This is the homecoming with the Downing Brothers podcast where we talk about real estate business and financial literacy. They live by the motto dream plan. Execute your host Anthony and Anton Downing. Welcome to homecoming with a downer Brothers. This is Anthony in this is anti and we have somebody special today someone we know and we work with personally for years. That's right. That's a makea. Damn. What did she do? She is our property manager. Oh, yeah. That means I don't have to collect my own ring. That means I don't have to listen to tennis. About stuff that isn't really complain about completable. He came up with his own definition. That's not the definition today. No, that's not the definition complain about is that high so high so, where are we on home come with the down the brothers and you know the way we kick this off is that you know, we ask you a question. And that question is, where are you from and when you were growing up, what did you learn about real estate business or financial literacy? Okay, so I am from fried grew up in the Kenwood neighborhood 45 77 Lake Park. Now, I didn't learn about real estate until I was about 19 and how that happened is my mom was buying a house for the first time and she had a real estate agent who was not listening to her needs. And so she was taking us to houses. We were not liking them at all. So I took it upon myself to do my own search and I found the home that my mom is still living in today. Wow. And so that opened up my eyes to get into real estate on my own and I started as a leasing agent with Chicago Apartment Finders branched off into property management. And here I am what 10 11 12 years later and say owner of my own property management company. Whose name your company no Heights Property Management, right New Heights. That's right. That's right signing a check. That's right. I cool. So, you know, why is it important to have a Property manager, I mean, why would the Donna Brothers have arrived me manage my brother? Because they're so busy. But no it's important to have a property manager. It's all about your own personal preference though. If you want to have that investor relationship and then continue to grow and build your portfolio. Of course as you're doing that you need someone to handle the day-to-day operations. And so that is what a property manager does to make sure that you're getting paid. Your building is maintained and that any kind of relations are being taken care of so that you have that consistent residual tenet that rolls over. Year to year to year. I think you hit it on the head because that's the thing like we are busy. I mean, I think we throw that word around busy. But I mean, we you know, we coming to podcast we're doing renovations. We having meetings with public officials and investors and Christian. But I kind of feel whenever I hear people say that I always ask them. Did you ever consider getting the property manager? Yeah, because maybe experienced property managers such as yourself could have alleviated some of those problems and they could have kept that property and still had a Cashmore property. Absolutely. I think sometimes when owners want to manage their own properties is just there's not really a set set of proper. Kind of procedures that are in place meaning they can sometimes get too personal with their tenants and then sometimes take advantage of that. So for instance, you're my landlord and we had this one-on-one. So now I'm going to tell you I can't pay my rent on time this month because around my stuff the toe and I got to pay for all her hospital bills because it starts and so you being an empathetic person is so you go with that and so then You keep that going or if you have multiple tenants as give me that same line. You're not making any money and you don't get it until after your mortgage is due or after you got to pay for heater or water tank. Whatever the case may be you provide a free housing at that point. Is that no your get your money after the fact, but it also kind of puts you at a deficit because you may not have plans pay for the mortgage that month, right? So, I mean, it's all circumstantial but if you are listening right now you and your either considering buying your first Multi-unit property or you already have one and you're up to here with it and you're like I'm ready to quit before you do that do a little research and think about hiring a property manager. I mean, you don't have to say I'm either doing it myself on quitting. There is a third option. Yeah, and you can then it's the thought that having a property manager is expensive and that's not the case either really just a percentage on the dollar that you have a property manager for not granted the maintenance of the upkeep depending Going on how well your property is Will fluctuate. But as far as actually having a person to have your day-to-day that's just a percentage of about right? Yeah, and we could talk about this as though everything is so just so great because we won't have to do any work. Well, yes major infrastructure does play a part for me this past year. I had to spend like $12,000 on a boiler for one of our apartment buildings, and that's that's set me back. So we do we should you know alert people when you get that money do not go to the Bahamas with it. Do not go to the casino at least until you put away like 10% of it every month for that eventuality that's going to come. Right right and then two is all about knowing beforehand like with us having to get the boiler it was it something like we were we didn't plan for so it kind of where you had property management team on site and we We were able to monitor it and maybe plan for months in advance. So we're like, you know, we're last