Dino's Storage Payments

Most people know how to pay their storage bill and don't ever have an issue with payments. But there are others who either do not put their unit number on their check/money order, or they have someone else send it in and don't include their name on the payment. This is how errors happen in the payment process. You would not believe how many John Smiths I have in my system. Without a unit number on your payment, I have no idea which John Smith that payment belongs to. When situations like this happen I can sometimes look at the address on the payment and narrow it down that way, but this doesn't always work. Sometimes I get money order payments with no name, address or unit number at all.

In cases like the ones that I speak about above the customer ends up getting locked out of their unit and getting late fees, when in all actuality they did pay on time. It is very easy for me to change the payment and add it to the correct account but it would make it even easier on you and me if the error didn't happen in the first place.

Please remember to always put your unit number on your payment! If you are not sure of your unit number, you can always call your property manager and they would be happy to give you that information, as it would save them time in the long run as well.

Monthly Financial Reviews

As I prepare the monthly owner statements for e-mailing/mailing this month, I always wonder what percentage of our real estate owners look at their statements. In my opinion, this is one of the crucial items that real estate investors need to take time to do each and every month. By spending 10-15 minutes on the monthly reports, real estate investors can determine the following items:

• The status of tenant rent receipts - what was owed versus what was collected
• Number of units vacant
• Detail of expenses that were paid during the current month, as well as copies of receipts
• Net operating income of property/properties in previous months versus net operating income of property in current month
• Any outstanding expenses that haven't been paid yet due to insufficient funds or project not complete

By spending time each month reviewing the financials on your properties - you might not like the results in this market, but at least you have the knowledge of why. Take the time - it is very important!!

Real Estate Investment Owner

Last week the "Halls" from California were in town to check on their investment property that Landmark Group manages for them. On Thursday, they provided lunch for the entire Landmark team as a thank you for the hard work that everyone has done. Not only did they provide lunch, but they attended the lunch themselves, and offered up alot of personal thank you's to employees.

It's always nice to hear that someone thinks you're doing a good job, but on the other hand, it also made me think about how lax I am in offering up those "thank you's." Sure - we say "thanks" almost as commonly as someone says "how are you?" - but to say it with heartfelt sincerity probably doesn't happen that often. From this point forward, just as the Halls let Landmark Group know how much they appreciated our work, I will make it a point to say more heartfelt "thank you's" because that's a win-win situation.