a
whole bunch of applications onthe applications.
We make sure that they stillhave a job.
So we're going to check on thatfor you, make sure that their
(07:55):
pay stubs really are real paystub so that they can make sure
they pay their rent.
And then we have a system inplace with how we collect the
rent to make sure that.
Just because I have oneapplication and they haven't
dropped off money for theproperty.
We'll continue marketing theproperty until we get somebody
to drop off the money and securethe property rather than, Oh, I
(08:16):
finally talked to somebody,let's pull it off market to hold
it for them.
Well, we're not maximizing yourprofits.
And we have the ability to keepmarketing the property until we
get a secure sign, me signdeposits paid deposit.
When we have a process in placeto make sure that those funds
clear the bank, not just here, Ihave a check and it's going to
(08:37):
bounce.
So there's lots of things thatwe do to get the tenant.
And then when we finally get thetenant, we have a lot of
features to make sure we servicethem, to keep them as happy as
possible with maintenance andrepairs and how to pay rent and
make it super easy to dobusiness.
So they can also get back totheir lives.
Dave Stohr (08:56):
KAssandra over the years, I've seen landlords go
from house to house, to house tocollect the rent.
How do you make rent collectionfaster and less stressful?
Kassandra Taggart (09:05):
Oh, gosh, I remember those days, days.
That's how old I am.
Right.
My grandfather used to make usknock on those doors house to
house to collect the rent check,but today's world is a whole
different world.
We were one of the first in thestate of Alaska to introduce
online payments abilities.
So about 87% of our tenantsactually pay online with either
(09:29):
credit card, debit card or anACH where it hooks up to their
bank accounts.
And of those almost all of themare studying it up to where it's
an automatic payment.
So we no longer have to go doorto door.
It's automatically paid on thefirst to ensure that.
The money clears the bank fastenough to clear, and they don't
(09:50):
have to worry about their latefees and so forth.
So we have a lot of utilizationof the online world per se, to
create speed, which creates theability to serve as our
landlords and our tenants is wayfaster than it used to be.
Dave Stohr (10:05):
Cassandra are the days of writing out a check for
rent almost over, is it almostobsolete and old school that we
won't see that very much longer?
Kassandra Taggart (10:14):
It's very obsolete now I would say out of
all of our tenants, which wehave somewhere around 800
tenants at the moment and out ofall of them, I would say maybe
10 20, write a check.
That's it, all of the others do.
Online payments.
None of them be cash and all ofthem do money order cash or
(10:36):
check checks or online pay.
But it's a very small amountthat even do checks anymore.
Dave Stohr (10:42):
Amazing thorough tenant screening and selection
is so important.
As you know, when real propertymanagement is involved.
How thorough are we talking whenit comes to tenant screening?
Kassandra Taggart (10:52):
Tenant Screening is the Science of
making all the headaches goaway.
And if you don't have thescreening, you'll either do one
of the two things.
You'll either have bad screeningand you end up letting all the
tenants who can't pay rent, comein, and then they destroyed the
property.
Or you have to have a screeningwhere nobody qualifies, because
(11:14):
if they would have qualified tothose standards, they would have
just bought a house and neverrented from you.
So it's the science of gettingreally good screening versus
really bad screening to get itfilled and maximize your rent.
But at the same time, makingsure they qualify to rent the
property and pay for theproperty.
So we look at how long have theybeen on the job?
What's their overall creditscore?
(11:35):
What type of collections do theyhave on their background?
Is it just medical school loansor is it the utility companies
like with GCI and ML P.
Because, depending on what theircollections are, will be a
strong indicator if they'regoing to pay their rent on time.
what I'm proud of Dave is thatwe just pulled our staff and out
of all the tenants that RPM hasplace we have less than us.
(12:00):
0.3% have an eviction rate thattells you how good our screening
is.
Dave Stohr (12:05):
Absolutely amazing.
So the science is so thoroughthat you can see a person or put
a person in front of you andthen realize, or not whether he
or she will be able to pay therent in the near future.
Kassandra Taggart (12:17):
That's how much volume we do with our
company because we're processing20, 30 rental properties a
month, but that's, you know,about a thousand.
1500 applications a year becauseof that, we can quickly see
trends of when tenants are allof a sudden starting to make pay
stubs, which is a new thing nowwith COVID.
(12:38):
And, and when they're startingto use their friends as a
landlord reference rather than alandlord, so we can see trends
of, of scamming.
Before you realize it too, toreduce the problems that you
could potentially have in thefuture.
Dave Stohr (12:52):
I was going to ask you is it's getting harder with
the science to get by you now.
Kassandra Taggart (12:56):
Isn't it it's very much so.
Because of the volume, we'reable to quickly find the trends
and the scams and avoid a lot ofheadaches, part landlords that
used to, yeah.
If you're, if you're a personwho just does a few applications
a year, you can accidentallyfall to those traps.
Cause you don't.
(13:16):
Notice
Dave Stohr (13:18):
when real property management last frontier says
full service leasing, what doesthat all entail?
Kassandra Taggart (13:25):
There are companies out there that will do
a tiny piece of, of getting yourproperty rented.
For example, they will do justthe background check and that's
it.
With us, we're going to do themarketing of the property and
we're going to do selection ofwhat the rent should be based on
history and stats.
When we're going to do all ofthe technology components for
(13:48):
making sure we can do theirbackground checks and checking
in all 50 States, not just here,then we're going to do the
holding process of, okay, you'renow approved.
Let's get you to hold theproperty for yourself when we're
going to do the least dining.
And we're going to use theleases that we've used with our
lawyers.
And then get it signed and we'regoing to do an hour long lease
(14:08):
signing, meeting with thetenants.
And we're going to say, here'swhat the lease is.
Here's what happens.
Here's what you do when thishappens, make sure our phone
number and everything is in yourphone.
So if something happens, you cancall us quickly things to that
nature.
And all of it's been tweakedover the years to maximize time
as well.
(14:28):
Speed as well as quality of thetenant experience and to make
sure that the landlord isprotected in the process.
So that's full service.
We do the whole line.
Dave Stohr (14:38):
Does your company conduct regular inspections of
each and every property?
Kassandra Taggart (14:44):
When the landlord signs the management
contract to hire us, we alsoasked them.
How often would they like beinspections to take place and to
be very clear it's property.
Walk-throughs where we'rechecking on the property for
maintenance.
We're checking on if there'supcoming issues we're checking
to see if the tenant needs helpin any way.
(15:06):
And we'll ask the landlord.
Do you want to do it every sixmonths?
Do you want to do it everyquarter or do you want to do it
just on a yearly basis?
We recommend a minimum of everysix months, because a lot can
happen in six months with aproperty.
We could walk into a propertyand find out that the tenant,
you know, has been havingmedical issues and no longer can
(15:27):
clean up after themselves, whichis an issue with mice and bugs.
And we need to have aconversation or we could walk
into a place.
And the tenant doesn't know thata soft floor is a good thing or
a bad thing.
So.
Well, no, because we do thoseinspections and a soft floor is
a very bad thing.
It can cause thousands ofdollars of damage, but attendant
(15:50):
doesn't know sometimes.
So inspections is a great way toservice the tenant as well as
protect the property.
Dave Stohr (15:55):
I know that every property owner has had to
respond to that dreaded call at2:00 AM in the morning because
of maintenance problems.
Are you able to dispatch servicepeople out at all hours of the
day or night to remedy asolution for your clients?
Kassandra Taggart (16:10):
That is a very special, special thing that
our company does.
And I, I would like to say thatI'm the leader in this, what we
designed from day one with themaintenance company, because I'm
an investor.
I believe in this, that I thinkthe person who should be
answering the emergency line isan actual maintenance
technician, because then theycan take the phone call and go,
(16:30):
Oh, you just need to put somebatteries in thermostat and save
me hundreds of dollars fromsending somebody in the middle
of the night to go take care ofsomething.
So we do have a 24 sevenemergency line and it's answered
live by a maintenance personthat can sit there and
troubleshoot before theydispatch anybody to the
property.
That's a big thing because itsaves landlords a lot of money.
Dave Stohr (16:53):
When you said live, I got goosebumps because you
don't hear that every day canreal property management assist
the client in keeping theirmaintenance costs down, which
can fly off the handle at anytime.