week and it died on us and it was kind of like something where you get to pay right away. All right, without knowing that that expenses coming up. So right I mean it's planning and preparation and I think you know some people get emotional about properties, right especially when they're buying like a single-family home people get really emotional about buying it and selling it sometimes because of emotions they buy a property because it's the first one there. On it fell in love with that and he never even saw the rest of the options on when it's time to sell they want to sell it at a certain price because in their own personal opinion is valued at sir and the same thing with pride when it comes to like owning a multi-unit. It's a business. So when you start getting emotional because you have relationships with the tenants or and things of that nature you get away from the point and the point of having a multi-unit property whether it's residential three flat or if it's a commercial building 6 flat 10 unit 20 units at the end of the day it was to make money. You got this for a reason to make money. And so let's keep it business. I've really feel that's exactly the reason why you know, we got you to be our property manager because we were starting to get personal relationships with our tenants. Back with you. Yeah, it was hard at first and what I'm happy about now is like with one of our buildings. I don't know any of those tenants. Yeah, and I imagine that makes your job easier. Yeah now I'll before we go on even though we don't know the tennis per se we do care about their well-being and so now the I think okay. This is a point. I want to make right here. We don't ever want to be slumlords and I think when you have Property Management, that means you can maintain the building to a level so that people can be proud of they live and that your tenants are comfortable and they have their needs their basic needs. Right which means that you know, they have this annotation. The toilets are working is the ceiling isn't leaking that it's you know, no obstruction going from the front door to this to the sidewalk, you know, we want to copy management allows us to make sure that those things are happening and you may not be a slumlord but your property manager may be a slum manager. Hey, that's my point. That could be something that's gorgeous people from having property managers as well because they may say nobody's don't take care of my bills my building the way I would but it's about vetting them and also kind of checking their references checking the properties that they're saying that they managed just driving through the neighborhood. How does there, you know the Landscaping look compared to the everybody in the neighborhood. That's a way to kind of vet to see how well maintained your property is and how they would treat your property because you want to your property. Roger wants to treat your property as if it's their own and so if that's the case, then they can kind of also be your accountability partner to make sure that you're not a slumlord. So speak right now. Like when when we met you, I feel like you only had a couple of buildings, right you scaled the new heights literally to new heights when you guys came along I only had two. So glad so properties that I manage and that was what 2017? Yeah, 2017 and since then I have 200 units in only what 10 of them ours. You already know you know what I want to take this moment to talk about our homecoming event. So homecoming events is where we just highlight different things that are happening across the country with a real estate business and financial literacy, and I stumbled upon Pam Brown Courtney. She is a real estate developer and investor and an educator and she built a 51 home subdivision in Little Rock. Arkansas she said that I didn't want to live in a neighborhood where people weren't friendly. So I went home and said, you know what I can build my own Community like that and I'll be nice to the people that live there and I went and looked I went and looked up and the name of this community is called Covenant Cove community. So if we have any listeners out there in Arkansas the Covenant Cove Community 51 newly built homes. She's leasing all of them and the day with Residents others are there what she said here. Oh, so you're invited to go to company Cove community and you they do Airbnb. So if you just there in town just you know, because you're visiting you can R and D. And these are high-end. These are very nice single family homes that she's Leasing and she's Leasing and I brought that up because you you lease right? Right. So you do have you know, just for the weekend type things like Airbnb, but then you also have, you know, long-term tenants. We got short-term long-term tenants. And oh and strategically this is also near the University of Arkansas. Yeah, so those students. Yeah those students and you know, she built from scratch. So it's 51 homes. They weren't there before - I can see she has the students and then she tries to run him out furnace that she can make more. Sorry. Hey, hey, that's property manager. Yeah, how can you Value Plus Value Plus e plus let's talk a little bit about that. So when you say we talk about property management, we take over a property. T and let's say it's a four unit and we go in there we want to do make some improvements so that we can justify raising the rent. So that's a value-add do the improvements you raise a ransom. Now, you got more Revenue coming in what other value adds would you consider in a building? What else? Can you make money from? The the new investor isn't really doesn't think of immediately so main key. If you're going to basically renovate a property and the