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What Property Managers Are... And What We Are Not.
8 Plays1 month 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 covering what a full service property manager is. We talk about what you get with full service, and what items may not be included in the package.
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
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Transcript
Introduction: What We Don't Do
00:00:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
Hi everyone, welcome back to Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. I am Ireland and with me is... Jenny McKenna, keeping it real baby. Jenny always likes to say owner broker McKenna.
00:00:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
And she always likes to say Jenny McKenna, previous ice skater and mom and marathon runner. So there's a lot of things that Jenny does. feel like there's a lot of things that I do. I like to sing, I like to dance, like to watch movies.
00:00:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
But today, we're going to talk about a couple of things that Jetty and i don't do.
Misconceptions About Our Services
00:00:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
That we are not under the umbrella of property management.
00:01:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
Lately, have been getting a lot of people that have been just asking us to do things that it's not our job. And it's really hard because we value customer service at McKenna Property Management. And so when they ask me to do something, want people please, right?
00:01:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
But man, some of this stuff is just not us. It's not what we do, guys. And we definitely advertise that we are a full-service property management company.
00:01:30
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I do genuinely believe that we are a full-service property management company. But I think people take that concept of full-service and then expect... things that even a property manager shouldn't do. yeah So we are a full-service property management company, and we provide you full service as to what a property manager should do. yeah But there are some things that are still going to be affiliated with your house that don't necessarily fall into the property manager category. yeah So we're going to talk about that.
00:01:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
We're going to talk about what we are not. That is the big theme of this podcast, what we are not. And I'll tell you right now what we are not, Ireland.
Client Expectations vs. Reality
00:02:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
We are not...
00:02:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
a home inspector. Now I bring this up because just a couple of weeks ago, we put a property on the market. We walked the property. We told the owner, we gave them a big list of everything that needed to get done to get the property to look good for the market, to attract a tenant ah so that we could get an application.
00:02:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
We secured the resident into the property. At McKenna Property Management, the resident does have a 30 days assessment form to fill out. Resident was great, waited the 30 days, filled out their form.
00:02:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
And there was probably about seven, eight things that they found in the property that they felt like needed to be fixed or at the the least let the owner know that they didn't do this damage, right?
00:02:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
I thought, no brainer. I'll call the owner, let the owner know, boom, boom, boom, needs to get done. I'm pretty sure like one of those things was an irrigation line and like the property had been vacant for ah couple of months.
00:03:09
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it's like, oh, irrigation line, we got to fix the leak. Yeah. So I'm thinking this is going to be an easy phone call. Granted, I should have had a little heads up because two team members had been emailing the owner and from the responses from the email, I kind of I should have caught, I should have got the hint.
00:03:26
Irelynn Zurflueh
But anyways, I called the owner because that's what I do. I get on the phone. Hey, we got these things. How do you want me to handle it? ah You know, pretty easy. Like one of them was a paver that just kind of got a little out of line and it became a tripping hazard and it needs to get fixed. Do you know the owner says to me, you should have caught that.
00:03:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
That should have been done before. they moved into the property. You gave me a big list of everything that needed to be done, which we did. um And why didn't you catch these things? You know, one of the other things that I supposedly should have caught, they have a bar where you hang your clothes.
00:04:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
When the resident hung their first set of clothes, it fell down. Now, how the heck am I supposed to know that? Yeah. Right? i' I've heard owners ask you, like, I've had stories where owners have said, just run a load of laundry.
00:04:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
To like test. It's like, so you want me to run a load of laundry, maybe bake a pizza in the oven, can make make some popcorn in the microwave. like Run the dishwasher, but make sure you stay for the whole cycle so that there's no possible leaking.
00:04:35
Irelynn Zurflueh
No, we can't do that, guys. And so what I like to say is we are not home inspectors. Because keep in mind, home inspectors are licensed. Just like how property managers are licensed, just like how realtors are licensed.
00:04:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
Just like how loan officers are licensed, there's different licensing for the different categories. Yes, they all cohesively exist together within the same industry, but you wouldn't get your hair done by a lash lady and you wouldn't get your nails done by a hairstylist. Yes.
