Property Management Halloween Stories That Will Make You Scream

Not for the faint of heart! This blog contains graphic scenes and images. 

Halloween is the time of year in which we have the most fun with our decorations.

But tenants who are not pleased with the operations, or those who have been delinquent in their monthly rental payments and soon to leave while breaking their lease can be problematic.

It’s integral to have a great property management service who can curb the horrors of dealing with these mishaps. Have you heard stories of spine-tingling creatures living in the crevices of your tenant's units?

Or the jaw-dropping tales of fire suddenly ripping a large condo or apartment building to shreds while fate cuts a tenant’s life short for sleeping and not waking up to the emergency?

We will give three horrific, spine-tingling instances of landlords and tenants that show you the benefits of hiring an experienced property manager.

Lack of Quality Property Management Lets the Bed Bugs Bite

Bed bugs can make your home uninhabitable.

We all know the adage, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite."

If you have ever figured that they are not in your bed, you may be gravely mistaken.

And if you don't have a quality property manager who can send for an exterminator or their crew to curb this problem right away, you may be in for many "bite-mares" from bed bugs.

These creatures can seem invisible can reproduce their larvae in your sheets, walls, couches, and wooden table. The life cycle of a bed bug is fairly short, but they can feed every 10 minutes.

Once they band together, they can make your belongings looks ultimately scary, causing you, tenants and their guests, and potential condo buyers to not want to return to your building or apartment complex. 

These are ghoulish creatures have the ability to invisibly seep their way into your skin! Also, the Board of Inspections could potentially shut down your apartment or condominium complex, which lead to an underwater mortgage.

You don't want these to show up in neither you nor your tenant's dreams. Imagine waking up to hearing the phone calls from tenant's screaming in your ear about the crawling dirty mite-sized bugs everywhere. Then, noticing once you get in bed, those bed bugs have destroyed your mattress.

Here is a shocking and gruesome video of what happens if you don’t attack bed bugs quickly enough:

Burning Down The House

You may have tenants or neighbors who have Halloween parties every year. You should learn how to manage large parties in Boston for your property. If you don't, it's safe to assume there will be some damage done that could not only cost you more than you budgeted for, but could also put lives in danger.

Here is an instance in which the tenant was hosting a party where guests were smoking inside their condo unit.

Home infernos can spark simply from a neglected cigarette butt.

One of the party guests flicked their cigarette out the window, but it was a windy night. Mysteriously, the wind blew the still lit cigarette butt back into the room and landed on dry plant.

The party made it's way into another room for about a half hour, and the cigarette sent the plant up into flames. It resulted in a major fire with flames engulfing the entire apartment.  

Evacuation due to fire.

There are two missteps that happened: 

1. There was no established and effective communication system with the landlord for tenants to can contact them during emergencies.

2. All condo owners did not have a condo insurance policy in place.

Landlords and fellow tenants should know that investing in a condo or renter's insurance plan and good lawyers to make sure that items are replaceable, and not get a lawsuit from tenants in case their stuff gets stolen.

Pumpkin statue: "These pranksters killed our 'boo-tiful' setup!"

Pranks For The Memories

Halloween night pranks such as setting a lawn on fire, burning poop bags on front porches, and smashing pumpkins will really make you think twice before putting out other ornaments for your home in the future.

It is safe to assume there will be kids in the neighborhood looking for a good laugh at your property's expense.  

Another story comes during the night before Halloween, also known as "Mischief Night" or "Cabbage Night." 

Some pesky vandalizers who loved to trash other people's yards, front steps, or scare residents just to add to the Halloween spirit are just that— mean spirited. 

In one neighborhood on the Day of the Dead, which begins Halloween Night and ends on November 2nd, these violators decided that they wanted to place a dead deer carcass hanging from the tree in someone's front lawn.

Tenants may be complacent and not report these types of vandalism cases because they simply don't care. But you cannot take the same stance of complacency and need to act quickly to curtail these types of scenarios. 

If you are a landlord living outside of the town or city that your property is located, and do not have a high quality property management team hat can check the premises in the days leading up to Halloween, you will lose home value and risk a bad reputation as a landlord. 

The best way to protect your property on Cabbage Night is to have the budget for a property management team to check your property grounds daily during the month of October when you put out Fall and Halloween decorations. 

