Mon 7 Aug 2006
Introducing Natalie
Posted by anesia.springborn under A Day in the Life of a Budding Real Estate InvestorI’d like you to meet Natalie! 
You’ll be learning more about Natalie as she posts questions about her real estate investing activities on this blog. Let’s see what she’s up to today…
2 Responses to “Introducing Natalie”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 7th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I recently turned my properties over to a property manager. Today one of my tenants called me directly instead of calling my manager. She had moved from one of my units to another unit some time ago and she was calling to tell me she still has the keys to her old apartment. She was complaining that my manager never came to pick up her old keys and was wondering if I could make him come get them. She is wondering if since she still has the keys to her old apartment, who might still have keys to the apartment she’s living in now? I feel awkward being in the middle of this situation. What should I do?
August 7th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Natalie,
Your situation brings up a few important points:
1. Your tenant calling you directly is a little like insubordination in a work setting. This is not ok. You have property management in place and that is the line of communication that needs to be respected. If a tenant calls you directly about an issue, you should simply direct him/her to your property manager. If you want to express empathy, concern, good customer service, etc. it’s ok to hear your tenant out, but be careful to not get in the middle of a situation where you may not be in on all of the details of both sides. Don’t get involved.
2. It is the tenant’s responsibility to return the keys to their apartment when they leave. Your lease or your house rules may specify this, and when a notice of moving out is given, the property manager should confirm with the tenant how/where they should be returned. It is not the property manager or the landlord’s responsibility to chase down keys.
3. Locks need to be changed between tenants! Tenants will make extra copies of keys and not tell you, forget, and neglect to return each and every set to you. For your own protection and the protection of your new tenant, you must change the locks at turnover time. There is an extremely easy way to do this. You can get the type of door knob that has an interchangeable cylinder that can be swapped out in less than 10 seconds. The manager retains a master key that works with all cylinders, and each tenant gets a set of keys that works with whichever cylinder is in their door knob at the time they live there. You still want to have all the keys from your tenants returned when they leave, but in the event they don’t, if they ever try to re-enter the apartment again they would have to try every cylinder you own - which may or may not be in use in the “round robin” at that time, and could be at any one of your buildings. You can find the locks I use
HERE