Kassandra Taggart (17:04):
Oh, gosh, maintenance can be very
unplanned.
But there's a lot that you cando to make it where maintenance
is a planned expense and in thebudget and avoid surprises.
That is actually the number twofear that most landlords have is
unplanned maintenance, becausethey don't know if they have
enough savings or reserves builtup for that item.
(17:26):
So, what we do is every propertythat we bring on to the company
is we look at the property andsay, what are all the things we
need to plan for such, justgutter, cleaning, furnace
inspections, sprinklerinspection routine inspections
of the interior.
Dry cleanings is a big one.
Fireplace chimney.
The list goes on.
And then what we do is we putthat property on a routine
(17:48):
schedule to make sure thoseinspections happen.
So that way it reduces thechance of a fire reduces the
chance of having a catastrophic.
I spilled up water damming offof gutters.
For example,
Dave Stohr (18:03):
you know, one of the hardest parts of being a
property owner in, you know,this is handling evictions, this
real property managementconsider themselves strict when
it comes to that process.
Kassandra Taggart (18:13):
We are fairly strict when it comes to
evictions, as long as thelandlords let us what we, what
we tend to do.
And a lot of people don'tunderstand this is that we have
a process in place that is verystrict and very streamlined.
However, we also are able tocreate very strategic points of
(18:34):
negotiations.
To make it where the tenant willtry to bring it current or try
to bring things good again.
And they're done with like acurrent approach, for example,
Hey, if you do this, I'll dothis that way.
We understand if the tenant isjust talking a lot and not
actually having any intentionsof trying to make things good.
(18:55):
Or if they really are trying,they're actually going to get a
little to say, Hey, I am trying,here's what I can give to avoid
all the problems.
So that's the trick that we doto hold people accountable, as
well as see if they really meanwhat they're going to do.
Dave Stohr (19:10):
How would you describe the system within real
property management, lastfrontier that handles accounting
for your clients?
Maybe those who are not all thatgood with numbers.
Kassandra Taggart (19:20):
I am proud of my accounting department.
They are very accurate andthey're very systematic and
making sure the follow throughwith everything is there.
And.
Then what they do because of ouraccounting professionals are
also landlords.
They understand that noteverybody likes accounting, it
can be boring for most people.
(19:41):
So what they do is they makethese customized reports that
sit on everyone's portal and itlooks like a checkbook register.
Almost everybody can understanda checkbook register.
So they make a check bookregister where you can see all
the money coming in and out likea checkbook.
So that way it makes sense.
And you can read it just likeyou do with your personal
budget.
Dave Stohr (20:01):
When I talked to you about real property management
and all of the services, itsounds as if your company helps
protect a client's investment asif it were their own.
Kassandra Taggart (20:12):
What a lot of people don't realize is that I
am an investor as well.
And half of my staff areinvestors as well.
I pride myself in making surethat I have people in the team
that are landlords as well.
So we can understand your fears,your concerns.
I tenants destroy my property.
I understand what it feels likewhen I get that phone call.
(20:33):
And I understand what it takesto get that property turned
around because I've done it withmy own money.
And same with half my staff aswell.
So like makes it to where wehave a deeper understanding and
a deeper service level becausewe're in the same boat.
Dave Stohr (20:49):
Do you assist your clients in protecting themselves
legally instead of trying to goat all alone?
Kassandra Taggart (20:56):
I'm not a lawyer, but I am a property
manager that sees these casesall the time.
I know which lawyers to hire to,to help a certain situations.
And because I see all thesecases all the time, I've seen
strategies that work, and I'veseen strategies that have felled
on the legal front.
And because you put us in place,we're able to put barriers in
(21:19):
place.
Between the risk and theliability on yourself, which is
things that you wouldn't havenever thought of.
A great example was when atenant is moving in, in the
middle of the month, we makethem pay 30 days of rent, not,
not the prorated amount, becauseyou want as much money as
possible.
When you starting a brand newrelationship with them.
Dave Stohr (21:41):
Because your company is a new set of eyes.
When you walk into a property,when you see costs within a
client's investment, do youconsult with the client to help
minimize those costs?
Kassandra Taggart (21:52):
We do consulting all the time.
It's one of those things wherewe'll sit down on a frequent
basis and look at accounts andsay, Oh, we need to work on your
water bill because the waterbill people sends a notification
that the water usage is up.
And we need to figure out what'sgoing on.
And that's when we'll dispatchwork orders to investigate,
(22:13):
because if we don't watch thosefrom the accounting perspective
and from our processes, you'llend up with a high water bill
for months and not, we'll takealmost all your profits if
you're not careful.
So there's a lot of consultingthat we do, and there's a lot of
systems in place to catch thosethings quickly to try to
minimize any of your profits.
(22:35):
Dillon is going away.
Dave Stohr (22:37):
Should people manage their own property to save money
or do they actually in the endpay more by trying to
self-manage
Kassandra Taggart (22:45):
I'm just gonna use myself as an example
on this one.
I wanted to do it myself and Idid it myself because I thought
I was the best.
I thought I gave better service.
I thought I was more personable.
What actually happened is I madea mistake after mistake, after
mistake and realized, wait aminute, maybe I'm not the best
(23:07):
person.
And the mistakes that I made wasstuff like I couldn't keep up
with all my papers because I wasbusy with, you know, soccer or
whatever, or I couldn't givethem the best service because I
was busy with my client.
I didn't really pay attention tomy tenant, which made them not
and made them move out.
Or I took it personal when Ishouldn't have.
And that made it to where I wastaken advantage of.
(23:30):
And I shouldn't have, so rentalsis personal, but at the same
time it's business andseparating it from doing it
yourself versus having a thirdperson be very unbiased, too.
It makes it to where you don'taccidentally lose money.
And to be honest, we're veryaffordable and you will spend a
(23:50):
lot of time.
When you could be working withfamily or doing your day job,
making more money than what youwould be paying me in like a
whole year.
Dave Stohr (23:59):
Ken investors in landlords become more successful
with a company like yours thatis proven to be successful in
property management.
Kassandra Taggart (24:08):
Yeah, there is, I'll give a story on this
one, cause it might, might givea little bit of perspective.
There's a guy who had 10 unitsand he was doing it himself.
And I found out that the thingshe was missing that we could
bring to the table basicallypaid for us and gave him more
money in his pocket.
So things like we havecollections in place.
(24:28):
We have credit reporting inplace.
We have insurance thinginsurance measures in place.
And because of that, we wouldhave paid for his kitchen fire.
We, we would have collectedmoney out of the collection
companies.
These are all things he couldn'tdo or didn't know to do as they
do it yourself landlord.
So when he turned us on, we wereable to immediately get all
(24:50):
those things in place and putmore money in his pocket at the
end of the year.
And I remember the first year ithappened, he called me at the
beginning.
He's like, all man, I'm nervous.
I feel like I'm I'm, I'm.
Sending money by having you.
And then by the end of the year,he was saying, Oh my gosh, he
put more money in my pocket.
Now I have a tax problem.
I gotta go work it out with myCPA.
Dave Stohr (25:11):
If there is somebody out there right now, a landlord
or an investor that wants totalk to you about managing their
properties and their buildings,how can they get ahold of you?
Couple of different ways.
It depends on your personalityand style.
Our favorite is a phone callcause we like to consult with
you tonight.
(907) 290-2022.
Or you can check out our websiteand then like all the contact us
(25:32):
information where you canprovide us your number and your
phone number and your email, andbest time to call you.
And we can consult with you thatway.
You're listening to Cassandra.
Tagard the president of realproperty management, last
frontier Anchorage, and theauthor of the book, painter
profit secrets of profitablerental property investors.
I'm Dave stro, even the bestlandlords have questions.
(25:53):
And we are asking them forCassandra's best advice this
morning.
Here's your first questionbecause Sandra, would you rent
to someone with a really lowcredit score, less than 500, if
you knew it was that low.
Due to divorce.
Kassandra Taggart (26:08):
Oh, that's always the tricky one, but at
the same time, it's something Ithink a lot of people fall for
because it's, it's easy to say,Oh, I'm going through the
divorce.
It looks like everything is bad.
Well, you gotta remember thatpeople in a divorce still have
obligations.
