Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Meet the Youngest Sibling- Kai!!
6 Plays5 days ago
🎧 Welcome to Thoughts For Rent — the podcast where real estate gets real (and local)!
Hosted by Jenni McKenna, a Las Vegas born and raised seasoned broker, and Owner of McKenna Property Management, this show is your inside look at what’s really happening in the Vegas property management and real estate world. With over 20 years of experience herself - Jenni brings not just knowledge, but heart to the conversation.
Whether we’re talking market trends, property tips, community happenings, or just the everyday quirks of Vegas living, this podcast is all about keeping you in the know.
💬 Real talk. Local stories. Professional insight – provided from a company who has their boots on the ground and hearts in the community.
In this episode, we’re meeting Jenni and Max's youngest child Kai. We get to know him a little more along with his job as a site evaluator. Kai also shares some fun stories about what he's seen in his 5 years of experience.
McKenna Property Management, proudly managing Las Vegas homes since 2005 (and loving every minute of it).
Hit subscribe and comment down below to join the conversation! 💛
✨ Stay connected with us!
Instagram: @mckennapropertymanagement
Facebook: McKenna Property Management
TikTok: @TheMcKennaTeam
Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
#ThoughtsForRent #McKennaTeam #LasVegasRealEstate #JenniMcKenna #PropertyManagement #MarketTrends #PropertyTips #Community
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Kai Zerflu and His Role
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, welcome everybody. This is Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real podcast. And I am so excited with my guest today. My guest today is Kai Zerflu.
00:00:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
And what he does is he is a field agent site evaluator for McKenna Property Management and also Seymour site evaluators. And I think it would be fun to dig into some of the things that Kai has seen.
00:00:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
You've done this, what, for about five years? Yeah, for about five years now. Seen a lot of exciting stuff. You know what? Let's tell everybody, how did you get into this crazy world of site evaluations?
00:00:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, it's all about who you know in this life, I suppose. And the person sitting to my right happens to be my mother. Hello, San Kai. And I think ah she had a couple situations happen where she thought, hey, you know what, it would be a good idea to have somebody to get some eyes on the property while even, you know, maybe while a resident is still living there, but most importantly, while it's vacant. So that's kind of how this all started. And five years later, we're still going strong. So yeah.
00:01:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
And you know what I want to do?
The Importance of Site Evaluations and Documentation
00:01:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
I want to be able to do practical as far as why we developed the ah site evaluations as well as the importance of proper documentation when you are entering a property after a resident moves out. So we'll get good on, you know, we'll we'll give some good information on if you are a self-managing ah landlord or if you've got a property manager and and these are some ideas that you might want to bring up to them.
00:01:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
So for practicality reasons, When a resident moves out of a property, we have you go over and do what's called a walkthrough and you get a punch list together. but so what exactly does that entail? Give us kind of like that quick summary of what you're walking into and what you're really looking for. The best way I can describe it is probably everything that the homeowner wants to know about their property. So anything that is different, anything that's dirty, broken, damaged, just anything that the homeowner is going to want to know about their property or anything that the property manager is going to want to know so that they can fix it and get it ready to go back on the markets. And how many photos do you normally take at like, let's just say 2,000 square foot house?
00:02:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
2,000 square foot house, I'm probably taking about 120. And that's if it looks nice. Whoa. What if it doesn't look nice? If it doesn't look nice, you're talking about 160, 170. Oh my goodness.
00:02:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, I think that more than anything, eyes on the property means photos and time stamped and dated because if you are going to hold that resident for any of the damage or anything you're going to do to get the property rent ready, the most important thing is photos.
Managing Property Conditions and Walkthroughs
00:03:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
photos, photos for court. I always look at it as what you got to take to court. You got to prove your case. um I also think it's important if it's an out-of-state owner, they want to know what their 500 something plus investment is looking like. Absolutely.
00:03:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then as a property manager, I'm going to speak from My pride factor. I love showing a lot of the befores and then the afters because the afters you can really see what a good property manager can do for a rental ah in order to get it in rent ready condition.
00:03:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
So that sounds like that's a very logical thing. And you know, it's really kind of weird. Kai, people don't do it. And that's something I do not know how they get away with. I don't know. Me too.
00:04:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
I mean, in the property management world, they literally allow the resident that's moving out to supply whatever documentation of the property. And I just, I don't think that's a good idea. I think that's a good business sense. You know, if you trusted everybody, you know, if you wanted to leave your door a front door unlocked at night, that's maybe something you could do. But yeah sometimes you can't can't trust people like that. Definitely not in Las Vegas. definitely not I'm locking my doors at at night in Las Vegas, even though it's a great city.