individual units would be kitchens and bathrooms. Number one. Uh-huh. I always say you do not have to put stainless steel appliances in their black will suffice unless you have condo units and you're going full day without modern amenities then go ahead and throw this pain is still there, but it was just a regular permanent you're doing you're renovating and upgrading it then black of Isis will suffice space of Course and then from there you just kind of go ahead and rip because those are the main things that for instance. I looking for Adams with atoms. We can charge extra for XYZ charge extra for garage. If you have a garage sale these you can have Mondrian sighs. So and then if you own the machines and you're getting that income so coin-operated. Yeah, we added that. So if I want one of the buildings, yeah and then At renewal if you want to raise it to the 3% ways to kind of accommodate the tennis for that is you want to do something nice for him from as a thank you for renewal is so typical things that I like to do. What we have is a carpeting unit get a complimentary carpet cleaning so that will cost you 100 to 150 on top. But then over time if you're raising the rent $25 what you got like six hundred dollars annual increase just off of $150, right? So You think it is because I you know, I know there's somebody listening right now who's about to buy their first residential apartment building about to get their first three flat or four unit. So you go in there. And right now you got a three-bedroom one-bath in the neighborhood where the top end is a thousand dollars for rent for that three bedroom one bath, but currently is being rented for $900. So when you come in there as the leases expire you make a couple of improvements you you know to the bathroom or the kitchen you may Make an improvement or you or if you don't make it provements doing the carpet cleaning and I also like about all three of us are well, you know, let's say it has a down there and you're thinking to yourself. Oh, oh, what I would like to do is get $3,000 a month. There's three flat. But right now I'm only getting you know, 1,700. I mean are not 1700 but 2700, you know, how do I get to where I want to be? So with when you're buying a property that has tenants in there. The first thing you want to do or you want your property manager do is to interview them do a walk-through of their apartment see what issues more than likely tendons that have been in a property for a while. They want a new paint job what new appliances maybe just depends On how long has been in the condition? But typically if you go in and do a full paint job some look like a burrito apartment anyway, because if they have that standard white paint that has kind of turned yellow after a while. So when they see you coming in and making those changes that automatically gives them the trust's assigned on a 12-month lease with you as well as give you, you know, the increase that you're asking for because you're coming in and doing things that the previous owner didn't threaten and then You say you're so where else can I squeeze and a couple of dollars out? Well, if I have a 3 car garage and a three tenets and I charge each one of them $25 that's extra $75 a month. And then I have storage spaces downstairs and they don't currently have access to the storage. I clean out the entire basement divided up and then I charge them $25 a month for the storage space. So now they can put down there all you know their bikes and they're extra winter clothes whatever it is right encourage them also to renew because at first they had everything in Their apartments or was cramped at the thinking all I need to move without have enough space in the you just opened up all the space for them. All right, but now so let me see. I got 75 hours from the garage $75 from the storage. That's a hundred and fifty the rim and I raised over $100 is three hundred four hundred fifty dollars. I think when you buy that building make these considerations on what are you willing to do? You have the capital to make some improvements and what is not being utilized in that building that you can now provide and give access to And now you know, you got extra money know the one thing that we haven't talked about yet. Is that section 8 because because for me that very first building I put to Section 8 tenants and two out of the three units and people always try to talk bad about Section 8 tenants, but I don't think I've ever had a problem with my section 8 saying I think this people yes, they are you just have to interview and you don't even necessarily like the thing is that people think that anybody that has I said Jay voucher that they're not working and it's just a stigma. So the thing is with ch a you on the list. So when you started on the list, you may not have it working. But by the time they make it to you because the list is so long. I've had people that have received stage a vouchers and I work for the post office now granted you are still has a voucher holder, but the tables are turned. So whereas you would have been paying $50 and chaa would have been paying, you know, 950 you're an hour. And I 50 is caj is paying $50 so that whole stigma of you know, voucher holders not working and they tear up your property at this then the third is horrible. I think it's horrible to I think so many so many people rely I would never put Section 8 in my building as soon as I can my building everybody is paying market rate a my thing is when I think about market rate versus a Section 8 tenant, they're both people. They both need to be interviewed people who are market rate will tear up your apartment. Just like someone who has a voucher. The question is did you do your due diligence and do