Episode 40: Landlord SPEAK: Words MATTER
Summary
In today's episode we reflect on what you - the listeners - are listening to and what you keep coming back with questions about. As a landlord, you will likely keep striving for more solutions and ways to communicate better. After a bit of reflecting on the podcast format and how to provide great value to YOU, we dive into landlord verbiage including: what to say in a demand letter, how to say yes in a tenant qualifying interview, and just some of the many ways a landlord can say no. In your rental business - in ANY business - WORDS MATTER. Let's make them count!
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to my life as a landlord where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious. If you're
looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the right
show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it.
Today is episode 40 and our rotating topics of content buckets. Today is another Salisbury
adventure where I normally talk about anything. It could be. It could be anything. If you've looked at the
channel, you could see we've talked about Moscow, I've talked about my sponsor, dad, Admiral
Laurence. I've talked about all kinds of Maui, Right? There's going to be some more other Salisbury
Venture podcast coming up talking about the Lahaina and the cooler fires that recently happened on
Maui. And there's all kinds of things that you never know what you're going to get with this topic. So
that's why I love this topic. But today I am talking about a landlord feature. But before we do that, you
know, today it's episode 40. Holy moly. Like we are in month ten of weekly lessons every Saturday. A
podcast has been coming out all year long, which is absolutely amazing. And while this podcast is
entertaining and educational, there's all kinds of things that I talk about in the rental adventures that just
gets thrown in, right? Like that's just what gets thrown in. So rather than talk about a non rental topic
today, like, you know, last time I talked, it was not Canada's greatest. No at all. But today I am going to
talk about a rental topic because I want to provide listeners like you value in each and every podcast. So I
decided I would do some reflecting because there's been quite a few of you out there who have binged
binge listened to the podcast, which is kind of fun. Mean I'll wake up and I'll see somebody listen to 16
episodes overnight, right? Somebody put it on there this morning. Somebody listened to 11 overnight and
they just put it on, you know, either Spotify or Apple podcast or whatever, you know, platform you're
listening to the podcast on and you just go and I really appreciate that. And so I wanted to look at the
analytics of the podcast and go, What is everybody actually listening to? So looking at all of this, I found
the top ten most listened to podcasts in my life as a landlord. It was very interesting. So I'm going to just
give you the rundown of where we're at, what you guys are listening to. Eight of the the ten. Eight of the
top ten most listened to episodes are either ten tenant or landlord related in the channel is my life as a
landlord. Of course they are right? Of course they are. But the other two, the other two were an other
Salisbury adventure, which was the Laurence influence about my sponsor, father from the Naval
Academy, Admiral Lawrence. And the other one was Real Estate Investment Podcast about buying
properties, using other people's money. And so I kind of have to take the Lawrence influence one as an
outlier because have a lot of military friends and they wanted to listen to the podcast. So I'm not sure that
the general population is going to respond quite like that. So I'm going to call that one an outlier. I'm
going to call that one an outlier. And then the real estate investment, one other people's money that's
valid, right? That's valid. And so you can see that over 80% of the podcast that everybody's listening to is
landlord tenant rental related, which makes sense. And so what I've got is real estate development and
real estate investment. I've been taking whole shows and dedicating to that, but think that's going down
the wrong track here. And and the listeners, you guys aren't listening to it. There are other podcasts that
do a bigger, better job on both real estate development and real estate investment. And all of that is really
important. But and they provide great value to their listeners. Chances are, if you're listening to this
podcast or you're watching this on YouTube, you have been on these media and seen some of these other
companies where they not only do they put out content weekly, some of them put out content daily,
That's incredible. That's an amazing infrastructure and so much work to do what they're doing. And so
I'm just like, okay, landlord podcast. I wanted to see what other podcasts were just doing landlord stuff,
just landlord stuff. So was like, okay, so I threw this into a threw the word landlord in the search engine
of Apple Podcasts. You can do the same and you may have done the same. So here's what I did. So 20
podcasts came up, just 20. I was actually shocked that it was that few 20. Okay. And even I press the see
all button. If you've ever done a search in Apple podcast or even in Spotify, you can say See all or see
more. And I hit C all and that was it. 20 I'm like, okay. So I went into each and every podcast. I wanted to
see their topics. I wanted to see what they're talking about. What what response do they have? Are they,
you know, what kind of response are they getting? And out of the 20, only half were publishing current
episodes. Only half were in episodes in this calendar year. In fact, 2023, there was only half of them. So