They'll have to pay and peoplethat are going through divorce
usually you'll see like, All ofa sudden their payments will
(26:29):
drop off, like in the last 60,90 days kind of thing, why they
get re situated with life andthen they come back.
It's not, they've been destroyedfor many, many years, many, many
months kind of thing.
So people with very low creditscore tend to actually have a
story of many, many years andmonths of bad behavior, not just
(26:51):
recent.
So I would be wary and not doit.
Dave Stohr (26:55):
Okay.
There we go.
There's your best advice.
Here's your next question?
How do you stay on top of atenant's visitors?
Not staying past the magicalthree days, thus allowing
visitors to become tenants.
Kassandra Taggart (27:06):
That's always a tricky one because you have
with the course size that youcan enforce.
When you're standing in front ofa judge, then you have what the
law says.
Then you have what your leasesays.
There's many, many, manyvariables to this.
And I think the easiest way toanswer this is to think of it as
a business decision.
(27:27):
Is that visitor causing harm?
Is that visitor costing youmoney?
Is that visitor being an issue?
If yes, to any of those things,then start doing your 10 day
notice process and followingthrough with the issue, if not
leave it alone.
They're not hurting anything.
If it's not hurting anything,you kind of have to just pick
(27:47):
your battles sometimes.
Dave Stohr (27:49):
Okay.
Here's another question.
A tenant in my building hascomplained about finding needles
in the parking lot and aroundhis car.
Any advice on how to confirm mysuspicion on those using
Kassandra Taggart (28:03):
even if he found out who is using.
You, you have to get the policeinvolved.
You can't, you can't just servea notice saying, Hey, I think
you're doing drugs.
And I think you need to leaveand dah and start creating a
confrontation.
Like you're the detective.
You're not as effective andyou're not the police.
(28:23):
So my advice is yes.
Try to kind of figure out who itis and then find to maybe remove
that tenant out of the building.
So that way it's no longer anissue.
And then of course find a safeway to keep the property cleaned
up in the meantime.
Cause it's possible that it'sthe neighbor it's possible.
It's people walking by.
(28:44):
It's possible that.
It's just your location thatyou're in and that's the nature
of that location, unfortunately.
So you may just need to buy adifferent building if you can't
handle this or want to pay forcleaning it up.
But yeah, research shoe, itmight be, but your best bet is
to just go ahead and givenotices for that least to
terminate, rather than trying toenforce, because you need to
(29:07):
have the police prosecute andpresent evidence that it's real
and you're not as detective.
And the judge is going to wantthat when you're trying to evict
somebody and put it on theirrecord over drugs, when they're
not convicted of it.
Dave Stohr (29:20):
Here's another question.
What do I need to do to covermyself and make sure that all is
legal regarding communicationthrough a translator during the
duration of a family'sTennessee, that doesn't speak a
lot of English.
Kassandra Taggart (29:33):
We asked them the best way to handle somebody
who has a different language isyou might want to consider
having a person that you hiredthat does the language
interpretation for you.
So it's a third party and inbias you can use a United way,
has resources, various churcheshave resources because they care
about their community and wantto make sure that.
(29:54):
They are not taken advantage ofas well as communicating what to
be a part of everything.
So I recommend that you do thatrather than sometimes a family
member, because the familymember will skew it just to get
something that they might want.
The last thing is, is alwaysfollow up with everything, but
you an email summary of theconversation, because that will
(30:15):
help.
Avoid misinterpretation andmiscommunication due to the
language barrier.
Dave Stohr (30:23):
Here's another question.
How long should a good dryerexpect to last in a rental unit?
Kassandra Taggart (30:30):
Every dryer has a different life cycle.
I've seen the ones that last along time are like the
whirlpools, the GEs.
Then there's the cheaperappliance, like a Frigidaire
sometimes, or an LG.
That's very expensive as allthese tech components that break
down a lot.
So it depends on the appliance,but my rule of thumb is the
(30:51):
first time that that applianceneeds a around 200,$250 repair.
That's the time to startshopping for a new one, because
then the recorders are going tobe more costly than just buying
a new appliance.
Dave Stohr (31:02):
You have been around dryers for most of your life.
What do you think of dryers inthe 21st century?
Are they too?
Are they too technical?
Kassandra Taggart (31:12):
you know, the millennials are like, I want
more tech, but really what wewant is we want things that
work.
So I'll give example, there's aperson who converted their whole
house to this text thermostatstuff that they had.
And because the tech thermostatdidn't think to the internet,
the house ended up with no heatand we had to do an emergency
(31:32):
call.
At, at nine o'clock at nightbecause the temperature went to
47 in that place, all becausethe techie thermostat wouldn't
think to the internet and hadnothing to do with plumbing.
So there's pros and cons of it.
I personally think in a rentalsituation, we just want things
that work, not things that canpotentially fell because of the
(31:53):
cyber webs.
Dave Stohr (31:55):
And speaking of utilities, is it the tenant's
responsibility to requestdisconnecting from utilities
when they move out?
Kassandra Taggart (32:02):
You tell me, is there one of those things
that you really should have itin your contract of who does
what with turning it on, turningit off.
If this happens, this is what'sgoing to happen.
Here's the rules, becausewithout that clear guideline, it
creates this.
We personally, when the tenantmoves out, if they want to keep
paying for that utility bill andnot turn it off of their name,
(32:23):
that's their accountability.
We've already got it.
Cut off.
Where, when they do turn it off,it automatically flips over.
So it doesn't turn off off.
So it's up to the tenant.
If they want to, you know, dotheir paperwork actually, and
actually get it turned off.
Dave Stohr (32:39):
Here's another question.
My tenants still can't pay rentdue to COVID.
Are there any agencies inAnchorage still offering
assistance today?
Kassandra Taggart (32:49):
There was a lot of agencies available.
It's a matter of trying to getthrough to them because they are
from boarded and busy and swamp.
But there is still eight andthere is still checks being
handed out.
In fact, I just did a reportthis month to see how many
people got their January rentpaid from assistance funds.
And it's already over$25,000that we received and rental
(33:12):
assistance funds for tenants.
So the money is still out thereand it's still being sent out.
So you just have to work maybe alittle harder trying to connect
to those resources, but they'rethere.
Dave Stohr (33:24):
And I was going to ask, is there any pandemic
relief for local landlords thatyou're hearing of?
Kassandra Taggart (33:30):
I have not heard of any.
I do know that there might stillbe a little bit of funds out of
the Lutheran, which isadministered through the United
way.
And two, one, one that isassistance to help with mortgage
relief.
And that would be what you'dlandlords could do is ask for
more mortgage relief assistance.
And I believe they still have alittle bit left in their fund
(33:52):
that might help.
I'm not sure as of today, butthat's the last I've heard.
Dave Stohr (33:56):
How many references should I ask for before I rent
to someone?
Kassandra Taggart (34:02):
Landlord references used to be a great
place to really get Intel onsomebody.
But you have to remember in thistown, it's kind of adjusted to
where now they put theirfriend's name and numbers down.
Or you might actually get alandlord that they're still with
right now.
And they're like, what?
I didn't know they were leaving.
And if they're a bad tenants, ofcourse, they're going to give a
(34:23):
good review because they don'twant them anymore.
But I recommend two to three isa good, healthy number to kind
of get a tone potentially of whothat person is.
As a tenant.
Dave Stohr (34:35):
One of our landlords wants to know, is it illegal for
me to charge a monthly pet rentor fee.
Kassandra Taggart (34:42):
There it's not illegal at this time to
charge fees or deposits ormonthly rent for pets.
What is illegal just to bemindful is if it is a service
animal, you cannot do chargesfor that service animal.
And of course you have to followa whole nother set of guidelines
to make that be a thing.
Dave Stohr (35:04):
Here's another question.
Do you allow a renter to Airbnbthe property they are renting
from?
Kassandra Taggart (35:11):
No.
And not as a huge problem incertain areas like in New York
and major cities, but now withCOVID and the population
adjustments in certain studies,it may not be so much of a
thing.
But no, it is not allowed.
It's basically called subleasingand we do not allow that in our
leases.
Dave Stohr (35:30):
And one more question, Cassandra is paying
the rent by check.
It's still a good way to collectmoney or is online the way to
go.
We've talked about that today.
Kassandra Taggart (35:40):
Yeah, tenants have spoken Senate's want the
convenience of online becausethey want to deal with the
landlord.