Unusual Discoveries During Evaluations
00:04:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm still going to lock that door. So now um let's tell a little funny story. I like to pull the curtain back and let our listeners find out about some of the things that you've actually seen.
00:04:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
So what is something that's kind of a little bizarre that that you walked into? Well, I think the one that takes the cake on this one is probably I was doing a move out, walk through. So this is no tenant in the property. They got evicted. So a lot of their stuff is still in the property. Oh, wait, they got evicted. Yes. So a lot of their stuff is still in the property.
00:05:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
And one of the bedrooms was like a ah play, little playroom. Wait, like a red room? Like a red room for adults. Absolutely. There was a couple of toys for adults, if you will. There was a- what looked like it used to be resemblance of a person, but definitely did not resemble a person anymore. Oh goodness. So they used it.
00:05:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, absolutely. Yes. And I definitely did not touch anything in that room. I did not even like being in that room, but sometimes, you know, you got to get dirty as a field agent, you know, you got to get into the trenches, if you will.
00:05:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we you encountered like a ah little red room on an eviction. Absolutely. Well, darn it. Maybe they should have stopped buying all that fun stuff and they could have paid rent and then they could have had a roof over their head. They were too busy doing other things. That's what they were doing. Let me tell you.
00:05:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
All right. So now that's a good one. That's hilarious. But tell me another one. What is one of the grossest things that you've encountered from a standpoint? It's tough beat a gross bathroom, just a toilet that probably hasn't been flushed.
00:06:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
You'd think it hasn't been flushed in a couple of weeks. And that stay at that smell is lingering. You kind of know what's happening when you get up there. You know, sinks can just anything in the bathroom that is not really cleaned or being thought after can just get super dirty and just something that you don't even know how it's possible. It got that dirty. Well, sometimes I wonder if they just plan it that way.
00:06:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
Absolutely. Sometimes I think that also they're kind of upset maybe or don't want you don't even want me in there. So they're like, yeah let's just gross this guy out. So let me leave this present for you. Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:06:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
What about. Now this would freak me out. So this is full disclosure. I could never be a field agent. I'm pretty good at a property manager, but I could not do the field agent part because of this insects.
00:07:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah So what have you ran into as far as that goes? You know, it's been a lot. There's a couple of properties where you'll find about hundreds of bugs. You'll open up a kitchen drawer, kitchen cabinet, and they'll go scurrying in every direction. And there's hundreds of them.
00:07:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Those don't bother me as much. But what bothers me are the scorpions. We do have scorpions in Las Vegas. The scorpions bother me quite a lot because they scare the crap out of me.
00:07:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
And, you know, i got to I have to go through all the drawers, all the cabinets, you know, underneath the sinks. And I remember one time I was looking underneath a kitchen sink and there was about four or three s scorpions that we just made that place their home.
00:07:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I about ran out of the front door screaming. oh That would scare me. Did you scream when nobody was even there? Oh, was there. I'm screaming. I'm screaming and I'm running back. But, you know, then you got to go back in there. You got to take some pictures and then you got to call out the exterminator.
Handling Infestations and Tenant Abandonment
00:07:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
So.
00:07:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. And that's the important thing, because that, again, is the reason why these um walkthroughs are so important and to do it as quickly as you can when the resident moves out.
00:08:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
um because you don't want all of those, that infestation, let's say, you need to get it taken care of ASAP. You need that pest terminator out there and they need to get rid of any food particles that would have been why, you know, the pests are there in the first place or the dirt.
00:08:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
um You need to get in, you need to get it really cleaned and then they're going to do their chemical spray. And honestly, when it comes to something like with a hundred insects, that's going to be spray one.
00:08:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
then it's cleaned the whole property, and then it's going to be a spray again. Absolutely. I mean, the good news is, at least I can speak here from Las Vegas' standpoint, we have some great pest exterminators, and after the second spray, we really don't face that, you know, maybe in some of the East Coast areas where it just lingers.
00:08:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
We can usually stop that problem by getting the food out, getting the dirt out, putting down the chemicals, and then hopefully the next resident that moves in is clean. I'm also very surprised about how good they are because I'll go to a property right after the resident moves out.
00:09:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'll see ye hundreds of bugs. And then I'm back in that same property a couple weeks later, clean as a whistle. Oh, good. That speaks to, you know, what we're doing sometimes. Absolutely. Yay. All right. So now we talked about the fact of the importance of getting into a property as soon as the resident moves out.