00:05:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
So if you want a home inspection, find someone who's licensed. Now- pay the $500 for a home inspection, but it's a different licensing altogether. And I don't think a home inspection is actually necessary when you're putting your property on the market for rent.
00:05:19
Irelynn Zurflueh
Because when we do that walkthrough and we're looking at all the cosmetic things, we're going to get the house to show beautifully. We're going to get the application. and And then guess what, Ireland? When the resident moves into the property and money's actually coming in on rent,
00:05:36
Irelynn Zurflueh
and they find out that something, they baked their pizza and it wasn't at the proper temperature in the stove, then let them tell us what the problems are. I don't want to go out and find the problems when there's no rent coming in. It doesn't make any sense to me.
00:05:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
Let me just do what needs to be done to get the property on the market for rent to get the applications. And then if something's not working, when the resident moves in, they are definitely going to let us know. Let them become like the home inspector.
00:06:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. So that conversation, needless to say, did not go well at all. So we're parting ways with that owner. Yeah. We're going to allow him to go find another property management company. He's going find a home inspector that's going to collect rent for him.
00:06:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. Yeah. yeah I guess. And it was It's really frustrating because as you're having this conversation and the owner believing, you know, in their mind, obviously their perception is the reality and I'm not going to change that.
00:06:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
In his mind, he really believed that when we told him our list of things to get done, i guess nothing was allowed to get broken that point forward, which is again, not realistic in the property management world. Yeah. yeah So what's another thing that we are not Ireland?
Not Insurance Adjusters
00:06:56
Irelynn Zurflueh
We are not insurance adjusters. What? or Are you kidding I know. I hate to break i hate to break the news, but we are not claims adjusters. So I don't have broker owner slash claims adjuster on my title? No, you do not. All right. Tell us a little bit about why you're saying that.
00:07:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
We are saying that because obviously there are going to be some repairs that might involve creating a claim, really big ones. mold big leaks huge floods things of that nature you're going to have to get your homeowner's insurance involved and i get a lot of owners asking questions of when do i get my money when is this going to be approved how much is going to be covered under the claim what's my deductible i have had owners asking me what their homeowner's insurance deductible is
00:07:48
Irelynn Zurflueh
i' am We are more than happy to help. Part of the full service with property management is communication and like working with your claims adjuster and working with your insurance. But I do not know what your deductible is. I do not know what your plan covers.
00:08:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
And I don't know how much of it is going to get approved. I don't know how much of a check they're going to write you. That is all questions for your homeowner's insurance. What we can assist with is we, as long as you give us permission, we can create the claim on your behalf and we can make sure we find a good insurance vendor who works with insurances.
00:08:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we can also make sure that we submit all the photos and all the estimates and all the invoices. But past that, any questions that you have about your coverage or what's happening or how long it's taking or when you're going to get paid,
00:08:38
Irelynn Zurflueh
That is all for your homeowner's insurance. That is all for your adjuster to tell you because they know your plan. I think we get pulled into that so often because our owners don't get good answers from their insurance companies. That's what, and that's my philosophy. My thought is, is they're so used to call McKenna Property Management. They'll get the answer. if they don't have the answer now, they'll get it soon.
00:09:02
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we have an easy way of communicating. They can communicate email. They can communicate via phone. I mean, we've, we've made that um part of What our company is, is good communication.
00:09:13
Irelynn Zurflueh
So the minute they go outside of McKenna, now all of a sudden they want us to solve those problems of their insurance agent being bad communicators. And there's one, we had um one that just recently that finally closed, like all the work got done, but it was three-story building condo.
00:09:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
The upstairs sprinkler system started going off and wouldn't stop. And it wasn't the... personal unit sprinkler systems, it was like the hallway and the public yeah sprinkler system. building.
00:09:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
it was the building's responsibility. complete destruction. And we were the middle unit in between and it everything, everything had to be rebuilt.
00:09:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
But because you're dealing with an h HOA, it makes it even trickier because everything has to be to the satisfaction of the HOA. I cannot tell you how many phone calls, emails we got asking questions about things that were HOA issues, yeah questions about how much money are they going to get, ah questions about what is actually going to get taken care of.
