[.ca] Managing Rental Properties for Maximum Profit, Revised ... (ISBN 0761525319)

Not the best, but not the worst either:
This is not the best book on land lording, and not even the second best, but none the less this is a book worth reading. However, if you are a serious landlord and are only going to read one book, this is not the one to read. The #1 book to read is "Landlording" by Leigh Robinson, which I rated as 5 stars. "The Landlording Kit" by Jeffrey Taylor is rated 4 stars by me. And Greg Perry's book and Richard Jorgensen's book "The New No-Nonsense Landlord" is 3 stars. The Milan book is a solid one star. I still recommend that you read this book, just not ONLY this book. The author claims that he "owns and manages or co-manages nearly 50 rental properties." That's a pretty vague statement. He could own and manage 1 property and co-manage 45 properties and that would be "nearly 50 rental properties." One of his early points is that your name and phone number should not be advertised in the rental ad. He says that you should establish an open house Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and have all the prospective tenants come around at one time. This would save you phone time with prospective renters, but I'm not sure that this would always be effective. When renting averaged priced rentals in the season, this might work; but I can see times when renting a high priced property or renting out of season that there would be few maybe no prospects at your open house. In another chapter the author suggests filing your deed at the courthouse with the clerk of courts as routine with every lease signing. First of all in Pennsylvania the Clerk of Courts only handles criminal proceedings, so that wouldn't be the right place to file anyway. But more importantly filing the lease is an unnecessary cost as well as a very public window into your private affairs. On the other hand another tip of driving by your rental properties when in the vicinity makes a lot of sense to me. Checking up on your rentals routinely can be a good dose of preventive medicine. Another excellent tip is to lower your tenant's utility bills. Even if the tenants pay the entire heat bill, insulation, storm windows, etc. will be appreciated by the tenants and lower heat bills will cause a renter to stay longer. Providing appliances is a great landlord debate. Personally we provide apartments with refrigerators and stoves, but many houses are rented without refrigerators. Some higher end properties are rented with dishwashers, and washer and dryers. If I house has a garbage disposal, we'll keep it. But if it breaks it will not be replaced. Recently one disposal had a tendency to attract beer bottle caps. First and second repair bills were at tenant expense. My philosophy is that the more and heavier things that the tenant owns, like refrigerators, washers, and dryers, the less likely they will move. But I can't give you proof for that. Mr. Perry does recommend that you buy houses where the rent is 1-2% of the purchase price per month. In other words a $100,000 house would rent for $1,000 to $2,000 per month. That's a great idea but hard to execute in reality. Two percent is very hard but not impossible to get. You'll have to look hard and NOT be in a high priced area. This is not a bad book, but it's not the best either. There are many tips in the book. The author has some good ideas, but other authors have more.

One Tip is Worth the Cost:
You'll get MANY tips in this but the open house concept that Perry teaches is brilliant and one I'd never thought of. The book just gets better for the struggling landlord (or landlady as Perry says). But for me, the first 2nd chapter changed my life as a landlord.

I needed only one answer.. and got much more!:
We had a problem. We wanted to get rid of our rent house and get out of the business. We looked through lots of books and settled on this and another one. The other turned out to be for more professional rent house owners. This one spoke DIRECTLY TO US. We were surprised at how this author seemed to be talking directly to us, in a manner that a friend would do. He told US advice, not just on how to sell our rent house but how to make it work if we kept it. We decided to give it another round of tenants but ony if we followed the advice in these pages. Much of it, such as the open house concept that we'd only thought applied to houses for sale, dramatically worked to change EVERYTHING about rent houses for the better! We now love being rent house investors and we are looking for more properties. If this book had cost twice as mich, it would be worth only a fraction of its value even then. I strongly encourage you to read this if you really dislike being a landlord.

Finally, a book that speaks to ME:
I have struggled to keep up with my 2 rent houses. What a nightmare they were! I have ALL the books and never until this one have I got REAL answers to my problems. I am SHOCKED this is not required reading by every property owner in America, not just rental property owners. You never know when you'll inherit a house you can't sell (that was my problem) and you're faced with being an instant landlord. For answers, get this book!

Effective Management - Don't Let the Title Fool You:
Although the title would insinuate that this is another get-rich-quick book, Perry actually lays out an effective strategy for individual investors managing from one to a handful of properties. Written from the perspective of someone who will purchase and manage rental properties themselves, the book covers the basics of managing residential rental property. Perry also stresses the importance of building good relationships with neighbors and tenants. All in all, he outlines many reliable business practices that small property owners would want to know. This book does not discuss commercial property or dealing with rental management companies and other agents. However, even if you plan on relying on a rental management firm, this book will equip you with the basic knowledge necessary to make informed decisions. You will have to look elsewhere to find a book that discusses dealing with housing inspectors, title agents, attorney's and the like. There are several other books on the market that fulfill this need. Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone considering managing rentals themselves or renting out a house through an agent. It is a great summary of many solid business practices.