Smoking in your Phoenix Rental Property - Yes or No??

RPMWVPhoenix Property Management has a strict no smoking policy in place that our owners appreciate. However some DIY Landlords fail to often fail to have a smoking policy. We would recommend everyone have a firm No smoking policy to protect their Phoenix Rental Property.  

With E-cigarettes being touted as an effective means to quit smoking tobacco, their use is on the rise. It is easy to spot a person using an E-cigarette from the cloud of vapor surrounding them, whether it be in a public place or in a residential area. Although it was initially considered harmless, E-cigarette smoking can leave deposits of hazardous substances and can result in expenses from cleaning the filmy residue left behind. Because of this potential for damage to your Phoenix rental property, we advise that owners of single-family rentals prohibit E-cigarette usage, just as you would prohibit other forms of smoking. The cost to re-mediate the damage caused could be quite costly. 

Residue is one of the primary reasons landlords should not allow E-cigarette smoking inside their Phoenix rental properties. The vapor emitted from E-cigarettes leaves behind a filmy residue on windows, mirrors, doors, walls and carpets that is tough and expensive to eliminate. (This is very similar to regular cigarettes but a bit more difficult to remove). With the risk of damage and added expenses to your rental home turn over cost RPMWVPhoenix thinks it is best to have a firm No Smoking Policy in terms of your lease.

Aside from its hard-to-remove residue, E-cigarette smoke consists of chemicals that can be a hazard to the body. Research shows that vapors from these cigarettes are toxic. According to an analysis conducted by the FDA, the vapor expelled from this device contains hazardous ingredients such as diethylene glycol, nitrosamines, and nicotine. Other sources also found carcinogenic substances like formaldehyde and benzene in some devices.

An article posted on landlordtalking.com talks about other issues with E-cigarettes. The article takes about two recent incidences of car fires due to the E-cigarette battery charger. As well as a man who recently reported that his own charger suddenly caught fire in the middle night while he slept. This event forced him to leave his apartment causing damage. These types of fires are well documented with devices that use Lithium Ion batteries such as E-cigarettes, cell phones and laptops.

Once you have the facts about E-Cigarettes it should be clear that a No Smoking Policy should include the use of these devices as well to protect your Phoenix Rental Property.

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RPMWV Phx has been offering full service Phoenix Real Estate & Phoenix Property Management services for over 20 years so let our experience assist you with your Phoenix Real Estate needs.  623-748-7800 www.rpmwvphx.com

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Vetting Phoenix Tenants Properly To Protect Yourself and Your Phoenix Rental Property

Vacancy in your Phoenix rental property is an emergency. A vacant property bleeds cash in the form of lost rent and utility costs. Landlords know this and they feel the acute pain when the mortgage payment is due, but no rent is coming in to cover it. Just like flinching from a hot stove, many do-it-yourself (DIY) landlords recoil from the pain and try to remove the pain by placing the first resident who comes along. But at what cost?  In many situations, this is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. A poor tenant placement can mean rent still doesn’t come in to pay the mortgage. But worse, because the property is now occupied, a paying resident cannot be placed. Cost also comes in the form of property damage caused by a poor resident placement.  Even though the cost of a poor placement is so great, a survey conducted by Boston based research firm Liminality Inc. found that:

●      Only 44% of DIY landlords conduct sex offender checks.

●      Only 51% of DIY landlords conduct criminal background checks.

●      23% of DIY landlords sometimes or never conduct credit checks.

●      Only 51% of DIY landlords contact past landlords for references.

Good vetting can mean that there are a couple more days of vacancy. However, the cost of good vetting far outweighs the cost of a bad resident placement in your Phoenix rental property.

Here are some examples of RPMWV Phoenix Property Management vetting out poor residents that would have been placed without a good process:

●      We found from a previous landlord that the applicant had started multiple fires at the property during their tenancy.

●      From a Phoenix criminal check we found an applicant with multiple drug related convictions.

●      An applicant had a wad of cash, but no monthly income.

In all of these examples, without a vetting process and a set of standards, landlords would have rented to them. Each of them had money. In some cases, they even pulled it out and showed us, “Look, I will give you this if you let me move in.”

DIY landlords also get a higher number of unqualified applicants looking at their properties. Why? We have people call us and ask if we will accept someone with a felony. The tenant community knows that professional managers have a better screening process. Therefore, unqualified applicants try to find the DIY landlords that they know likely won’t check their background.

Here are the checks that RPMWV Phoenix conducts on every applicant over the age of 18:

●      Verify Income greater than 2.5-3x rent

●      Credit check

●      National criminal check

●      Phoenix Criminal check

●      Sex offender check

●      Check social media accounts

●      Previous Landlord references

Criminal activity committed in Phoenix does not show up on national criminal checks. RPMWV Phoenix has to make a special request at the courthouse to pull Phoenix criminal records. Even some professional managers don’t take this important step.

While vetting is important, equally important is how the checks are interpreted and used for qualifications. All qualifications must be fairly and equally applied so the manager or landlord doesn’t run afoul of fair housing laws.

RPMWV Phx has been offering full service Phoenix Real Estate & Phoenix Property Management services for over 20 years so let our experience assist you with your Phoenix rental needs.  623-748-78001 www.rpmwvphx.com

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Professional Property Management vs. DIY – Advice for Phoenix Homeowners

Sometimes, landlords, property owners, or homeowner associations (HOAs) decide they want to save a few bucks and do all the phoenix property management on their own. That can be fine in some situations, particularly for smaller buildings where the landlord or board has an abundance of free time. But there are always a lot of bases to cover.

When you hire a professional phoenix management company, we bring a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience, and manpower to help you stay current with all the various aspects of management… whether it’s legal compliance or city government issues, day-to-day maintenance issues and utilities work, and even keeping an eye on the books – helping you recover costs and reduce your expenses.

On a daily basis, we’re in touch with all of these different areas of management. Unless managing properties is all you’re doing all day long, you’re almost always better off hiring a professional team to handle the management for you. If you’re not doing this full time, then there’s a good chance that you WILL miss something, and that WILL end up costing you a lot of money.

This is a common problem we see with homeowner associations. It seems easy enough… you simply have to collect the dues, pay the bills, attend your board meetings, and that’s it. What could go wrong? But it doesn’t take long before you find out you’re in for a lot more headaches than you bargained for. A lot of DIY boards don’t know that they aren’t following the latest laws and ordinances (like the Davis Sterling Act and other laws that govern the management of homeowners associations). It’s not a problem… until it is a problem.

Here’s an example. A DIY landlord or a homeowners association might have Bob the Gardener taking care of all the landscaping at the property. Bob is probably a great guy, and maybe he’s worked for you for 10 years. But he’s not licensed. And you’re concerned that a professional management company will tell you to get rid of Bob and hire a licensed and insured contractor, or they’ll want you to make Bob an employee so everything is done correctly.

If you’d rather not do that, you’ll stick to managing the property on your own. But then one day, Bob gets fired or stops working and decides to file a workers’ compensation claim or a wage and hour lawsuit. When this happens, the DIY landlords and property managers wish they had a property management company guiding them and helping them to avoid these landmines.

Doing property management on your own is a not a bad thing, but we often hear from former DIY folks who have long grown weary of doing all the work themselves. And we often see rookie mistakes that could have been avoided. 

If you’d like to talk more about the benefits of professional property management – about how we can help save you time, energy, and money with the management of your property – please contact us at RPMWV Phx.

RPMWV Phx has been offering full service Phoenix Real Estate & Phoenix Property Management services for over 20 years so let our experience assist you with your Phoenix rental needs.

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