ten were only we're publishing in 2023. And then out of that, out of those ten, only a handful, five,
including my life as a landlord, were publishing current periodic, predictable episodes. Now they're not
all weekly. Some of them are more than that, but a lot of them are less than that. I was shocked because I
thought at 40 episodes that I was a newbie. Well, in some circles I am a newbie, but apparently in these
circles I'm not. But I'm creating consistent content that you can you can rely on, which is pretty
incredible. So anyway, pretty interesting. So I learned in one of the because listen to audiobooks, when I
walk the dog, listen to audiobooks and there's an amazing book that I've been listening to about
improving podcasts and improving podcast audience. And in there is a statistic that says only 40% of
podcasts continue past the first year, 40%, only 40% of podcasts make it past year one. And in the whole
list of landlord podcasts and Apple Podcasts, there have been several in there that hadn't published in
several years. And I was just shocked when I realized this and I went, okay, so maybe I'm limiting. The
search term, right? Maybe I'm limiting it. So said. What about other words in the search bar? What about
what if throw rental in rental? That should get something else. Okay. So surely there are more podcasts
out there. So tried other terms. Rental of course, brought up rental business minded podcasts and it sure
brought out. Wow. There's a lot about short term rentals about how to do short term rentals. Now, of
course, for those of you listening to podcasts for a while, you know, I'm a long term tenant landlord. I
only do long term, long term homes for people, don't do short term turnarounds, don't do any of that stuff.
Even though I've got rentals on Maui, I'm not into it. I'm not into the business model. It's too much and I
will do more. People have asked me a couple times to do a podcast about long term versus short term
rentals and I will do that. That is in the queue to do that. So back to my search in the Apple podcast
search bar, I put up rentals and rental. So long term rentals, there was some rental business podcasts
about making rental income, but there was also lots and lots of short term but same thing. There was a lot
of stuff that they were not, they were not current. It's it was I was shocked at how many podcasts were
not active. They were still listed because they had they have shows that are active, but they're not actively
adding to the library of recorded podcasts on a periodic basis. And even that list with rental, even with
short term rental in there, there wasn't more than, again, about 20 and that included short term rentals. So
when you're talking about the different educational resources that are available on podcasts for landlord
and rental business and all that stuff specifically, there's not a whole lot. And so here I am. I'm asking
myself, how can I make sure because I'm only in Montana, how can I provide value to you on a
consistent basis and be these podcasts killer odds, Right? Because if most podcasts don't make it past
year one, what am I doing? What am I doing? What can I do better? What can I do better? And that's the
answer. Let me put my notes back up. Okay, here we go. So here's my intention, and as a truly at heart,
I'm a business strategist. My business just happens to be landlord, right? So I'm going, okay, what are we
doing right? What are we doing right? My Life is a landlord podcast about rental and landlord ING itself.
My goal is to keep utilizing my resources, my experiences, my skill set to create podcasts for you that
will continue to be educational and entertaining. And honestly think I'm going to scale down the topics
we had. We started this with five content buckets, landlord issues, tenancy issues, real estate
development, real estate investment. And then the fifth one was other Salisbury Adventures. As I've
mentioned, we're not getting many listeners on real estate development and real estate investment. And
why? Because there are other resources that are doing it much more in depth, much more value than what
I'm providing. Inevitably, these topics are going to come in here like I'm I'm going to talk about
contractor stuff. I'm going to talk about improvements and money and lending and credit and all of that.
That is naturally going to infiltrate, especially because I'm going to continue to do these weekly podcasts.
The content will naturally continue because the landlord's journey includes development and investment.
So here, here's what we can do. So the things that I'm seeing, I'm going to change the show, change the
format of the show based on what you guys are listening to, I'm going to do less real estate development,
investment, and I'm going to do more guests. Many of you have said, Jen, when are you going to start
interviewing people? When are you going to start interacting with other people? Yes, we like when
you're talking and you're teaching a lesson and that's fine, but we need to change it up. So next week
we've got our first guest and am so, so excited for you to talk to her. She's incredible. So lots of requests
for our guest speakers on the show and they they're booked. This is going to be fun. This is going to be
really fun knowing this. This up is in motion right now. I want to get to it. The name of this episode is
Landlord Speak Where Words Matter. And even though this is another Salisbury adventure, you never
know what you're going to get. So I want to make sure that in your landlord business, sometimes the
hardest thing is knowing that you need to say something, but you can't figure out the words to say it.