00:09:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
We all know that they're supposed to give you a 30-day notice, but I don't think that they know that or they don't want to do that. And so once in a blue moon, we have an individual that just skips in the middle of the night.
00:09:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so what do you do on something like that? Well, a couple couple months ago or maybe closer to a year, something like that happened and just totally lost communication with the management company.
00:09:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
Couldn't schedule anything. Nobody knew if it was there. So I had to go out to that property, not knowing what I was going to walk into, knock on the door a couple of times, no answer. had to take a key, enter that property myself, come to find out that the property was abandoned.
00:10:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
okay So luckily it was abandoned. So I'm not walking in anything too crazy, but that's just something that happens. These people, they just want to get out of town. You know, something happened, they get out of town quick and it's our responsibility to go in there, make sure that they're gone and then get that property ready for the market again.
00:10:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, so another good reason why you want to have somebody on your team, whether you are self-managing and you do it yourself, or you've got a property management company that actually puts that procedure in place, where if a resident stops communicating, then you know what, that's a red flag.
00:10:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
Go post that 24-hour notice, give a um you know a site evaluator or a field agent that master key, and then get in there and get your eyes in on the property.
00:10:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you hadn't started working for McKenna property management yet when this occurred. But the whole reason why I got so committed to making sure that eyes got on the property was because of this.
00:11:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we ended up with a woman who we didn't know, but had some mental issues. I believe that it might've been bipolar. I'm not a doctor. This is just kind of stuff we found after the fact.
00:11:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
and she was living in one of our rentals and paid rent on time, never called in for any repairs. And then one day the neighbor contacted us. This is before we had all these procedures in place.
00:11:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
We figured if they're paying rent on time, there's no HOA fees. They're not calling in for repairs where, you know, the the vendor tells us something weird is going on. We kind of went with the rule of thumb that Everything's okay. they were like the perfect resident at that point. Not causing any problems, right?
00:11:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
Landlord's happy because they're not paying any repair fees and rent's coming in religiously. Well, in this case, not so much. So the neighbor calls us and says, hey, we see a lot of cats going in and out of the house.
00:12:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'm thinking, nosy neighbor, what the heck? Quit calling me and telling me about a cat. Who cares? But I thought, in my gut, you know what? I'll send one of my team members out just to see if the neighbor was kind of being, you know, overly neighborly.
00:12:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
So... We sent out a team member. Team member came back and I'll remember exactly what I was doing. was pouring a Diet Coke in our little kitchen area and he walks in and he goes, Jenny, we have a huge problem.
00:12:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I go, what? He goes, I saw like 30 cats leaving the property. I said, 30 cats. Holy crap. Now we thought 30 cats was a big deal. So that's when we went over there, did the 24 hour. We did the formal walkthrough.
00:13:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
Come to find out over 100 cats were living in this property. This property was gross. so It was so awful. You had to wear a mask.
00:13:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
to even walk through the front entry. It was that bad because she mentally felt like she was helping these cats. And I don't know why, but cat hospitals were giving her sick cats to live out the rest of their life with her. And so she thought she was doing a really great thing in doing so breaking a gazillion lease violations, not only lease violations, health violations,
00:13:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
county violations, you name it, right? So after that happened, I said, you know what? We need to get eyes on the property. We always need to see what is in that property, who's living in that property, in the condition of that property before we renew.
00:14:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
So that is how the site evaluation came into play. And the site evaluation is a little different because the site evaluation you're going in when the resident is actually living there The field agent department, you're going in after the tenant vacates or the resident vacates.
00:14:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
So that is why McKenna Property Management is so strict on making sure that there is at least one minimum site evaluation done every year before the renewal, because we do one-year renewals.
00:14:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I think that that has saved our owners thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars by not letting something go on that's not Correct. I don't doubt you've saved your owners a lot of money.
00:14:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I feel better at night. I sleep better at night knowing that we don't have a grow house, a cat house or anything, a prostitution house.
Dealing with Illegal Activities and Miscommunications
00:14:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
Should i tell that story? Tell it.
00:14:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh my gosh. So this actually happened on my own rental. We get a call from Henderson police and they say, Ms. McKenna, we might have a problem at your rental at blahb blah, blah, blah street.
00:15:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm like, okay, well, you know what? I'm just down the corner. I'll meet you there. So we hop in the car. We go over there. Come to find out somebody was running a prostitution ring from my master or primary bedroom um all night long.