If you have ever had issues in the past with this, make sure that you have your communication methods in place with your tenants to email, text, contact you via your most active social media channels, or call you immediately if they see anything that has been vandalized on the property.

Final Thoughts

Halloween is supposed to be fun for all. But it's not so fun when your tenants have to come home to these types of situations. Having the means to help maintain your property's value and reliable services can make a huge difference with managing your tenants.

Have you ever dealt with vandalism on your property, pranks in your apartment building, or dead animals that tenants and real estate agents have been scared out of their wits by? Share with us some of your horrible experiences so we can help you come up with future solutions.

Why There Should Be No Airbnbs in Condos

Traveling to new cities is great for expanding one's horizons and it should be done with much research.

Not only for the city that is being visited, but also for the laws of the land that you are bound to tread on.

But did you know hosts are renting your properties extra space in their unit for as much as $300 per night in untaxed dollars and running a "non-licensed bed-and-breakfast" with Airbnb could lead to big fines in the ballpark of at least $10,000.

Airbnb has been a great resource for tourists who can't afford the price of expensive hotels in their destination city, but is not the perfect solution it may be touted up to be.

In All Fairness: Airbnb Is Bad For The Boston Real Estate Market

The model for Airbnb is suitable for people who can neither find rental space, nor be approved for their own apartment due to a subprime credit rating in a tight rental market like Boston.

But this negatively impacts the local real estate market, Boston property managers and owners because it is still a fairly new unregulated industry that is void of taxation.

This article is in support of the effort to minimize Airbnb hosts and their short-term tenancy advantages on your property.

It not only affects the local lodging business, but it also has added to the bottle-necked market where renters can't find affordable housing in Boston. The windfall comes from the following reasons explained to understand the concept of  Airbnb.

Un-Licensed to Chill: Short-Term Rentals Are Detrimental To Your Property

The short-term home Boston rentals industry is catering to the "sharing economy," where renters and homeowners alike make money renting out their homes, cars, and personal time.

Online rental websites where people bid for beds in rental units by using software such as Airbnb, Homeaway and it's subsidiary VRBO, and Uber has made home-sharing into a billion-dollar industry.

According to Forbes, Airbnb is valued at $25 billion. Since it's emergence in the tech industry haven in the Bay Area, Airbnb has made its presence stretch into 194 countries.

As a new industry looking for altering it's model upon state and federal legislation, what makes sharing an extra space so bad for the local real estate economy?

Hosts that are renting on your property are posting their extra space in their rental unit for as much as $300 per night in untaxed dollars they are keeping for themselves.

Airbnb is making condo owners into their own real estate agents, without the condo association getting a cut of that short-term rental revenue. This affects the property management company because this leaves the condo association out of pocket from paying for the contract renewals to the service via condo fees.

Issues Resulting From Using Airbnb:

• Security is a major concern where owners are seeing an increase in people they do not know access their home with travelers who are typically in a vacation mode which could lead to rowdy activity and inviting even more strangers back for parties. Building keys could also be copied by an airbnb guest leaving unauthorized access

• Landlords and investors seeking more profits by changing traditional housing into short-term units, reducing the housing supply. 

• Airbnb homeowners and renters are at risk for being hosts because the city can fine them for running a non-licensed bed-and-breakfast. This could lead to big fines in the ballpark of at least $10,000.

• Those who come for short stays are taking the risk of neglecting their property value from frequent guests who don't respect the property because they are not signed to the lease. Read more property damage control tips

• The amount of foot traffic that neighbors must deal with from the frequent exchange of new guests on the premises moving in an out of the building. Also how is maintenance and emergency support resolved with short term rentals?

• Increased janitorial costs where guests have no vested interest in taking care of hallways, railings, doorways, roof decks, etc. 

Neighborhood Watch: Avoid Clustering in Your Property

The condo craze in Boston has steadily risen since the start of this decade.

The shortage of home supply, influx of transient college kids, and tourists has made the caused the local groundswell of over 300 Airbnb hosts to register on their site.

For someone like an empty-nester or a tenant who does not have kids, marketing their extra room to some international guests going to explore America for the first time makes for good business. This home-sharing model helps the owner or renter pay their bills and profit.