That's some of the hardest stuff where if I see somebody stuck on something, go, okay, look, I use the
words of this, this and this, and we're going to talk about what words I use, and it might help spur you on,
even if it's not the words you would use, it will help you figure it out, how to actually get the words out
yourself. And so sometimes sometimes you get stuck on the words you use and how not to seem
derogatory or awkward. You want to make sure you seem confident as a landlord. And so today I've
picked three things that I want to talk about that seem to be the most requested things on the Facebook
groups and LinkedIn groups talking about landlords, especially landlords who are in a pickle. They've got
tenants who are not behaving or they need tenants, tenants that are not paying rent on time. And so
you've got to create a demand letter. So that's the first thing we're going to talk about is what words do
you say in a demand letter? It's very simple. And then, well, it's simple for me. So I have to be have to
qualify that. I'm going to help give you some of these ideas. Second thing we're going to talk about is
we're going to talk our way through a tenant qualification interview. This is hard. Remember, the biggest
thing that you can do in your landlord business is screen your tenants properly. So we're going to talk
about what a tenant interview looks like and how to say yes. How do you actually say yes? Because the
whole game changes when you say yes as a landlord. Okay. And then the last thing is we're going to say,
how can a landlord say no? 1s That's the three things we're going to talk about demand letters, tenant
qualification interview and how a landlord can say no. Okay, here we go. Demand letter. Okay, so let's
say you got a tenant that is misbehaving or let's start off with the more painful one. Let's say that they're
not paying rent or they're not paying for the utilities and they've they're causing some causing some
issues. Now, I'm going to remind you, when you speak as a landlord, speak in facts, don't speak on
emotion. Oh, you're stressing me out. Oh, I can't get any sleep. And you insert this drama into it. Guess
what? Business cannot have drama in it. At least not for long. You've got to speak. In fact, your lease
says this. You're doing this, smartened up, that kind of stuff. Okay, but let me give you the words. Okay.
So for this demand letter, many of you see, many of you on Facebook are texting tons and tons of
screenshots of texting. Okay, That may not be the most ideal way to communicate is by texting. In fact, I
don't I don't text. Don't text for official things like a demand letter. That's an official thing. It's in writing.
So this one, what we're about to talk about is in writing, and then you deliver it. You can either deliver it
by email or you can post it on their door. And it is whatever delivery method is approved in your local
rental area. Okay. So whatever province, territory or state you're in, you need to know by your local
housing or tenancy act or code. You need to know how you can deliver written notice to your tenants.
Right? And it will say in there that you've got to serve them or you've got to, you know, notify them
certain ways there. It will definitely say that. So you've got to know. So in writing, let's say if you've got
a demand letter for rent. Okay, Now, if let me quantify this for a second. If you have premade demand
forms in your province, state or territory, then use that. Okay? Some places don't have that. Some places
you have to create a letter, but they give you words to use in the letter or just say send a demand letter.
Well, how do you even do that? Okay. So here I'm going to give you some ideas. So but again, this is if
you don't have premade forms, if you don't have the words, this is how you would do it. Okay. In writing.
Okay. Dear tenant rent or money for utilities was due on or before midnight on the first. Let's say this is
the third. Don't wait long. I give them a day or two and that's it. Okay. Rent or money for utilities was
due on or before midnight on the first. Your payment is now late. Please remit funds with the late fee of
whatever your late fee is, whatever it's allowed. Please remit funds with the late fee before 5 p.m. on
whatever day or additional action will result. Very simple. Now, how do you know what those days are?
Again, you have to know what your local residential housing act says, your local landlord tenant code,
whatever it is, you've got to know. And it is specifically in there. I guarantee it. It's specifically in there
about late rent or late utility payments on what you're supposed to say. British Columbia is different than
Alberta. It's different than New York State. New York City is even more different. Mean you've got to
know. So when you get thrown into this landlord business, they're newbie landlords. You've got to learn
this, the rules of the game. And so this demand letter needs to include the proper dates of what these days
are. You know, are you supposed to give them five days? Are you supposed to give them 14 days?