Not often, they want to dealwith their life and their family
and not the landlord.
So and with the stats showing87% wanting to pay online.
You guys need to find a way tomake that happen or just let us
do it for you.
Dave Stohr (36:01):
As we head into the new year, are you making plans
concerning your financialfuture?
Is this the year that you decideto take action and begin to grow
and build a lasting legacythrough investing in real estate
rental properties?
Then let's talk with Cassandrawho wants to join you?
On that journey, every step ofthe way, Cassandra, the other
day, I saw a sign that saidAnchorage is dying.
Are you optimistic and hopefulabout the return of Anchorage as
(36:24):
a city?
That once thrived,
Kassandra Taggart (36:27):
I believe that the people right now are
stressed.
They're frustrated.
They're you know, we're, we'regoing through a difficult time
where.
Things are happening.
That's a lot of negative, right?
So people feel the desperationand they're feeling sad and
they're, and they're having hardtimes, they're looking at bills
(36:48):
and may not have the money topay the bills.
So there's a lot of desperationand dust and sadness going on.
I don't think it's dying.
No, I think the community iscoming together and I think the
community is trying to findsolutions.
I think that.
They're trying to find a way tomake things better and happier
and be the Anchorage.
(37:09):
It is.
For example, there's a group ofpeople going around putting
Christmas lights up oneverybody's houses and paying
for their own Christmas lightsto put it up.
Just to light up Anchorageagain, cause it is dark right
now.
Cause the sun's not up yet.
You're going to see more of thatcoming out and lending a hand to
help our fellow Alaskans.
(37:29):
And I think that's going to bemore predominant of a thing.
And I think we just need toremember there's a lot of people
who need help and those that canhelp, will help and should help.
And you just got to find whothey are sometimes.
Cause they're not very loud.
The people that are sad or arelouder.
Dave Stohr (37:46):
With the weight of the pandemic on top of is, is it
depressing?
The real estate investmentmarket today?
Kassandra Taggart (37:53):
The investment market is different.
So what I need to make sureeverybody understands is that a
person who a true investor thathas a plan that has a strategy
and understands all theinvestment vehicles that can be
used and strategies that can beused, they are still buying and
they're still moving money andthey are still making
investments.
(38:13):
But if you're not educatedenough in the real estate world
to understand the different.
Types of properties you couldbuy during transitions and
shifts in the economy.
It might be good to sit back andlisten to your PO, build your
team, how professionals comearound you and learn as much as
(38:33):
you can before you pulled thetrigger, because you can
accidentally pull the trigger ona property that may not have a
foundation, and it'll bankrupt.
You, you don't want to do thatright now.
You don't want to do things thatare risky.
That can potentially take youout for several years.
So just be careful.
Dave Stohr (38:52):
What's the biggest thing you've learned about
yourself and your investmentpractices during the last 11
months?
Kassandra Taggart (39:00):
For me, it was insight that the properties
that I purchased for myself to,to own when I went and
purchased, I purposely didmiddle market properties.
And middle market properties is,is, is not very risky.
They, they don't have theawesome Excel spreadsheets, but
(39:21):
they also don't have.
The risky parts involved becauseit's the middle of the road,
average Alaskan that's workingin the average Laskin lifestyle
type property.
And so therefore I'm always ableto find a tenant to fill that
place.
And it rents in 24 hours and thetenants are still paying rent
(39:42):
and they still have jobs.
So they're not dependent on likethe hotel or retail or
restaurant jobs.
So for me, it was insight thatmiddle of the road type rental
middle average properties are aspace investment.
They're not very risky and itmakes the worry to have a lot of
headaches.
Dave Stohr (40:00):
How can investors find out more about joining the
landlords club here inAnchorage?
Kassandra Taggart (40:05):
The most popular one is the Facebook
group.
We have a private Facebook groupfor those that are landlords
that you can join and you justsearch the landlords Almanac.
Slash Alaska and that'll be theprivate group.
And that's where I donate a lotof our time to help those that
have questions.
So if nobody else answers yourquestion, I, I will chime in to
(40:26):
help you out.
Dave Stohr (40:27):
Find out more about real property management, which
we talked about at the top ofthe hour and all that your
company does.
Where can people go to find outmore information?
Kassandra Taggart (40:36):
To read about us is RPM last frontier.com or
just call us even if you don'tneed our services, we'll be glad
to help you out two nine zerotwo nine two two, Cassandra.
We want to thank you for yourknowledge and your compassion
and your guidance over the lasthour.
You are, as I'm sure ourlisteners now know an invaluable
resource and experienced advisorfor those who were investing in
(40:58):
real estate and taking theirfirst step towards success.
Have a good week.
Good morning.
And welcome.
I want you to be my co-host thismorning.
Kassandra Taggart is thepresident of Real Property
Management Last Frontier, aproperty management company here
in Anchorage.
She is also the president.
Of the landlord's Almanac, oneof the largest landlord clubs in
the country dedicated tonetworking, supporting, and
training professional landlords.
And she is the author of thepopular book, paint or profit
(00:20):
secrets of profitable rentalproperty investors.
She joins us now from the safetyof her home office
Kassandra Taggart (00:25):
Good
Dave Stohr (00:25):
morning well, if you listen to the radio
specifically, K B Y R, then youknow, that real property
management last frontierprovides professional property
management services, but you canonly learn so much in just 60
seconds this morning, we take anin-depth look at just what it
is.
That real property managementlast frontier does for each and
(00:46):
every client that employs theirservices.
It is the topic of our firstconversation this morning with
Kassandra, you get to talk aboutyourself this morning.
If a landlord and or investorwanted to make more time in
their life for the living oflife, then wouldn't hiring a
property management company likeyours.
Be the way to go about living alife filled with more time.
Kassandra Taggart (01:06):
When you think about time, time, and
money is valuable these days,you know, you want to spend time
with your profession, with yourfamily, with your friends and
rentals do take a lot of time.
It's the business.
And sometimes it's a lot moreaffordable to hire a third
party, to help do all of thelittle knickknacks things like
(01:28):
keeping track of papers.
so that way you don't have to,you can get back to your life.
Dave Stohr (01:33):
You know, when I broke it all down, Kassandra,
all the services that youprovide to landlords and or
investors, it's a wonder theycould do anything at all, but
manage their properties on afull-time basis, which is a job
that they probably left topursue a life of freedom.
What does a property owner haveto do after they have hired real
property management, lastfrontier.
Kassandra Taggart (01:52):
So after they hired
Dave Stohr (01:54):
us,
Kassandra Taggart (01:54):
basically, really what they have to do is
what we call managing of themanager.
And you have to remember, youare still the landlord, you
still own the property and youstill make the decisions on the
property.
The things that we take off yourplate is like recordkeeping
accounting.
A lot of the tenant phone calls,how do I pay my rent or has to
deal with those phone calls youno longer have to deal with.
(02:17):
Showing up at the courthouse,you just have to say, Hey, my
goal for you in the courthousetoday is to get that tenant out.
So do whatever it takes to makethat happen or maximize my
dollar.
That's what I care about.
And then that's what we'llnegotiate for you without you
having to be in all theday-to-day details.
So it gives you your time back.
Dave Stohr (02:37):
I want to delve into each of those separately.
What is your company'sdefinition of ongoing
communication and between whatparties is that communication
happening?
Kassandra Taggart (02:45):
There's a couple of different ways.
We do that to make it to whereyou're always informed on a
property.
So the first one is the onlineportals.
Online portal allows you to seeyour accounting statements.
We produce the accountingstatements three times a month.
So every time there's anyactivity going on with the
financials, you'll see it rightaway on your portal.
Whenever you wish to log in, tolook at your stuff or your
(03:08):
financials.
We also have a system whereanytime something happens to
your property, you will benotified automatically by email.
So for example, 10, it getsnotice.
She'll be notified by email.
We take a deposit on yourproperty.
You will be notified.
You get a work order.
You're going to get an emailnotification about it.
A lot of the notification, we'regoing to go ahead and take care
(03:30):
of for you, but you will beinformed of it.
So you can.
Chime in if you wish to or not,and get back to work.
And some of the other thingsthat we do with ongoing
communication is with yourtenant.
So the tenant is always meetinga customer service approach.
