It’s hard to believe that August is almost over, and tomorrow will be September. While maybe not officially, I feel the end of August represents the end of summer. I thought for sure that by now the pandemic is behind us, but it is definitely still there.
Fortunately, strictly speaking from my business, it hasn’t affected me negatively. If anything, I got busier, although I won’t say because of a pandemic. With that, I want to make a few positive announcements.
The first is that officially no owners have ever lost rent so far since I started managing properties. Everyone so far paid the rent, and no one is behind. I can point to many reasons why, but I want you to know that one of the reasons in my mind is the fact that all of you are very understanding of the need for the repairs and improvements and don’t try to “cut corners.” Taking care of the properties means, in general, happier tenants and happier tenants tend to pay rent. If we enforce the rent, it's only fair to provide clean, safe, and functioning properties to the tenants.
The second thing is that while the housing market might be slowing down or at least not going up as fast as during the springtime, the rental market is still strong in general. It’s nice that I am able to rent at a higher price, which obviously translates to more owner draws to you. By the way, the rent increase can be steeper for new tenants, but during the renewal time, I tend to be a bit less aggressive assuming the tenants are good tenants. This is because I already have some history with them, and I’m taking less risk than putting brand new tenants.
Third thing is that I am no longer a licensed IL real estate broker. I am officially a licensed IL real estate MANAGING broker. Technically what it means is that I can start my own brokerage now, such as "Tanaka Realty," if I want to. While you will receive the same service that I’ve been providing, for now, I want you to know that I jumped through some hoops to educate myself and pass the test to become more knowledgeable regarding real estate and hopefully translates to providing more value to you.
Now to the challenging part. I mentioned above that you have been very understanding regarding repairs and improvements, but I have a feeling back of your head, you are a bit surprised at how expensive things are. Even though I do this every day, I still sometimes get a sticker shock looking at the bill. The problem is I got no other vendors to go unless I want to sacrifice the quality, which I will NOT do. This is why it’s important more than ever to properly increase the rent so that you can cover the repairs and improvements.
Thank you for reading, and please stay safe.
