What the heck is normal (or ordinary) wear and tear? This term is used in many of our states where we practice property management and is often the cause of misinterpretation, conflict, and disputes. In today's Five Minute Friday, Bob describes his "common sense" rule as it applies to determining what is normal wear and tear...

Bob has been addressing "process" in the past few episodes, speaking to why it is so important in property management. But what if many of those processes could be “automated”? The concept is to let technology handle your repetitive tasks. Might this allow your property management business to work smarter, not harder...

Today's Five Minute Friday poses a hypothetical questions. There is no right or wrong answer, only personal preference of how you think a property management company should be run. A lot of companies have come into our property management space offering technical solutions based on automation and artificial intelligence. The concept i...

Exciting news!  The Calilfornia State Chapter of NARPM® (CALNARPM) has announced its theme and the dates of its annual conference. This will be a virtual conference, titled "Embracing Change", to be held March 11-12, 2021.  Embracing change is something all property managers have had to do during COVID-19 and may n...

Real estate brokers and property managers receive what are known as “trust funds” in the normal course of doing business. These are typically deposits and payments received and held on behalf of others, thereby creating a fiduciary responsibility to the funds owners. In our business as property managers, we must handle and acc...

The role of being a landlord comes with many financial, legal, and ethical obligations. As an owner of an investment property, time is money.  There are two ways to go, managing the property yourself or hiring a property manager. On this week's Five Minute Friday, Bob poses a question to real estate investors:  should you ma...

In this week's Five Minute Friday, Bob reviews and gives his position/endorsement for either a "yes" or a "no" on four California Ballot Measures in the upcoming election on November 3rd, that he believes to be  significant to landlords, real estate investors and owners of rental property. Bob provides his opi...

What is a "process" and why do we need it as a landlord or property management company? Webster’s defines process as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. All you property managers out there, sound familiar? Our daily workflow in this business requires us to follow certain steps for sever...

We've been getting a lot of questions this month about the new eviction protection laws recently passed by the CDC and in California so we wanted to provide an overview to California landlords and property managers on this episode of Five Minute Friday. Full disclosure, Bob Preston, the host of the show, is NOT an attorney so this epi...

As the host of the show, Bob often gets asked about the name of his podcast, Property Management Brainstorm. That often leads to the question, is Property Management a creative business? is the business of being a landlord and managing rental properties an open landscape for brainstorming and innovation? If asked, many of our listeners wo...