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Jenni's Partner In Crime, Elonda
8 Plays28 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 Elonda who oversees the close out department here at McKenna. They discuss some important things to look for regarding what to close for when you do a vacancy turn over.
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
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Website: McKennaPropertyManagement.com
Phone: 702-434-HOME (4663)
Owner/Broker: Jenni McKenna B.29819
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Transcript
Introduction to Alonda Kirkland
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh my gosh, we are here in Las Vegas and we are doing our podcast, Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. And I am so excited to introduce one of my best team members.
00:00:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
I like to call her my partner in crime, Alonda Kirkland. Alonda, why don't you tell everybody who you are and what you do for McKenna Property Management? So I've been with Jenny for 16 years.
00:00:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
You put up with me for 16 years. I don't know life without you. Um, but, uh, yeah, so I've been with Jenny for 16 years. Uh, she has taught me everything I know and staying up with the laws and whatnot and these closeout security deposit transmittals and things like that.
00:01:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
um That is, um yeah, that's everything.
Resident Move-Out Pitfalls
00:01:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, the interesting about Alanda is that Alanda started McKenna Property Management at the front desk, and she is she has done every position. So she went from front desk, and then she did um like marketing, and then she did all kinds of things. I'm trying to think of all the different things. I've done the HOA stuff. HOA, that's right. Yeah.
00:01:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
Thank you. decided to do multifamily complexes that was a very short moment of insanity for me just so that you guys know i do not do multifamiliies anymore like goodness but today the reason i wanted alanda on our podcast is because we are goingnna dive into as an owner that you are owning an investment property, what you need to look at for the pitfalls on when that resident moves out.
00:01:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we're also going to try and frame this podcast to how to set up a resident for success on their move out. Yes. Yes.
00:02:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
Alonda has been doing the we call it the closeout department and Alonda has been doing the closeout department for how many years? Nine years as of September. So I think it's safe to say to everybody that is listening, she has seen some serious stuff.
00:02:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And if I could cuss on this podcast, I would say the other word. Because let me tell you, in property management, when you are closing out 30 35 properties a month,
00:02:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
There's a lot of stuff you're going to see, a lot of stuff that you have to deal with.
Documenting Property Condition
00:02:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm Jenny McKenna. I'm the owner-broker of McKenna Property Management, and I say let's just dive right in. Okay. And the reason I'm going to dive in first and foremost – How do you handle the owners after you do a walkthrough? So somebody does a walkthrough, our field agent, they supply what, couple hundred photos?
00:03:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
And when you're reviewing those photos, how do you call an owner or reach out to an owner and say, What do they need to do? Like, what's your thought pattern on that?
00:03:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
um So it takes me a little bit of time. So we usually get anywhere between two to 400 photos from our field agents of everything that needs to be done on top of a written document of things that they took a photo of, but you can't really have a photo of what the item is.
00:03:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
And why are the photos so important? Yeah. Well, photos help us in court when we get sued. Yeah. So ding, ding, ding. Anyone who's listening out there and you're managing your own property, photos and video is the only way you're going to defend yourself. So those 200 photos are going to protect us in court. Yeah. And so what I do is I go through the move-in inspection report that was turned in by the resident.
00:03:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
I go through our before photos um of our marketing. I go through... When Seymour Citeval goes out to the properties on the 10th month, I go through all those to see the conditions of the properties and how they were treated throughout the years of a resident living there.
Understanding Security Deposit Deductions
00:04:14
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then from there, if an owner, if if it's a new owner and somebody who's not really great with property management, I will type up my email to them with the link of the photos and my my thought process on how I feel things should be addressed to get it back on the market.
00:04:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then I will call them and I will touch them via phone before I do send that email out so that they know that I'm sorry, this i don't want to do this, but...
00:04:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
you're going to have to see the way that your property was. And this would be maybe a property that wasn't left in stellar condition. This is a property that has exceeded normal wear and tear because in Nevada, we have a law and the law states that as a security deposit, a property owner or a property manager can only charge against the security deposit for three things.
00:05:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
Alonda, what are those three things? ah The one is for back rent or... yeah owed utilities, back-owned utilities, janitorial cleaning. Which could include carpet cleaning. Correct. Or anything over normal wear and tear.
00:05:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that's the ticket. That's the hard one. Yeah. Because you're going to get residents, let's use that that property that you're talking about, that you did all that research and you can verify that they did, they did not treat that resident, that property in good condition.
00:05:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
They left it with a lot more than normal wear and tear. Correct. the take it The way the law reads is normal wear and tear. And the way the resident interprets that is just crazy sometimes.