00:15:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
so So thank goodness the neighbors called the cops. The cops came in, figured out what was going on, got the county records, gave us a call. We went over there. We stopped it too quick. But yeah, had to be on my own rental. We had a I thought the red room was bad. should' well and What was funny they were making a lot of money because they had one girl. And then the according to the neighbor, there was like four or five guys every hour. So it was a revolving door making money off of my rental.
00:15:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
And yeah, there you go. Well, now what is going Something i know that something happened with you pertaining to an alarm at one time.
00:16:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
So walking into a property and I have the alarm code. So I know how to turn the alarm off. I think and everything's going to go smooth. Well, it was not smooth at all. I get in there and the alarms.
00:16:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
So loudest alarm I've ever heard in my life. I put the code in. Okay. Didn't work. Put the code in again. Okay. Didn't work. Now I'm there for like five minutes trying to get in contact with anybody Just turn this alarm off, please.
00:16:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
The neighbor ends up coming over like, what's going on here? Starts looking at me like I'm a burglar. I'm in there ransacking the property. But turns out that the homeowner actually changed the code that day.
00:16:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I just did not get the updated code. So luckily the alarm was only on for about 10 minutes and then we were able to get it turned off. But that was quite an experience just to feel like a robber there for a couple of minutes. I like I'm breaking the law. i I think there was calls made to the office. They were like, I think the cops are coming and I don't know what we're going to do.
00:17:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
You need to bail me. you guys need to bail me out here because something's going on. We have the ah petty cash drawer where we're going to have to bail out Kai because they thought he was an actual burglar. All right. So we don't have much more time.
00:17:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I want to ask you a couple of questions and just as soon as you think of them, just whatever pops into your brain. Okay. Craziest thing you've ever seen in a backyard. Craziest thing is probably not in any of your property's backyards, but whenever I'm at a house in the summer here in Vegas, it's about 110 on average.
00:17:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
I see dogs just in the backyard and rocks, no shade at all. Sometimes it's long fur dogs. You know, my first job was actually working with dogs. So I always have a little soft spot my heart for dogs. So it just kind of sucks to see that. But that's that's crazy to see every time.
00:18:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah, it would be nice if you could do something and like make a little citation or a fine on things like that. Yeah, it would be nice. That's a bummer. All right, what about this one? Weirdest smell or grossest smell you've ever walked into? Grossest smell is easily a dishwasher that had a swamp growing in it. I think there was actually an ecosystem going on in the bottom.
00:18:24
Irelynn Zurflueh
The water at the bottom was growing moss, and as soon as you opened the dishwasher up, you would think you just transported into a swamp filled with manure. Absolutely horrible. I will never forget that smell in my life. Don't know how they got it out.
00:18:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
Somebody must have, they deserve ah Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know how. Yeah. I don't know who did that one, but thank goodness. And then what's the nicest surprise that you've had either from neighbor, maybe a resident or anything while you've been doing your job?
Unexpected Finds and Goodwill Gestures
00:18:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, There is actually one time i was doing a move out and in the fridge, the whole house was really clean. So they definitely cared about leaving it how they found it.
00:19:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
But the fridge had one thing in it and it was a little bottle of tequila that I think they left for either the property management company or something. And so I think I actually called you and was like, Hey, I think they left this here on purpose.
00:19:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
Do you mind if I take it with me? And you're like, of course, go for it. So I think absolutely they left that there on purpose because it was the only thing in the property. That's pretty cool. that made me feel you would feel nice. And just for anyone who's listening, in Nevada, when a resident gives you possession back of the property, everything in that property now becomes...
00:19:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
the property managers or the owners or field agent or whatever, it only, you only need to hold personal property if it's an eviction. But if they give you possession back, everything is free game of what they leave. No, I definitely think they were leaving that on purpose. That's pretty cool. I was excited to see.
00:19:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, so that was our rapid fire wrapping up for our podcast today.
Podcast Conclusion and Audience Engagement
00:20:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
Remember, you are listening to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real.
00:20:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
And if you think that you have somebody in your life that would like to hear this podcast, please share it or definitely subscribe so that you don't miss our once a week drop.
00:20:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
We definitely keep it real here at Thoughts for Rent. And today I am so excited that Kai was with us and maybe we'll bring him on again and we'll talk about some other stories. I love it.
00:20:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
Thank you, Kai. And for everyone listening, appreciate it If you have any comments, questions, always reach out. We're here. Thank you. Bye.