Rally Your Troops

With a rental property comes repair calls, on a holiday weekend and always after 5PM on Friday. At least that's my experience. You will want your "to go" list of repair people before you need them. You don't want to be scrambling for a plumber when the sewer line backs up. Now that's ugly and pestilous. In Arizona, landlord has 48 hours to repair a broken air conditioner. Check with the laws in your state and be sure you follow them to the letter. Your A/C person may know an electrician, your plumber may be friends with a handyman. Ask for referrals, it's the best way to not be overcharged.
My favorite tenant pet peeve is when they tell me an item's been broken or acting up for weeks, but choose to contact me after 5PM on Friday. If it is NOT an emergency, I will send someone out the following week. If they request it be fixed before that, tenant is charged for overtime. Of course, this begs the question: what is an emergency?? A tenant last week felt a broken garage door was an emergency...really she did. I soooo wanted to ask her if her kid's arm were broken and the bone were protruding out of his arm, would that also constitute an emergency? There is only one definition to emergency and I don't think a broken garage door compares to a broken arm. Only in Scottsdale do you get these kinds of tenants.
Start your "to go" bare bones list with the following repair people: Air conditioning contractor, licensed and bonded; plumber also licensed and bonded; electrician, licensed and bonded; appliance repair company (I use B & B Appliances in Phoenix, they are great); a great handyman, doesn't need to be licensed and can also do small plumbing jobs. As you amass more rental homes, consider adding the following to your list: flooring person; pest control company (to remove pesky squirrels from dryer vents); garage door repair company who will promptly go out to an "emergency" call; professional roofer; yard and pool maintenance personnel.
But again, not to sound redundant, why not just hire a professional property manager and let me make the phone calls, coordinate appointments and follow ups? No hassle, no worries for a small fee. It's more than worth it!

Pets Are Cleaner Than People

One of the decisions you will need to make as a do-it-yourself landlord is decide if you want to accept pets. Make your rental home as bullet proof and pet proof as possible. No hardwood floors. A grass yard will attract tenants with 4-legged children, a gravel one not so much.

I know a property manager who requests to see a potential tenant's home and meet the pet and check out its living conditions. Is it crated when they are gone 8 hours a day? She considers that cruel and counts it against them. Is the animal potty trained? By going to their home, she can smell pet urine a mile away! Many people are great pet owners and will gladly answer your questions. You need to ask what dog breed they own as HOA's and your rental policy may have restrictions on certain breeds. And use common sense. Two large dogs in a small condo are not a good combination. I am more reluctant about a puppy than an older dog and will want more details on how they contain the puppy when they leave. Cats present a different problem since their urine smell is impossible to remove inexpensively and many people are allergic to cats. Keep that in mind for when you re-rent the home.

There are dog barking ordinances in most cities, write into the lease that they will abide by it. Also include that tenant is responsible for any damage caused by their pet. Check your state law for the maximum total deposits you can charge, including security, cleaning and pet. Some landlords, to circumvent the legal deposit limits, are charging pets rent ex: $50 a month per pet. I'm not too sold on that, as it will turn off a lot of potential tenants, but it's legal in Arizona.

My general experience with pets has been pretty positive, except for this one tenant who allowed her cat to use the dining room as his toilet. But then, after I saw their master bath shower slimed in black mildew I understood why the cat wouldn't go in the bathroom!!

Oh The Bed Bugs Will Bite

Inevitably, a tenant called with bed bugs and asked if it was the landlord's responsibility to treat the home. Bed bugs are one of the newer pests to annoy property managers these days. In this case, since the last tenants never complained and the current tenants had occupied the home for several months, our landlord attorney said there was no owner liability. All states have their own bed bug laws, so do check your own.
I did require a copy of the pest control's bill to make sure tenants DID eradicate the little buggers. I don't want to inherit this problem when they move out.