00:05:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yes. Tell us a couple crazies that you had. I've got one that I've dealt with where normal wear and tear is, oh, it's okay to have a hole in the wall. That's normal wear and tear. What?
00:06:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've lived in properties. Okay. So I've probably off the top of my head, i have lived in six properties that have been mine and I can vouch right now that my son put the hole in the wall once and I absolutely took responsibility for it had a handyman come out patch repair and paint I would not think that when he threw his remote control because he was mad and it put a hole in the wall that that's normal wear and tear it's crazy yeah I mean, I understand for people who live in a property, let's say two years and your furniture has rubbed up against the wall.
00:06:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's normal wear and tear. Okay. Okay. I mean, we get that every day, even in our office.
Common Move-Out Mistakes
00:06:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's normal wear and tear because we bump up of something or whatnot. And you have to live in the property and sometimes that just happens.
00:06:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
What about like big holes from screws and things that they've anchored in for a big screen TV? Yeah. um that is resident responsibility because normal wear and tear is pinhole.
00:07:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. Pinhole or thumbtad. That is normal wear and tear. And for any residents that are out there, i would highly recommend if you're in a rental, just go get some of those really cool strips. Command strips. Yeah. Just put the command strip on the wall.
00:07:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
Then that way you can hang something up. And then once in a while, the command strip will leave a little mark, but that that mark is not going to cause us to consider it over normal wear and Correct.
00:07:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
So a lot of times a resident will be like, hey, I want to save my security deposit and I've moved all my furniture out and my living room wall looks pretty rough.
00:07:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you know what? I'm going to go down add to Home Depot and I'm going to go get a color match and I'm going to try and paint those holes.
00:07:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
What do you see in that scenario, Alanda? Polka dots. i said her I set her up for a softball because we have sat in her office so many times looking at the move out photos.
00:08:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I'll be like, how did they even think that that could be acceptable? It would have been better for them to have not touched it, allowed a professional to come in, which we would we would send that vendor over there.
00:08:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then the vendor would do a true touch-up, being that they will blend everything into the wall and you wouldn't have polka dots all over the... But because there's polka dots, that's not normal wear and tear. No, it's not. No. So there will be a line item on their security deposit transmittal that will be called touch-up paint.
00:08:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
And one of the things I noticed, at least in the last year, because vendors have gone up in their prices. Yes. Paint has gone up. The gas has gone up, insurance has gone up, and it is reflective on...
00:08:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
the cost that they give to us. yeah um That is when residents get really upset, I've noticed. It's like, that line item is $500 or $450 for touch-up, and that's ridiculous.
00:09:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
No, guys, that's not ridiculous. So if an owner is listening out there and you have to hire a vendor to do a heavy touch-up, you're probably on a 2,000-square-foot house.
00:09:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
You're probably somewhere the ballpark of $600 to $800. Is that correct? No. yeah Because of full paint in today's world right now, I know we get, we have four five vendors that we use and it it ranges, but what's our low to our high on the full paint?
00:09:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
ah Full paint, I've got one vendor that is $1.30 a square foot, which they've just gone up again. um Another vendor that's $1.66 a square foot.
00:09:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
um And then I have others that I try not to use for full paints because they're over $2. But if you are just an individual that hires a vendor one time, they don't know you, there's no relationship.
00:09:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
I've seen that go as high as $2.50 to $2.75. So I do know that as a property manager, we offer much better prices than what would be industry standard.
00:10:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that's why it gets a little frustrating when a resident gets upset about that.
Handling Security Deposit Disputes and Legalities
00:10:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
So we've talked about, you know, some of the things that they think about. What I'd like to do is remind the residents that if they're unhappy with their security deposit transmittal and they want to take us to court, let's say, the burden is us.
00:10:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
them. It's on them because they're saying we did something wrong. So therefore they need to have all of the documentation to prove and that we did something that was outside of what the law is.
00:10:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
Now, my question then is, do they have their move-in photos? Yeah. Did they get their move-in inspection report that shows all of that? Yeah. Do they know how to pull it up? Are they going to bring it to court?
00:10:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
Most of the time they don't, but they should. So if you're listening, these are the things that you want to write down and protect yourself. The next thing is, is did they leave the property at the time they said they were going to leave the property?
00:11:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
Sometimes no. And I think we set that, I feel that we set everybody up for success when it comes to that, whether it's a holiday, whether it's the middle of the night, whether Our office is closed.
00:11:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
I feel we set everybody up for that because in the documentation with the punch list that's sent out to everybody that's vacating, it states, once you've vacated the property, please email that you've vacated the property. yeah And then i touch you...