Whatever it is you're supposed to do, That's what you need to put in this demand letter. Okay. I'll read it
one more time in writing. Dear tenant rent or money for utilities was due on or before midnight on the
first. Her payment is now late. Please remit funds with the late fee of x amount of dollars before 5 p.m.
on whatever day or additional action will result. Sincerely, landlord. Period. Like that's the demand letter.
That's it. That's a demand letter. So that is that that's going to get you going. But let's say, let's say it's a
little bit different. Let's say you've got a tenant that is misbehaving. They're doing some kind of some
action they're not supposed to be doing pick one, Right. They've got too many people stand there.
They've got a dog there. They're not supposed to be there. They whatever. They're storing their kayaks all
over the backyard and they're not supposed to be doing it. It could be anything. Literally pick something.
Okay. I call it mischief. This is your mischief demand letter again. This is in writing. Dear Tenant, I've
received one. Sorry, dear tenant, I have received at least one report of blank or Dear Tenant. I have seen
personally seen kayaks in the backyard. This is contrary to item X of our lease. Please stop this behavior
or a second warning letter will result. Sincerely, Landlord. Simple. Very simple. Most places you're
going to find that warning letters must be in writing. And you're going to find that if you put in one
warning letter, you need to also have a second warning letter. So you usually give them I usually give ten
days to correct. But again, this depends on your local housing act. If your housing act says you have to
give them 14, then you know this. Okay? So but say you have 14 days to correct. I'm going to drive by
again on day 15 and make sure this is done, make sure this is corrected. If it's not, give them a second
warning letter. Give them another, you know, ten, 14 days, whatever your local area says. And then if
they don't do it, you have cause to evict them. They're not behaving. They're not playing by the rules in
whatever whatever mischief they're getting into, they're not behaving. Okay. So that's a demand letter
that is how I would write a demand letter. Very simple, but not speaking in facts. Right? Speaking in
facts, going, this was supposed to happen. It didn't happen. Now this is due you have this many days, do
this or additional action will occur. It's that simple. Okay, so that's a demand letter. Let's do the next one.
Let's talk about a tenant qualification interview. Again, we're talking about the words and how you do
this. So a tenant qualification interview. I self-manage my properties. If you're a property manager and
you're doing tenant qualification interviews, this is going to be a particular interest to you as a property
manager or if you're also a self managing landlord or you're a newbie and you're going to be self
managing, this is what you need to do. So once you've done your amazing screening and they've seen the
unit, okay. The biggest thing is you want to have a phone call or even a zoom call with them. I usually do
it by phone, even if I'm located in the same town. I usually do this by phone, and what I'm doing is I am
reviewing every single item in their application. I'm reviewing every item, including, let's say it's for a
couple reviewing income for both of them, criminal record check for both of them. Landlord reference
because sometimes you get people who are boyfriend girlfriend, but they've never lived together, so they
both have different landlords, previous landlords, right? Or you've got people who maybe they're together
or they're roommates. Same thing. They're not they're not a couple. It's just two people who are going to
live together. Landlord references credit checks for both. Do they smoke or vape? These are all items on
the application. Pets or beings, including any service animals or emotional support animals. Every single
being that is going to be in that unit must be declared on the application. Everyone, none of this whole
get to the first day of the lease or gets the move in. And oh, by the way, I have a service chipmunk. No, it
doesn't work like that. And if they misrepresent themselves, that doesn't work for me. That doesn't work.