It's a lot of times the ownersare trying to manage their own
property, but they're at worknine to five.
(03:50):
They can't be taking phone callsright now.
Whereas we can take those phonecalls for you.
And help the tenant learn how toturn their thermostat on or off
or help the tenant learn how topay their rent.
For example,
Dave Stohr (04:02):
me there for a second, is it isn't hard to
contact real propertymanagement.
If you are a tenant of abuilding and have a problem or a
concern in a building thatyou're servicing.
Kassandra Taggart (04:11):
on the tenants and on the owner side,
we have multiple ways forcommunication.
We do a really good job attrying to make sure we satisfy
all the generations and all ofthe people's communication
styles that we have.
So we've got email, we've gotphones, we've got texts.
We've got portals.
We've got portals are greatbecause you could take a picture
or do a video and then submit itin online.
(04:33):
We've got.
Where you can come to ourDropbox locations and start
dropping off rents as well.
There's plenty of ways to getthe information to us, and then
we'll be responding accordinglyas fast as we can,
Dave Stohr (04:47):
since clients know what's happening on a day-to-day
basis on from those portalsconcerning their properties.
Do you take action in their nameand then inform the client what
has happened at theirproperties?
Kassandra Taggart (04:59):
here's a great example of where we do
that.
A tenant calls us and says, Hey,we don't have heat in our house.
And the temperature is 45.
Obviously, you don't want uscalling you and saying, Hey, how
do you feel about that?
Obviously you want to get thattaken care of before you start
having other problems.
So what we'll do is the tenantis going to notify us by phone,
(05:22):
emergency line text message orby email, however they want to
notify us.
And then what we'll do is sendyou a notification saying it's
happening.
Oh, but then the next thing thatwe're going to do is we're going
to actually start jumping on theissue.
We are connected with a wholebunch of maintenance vendors
that can dispatch to thatproperty and start fixing it
(05:43):
right away or drop off spaceheaters right away to avoid it
from becoming a pipe braids andbecoming thousands and thousands
of dollars of bills for you.
Sure.
When I was looking at yourcompany, I was surprised to
realize that you are acomprehensive marketing and
advertising company.
How does a client get theirproperty rented out more quickly
(06:03):
when they use real propertymanagement last frontier?
Another feature that we have asa full service management
company is our marketingplatform.
So the marketing platform thatwe do is we have the ability to
take one little rental propertyand blast it over thousands and
thousands of websites, becausefor us to pay a thousand bucks
(06:25):
on marketing for all of ourrental properties, and then we
can hit thousands of websitesbetween Facebook and Craigslist,
the paid advertising,apartments.com, realtor.com and
so forth.
Well, it's for you.
You paying a thousand dollarswould not be cost-effective and
therefore it makes it tooexpensive.
So then you're stuck with justdoing management of marketing
(06:46):
your property only on Facebookor only on the free website,
whereas us, because we have 20to 30 properties a month that
we're renting.
We go ahead and pay the thousanddollars a month on marketing,
which gives your property inadvantage and it makes it to
where you have the, themarketing horsepower of videos,
walkthrough, videos, schedulingtechnology, a wide angle camera,
(07:09):
picture technology watermarkingfor the scammers.
Technology where it says thewalking score to the local
grocery store, for example, allof that comes in automatically
within our system that you don'thave to worry about.
Dave Stohr (07:22):
It sounds very 21st century.
It really does.
What does real propertymanagement last front deer tier
do to make sure that a propertygets and stays rented?
Kassandra Taggart (07:33):
Many things.
on the process of gettingsomething rented we do a lot of
things to make sure that notonly do we find the qualified
tenant that can pay rent, butalso make sure that we're
maximizing your dollar.
So when we go to Mark as yourrental property, we'll get a
whole bunch of applications onthe applications.
We make sure that they stillhave a job.
So we're going to check on thatfor you, make sure that their
(07:55):
pay stubs really are real paystub so that they can make sure
they pay their rent.
And then we have a system inplace with how we collect the
rent to make sure that.
Just because I have oneapplication and they haven't
dropped off money for theproperty.
We'll continue marketing theproperty until we get somebody
to drop off the money and securethe property rather than, Oh, I
(08:16):
finally talked to somebody,let's pull it off market to hold
it for them.
Well, we're not maximizing yourprofits.
And we have the ability to keepmarketing the property until we
get a secure sign, me signdeposits paid deposit.
When we have a process in placeto make sure that those funds
clear the bank, not just here, Ihave a check and it's going to
(08:37):
bounce.
So there's lots of things thatwe do to get the tenant.
And then when we finally get thetenant, we have a lot of
features to make sure we servicethem, to keep them as happy as
possible with maintenance andrepairs and how to pay rent and
make it super easy to dobusiness.
So they can also get back totheir lives.
Dave Stohr (08:56):
KAssandra over the years, I've seen landlords go
from house to house, to house tocollect the rent.
How do you make rent collectionfaster and less stressful?
Kassandra Taggart (09:05):
Oh, gosh, I remember those days, days.
That's how old I am.
Right.
My grandfather used to make usknock on those doors house to
house to collect the rent check,but today's world is a whole
different world.
We were one of the first in thestate of Alaska to introduce
online payments abilities.
So about 87% of our tenantsactually pay online with either
(09:29):
credit card, debit card or anACH where it hooks up to their
bank accounts.
And of those almost all of themare studying it up to where it's
an automatic payment.
So we no longer have to go doorto door.
It's automatically paid on thefirst to ensure that.
The money clears the bank fastenough to clear, and they don't
(09:50):
have to worry about their latefees and so forth.
So we have a lot of utilizationof the online world per se, to
create speed, which creates theability to serve as our
landlords and our tenants is wayfaster than it used to be.
Dave Stohr (10:05):
Cassandra are the days of writing out a check for
rent almost over, is it almostobsolete and old school that we
won't see that very much longer?
Kassandra Taggart (10:14):
It's very obsolete now I would say out of
all of our tenants, which wehave somewhere around 800
tenants at the moment and out ofall of them, I would say maybe
10 20, write a check.
That's it, all of the others do.
Online payments.
None of them be cash and all ofthem do money order cash or
(10:36):
check checks or online pay.
But it's a very small amountthat even do checks anymore.
Dave Stohr (10:42):
Amazing thorough tenant screening and selection
is so important.
As you know, when real propertymanagement is involved.
How thorough are we talking whenit comes to tenant screening?
Kassandra Taggart (10:52):
Tenant Screening is the Science of
making all the headaches goaway.
And if you don't have thescreening, you'll either do one
of the two things.
You'll either have bad screeningand you end up letting all the
tenants who can't pay rent, comein, and then they destroyed the
property.
Or you have to have a screeningwhere nobody qualifies, because
(11:14):
if they would have qualified tothose standards, they would have
just bought a house and neverrented from you.
So it's the science of gettingreally good screening versus
really bad screening to get itfilled and maximize your rent.
But at the same time, makingsure they qualify to rent the
property and pay for theproperty.
So we look at how long have theybeen on the job?
What's their overall creditscore?
(11:35):
What type of collections do theyhave on their background?
Is it just medical school loansor is it the utility companies
like with GCI and ML P.
Because, depending on what theircollections are, will be a
strong indicator if they'regoing to pay their rent on time.
what I'm proud of Dave is thatwe just pulled our staff and out
of all the tenants that RPM hasplace we have less than us.
(12:00):
0.3% have an eviction rate thattells you how good our screening
is.
Dave Stohr (12:05):
Absolutely amazing.
So the science is so thoroughthat you can see a person or put
a person in front of you andthen realize, or not whether he
or she will be able to pay therent in the near future.
Kassandra Taggart (12:17):
That's how much volume we do with our
company because we're processing20, 30 rental properties a
month, but that's, you know,about a thousand.
1500 applications a year becauseof that, we can quickly see
trends of when tenants are allof a sudden starting to make pay
stubs, which is a new thing nowwith COVID.
(12:38):
And, and when they're startingto use their friends as a
landlord reference rather than alandlord, so we can see trends
of, of scamming.
Before you realize it too, toreduce the problems that you
could potentially have in thefuture.
Dave Stohr (12:52):
I was going to ask you is it's getting harder with
the science to get by you now.
Kassandra Taggart (12:56):
Isn't it it's very much so.
