Minding My Business

 

Occasionally I'm asked about my real estate business, which I've tried to broach in this space and will attempt to share more today although you'll excuse me for staying at a relatively high level.

We'll start with my most low-maintenance property, our condo hotel unit in Miami Beach. Being in a hotel program means that not only do you not need to worry about much, in fact you are not allowed to do much. You can't leave anything behind, redecorate, renovate, or repair. Everything is taken care of and then you get a cut of the bookings, so my only to-do's here are to file away the revenue reports and pay the property taxes. (I have HOA and utility bills on auto-pay.)

For my DC property, I have a local unit manager who handles finding and taking care of renters, as well as taking care of maintenance when it comes up, so all that gets deducted from my rent checks. I do have to keep tabs on property tax payments, and DC being DC there are also various annual and bi-annual paperwork requirements of landlords and business owners to keep up with.

For Ocean City, rentals are handled by an in-town realty company, which has also been great about handling tenant issues and maintenance troubleshooting since I'm not local. I have HOA and utilities on auto-pay, and also have to keep track of property tax payments and various forms for rental businesses. During the offseason, if the place goes more than a month without use, I'll take the fam out for a weekend getaway to make sure everything is ok. This place we do furnish and stock up for, so invariably there are little things I need to buy or replace, a set of coasters here or a vegetable peeler there, to say nothing of things we want to stow in the owner's closet for our own use when we're there (e.g. toilet paper, coffee).

Lastly, our place here in Philly on the Delaware riverfront. As it's in town, I manage it myself, although when things come up I have a list of approved vendors that either I can call or the tenant can, and from there it's pretty hands off since there's a front desk that I can give instructions to that will let contractors in so I don't have to be on site. I used to show, screen, and onboard tenants myself, but have since outsourced that and have found that approach to be far easier and better. All the bills here are on auto-pay, plus I have to deal with property taxes and tax returns on an annual basis.

For the business as a whole, I file all my receipts in a folder and then do the books once a year, for my own records as well as for tax purposes. Also once a year are holiday cards and/or thank you gifts for tenants, realtors, and contractors. So, in any given week, things do come up but the big lifts tend to be far more infrequent and far more predictable. 

Of course, a whole other aspect of the business is springing into action when a buying opportunity arises. This is preceded by setting up and then reviewing alerts for potential properties, and is in turn followed by additional inquiries, maybe a virtual tour and request for information, and if things get serious then an offer and negotiations and a closing process. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't bought a property in a year and a half, and it's entirely possible I may never buy another. But you never know unless you look, so even it's less and less now, I still do look. After all, I'm just minding my business.