Unfortunately, this isn't going to work. Okay? So pets, beings, all beings. Also vehicles, vehicles, parking
spaces in different places. Like if you've got a rental in San Francisco, parking may or may not come
with the unit. And if it does come with the unit, it is probably highly sought after and very likely an
upcharge because parking is really, really complicated in places like San Francisco. But I've got a
multifamily unit, multifamily apartment unit where there's every unit gets one spot and we don't want
people parking trailers or campers or commercial vehicles in their one spot because it's going to block
other people. You know what I mean? Like, you've got to know your own unit. You've got to know your
unit, what works for your unit. And that's when you've got these tenants coming in. There's some stuff
that isn't on the application. So yeah, have two vehicles. Well, tell me about your vehicles. Okay. Well,
one of them is a, you know, a Ford Explorer and the other one's a tow truck because I'm a tow truck
driver. Okay, So you've got a commercial vehicle. Is that going to change it for you? It might, but your
unit only comes with one spot. What's your plan? Well, I'll just take up a second spot. No, it doesn't
actually work like that. Right. So this is educating them on the unit and how the the building or the unit
or the house or the neighborhood flows. Versus what they actually have, but literally go down every
single unit or every single line in their application. Now, keep in mind both of them so both of the
applicants on the call and remember, they are going to be on their best behavior right now because they
are hoping and holding their breath that you're going to rent to them. Okay. So they're on their best
behavior. One of the other things that you need to be aware of is their move in date. If you've got a unit
that was vacated and it's, um, it was vacated on the last day of the month. And when you went in and did
the moving inspection move out inspection, it was spotless. Like it needs no issues. Maybe a little touch
up paint and that's it. You very well could do a quick change. Meaning the outgoing tenant basically high
fives, the incoming tenant coming into the door. That's what we call a quick change. But if you've got
more renovations, let's say there was a leak in there and the drywall needs repaired or replaced or it's
more invasive and you need a few days, then what's their situation? Have they given proper notice to
their previous landlord? Are they able to move in earlier? Are they expecting to let you move in at the
end of the month when it's available mid-month? Sometimes if I get 20 applications for one vacancy, I'm
not going to let a unit sit empty for a month. And I will tell that to the tenant and say, look, the demand
for this unit is so high that if you want it, it's available on this day. If that doesn't work for you, because
they're probably going to end up paying double rent. If they don't want it, that's okay. Just say look for
me. I'd be willing to rent it to you on the 10th. I would keep it empty for ten days. If you want to take it
on the 10th and then you only have to pay double rent for the 20 days remaining, that's up to you. If they
say no, we can't afford it, we can't or we don't. Just don't want to do that. We don't. Okay, fine. You know
what? Unfortunately, this isn't not going to work. We're going to can't move forward. So that's my point,
is that you want to know the move in date. You want to know their logistics. You want to understand
how this all works for them. But you also want to ask them about what's your plans, what's your plans in
town? I see that you work for in Canada, so you work for the RCMP or I see you work for the elementary
school. What's your what's your plans maybe for the next year or two? Well, we really like biking or, you
know, we're thinking about getting a dog or we were thinking about getting a rabbit. Okay, we'll talk
about the rabbit in the next section. Okay. But they might say we're getting married next year or we're
expecting a baby. We're going to have a baby. We're adopting a baby, whatever it might be. Okay. So in
my mind, I'm taking down notes because if they're renting a one bedroom apartment for me with a
shower and they're pregnant or they're trying to be pregnant or whatever, Right. Or they know that a child
is inbound regardless of how it's it's it's getting here, then I know that they're going to automatically
request a two bedroom with a bathtub. Right. Think about it. There are a couple with one bedroom and a
shower, but they're going to need more room now. Can they afford it? Different story, but that's what
they're going to do. This is their they're getting in. And so if I tend if I have a vacancy coming up
knowing that somebody's departing, I can say, look, this is how this is going to work and we're going to
slide into this other unit, how this worked. Okay, maybe they've got an aging parent and their parent is
not well and they're thinking very seriously about either maybe they're going to move in with the parent
or they're going to move the parent in with you into the rental. So, again, this is kind of changing. This is
where I just say, look, what is the next year or two look like for you? Valid question. They can say, look,
we're just going to work ourselves and save money and try to buy a house. So number one reason we lose
tenants is that they buy something. It's fine with me. Right? Fine with me. Okay. So it gets to the point,
the conversation. It looks like this is all going to work. And then I say something like this. We've heard
some great things about you. We've talked to many people. And I'll usually say, we talk to your
employer, we talk to your old neighbor. We talked to this person, we checked your credit. We did all of
this. And we'd like to move forward and offer you the unit for the first. How does that sound? Is that
okay with you guys? And at which point you're going to hear them collectively, whether they actually
exhale, you're going to hear them relax, right. They're going to be excited. But here's the next steps. And
this is what I always say. Okay, here's how this works. But we start date will be what we discussed. The
lease delivery. How do you want me to send you the lease? Do you want me to send it to your local
staples or OfficeMax? Because I can have it printed and then you can sign it and send just the signature
page back? Or are you okay with me sending it through an electronic signature program like DocuSign or
Filler or whatever? Um, and then how the deposits work, which again will depend on your local area.