Because of the volume, we'reable to quickly find the trends
and the scams and avoid a lot ofheadaches, part landlords that
used to, yeah.
If you're, if you're a personwho just does a few applications
a year, you can accidentallyfall to those traps.
Cause you don't.
(13:16):
Notice
Dave Stohr (13:18):
when real property management last frontier says
full service leasing, what doesthat all entail?
Kassandra Taggart (13:25):
There are companies out there that will do
a tiny piece of, of getting yourproperty rented.
For example, they will do justthe background check and that's
it.
With us, we're going to do themarketing of the property and
we're going to do selection ofwhat the rent should be based on
history and stats.
When we're going to do all ofthe technology components for
(13:48):
making sure we can do theirbackground checks and checking
in all 50 States, not just here,then we're going to do the
holding process of, okay, you'renow approved.
Let's get you to hold theproperty for yourself when we're
going to do the least dining.
And we're going to use theleases that we've used with our
lawyers.
And then get it signed and we'regoing to do an hour long lease
(14:08):
signing, meeting with thetenants.
And we're going to say, here'swhat the lease is.
Here's what happens.
Here's what you do when thishappens, make sure our phone
number and everything is in yourphone.
So if something happens, you cancall us quickly things to that
nature.
And all of it's been tweakedover the years to maximize time
as well.
(14:28):
Speed as well as quality of thetenant experience and to make
sure that the landlord isprotected in the process.
So that's full service.
We do the whole line.
Dave Stohr (14:38):
Does your company conduct regular inspections of
each and every property?
Kassandra Taggart (14:44):
When the landlord signs the management
contract to hire us, we alsoasked them.
How often would they like beinspections to take place and to
be very clear it's property.
Walk-throughs where we'rechecking on the property for
maintenance.
We're checking on if there'supcoming issues we're checking
to see if the tenant needs helpin any way.
(15:06):
And we'll ask the landlord.
Do you want to do it every sixmonths?
Do you want to do it everyquarter or do you want to do it
just on a yearly basis?
We recommend a minimum of everysix months, because a lot can
happen in six months with aproperty.
We could walk into a propertyand find out that the tenant,
you know, has been havingmedical issues and no longer can
(15:27):
clean up after themselves, whichis an issue with mice and bugs.
And we need to have aconversation or we could walk
into a place.
And the tenant doesn't know thata soft floor is a good thing or
a bad thing.
So.
Well, no, because we do thoseinspections and a soft floor is
a very bad thing.
It can cause thousands ofdollars of damage, but attendant
(15:50):
doesn't know sometimes.
So inspections is a great way toservice the tenant as well as
protect the property.
Dave Stohr (15:55):
I know that every property owner has had to
respond to that dreaded call at2:00 AM in the morning because
of maintenance problems.
Are you able to dispatch servicepeople out at all hours of the
day or night to remedy asolution for your clients?
Kassandra Taggart (16:10):
That is a very special, special thing that
our company does.
And I, I would like to say thatI'm the leader in this, what we
designed from day one with themaintenance company, because I'm
an investor.
I believe in this, that I thinkthe person who should be
answering the emergency line isan actual maintenance
technician, because then theycan take the phone call and go,
(16:30):
Oh, you just need to put somebatteries in thermostat and save
me hundreds of dollars fromsending somebody in the middle
of the night to go take care ofsomething.
So we do have a 24 sevenemergency line and it's answered
live by a maintenance personthat can sit there and
troubleshoot before theydispatch anybody to the
property.
That's a big thing because itsaves landlords a lot of money.
Dave Stohr (16:53):
When you said live, I got goosebumps because you
don't hear that every day canreal property management assist
the client in keeping theirmaintenance costs down, which
can fly off the handle at anytime.
Kassandra Taggart (17:04):
Oh, gosh, maintenance can be very
unplanned.
But there's a lot that you cando to make it where maintenance
is a planned expense and in thebudget and avoid surprises.
That is actually the number twofear that most landlords have is
unplanned maintenance, becausethey don't know if they have
enough savings or reserves builtup for that item.
(17:26):
So, what we do is every propertythat we bring on to the company
is we look at the property andsay, what are all the things we
need to plan for such, justgutter, cleaning, furnace
inspections, sprinklerinspection routine inspections
of the interior.
Dry cleanings is a big one.
Fireplace chimney.
The list goes on.
And then what we do is we putthat property on a routine
(17:48):
schedule to make sure thoseinspections happen.
So that way it reduces thechance of a fire reduces the
chance of having a catastrophic.
I spilled up water damming offof gutters.
For example,
Dave Stohr (18:03):
you know, one of the hardest parts of being a
property owner in, you know,this is handling evictions, this
real property managementconsider themselves strict when
it comes to that process.
Kassandra Taggart (18:13):
We are fairly strict when it comes to
evictions, as long as thelandlords let us what we, what
we tend to do.
And a lot of people don'tunderstand this is that we have
a process in place that is verystrict and very streamlined.
However, we also are able tocreate very strategic points of
(18:34):
negotiations.
To make it where the tenant willtry to bring it current or try
to bring things good again.
And they're done with like acurrent approach, for example,
Hey, if you do this, I'll dothis that way.
We understand if the tenant isjust talking a lot and not
actually having any intentionsof trying to make things good.
(18:55):
Or if they really are trying,they're actually going to get a
little to say, Hey, I am trying,here's what I can give to avoid
all the problems.
So that's the trick that we doto hold people accountable, as
well as see if they really meanwhat they're going to do.
Dave Stohr (19:10):
How would you describe the system within real
property management, lastfrontier that handles accounting
for your clients?
Maybe those who are not all thatgood with numbers.
Kassandra Taggart (19:20):
I am proud of my accounting department.
They are very accurate andthey're very systematic and
making sure the follow throughwith everything is there.
And.
Then what they do because of ouraccounting professionals are
also landlords.
They understand that noteverybody likes accounting, it
can be boring for most people.
(19:41):
So what they do is they makethese customized reports that
sit on everyone's portal and itlooks like a checkbook register.
Almost everybody can understanda checkbook register.
So they make a check bookregister where you can see all
the money coming in and out likea checkbook.
So that way it makes sense.
And you can read it just likeyou do with your personal
budget.
Dave Stohr (20:01):
When I talked to you about real property management
and all of the services, itsounds as if your company helps
protect a client's investment asif it were their own.
Kassandra Taggart (20:12):
What a lot of people don't realize is that I
am an investor as well.
And half of my staff areinvestors as well.
I pride myself in making surethat I have people in the team
that are landlords as well.
So we can understand your fears,your concerns.
I tenants destroy my property.
I understand what it feels likewhen I get that phone call.
(20:33):
And I understand what it takesto get that property turned
around because I've done it withmy own money.
And same with half my staff aswell.
So like makes it to where wehave a deeper understanding and
a deeper service level becausewe're in the same boat.
Dave Stohr (20:49):
Do you assist your clients in protecting themselves
legally instead of trying to goat all alone?
Kassandra Taggart (20:56):
I'm not a lawyer, but I am a property
manager that sees these casesall the time.
I know which lawyers to hire to,to help a certain situations.
And because I see all thesecases all the time, I've seen
strategies that work, and I'veseen strategies that have felled
on the legal front.
And because you put us in place,we're able to put barriers in
(21:19):
place.
Between the risk and theliability on yourself, which is
things that you wouldn't havenever thought of.
A great example was when atenant is moving in, in the
middle of the month, we makethem pay 30 days of rent, not,
not the prorated amount, becauseyou want as much money as
possible.
When you starting a brand newrelationship with them.
Dave Stohr (21:41):
Because your company is a new set of eyes.
When you walk into a property,when you see costs within a
client's investment, do youconsult with the client to help
minimize those costs?
Kassandra Taggart (21:52):
We do consulting all the time.
It's one of those things wherewe'll sit down on a frequent
basis and look at accounts andsay, Oh, we need to work on your
water bill because the waterbill people sends a notification
that the water usage is up.
And we need to figure out what'sgoing on.
And that's when we'll dispatchwork orders to investigate,
(22:13):
because if we don't watch thosefrom the accounting perspective
and from our processes, you'llend up with a high water bill
for months and not, we'll takealmost all your profits if
you're not careful.
So there's a lot of consultingthat we do, and there's a lot of
systems in place to catch thosethings quickly to try to
minimize any of your profits.
