WHO; World Health Organization has determined the COVID-19 as a pandemic? Owing to this, we must take all precautions and follow all the instructions to keep our family and friends safe. Since there is no treatment available yet, the only way to keep the virus by spreading is to maintain specific barriers like social distancing.
Almost all businesses are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; one such business is the real estate business, where landlords and property managers are trying very hard to manage their properties and their tenants. It’s essential that they educate themselves and stay updated to keep themselves and their tenants out of harm’s way.
Here are several tips that can make your work a bit easier regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. But first here are the things to consider:
- The bad side of the pandemic: It’s unpredictable and unexpected.
- The good side of the pandemic: We can work together to combat it and stay safe.
Preparing for the COVID-19 Pandemic:
It’s impossible to prepare for a pandemic when you know so little about the ways to fight it. But there is no way; you can lay down your weapons and accept defeat. Think like a pilot, who doesn’t know when the turbulence is going to hit, but he is trained to stay calm and fight the turbulence to keep its passengers safe and secure. As a landlord or property manager, this is what you have to do. Think and become a pilot with flying in bad weather.
Stay Updated and Educated:
The first thing you need to do is to educate yourself. If you don’t learn the situation and the precautions yourself, you won’t be able to educate others. Always search for most authentic links and websites to get all the information right. The government has also issued notices and web addresses to get authentic news and updates, follow them, and stay updated. You can then share this information with your tenants and residents to keep them from harm’s way.
You should be aware that the tenants and residents staying in your rental units will come to you for advice as well as for information. So you should be well aware of all the things so that you can respond to them without any worries about misinformation. Your one wrong move will affect many, so getting the education and real information about COVID-19 should be your first priority. Since changing one person isn’t going to help the situation, we all need to buckle up and change our habits. And you, being a landlord or a property manager, are in a position to impose certain rules that the tenants are bound to follow.
Tips to Curb Breakout:
There is so much you can do to curb the break out of COVID-19 if you are looking for tips, here are some that will help.
Disinfecting:
The first thing you need to do is to understand how to disinfect people as well as to object and places. Also, make a list of public areas on your property and disinfect it all. Especially the high traffic areas like staircases, main doors, and their knobs as well as light switches. Some areas like playgrounds and pool areas are luxury; you can rope of these areas altogether. Also, another public sector is laundry; that is a need but also considerable risk. So you can’t rope it off, but you can disinfect it daily to make sure no germs are lurking around.
Common areas like the pool, clubhouses as well as community halls and areas should be roped off completely. Also, there should be a complete ban on barbecues and meet up sessions. If you have a gym or dance center or fitness center in your residential units, they should be roped off as well.
Virtual Office and Work From home Policy:
As far as your professional and official duties are concerned, try doing all that from home-office. Virtual platforms are great for taking updates in your tenants and giving them answers for their queries. Also, you need to make all your payments digital as well. Accumulating rents should be digital as well. No cash or checks should be entertained. Either get it all in your account or use the PayNearMe option to collect rent.
Rental Inspections:
Many landlords are more worried about the rental inspections more than anything else. If there is damage by the tenant, how is the landlord going to assess it by visiting their place? The easiest way to do this is to have a virtual tour of the house. Use live calls, Due or Skype to check out every corner of the house. This will enable you to inspect the house at leisure and also keep you safe. By using this method, you will able to evaluate how much security deposit you will need to deduct.
Vacancies/Open House:
The easiest way you can curb vacancies is to have open houses, where people visit the property and fall in love with it. However, in the current COVID-19 situation, having an open house is nothing more than suicidal. So, again you can use the virtual tour to help your potential customers see the house online and decide whether they want to move in or not.
Cleaning And Disinfecting After Moving Out And Before Moving In:
One thing that can help you fight COVID-19 is the cleaning and disinfecting. As soon as your last tenant moves out, you should hire a cleaning service and disinfect the house thoroughly. A good fogging company will respond in a couple of houses to schedule the cleaning appointment.
Fogging not only cleans the place but also keeps is disinfected for seven days max. You can repopulate your residential unit in a couple of hours after cleaning too.
Conclusion:
COVID-19 is highly contagious, and what we do and don’t, not only affects you but everyone around us as well. Kids and senior citizens are at high risk. So make sure you educate yourself and your tenants regularly and use all precautionary measures.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