Some people do a deposit and then they do first. And last month's rent mean there's quite a bit of money
that's about to shuffle here. So whatever is applicable in your area for deposits, then talk about how the
deposits work and then how they can pay them. If you're in the States, you could they could venmo you,
right? In Canada, you can do an e-transfer They could walk into your local bank. If you've got, you
know, a large bank like HSBC or or one of the national banks just say, look, go in. What what banks do
you have locally? Just go in and deposit it right into my account depending on where it is. And but what I
will always say is, look, I'm going to send you an email. I call it the welcome email. I'm going to send
you a welcome email that has all of this in it on what the next step is. And I make it clear that until I
receive the deposits and the sign lease, the ad is not taken or the unit is not taken, the ads are still live.
We are still reviewing applicants. We've had people at this exact spot that I'm telling you that we've
agreed to rent to them and then they've ghosted us. Whatever reason, they they either can't take the unit
or something's changed or one of them got into a car accident and completely changed their life. But at
some point I usually give them two full days. At some point, you got to go, okay, Are these people
signing this lease? Are they paying the deposits or not? We continue to show the unit. The unit is not
actually taken until it is all done with the written lease and the deposits in hand. Okay, so that's how I do
a tenant qualification interview. Make sure that the unit works for them and then saying yes, all the way
to the welcome email, which I'm actually creating a starter pack, a starter kit that is going to create, it's
going to have all these templates in there. So if you're a newbie landlord or even an existing landlord and
you want to know more about how I do this, there, it's coming, It is coming. Okay, So we've talked about
demand letters in writing. We've talked about conducting a speaking tenant qualification interview, and
we're also going to the next thing. My favorite thing, how a landlord can say no, how you can say no.
Remember, as a landlord, you've got a bit of confidence. Want to say power, but don't mean power. I
mean just you can be intimidating because you are the landlord, right? But if you're willing to work with
people and you're engaged, then you can say no in a variety of ways. And I'm going to give you some of
those words. Now, these can be spoken, they can be written, they can be texted, emailed, whatever it
might be. This is how I, as a landlord say no. In many ways. Okay, unfortunately, that doesn't work for
me. Or if I really want to get technical, unfortunately that won't work for us. And then I'm quiet and just
unfortunately that won't work. The other thing I'll say the next way I'll say no is the lease says X and we
have to stick with that. Yeah, the lease says this and we have to stick with that. Let's get back to the
rabbit. Remember I mentioned to you in the last section that the we've got tenants who had said we were
really hoping to get a rabbit. And they were in a 12 unit building and said, look, said you can't have a
rabbit in this building because what I do, for one, I do for all. If I allow you to have a rabbit, then
everybody's going to have a rabbit. And they laughed. No, no, no, no. It is. 1s You think I'm lying? No,
I'm not lying. What you do for one, you have to do for all. So what I did was and this is actually what
ended up happening, which is really cool. Um, little Jen had ended up having a vacancy. That said, I've
got this great couple. They're great tenants, but they want a rabbit. And where they are, they can't have a
rabbit. Are you okay with them having a rabbit? If you are, let's talk. Have you talked to them? Well,
they moved over there so they could have their rabbit. And no little Jen came back and she was mad. And
she wasn't mad. She was concerned. She was concerned that I would be mad because I took quote
unquote, took their tenant. You got to understand, for me, as the landlord, I want what's best for the
tenant. I want what's best for the tenant. I don't care. I will always get a a good tenant. That's not the
issue. But I want to make sure that if somebody wants something or that we know they're going to have a
baby, then we set them up for success. And that's how I look at it. Okay, Let me keep going about how a
landlord can say no. Sometimes I'll get an email saying, Can I have this? Can I get birds? Can I get a
ferret? Can I get this? And it says clearly in the lease, no aquarium based animals. Weather with water
without water doesn't matter. Sometimes silence is the best option. Now, that doesn't always work
because then they wonder if you got their text or you, you know, you got their emails, so they'll follow
up. But sometimes silence can be a powerful tool. So consider that that silence might be a good tool in
some uses. Okay. If you've listened to some of my podcasts about animals, you will know that I have a
No dogs under one year rule, Right? And I have I've had several people apply saying, look, we have a six
month old puppy. You know, can you just make an exception? And the answer to that is, unfortunately, if
I've been, my rule just made a new rule. So I do stick hard and fast to that. And I have to because, again,
if you bend a rule, you just made a new rule. And so the answer is no, if that's a deal breaker for them.