00:11:42
Irelynn Zurflueh
four times throughout the month with the same information. And that's what's always a little frustrating when they, all our leases end on the last day of the month. Correct. That's just the way we set that up.
00:11:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you're an owner and you have a lease that's a little different, ah the same rules apply, which is the day the lease terminates, the very next day you should have possession of the property.
00:12:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
Which means that resident, and in our case, it's as easy as leaving keys in a drawer, securing the property, taking a picture of it, emailing it and saying, we're out. We make it so easy.
00:12:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
However, if you're an individual owner and you have a different protocol, the the most important thing as a resident is know to get the keys to your owner. the next day.
00:12:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you don't, we are, or the owner should charge you prorated per day rate. Correct. Which is you take the entire rent, monthly rent, you divide it by 30, because in Nevada you always use 30, but there's 31 days, 28 days, you just use 30.
00:12:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
And that number, whatever that number is, you times it by how many days they were in possession of that property without giving it back to you. And that's what's shocking to me.
00:12:59
Irelynn Zurflueh
That is the one topic that residents get so angry about because they will see the security deposit transmittal. They will see a line item that says four days of prorated rent.
00:13:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
And they're going to be like, well, not like, this is exactly what they say. My lease was terminated on the 30th of the month. You're right. It was terminated. But you were an unlawful holdover.
00:13:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
for those four days. And if I was really being picky, an unlawful holdover in our lease has a 30% increase on rent.
00:13:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
I could add that 30% to the base rent and then divide it by 30 and make it, but I'm a nice person. We try and be fair. We just use whatever rent they paid the month before.
00:13:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
But man, I'm always shocked that that is a hot button for a resident. Yeah. So if you're out there and you're planning on moving out of your rental, be aware that if you have a lease that terminates on the 15th of the month.
00:14:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
and you don't get keys or possession to that owner until the 18th, you're paying those three days of rent. You rightfully should. You didn't give possession to the owner.
00:14:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
He didn't have the right to have the property until you gave them that possession. Correct. So that's always interesting. One of the other things that I get, I've always find a little baffling.
00:14:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
If you're moving out of a rental property, The landlord, the property manager, or whoever you've been dealing with needs to know your forwarding address.
00:14:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. Because how in heaven's name are they going to refund you whatever's left of the security? or the other idea what you owe over and above the security if they don't know where to send it.
00:14:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
Now, in Nevada, if you don't give us a forwarding address, then we're going to use the existing address. Yes. and a lot of times that doesn't really work. I mean, you're just not getting.
00:15:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
that information that you should because you've already forgot to do a forwarding address or the the mail didn't get to you. So it's important to to know that.
00:15:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, one thing that's funny and I've asked questions and I've got, cause I'm at the post office so much is I've asked them when you do a certificate of mail or a certified mail, those items are non-forwarding.
00:15:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
Oh, you can't forward those. So if you give me your four, if you don't give me your forwarding address and at your one, two, three Elm street, And that's where I send your um paperwork to. Because legally, that's what we do to prove to the state that we did correct and completed our security deposit transmittal.
00:15:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
And mailed it within the 30-day timeframe. Correct. So if I'm sending it to that address and you're like, oh, well, I'm not going give my forwarding address because it doesn't full because it they'll forward it. Certifieds and certificate of mails do not forward.
00:16:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
They come right back to the property manager or to the homeowner. So remember that. That is, you know what, out of all these years, Alonda, I just learned something. I mean, I know Alonda lives at the post office.
00:16:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
I mean, basically she knows everybody at the post office. They all know her by name. Oh, I knew you were tight with the post office, but I did not know that that was a little something. yeah That's interesting.
00:16:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
So you do what you're supposed to do because the resident doesn't give you a forwarding address. You send everything to the last known address, and then it doesn't get forwarded. No. It comes right back to us. And if you owe money, that's going to hurt your credit.
00:16:41
Irelynn Zurflueh
And if you were supposed to get money, That check after three months is voided. Yeah. So you didn't even get your money. It's almost like you lost out on that. You know, I got a funny story for you.
00:16:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
We have a resident. Tell me. I like stories. We have a resident that gave me his forwarding address, but he did not put his name in the mailbox to receive mail. Oh. And his check came back to us and he got his full security deposit back. Wow.
00:17:08
Irelynn Zurflueh
He came in a year later because he rented another one of our rentals. And asked about a security deposit check. And the homeowner, because that money just goes and into an account for the homeowner, the homeowner released because, i mean, rightfully, it's his. So the homeowner had us write a check for his full security deposit a year later. That was very nice because technically we did everything we were supposed to do and the resident failed to do their part.