(22:35):
Dillon is going away.
Dave Stohr (22:37):
Should people manage their own property to save money
or do they actually in the endpay more by trying to
self-manage
Kassandra Taggart (22:45):
I'm just gonna use myself as an example
on this one.
I wanted to do it myself and Idid it myself because I thought
I was the best.
I thought I gave better service.
I thought I was more personable.
What actually happened is I madea mistake after mistake, after
mistake and realized, wait aminute, maybe I'm not the best
(23:07):
person.
And the mistakes that I made wasstuff like I couldn't keep up
with all my papers because I wasbusy with, you know, soccer or
whatever, or I couldn't givethem the best service because I
was busy with my client.
I didn't really pay attention tomy tenant, which made them not
and made them move out.
Or I took it personal when Ishouldn't have.
And that made it to where I wastaken advantage of.
(23:30):
And I shouldn't have, so rentalsis personal, but at the same
time it's business andseparating it from doing it
yourself versus having a thirdperson be very unbiased, too.
It makes it to where you don'taccidentally lose money.
And to be honest, we're veryaffordable and you will spend a
(23:50):
lot of time.
When you could be working withfamily or doing your day job,
making more money than what youwould be paying me in like a
whole year.
Dave Stohr (23:59):
Ken investors in landlords become more successful
with a company like yours thatis proven to be successful in
property management.
Kassandra Taggart (24:08):
Yeah, there is, I'll give a story on this
one, cause it might, might givea little bit of perspective.
There's a guy who had 10 unitsand he was doing it himself.
And I found out that the thingshe was missing that we could
bring to the table basicallypaid for us and gave him more
money in his pocket.
So things like we havecollections in place.
(24:28):
We have credit reporting inplace.
We have insurance thinginsurance measures in place.
And because of that, we wouldhave paid for his kitchen fire.
We, we would have collectedmoney out of the collection
companies.
These are all things he couldn'tdo or didn't know to do as they
do it yourself landlord.
So when he turned us on, we wereable to immediately get all
(24:50):
those things in place and putmore money in his pocket at the
end of the year.
And I remember the first year ithappened, he called me at the
beginning.
He's like, all man, I'm nervous.
I feel like I'm I'm, I'm.
Sending money by having you.
And then by the end of the year,he was saying, Oh my gosh, he
put more money in my pocket.
Now I have a tax problem.
I gotta go work it out with myCPA.
Dave Stohr (25:11):
If there is somebody out there right now, a landlord
or an investor that wants totalk to you about managing their
properties and their buildings,how can they get ahold of you?
Couple of different ways.
It depends on your personalityand style.
Our favorite is a phone callcause we like to consult with
you tonight.
(907) 290-2022.
Or you can check out our websiteand then like all the contact us
(25:32):
information where you canprovide us your number and your
phone number and your email, andbest time to call you.
And we can consult with you thatway.
You're listening to Cassandra.
Tagard the president of realproperty management, last
frontier Anchorage, and theauthor of the book, painter
profit secrets of profitablerental property investors.
I'm Dave stro, even the bestlandlords have questions.
(25:53):
And we are asking them forCassandra's best advice this
morning.
Here's your first questionbecause Sandra, would you rent
to someone with a really lowcredit score, less than 500, if
you knew it was that low.
Due to divorce.
Kassandra Taggart (26:08):
Oh, that's always the tricky one, but at
the same time, it's something Ithink a lot of people fall for
because it's, it's easy to say,Oh, I'm going through the
divorce.
It looks like everything is bad.
Well, you gotta remember thatpeople in a divorce still have
obligations.
They'll have to pay and peoplethat are going through divorce
usually you'll see like, All ofa sudden their payments will
(26:29):
drop off, like in the last 60,90 days kind of thing, why they
get re situated with life andthen they come back.
It's not, they've been destroyedfor many, many years, many, many
months kind of thing.
So people with very low creditscore tend to actually have a
story of many, many years andmonths of bad behavior, not just
(26:51):
recent.
So I would be wary and not doit.
Dave Stohr (26:55):
Okay.
There we go.
There's your best advice.
Here's your next question?
How do you stay on top of atenant's visitors?
Not staying past the magicalthree days, thus allowing
visitors to become tenants.
Kassandra Taggart (27:06):
That's always a tricky one because you have
with the course size that youcan enforce.
When you're standing in front ofa judge, then you have what the
law says.
Then you have what your leasesays.
There's many, many, manyvariables to this.
And I think the easiest way toanswer this is to think of it as
a business decision.
(27:27):
Is that visitor causing harm?
Is that visitor costing youmoney?
Is that visitor being an issue?
If yes, to any of those things,then start doing your 10 day
notice process and followingthrough with the issue, if not
leave it alone.
They're not hurting anything.
If it's not hurting anything,you kind of have to just pick
(27:47):
your battles sometimes.
Dave Stohr (27:49):
Okay.
Here's another question.
A tenant in my building hascomplained about finding needles
in the parking lot and aroundhis car.
Any advice on how to confirm mysuspicion on those using
Kassandra Taggart (28:03):
even if he found out who is using.
You, you have to get the policeinvolved.
You can't, you can't just servea notice saying, Hey, I think
you're doing drugs.
And I think you need to leaveand dah and start creating a
confrontation.
Like you're the detective.
You're not as effective andyou're not the police.
(28:23):
So my advice is yes.
Try to kind of figure out who itis and then find to maybe remove
that tenant out of the building.
So that way it's no longer anissue.
And then of course find a safeway to keep the property cleaned
up in the meantime.
Cause it's possible that it'sthe neighbor it's possible.
It's people walking by.
(28:44):
It's possible that.
It's just your location thatyou're in and that's the nature
of that location, unfortunately.
So you may just need to buy adifferent building if you can't
handle this or want to pay forcleaning it up.
But yeah, research shoe, itmight be, but your best bet is
to just go ahead and givenotices for that least to
terminate, rather than trying toenforce, because you need to
(29:07):
have the police prosecute andpresent evidence that it's real
and you're not as detective.
And the judge is going to wantthat when you're trying to evict
somebody and put it on theirrecord over drugs, when they're
not convicted of it.
Dave Stohr (29:20):
Here's another question.
What do I need to do to covermyself and make sure that all is
legal regarding communicationthrough a translator during the
duration of a family'sTennessee, that doesn't speak a
lot of English.
Kassandra Taggart (29:33):
We asked them the best way to handle somebody
who has a different language isyou might want to consider
having a person that you hiredthat does the language
interpretation for you.
So it's a third party and inbias you can use a United way,
has resources, various churcheshave resources because they care
about their community and wantto make sure that.
(29:54):
They are not taken advantage ofas well as communicating what to
be a part of everything.
So I recommend that you do thatrather than sometimes a family
member, because the familymember will skew it just to get
something that they might want.
The last thing is, is alwaysfollow up with everything, but
you an email summary of theconversation, because that will
(30:15):
help.
Avoid misinterpretation andmiscommunication due to the
language barrier.
Dave Stohr (30:23):
Here's another question.
How long should a good dryerexpect to last in a rental unit?
Kassandra Taggart (30:30):
Every dryer has a different life cycle.
I've seen the ones that last along time are like the
whirlpools, the GEs.
Then there's the cheaperappliance, like a Frigidaire
sometimes, or an LG.
That's very expensive as allthese tech components that break
down a lot.
So it depends on the appliance,but my rule of thumb is the
(30:51):
first time that that applianceneeds a around 200,$250 repair.
That's the time to startshopping for a new one, because
then the recorders are going tobe more costly than just buying
a new appliance.
Dave Stohr (31:02):
You have been around dryers for most of your life.
What do you think of dryers inthe 21st century?
Are they too?
Are they too technical?
Kassandra Taggart (31:12):
you know, the millennials are like, I want
more tech, but really what wewant is we want things that
work.
So I'll give example, there's aperson who converted their whole
house to this text thermostatstuff that they had.
And because the tech thermostatdidn't think to the internet,
the house ended up with no heatand we had to do an emergency
(31:32):
call.
At, at nine o'clock at nightbecause the temperature went to
47 in that place, all becausethe techie thermostat wouldn't
think to the internet and hadnothing to do with plumbing.
So there's pros and cons of it.