and what is due diligence? Like, how are you? What is it? What is the interview in selection process into every single person whether they have a voucher of subsidy Market should go through and credit and background. So I had come across so many owners that because they have a subsidy because they have a voucher that's guaranteed money that you bypassed even screening the person because you're just knowing that they have this guaranteed money. So everybody should go through that. What I do an extra incentive, especially with voucher holders is to do a home inspection or whether currently living right because chii requires you to do annual inspections. And if you have someone that's coming in and they don't maintain as a shield which is a fear that some owners have to come in every year at fix everything up if you see how they're living with their current lease and then you can kind of say if that's something that you Tackle or you rather not move forward with them as a as an advocate, but you have to let all of that be known in the beginning so that you're not kind of going against fair housing laws are saying that you're being discriminatory. How long does it take to get a week to do everything you just said for one perspective Senate the background comes back the same day. That's all of your schedule right? So maybe take a week take a today's it just depends on you just and then if you have A property manager already did it so okay. So right now I'm just being an advocate. Obviously. I'm bias, right? We have our property manager here on this episode we're biased but we also appreciate how free are time is because because you are doing spending the time to do the background check to do the home visit to take care of any issues and problems that are going on in our building deal with it let our landscaper and Deal with making in request for increase with the Section 8 tenants and then as you as you grow in your relationship just like a couple days ago. We sat down and kind of strategize. We had a little powwow and say oh these are the things that I would like to see happening on into the future and then you go out and execute those things and I feel like oh I'm getting my money's worth for having a property manager. But if you value your time, and that's the reason why at the end of the day, that's why we have a property manager because we value our time. I want my time back to do to do. Other things and you guys are seeing what we doing. So we need that time to do this definition of you mean Anton's definition of the day and we'll do that right after this break. Are you currently paying off student debt interested in improving your financial literacy or looking for new ways to earn income in today's ever-changing digital landscape willing to talk money with mesh lakhani podcast mesh will follow Paper Trails chat with experts and break down complex ideas to bring Clarity to the mystical Financial phenomenon. Each episode will be filled with compelling stories covering a broad range. Two subjects from buying Bitcoin dealing with student debt and everything in between. Listen to talk money with mesh lakhani on Spotify or whatever you listen to your favorite podcast and learn how to spend invest in earn for today's economy. All right, we're back and it's time for air times definition of the day. And the definition for today is Property Management property management is the operation control and oversight of Real Estate Management indicates the need of real estate to be cared for Monitor and accountability for its useful life and condition. This is much of kin to the role of management in any business, right and any business and our business is real estate. And so Got it, you know if you need to hire managers to make sure that you have your systems in place because we throw that word around a lot of times systems a system is basically having people who are working for you to execute your dream your plan. So do you have a system in place by having a property manager who then goes out and make sure that all the things that your building needs are in place and the property manager. She he or she will you know, how do your day-to-day operations but they They also can help you with your budget as far as forecasting for the following year. I'm coming up with like you say brainstorming and doing a powwow to come up with what are the plans for the next following year as far as any special projects you want to do on the property giving you your statement. You should receive a statement. So let you know where your funds are going in how the money is being split up so that you you know, I'm not your hands off, but you're still you know in the know of what's going on. You're proud. Hey, when tax season comes that record-keeping is amazing. Thank you. I know that's right because they are definitely some you know, tax write-offs and things of that nature that you kind of need the information. You need to know what the revenue was and what the maintenance costs were and I got enough in order for you to properly do your taxes. All right. So we got a question for you. Give us your dream plan execute moment. It could be from the past present or something that you working on now, but what did you dream? About how did you formulate that plan and tell us about the execution so new heights started out as a dream. Of course. It was one that I felt that I needed to do with somebody else. I just couldn't do it by myself. I just it just wasn't possible but I was forced to and it's like you blink and times past and you see how much you've done. So what was its 2018? I you know, just Janice. Stuff down as far as where I want to see new heights grow within the year and it was actually made of 2018 when I wasn't