The Life of a New Jersey Property Manager and Realtor – Week 4
Tverdov Housing is a New Jersey real estate company founded in 2014 that offers property management and realtor services in Middlesex, Somerset, and Union County. We also act as a project management consultant for rehabbing properties. If you’ve like to learn more about the role of property managers like us, and what we deal with on a day to day basis, you can follow this weekly series!
Recap of Last Week:
–Last week we had a frustrating event happen with property management, the owner held up a major repair! One property we manage had a central air unit that needed to be serviced. We called our vendor, they tested the unit and discovered it needed a rather expensive repair. We called up another vendor to get their price to compare and it was the same price. When we presented this price to the owner for approval, they asked us to call PSEG first (who couldn’t fix it). Next, the owner insisted we call the original vendor who installed the unit to see if it was under warranty (warranty expired). Next, the owner wanted us to call PSEG back again (facepalm). If you’re counting, that is now four trips we had to make at the request of the owner, in the dead of summer here in New Jersey, with no AC working for the tenant. We finally had to put the owner in their place and told them we were making the repair with the original vendor and not running in any more circles. This is a small lesson to property owners – if you hire someone to do a job, let them do it and get out of the way! I’m happy to report the tenant has functioning central air again and is very happy. This happens sometimes in property management when the repair is over $500, any amount over that and we need to get owner approval.
-Another smart property management trick that we practice took place last week. Anytime we need to repair an air filter for a central air unit, we get the expensive air filters. Why? Because they last 12 months. It’s not more expensive if you have to go to the property once per year to change them instead of 3-4 times per year when changing the cheaper ones. In addition to getting the good filters, we also write down the size of the air filter needed at the property so in the future we just look it up in our files, order one and we’re ready to go.
-A single family investment property in New Brunswick that we have under contract is heading towards closing (closing is scheduled for the first week of August). The house was in great condition (we are the property manager) and we got the fire inspection and certificate of occupancy updated by the city last week. Once we get houses under our property management care, they really do run efficiently.
Items to Do This Week:
-On the construction management side, we have started the rehab and renovation of another house in Somerset. We are helping our client flip this house and we started with the roof this week. Interior demo will take place later this week.
-We got a new property under management, 29 S. Talmadge Ave in New Brunswick. It’s a beautiful house that the owner renovated. Right now he just wants us to handle the leasing portion of it and depending on how that goes we might be able to manage this property and a few others he owns. We’ll snap pictures this week, add our sign, put the listings on websites, our social media, and hopefully place a great tenant!
-Quarterly inspections will begin next week on the property management side of our business. We walk the properties once per quarter to note any interior/exterior damage, check fire safety issues, check for cleanliness, lease violations, etc. It will be challenging given COVID-19 but we’ll do our best to get into as many houses as possible. I started one today and found a brand new fence with 22 broken fence posts, ugh.
If you want to follow what we do day to day, check us out on Instagram: @tverdovhousing
Until next week!