I personally think in a rentalsituation, we just want things
that work, not things that canpotentially fell because of the
(31:53):
cyber webs.
Dave Stohr (31:55):
And speaking of utilities, is it the tenant's
responsibility to requestdisconnecting from utilities
when they move out?
Kassandra Taggart (32:02):
You tell me, is there one of those things
that you really should have itin your contract of who does
what with turning it on, turningit off.
If this happens, this is what'sgoing to happen.
Here's the rules, becausewithout that clear guideline, it
creates this.
We personally, when the tenantmoves out, if they want to keep
paying for that utility bill andnot turn it off of their name,
(32:23):
that's their accountability.
We've already got it.
Cut off.
Where, when they do turn it off,it automatically flips over.
So it doesn't turn off off.
So it's up to the tenant.
If they want to, you know, dotheir paperwork actually, and
actually get it turned off.
Dave Stohr (32:39):
Here's another question.
My tenants still can't pay rentdue to COVID.
Are there any agencies inAnchorage still offering
assistance today?
Kassandra Taggart (32:49):
There was a lot of agencies available.
It's a matter of trying to getthrough to them because they are
from boarded and busy and swamp.
But there is still eight andthere is still checks being
handed out.
In fact, I just did a reportthis month to see how many
people got their January rentpaid from assistance funds.
And it's already over$25,000that we received and rental
(33:12):
assistance funds for tenants.
So the money is still out thereand it's still being sent out.
So you just have to work maybe alittle harder trying to connect
to those resources, but they'rethere.
Dave Stohr (33:24):
And I was going to ask, is there any pandemic
relief for local landlords thatyou're hearing of?
Kassandra Taggart (33:30):
I have not heard of any.
I do know that there might stillbe a little bit of funds out of
the Lutheran, which isadministered through the United
way.
And two, one, one that isassistance to help with mortgage
relief.
And that would be what you'dlandlords could do is ask for
more mortgage relief assistance.
And I believe they still have alittle bit left in their fund
(33:52):
that might help.
I'm not sure as of today, butthat's the last I've heard.
Dave Stohr (33:56):
How many references should I ask for before I rent
to someone?
Kassandra Taggart (34:02):
Landlord references used to be a great
place to really get Intel onsomebody.
But you have to remember in thistown, it's kind of adjusted to
where now they put theirfriend's name and numbers down.
Or you might actually get alandlord that they're still with
right now.
And they're like, what?
I didn't know they were leaving.
And if they're a bad tenants, ofcourse, they're going to give a
(34:23):
good review because they don'twant them anymore.
But I recommend two to three isa good, healthy number to kind
of get a tone potentially of whothat person is.
As a tenant.
Dave Stohr (34:35):
One of our landlords wants to know, is it illegal for
me to charge a monthly pet rentor fee.
Kassandra Taggart (34:42):
There it's not illegal at this time to
charge fees or deposits ormonthly rent for pets.
What is illegal just to bemindful is if it is a service
animal, you cannot do chargesfor that service animal.
And of course you have to followa whole nother set of guidelines
to make that be a thing.
Dave Stohr (35:04):
Here's another question.
Do you allow a renter to Airbnbthe property they are renting
from?
Kassandra Taggart (35:11):
No.
And not as a huge problem incertain areas like in New York
and major cities, but now withCOVID and the population
adjustments in certain studies,it may not be so much of a
thing.
But no, it is not allowed.
It's basically called subleasingand we do not allow that in our
leases.
Dave Stohr (35:30):
And one more question, Cassandra is paying
the rent by check.
It's still a good way to collectmoney or is online the way to
go.
We've talked about that today.
Kassandra Taggart (35:40):
Yeah, tenants have spoken Senate's want the
convenience of online becausethey want to deal with the
landlord.
Not often, they want to dealwith their life and their family
and not the landlord.
So and with the stats showing87% wanting to pay online.
You guys need to find a way tomake that happen or just let us
do it for you.
Dave Stohr (36:01):
As we head into the new year, are you making plans
concerning your financialfuture?
Is this the year that you decideto take action and begin to grow
and build a lasting legacythrough investing in real estate
rental properties?
Then let's talk with Cassandrawho wants to join you?
On that journey, every step ofthe way, Cassandra, the other
day, I saw a sign that saidAnchorage is dying.
Are you optimistic and hopefulabout the return of Anchorage as
(36:24):
a city?
That once thrived,
Kassandra Taggart (36:27):
I believe that the people right now are
stressed.
They're frustrated.
They're you know, we're, we'regoing through a difficult time
where.
Things are happening.
That's a lot of negative, right?
So people feel the desperationand they're feeling sad and
they're, and they're having hardtimes, they're looking at bills
(36:48):
and may not have the money topay the bills.
So there's a lot of desperationand dust and sadness going on.
I don't think it's dying.
No, I think the community iscoming together and I think the
community is trying to findsolutions.
I think that.
They're trying to find a way tomake things better and happier
and be the Anchorage.
(37:09):
It is.
For example, there's a group ofpeople going around putting
Christmas lights up oneverybody's houses and paying
for their own Christmas lightsto put it up.
Just to light up Anchorageagain, cause it is dark right
now.
Cause the sun's not up yet.
You're going to see more of thatcoming out and lending a hand to
help our fellow Alaskans.
(37:29):
And I think that's going to bemore predominant of a thing.
And I think we just need toremember there's a lot of people
who need help and those that canhelp, will help and should help.
And you just got to find whothey are sometimes.
Cause they're not very loud.
The people that are sad or arelouder.
Dave Stohr (37:46):
With the weight of the pandemic on top of is, is it
depressing?
The real estate investmentmarket today?
Kassandra Taggart (37:53):
The investment market is different.
So what I need to make sureeverybody understands is that a
person who a true investor thathas a plan that has a strategy
and understands all theinvestment vehicles that can be
used and strategies that can beused, they are still buying and
they're still moving money andthey are still making
investments.
(38:13):
But if you're not educatedenough in the real estate world
to understand the different.
Types of properties you couldbuy during transitions and
shifts in the economy.
It might be good to sit back andlisten to your PO, build your
team, how professionals comearound you and learn as much as
(38:33):
you can before you pulled thetrigger, because you can
accidentally pull the trigger ona property that may not have a
foundation, and it'll bankrupt.
You, you don't want to do thatright now.
You don't want to do things thatare risky.
That can potentially take youout for several years.
So just be careful.
Dave Stohr (38:52):
What's the biggest thing you've learned about
yourself and your investmentpractices during the last 11
months?
Kassandra Taggart (39:00):
For me, it was insight that the properties
that I purchased for myself to,to own when I went and
purchased, I purposely didmiddle market properties.
And middle market properties is,is, is not very risky.
They, they don't have theawesome Excel spreadsheets, but
(39:21):
they also don't have.
The risky parts involved becauseit's the middle of the road,
average Alaskan that's workingin the average Laskin lifestyle
type property.
And so therefore I'm always ableto find a tenant to fill that
place.
And it rents in 24 hours and thetenants are still paying rent
(39:42):
and they still have jobs.
So they're not dependent on likethe hotel or retail or
restaurant jobs.
So for me, it was insight thatmiddle of the road type rental
middle average properties are aspace investment.
They're not very risky and itmakes the worry to have a lot of
headaches.
Dave Stohr (40:00):
How can investors find out more about joining the
landlords club here inAnchorage?
Kassandra Taggart (40:05):
The most popular one is the Facebook
group.
We have a private Facebook groupfor those that are landlords
that you can join and you justsearch the landlords Almanac.
Slash Alaska and that'll be theprivate group.
And that's where I donate a lotof our time to help those that
have questions.
So if nobody else answers yourquestion, I, I will chime in to
(40:26):
help you out.
Dave Stohr (40:27):
Find out more about real property management, which
we talked about at the top ofthe hour and all that your
company does.
Where can people go to find outmore information?
Kassandra Taggart (40:36):
To read about us is RPM last frontier.com or
just call us even if you don'tneed our services, we'll be glad
to help you out two nine zerotwo nine two two, Cassandra.
We want to thank you for yourknowledge and your compassion
and your guidance over the lasthour.
You are, as I'm sure ourlisteners now know an invaluable
resource and experienced advisorfor those who were investing in
(40:58):
real estate and taking theirfirst step towards success.
Have a good week.
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