00:10:23
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then to like add insult to injury, I guess is what I can say. i was the one that picked everything out. I actually got suckered into picking out the cabinets, the countertop, the appliances and everything.
00:10:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
But that's not me. That's not I should, I'm not an interior designer either. So if this is your unit and it got destroyed, i think that you should be the one that fixes it up.
00:10:54
Irelynn Zurflueh
And in that same example, again, just circling back to the idea that we are full service, they we needed to send out the vendor to get the rebuild estimate. And I was reaching out to multiple vendors who kept turning me down saying that they don't have the licensing to work on three-story buildings.
00:11:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I had to find somebody who was going to be good with insurance and and worked on three-story buildings. I did that because we are full-service property management company. So there were still things throughout that where we did participate, and we were doing the things that were necessary, and we're never going to leave an owner hanging but we also have no idea when the HOA is going to write the check to pay the insurance bill. That is a question for the HOA.
00:11:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm happy to ask it on your behalf, but if the answer is they never responded to me, which is about half of the responses I got, that's where that...
00:11:50
Irelynn Zurflueh
Well, iron comes and and that's where we get a lot of the blunt and the frustration. um i guess blunt's not the right word. We get a lot of the frustration from the owner because again, they're not getting any answers from anyone else.
00:12:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
So they come to us frustrated and want us to fix it. And we're going to do everything we can to fix it. I mean, I picked out the cabinets. I picked out the countertops. I did a darn good job, by the way. We met with the HOA board. Exactly. I mean, we did it. It's just, I guess what I'm trying. The actual answers cannot come from us sometimes.
00:12:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
I'm just more or less saying we are not the insurance. Yes. We are not the insurance adjuster and we certainly don't know your insurance coverage.
00:12:37
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I think that's kind of the biggest point that on, on the, what we are not. All right. So what's another one that we are not?
Boundaries with HOA and Tenants
00:12:45
Irelynn Zurflueh
We are not kind of looping in the previous ah job that we just talked about. We are not your HOA board of directors.
00:12:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
Amen. We are not your HOA management team, unfortunately. I feel like this is also sometimes a good one for residents to hear too. Yes. Because we will both have residents and owners call in.
00:13:07
Irelynn Zurflueh
And kind of in the very beginning when they're still getting used to everything, they'll say, why did you – issue a violation on my property. And we're like, what are you talking about? We didn't issue a violation.
00:13:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then they send a violation from the HOA and we have to walk them through your HOA management company. We work in tandem with them, but we have no affiliation with them.
00:13:31
Irelynn Zurflueh
They're a completely separate company. They're sending you completely separate invoices or separate charges. Again, we'll help you close out the violation and we'll help you correct those issues, but we are not the ones giving you those violations. We are not the HOA. And then that comes down to, great example from there, but I just got...
00:13:52
Irelynn Zurflueh
um a really horrible story that I'll share, which is great owner has always paid his HOA on time. He does it as an auto pay, but for some reason, HOA raised the um assessments, which is very common in Las Vegas, especially lately.
00:14:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
They raised their assessment and this particular owner did not pay attention or didn't know it. I mean, if you if you hear his claim, he was never given any information on it.
00:14:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
Whatever it is, he just didn't know. So month after month after month, he was not making his HOA payment in full. Well, that then becomes fines. That becomes then a collection.
00:14:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
And then they send it to an attorney, which has a bunch costs. Long story short, $1,800 over above over and above the little bit that he was short on every month on his HOA, he was furious with us.
00:14:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
yeah furious with us. I still can't understand why they believe anyone believes that we have control over the accounting of the HOA.
00:15:01
Irelynn Zurflueh
When the HOA assessments go up, um why we're supposed to know when you're behind on your HOA. And when the collection gets sent, why all of a sudden is it our fault and we need to fix it?
00:15:16
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yeah. That one was a little bit of a shocker for me. Especially because If you are paying the HOA dues yourself, there again, it's just no connection. There's no reason for the HOA to be contacting us. There's no reason for the HOA to be sending us anything.
00:15:33
Irelynn Zurflueh
And also, a lot of HOAs have gone digital, and so you have your own personal owner account for HOAs or a portal. Like a portal that they can go to. Yeah. We do not have your password and your email for that portal.