On the flip side,  clustering of random people could lead to true nightmares for owners who don't have a registered "neighborhood-use permit." You can see the consequences in this video here of this San Diego woman who learned her lesson from using Airbnb.

 

Final Thoughts

Airbnbs in condos may seem generous from the owners, but they are a violation to the condo association and the city of Boston if they are not registered properly.

Have you had any bad experiences dealing with neighbors who are Airbnb hosts with multiple guests every month? Or are you a homeowner in support of home-sharing?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments why Airbnb is good or bad for the community. 

 

How To Manage Loud Parties In Boston

This article will help define how property managers can help turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity to communicate with student residents. 

How To Deal With House Parties At Your Property

The spring season in Boston is a special time of year for many reasons:

1. The weather temperatures finally begin to warming up after a harsh cold winter
2. The Boston faithful get to see their beloved Red Sox take the field again at Fenway Park. 
3. The clock's change to Daylight Savings Time positively affects your mood from seeing sunlight and less grey skies. 
4. College kids are begin to leave the city towards their permanent out-of-town residents for the summer. 

As you would expect, students in your Boston property management will be celebrating the last of their final exams for the academic year with a party to remember just how sweet it is to live away from their parent's house.

In this article we will explain how to effectively communicate with your college-aged tenants. As students prepare for the end of their lease, get ready to talk with your young tenants about the consequences of having a party with their friends on your property. 

Building A Positive Relationship With Young Tenants

Open communication is important for everyone involved. 

Chances are that you were once a kid looking for fun and enjoying life by not having to answer to your parents as well. Be approachable and understanding of their situation and remember that when you tell a kid to not do something, they are likely going push the risk to the limit and see how far they can go.

It's best to meet your college-aged tenants half way by letting them have their fun to an extent. Here are a few suggested communication methods to effectively notify your tenants about the parameters of living in your property:

• Detail The Guest Policy In The Lease- Make sure that upon the beginning of their lease that each tenants knows how many people are allowed at once within their rented unit. When you keep it in writing, and quantify the amount of people that are allowed at once, they can never say they never knew beforehand about how many people they should have as guests. 

• Ramifications for Damage To The Property- The security deposit is a coveted check amount that both landlords and tenants use for coverring any future mishaps within their rental unit. If there is any damage to the rental property, the security deposit is subject to being decreased upon the return to the tenant at the end of the lease. Or if the cost of the damage exceeds the amount of the security deposit when they come in, let the tenants know that they will not get it back at the end of their lease. Also, let the tenant(s) know they are responsible for their guest's damage to the property or injuries from being inebriated in the party make them liable as well.

• Set A Benchmark For Neighbor Complaints, Or Else- Living in off-campus housing means that there will be neighbors next door, or in the apartment unit below the tenant holding the party. The best way to let those neighbors know that a party will take place on a certain date is to give them a couple days notice. Also make sure that you and the tenants give the neighbors your phone numbers to call or text you if it gets too loud. If the tenant doesn't adhere to multiple complaints, make sure that you get the Boston Police Department to come and tell everyone to leave. The purpose of this BPD Party Line is to give residents direct contact for reporting the occurrence of loud parties, and to have them come to calm down the noise.   

• Social Media - Be the "cool" landlord that is privy to social media to connect with your tenants. Some landlords are deemed as either "slumlords" for their lack of maintenance on call for any problems their tenants experience. And there are some other who are considered "helicopter" landlords that never go away, hovering over their property as much as they can. Or some seem out of touch with their tenants for a lack of communication skills. Certainly you want to ensure your return on investment, but being the "cool" landlord can help you keep your tenancy rate high, with great referrals from your current tenants to potential new ones via social media. That way there is a trail that can be tracked online about your property and landlord reputation.  When the landlord and tenant are in good standing with one another, this could lead to positive reviews in the future when the tenants decide to move to another rental apartment or condo, and require a positive review from the previous landlord. 

Final Thoughts: Have you dealt with a tenant who partied too much?

Have you dealt with any tenants that refuse to comply with the terms of your lease regarding guests or parties? Or if you are a tenant, how did you handle your relationship with your landlord to make sure that you can stay on an even keel with your landlord, roommates, and neighbors in your rental unit? Tell us your thoughts.