to get May of 2018 when I wrote this down where I wanted to see me lies within the year and I just put a random number next to it and I went $20,000 over that number not even really pushing. It just happened and another thing. Thing that is like my dream plan execute proud moment is that most of my clientele from New Heights has been strictly from referrals. I just started to try to you know market and promote my business, but for the most part my client salesmen strictly referral for first one. All right, that's awesome. You know that something is real consistent among our guests and it's the power of writing. It's right down. Yeah, yes, because you come back across something you wrote down and it may be a couple of weeks or a couple months maybe even a couple of years, but because it's written down you come back across it and you see it and then it's like, oh, let's do something about this thing that I wrote. Yeah. I definitely believe in writing things down. I have about five journal books that I just I just jot things down that I want to do but thing that that I enjoy most about is that when I go back and I look at it and I can Crossing things off. The list and it's like it wasn't like I said, it wasn't something that I was at get it done. I got to get done and I'm like chasing. My tail is just something that everything aligned and it just happened. And so I just believe we put it out there it comes back to the boat definitely definitely. So this is homecoming with down a brother. So I'm gonna ask you this when you hear the term homecoming, what does that mean to you family family an imprint love happiness is - it's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. All right. So we ask people, you know about their Hometown. We know you from Chicago, you know, there's a lot of different things that are going on. Is there any like homecoming cause not-for-profit organization or anything like that that you think can think of that you think people should support or should know about there are tons of domestic violence shelters. There's houses one that I donate to where's Clarence House and do they do they help and she helps women from domestic violence situations and their children with clothing shelter. There is also Heartland Alliance. They help veterans thresholds helps people that are recovering addicts with housing. And so there are tons of organizations in Chicago that help people and any way that I can I always kind of reach out and whether You know, like for instance Thursday, I'm throwing a Thanksgiving lunch. And at one of my properties it high-rise and it's for my seniors. And so then I have movie Church coming out. I have health clinics coming out. It's so it's just kind of giving back. All right, cool. You said on Thursday? Yeah. What time do you hear this guy? Cool. So your property management is important. It is a key part of what allows the down a brother. So, you know allows Anthony than time to be able to be free to do the things that we want to do and when it comes to real estate if you guys are going to go out there and you're thinking about buying and holding properties and having tenants and becoming a landlord then if you don't have the time to do it yourself or do it properly then you can consider Property Management. So where can they find you and your This new heights on Instagram is New Heights underscore property and GMT. And then on Facebook new heights Property Management there you have it. There you have it. Is there anything else that you need to know about New Heights or for yourself? I will be at the Downing brother's birthday party. There you go. That's right right after Thanksgiving. So yeah, you can actually come out to our birthday party is going to be if you're over November 30th 5 p.m. So yeah, we had we had to guess. Hopefully we get this episode. So thanks a lot for coming out and of course you go to our Instagram page and our Facebook page the down in brothers and you will see more of new heights management and the kids ever. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to homecoming with a Downing Brothers podcast. For more information on how to dream plan execute in real estate business and financial literacy visit triple. W dot the Downing Brothers. dot-com
Property Management 101: Knowing When You Need It! Homecoming with The Downing Brothers Episode #18 Mikia Dameron is a Chicago native that owns and operates New Heights Property Management. She gives the ins and outs of property management, how to add value to your rental property and why people don’t have to give up on their property investment. Have you ever wondered why hiring a professional company is in the best interest of protecting your investment? The common roles and responsibilities of hiring any Property Management company are.....Listen to Mikia Dameron’s Homecoming story!!!! Email Mikia at mdameron@newheightsmgmt.com Please visit www.thedowningbrothers.com for more information on the Downing Brothers and merchandise. Thanks for tuning into us on Homecoming with The Downing Brothers. Also, If you have any comments or questions about today’s episode, please let us know your thoughts in the comment section. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave an honest review of Homecoming with The Downing Brothers. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! Furthermore, they do matter in the rankings of the show, and we do read each and every one of them. ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Talk Money With Mesh Lakhani Podcast: On The Talk Money with Mesh Lakhani podcast, Mesh will follow paper trails, chat with experts, and break down complex ideas to bring clarity to the mystical financial phenomena behind your finances. 