00:15:47
Irelynn Zurflueh
And we're not getting those notifications for those portal. That's, you know, i think that that's kind of the equivalent of getting mad at someone's grandma because your resident didn't pay their rent.
00:16:00
Irelynn Zurflueh
The grandma has no idea what the rent is or how much. So it's very much, again, it I think real estate and housing and all of that, it's a really big family. Everything works cohesively and congruently together. And But you got your mom, you got your dad, you got, they're all different.
00:16:20
Irelynn Zurflueh
They're all different sections of real estate. They all work together, but they all do separate tasks. The HOA and property management work together, but they are so separate. And your payments to them are so separate and your violations are so separate.
00:16:32
Irelynn Zurflueh
It's all different. And I think we get bundled up into owner being frustrated, not getting good answers from the HOA. And so what do they do They call us because we're available and they're like, fix it.
00:16:46
Irelynn Zurflueh
I don't know how fix it. I am not your HOA. So
Maintaining Professional Boundaries
00:16:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
that's one. The other one is, I am not your tenant. Well, yeah.
00:16:57
Irelynn Zurflueh
That's a crazy one, right? I am not your resident, which the reason I say it is when a resident is late with their rent, the very first thing the owner asks is why? Yeah.
00:17:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
Why did they not pay? Hmm. Well, don't know. I don't know. I'm reporting to you that we don't have rent for your property. We're going to do all the proper procedures to make sure that we serve the seven day. And if they don't pay, then we're going to serve the 24. We're going to go to court if we need to. We're going to do all of that.
00:17:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
But for me to get into the head of the resident to find out what is going on I don't know. Tell me a little bit about you, how you feel. You take more calls than I do on that. I absolutely feel that way. i My biggest takeaway for that is one of the reasons you hire a property management company is you want to take the emotion out of it.
00:17:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
You want to keep it very you want business oriented. you don't want to put You don't want to take personalities into it. You want to keep everything unbiased and straightforward, and you want to honor the contract.
00:18:04
Irelynn Zurflueh
And a lot of owners will reach out and say, why didn't they pay rent? And I'll say, I'm not sure. But if you want, I can reach out. I can see if they're interested in divulging that private information.
00:18:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
And any owner that usually says yes, when I do that reach out asking, it's, I mean, nine times out of 10, their mom died, and their dad died, they were in Florida for a funeral, they just lost their job, they were in the hospital for a week.
00:18:28
Irelynn Zurflueh
they But a lot of times they have they have two or three moms, we realize, because it's lies. It's really pretty much lies. It's either lies or it is the truth. And the truth is a little sad.
00:18:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so bringing that truth back to the owner, you're now bringing that bias and you're now bringing that emotion and you're graying those lines of keeping it professional.
00:18:51
Irelynn Zurflueh
And so my advice to owners is I understand that we might want to know what's going on. But sometimes that's going to get in the way of honoring the contract. We just had an owner who wanted to know why was getting complaints from a neighbor.
00:19:10
Irelynn Zurflueh
And they they swore up and down that this resident was just the worst resident in the world. And they demanded that they walk through the house. So we gave proper notice and we performed a site evaluation. It was the most beautiful, most clean house I've ever seen in my entire life. know.
00:19:22
Irelynn Zurflueh
i know. And it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to walk through this home after they kicked and screamed saying that these were the worst people ever. And it was one of the cleanest homes I've ever been in. And very respectful.
00:19:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
I mean, very respectful. They weren't even home for the evaluation. They gave us access to walk the property without them being present. They were responding to us. They've never been laid on rent, but these owners were just absolutely determined that these people were horrible because of something that their neighbors were saying.
00:19:49
Irelynn Zurflueh
And they blurred those lines and, and it didn't, Those neighbors, I think, were wrong. And I think that they grayed the lines of professionalism and they messed with the boundaries. And as a result, it probably affected, i it absolutely affected the relationship between them and the resident.
00:20:06
Irelynn Zurflueh
And with a fantastic resident paying rent on time, that resident is not going to stay there and they're going to move. And so we're going to have a vacancy. And who knows if the next person, you know, that moves in is going to be as good as what that particular resident is.