00:17:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
So if the, if he didn't end up getting that security deposit, that was at his own, yeah his own peril. But that's me. eat That's us emailing. That's us texting to come pick it up. Yeah. So,
Lease Breaches and Credit Impacts
00:17:44
Irelynn Zurflueh
so let's talk. We only have a couple more minutes and I just want to talk about this myth out there.
00:17:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
which is you break your lease, you know, so you're a breach of lease. And for some unknown reason, the residents think, okay, well, I'm just going to give them the security deposit because, you know, obviously it's a forfeit of their security deposit.
00:18:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
But then they think they can wash their hands. yeah I mean, they can leave the property and some do with their, you know, hangers and their clothes and, you know, the garbage that's left in the garage that they never really took out to the curb.
00:18:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
How do you handle something like that, Alonda? So what we do is there are several different forms of breach of lease, several different. um Let's say resident vacates, doesn't pay last month's rent. I'm just going to forfeit.
00:18:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
You know, I'm just going to move out early, avoid the eviction. That's a forfeit of security deposit. That's a month of rent. Plus over on the top above of that, it's what it costs to get the property back in the condition of which you originally rented it.
00:18:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
Right. Janitorial, carpet cleaning, trash removal, paint touch up, things like that. And I have a lot of residents that say, oh you can't charge me that over and above the security because it doesn't fall under the three categories.
00:19:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
But it does. It absolutely does. Because everything they did, everything they left there was not normal wear and tear. Correct. And who is going to remove all of those things to get the property back on the market for rent?
00:19:18
Irelynn Zurflueh
So a lot of times people that will breach their lease, ah can't pay the month's rent, don't want the eviction, just leave in the middle of the night. That is going to follow them because what we do is we'll do the proper procedure of the security deposit transmittal, forfeit the security,
00:19:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
do a one month's rent because that's rightfully owed to the owner under the NRS. And then anything else that was above normal wear and tear to get the property up on the market. And then now that resident has, let's say $3,000 over and above, and that's going to follow them.
00:19:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's going to follow them on their credit. It's going to follow them if they apply anywhere and not just apply for as a new resident somewhere, it will follow them if they go to try and buy a car. Yep.
00:20:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
It may follow them when they want to try and get insurance, a better rate of insurance because their FICO score has been lowered due to the landlord collection. And that's what it's called. Yeah. Landlord collection.
00:20:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
I know here at McKenna Property Management, if you have a landlord collection, it's almost an automatic denial for your application. It has to pretty be a pretty darn good reason documented up on why that was a landlord situation.
00:20:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah And usually we won't even look unless the landlord collection has been satisfied. Yeah. So one last thing before we say goodbye to our listeners, if they do have an outstanding balance, what do you recommend for that resident?
00:20:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
i I ask that or I recommend that call the property manager, call your landlord, see if you've gone to collections. If you haven't gone to collections yet, make a payment arrangement, please. Because if you make a payment arrangement and you're trying to, let's say, get a new home because you've been, let's say, living in your car since then.
00:21:11
Irelynn Zurflueh
That property manager, if you're doing good, will nine times out of 10 say that you're making payments. Yeah. I mean, I know that's what we do. Yeah. If somebody's taking on the responsibility of their back debt and they're making payments and they're consistent on it, then we're going to be good. We're going to give them that fresh start. Yeah. But if they're just going to let that sit on their credit, then no way, Jose, they are not going to be something that we want in one of our properties. Exactly.
Podcast Conclusion and Call to Action
00:21:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
Exactly. Well, this was fun. I mean, I just wanted everybody to hear what you need to be aware of when you're doing a closeout, because that is a, that's a technically difficult kind of thing if you don't do it all the time.
00:21:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
So, and you want to make sure that you're protecting yourself. If you're the owner of the property, you don't want that resident to come back and sue you. And then obviously as property managements, we like to protect our owners for their investments.
00:22:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
Okay. Hopefully you've gotten something good from this. I am telling you, Alonda is amazing. If you have any questions, you can always email us and Alonda can respond to you. But you have been listening to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real with my co-host Alonda, myself, Jenny McKenna.
00:22:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
We sure do appreciate you listening. If you know somebody that could benefit from this podcast, please send it to them, share it to that with them. And if you would like to subscribe, so that you can see our podcast or hear our podcast.
00:22:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
We drop once a week. All right, let's say our goodbyes, Alonda. Bye.