00:20:21
Irelynn Zurflueh
And If the resident will never avoid and will never ignore red flags, will always, you know, bring them into consideration. But sometimes it is also if they pay on time, if they're putting in reports on time, if theyre if the site evaluation comes back positive,
00:20:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
Just honor the contract. don't Don't ask these inner questions of why. yeah you know don't I had an owner, a neighbor reported that somebody's car got their window smashed.
00:20:53
Irelynn Zurflueh
And they were like, why? had to reach out to the resident. And then the resident said, oh, I've gotten to a huge fight with my boyfriend. And he smashed my car. But the house is fine. And he's like, why did you want to know about their car?
00:21:05
Irelynn Zurflueh
So i I get with it that they want to know. Yes. But the outcome of knowing does not have a good next step.
00:21:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
Yes. There's not a good next step after knowing. So what I always like to say is we are not therapists. Yes. but aren' there but We don't need detectives. No, and we don't, and we're not police.
00:21:29
Irelynn Zurflueh
We don't need to know all the details of why the window got smashed. We don't need to know that there was a fight, you know, that occurred or that, you know, whatever's going on.
00:21:39
Irelynn Zurflueh
What we care about is the property. And when somebody is not paying rent, we're going either get them to pay rent or we're going to get them out. It's pretty simple. um If there's red flags, of course, we're going to go check the red flags, but we're not going to dive deeper into analytics and, and you know, therapists talk and how do we help them? No, we don't. we That's not what we're there for.
00:22:03
Irelynn Zurflueh
So I think Ireland's hit it on the head where under property management, there's a lot of other different um careers um or licenses that kind of just, it's like the little spider web effect.
Conclusion: Roles and Communication
00:22:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
We're all intertwined.
00:22:17
Irelynn Zurflueh
But i I think the reason for this podcast and the reason that I wanted to be so real is because these conversations that I'm having lately are a little weird.
00:22:27
Irelynn Zurflueh
Like they're, they really believe that because you're a property manager and you are in charge of the resident that is in their property, that all of a sudden we take on all these different hats and we don't, and we shouldn't, we shouldn't.
00:22:43
Irelynn Zurflueh
You wouldn't. You wouldn't trust your car salesman to change your oil. Correct. And you wouldn't trust your oil guy to wash your car. And you wouldn't trust your car washer to put gas in your car.
00:22:58
Irelynn Zurflueh
But it all has to do with your car. And I think it's the same thing with the house. You wouldn't necessarily trust your realtor to change out the toilet. But you wouldn't trust the guy who changed out the toilet to help you with your HOA violations.
00:23:12
Irelynn Zurflueh
So it's all... It's all really important to know that everything can happen cohesively and can coexist. But it's it's a lot of working together, not working with one singular yeah person.
00:23:25
Irelynn Zurflueh
And to summarize is be nice to your property manager. When your unit floods and there's an insurance, they'll work with you, but don't expect them to be, you know, the insurance adjuster or all the other things that we've talked about.
00:23:40
Irelynn Zurflueh
And as long as you know you're working with respect with the property manager, they certainly can help lead you in the right direction. I know we've done that a lot, but just don't think that they are the everything to everything.
00:23:55
Irelynn Zurflueh
Absolutely. I think the best way to look at it is ah every single property manager will but do their best to be the best at their job. And then they should also have really great recommendations. So I think that's also a really telltale sign is you say, hey, I'm looking to change homeowners insurance, do you have a recommendation of an insurance person?
00:24:15
Irelynn Zurflueh
They should have one. They should have vendor recommendations. They should have home inspector recommendations. And that's, I think, going to be a really good sign to tell if you're working with someone good is not that they're willing to take everything on because they may not take it on very well, but that they're willing to point you in the direction of someone who can take it on really well for you Amen to that.
00:24:34
Irelynn Zurflueh
Ireland, great ending. All right. You've been listening to Thoughts for Rent, hosted by Ireland and Jenny. And if you like what you're hearing and you feel like we know what we're doing, share it with a friend. We would love that. Or subscribe so that you don't miss out on any of the real talk that we do. um So Thoughts for Rent, Realtors Keeping It Real. Hopefully that you'll ah tune in next week. Till next time, guys. Bye.