And I'll say that if that's a deal breaker for you, I completely understand. But unfortunately, we can't
support animals and in particular this unit dogs under one year and they must be fixed and on medication.
That's the way it is. It's that is our rule. That's how we do it. And many people just don't have pets at all.
Well, we do. But you have to play by the rules. Okay. Okay. Let's talk about the other thing that people
get really, really concerned about is how do you tell a tenant, a potential tenant, an applicant that they
didn't get the unit? Because remember, if you have one vacancy and you have 20 applicants, 20, and that
happens often in this market. There's going to be one happy, comfortable set of tenants and 19 people are
going to curse you. 19 Right. It's really, really interesting how this all works. And so they'll say, well,
why didn't I get it? And here's how I answer this. If I answer at all, I put disclaimers all over the website.
I am not obligated to explain anything. I know the rules. I know how to not discriminate and I know how
to do this. But what I say is qualified tenants in the queue are ahead of you. Please thank you for being
patient. Qualified tenants in the queue are ahead of you. Thank you for being patient. If the unit is still
available, we'll be in contact and that's it. Don't explain. I don't move forward and people, you know, they
want to press and press and press. And so there is an ongoing debate on Facebook and LinkedIn about
whether or not you should or how you tell people whether or not they made the unit. And if they didn't
get the unit, why not? Well, I'm sorry. If you've got property management companies that have thousands
of units and you've got property managers who manage 2 or 300 units at a time, which is normal, they are
not going to be taking applicants, especially if you've got one or 2 or 5 vacancies at a time. And, you
know, getting back to all of these different people now, if they're savvy property managers, savvy
landlords and they're good tenants, then keep their application. And that's what I will do too, is if people
are following up saying, why didn't we get it and say, look, the unit got rented before we got to you? But
what I'd like to do is keep your application on file, because if you're still looking, we will call you when
we get a vacancy. Right. And that's the idea, is to keep going. So hope that that gives you some words As
landlord landlords speak, words matter. In today's episode did some podcast reflecting on how to better
serve you the listener in your rental journey. And an inevitable, inevitable part of that journey will be
awkward conversations. And I'm hoping today in this podcast I gave you some words on how to navigate
those awkward conversations. But the key to speaking as all landlords know, is to have the words to say
and being able to speak in facts. Speaking in facts. Today we talked about words, the words that you can
put in a demand letter, especially if you don't have pre-made forms. How to do a qualifying tenant
interview. And what do you do? Saying yes and or saying no. And then other ways of how a landlord can
say no. And there's many more words to speak as a landlord, but and that's for many more podcasts to
come, of course. But today's call to action, today's call to action. As a landlord, you are only as good as
your tools. And so do you have a demand letter. Even if you have a premade one, Do you really? Have
you ever used it? Have you ever looked at it? Okay, look at the demand letter. If you don't have a demand
letter, create one, create one. Make yourself have that tool in your toolbox. The other thing is, is the
welcome email. Now, at some point I'm going to have a welcome email as a template. I don't have that
just yet, but check back to my life as a landlord and there's going to be a lot more resources available
soon. But that's your call to action is create a demand letter and a welcome email so you have that tool in
your toolbox ready to go. The whole idea here in your rental business is you want to have tools that are
ready and that are created that work for you. And as we grow in my life as a landlord, I super appreciate
your comments and questions. Email me at Learn at my life as a landlord. I'll give it to you again. Learn
at my life as a landlord or join the conversation and any of the landlord groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.
I'm just about all of them that you can find next week's podcast as a landlord, I know today was a
landlord podcast, but it wasn't supposed to be that way, but next week is an actual landlord. This will be
episode 41. We are talking to one of the ultimate landlords on the planet. She is pretty cool. She has over
400 rental units and counting and she just published a book to help folks like you and me. It's pretty
awesome. I endorse the book, so it's pretty neat. I'm excited. On next week's show, we have Miss Wendy
Myers, and I will see you there.
Thank you for joining us this week. To view the complete show notes
and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit our website at www.mylifeasalandlord.com. If you're
looking for educational resources for getting into real estate investing, becoming a landlord, or even a
better tenant, then I have a page on my website to get you started looking for a solution to the pickle that
you're in. I have suggestions for that too. You can throw your situation on My Facebook Group My Life
as a Landlord and let our community help you with solutions. Also, before you go, make sure you
subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they're released. You can to
subscribe right now in the app you're listening to this podcast on or you can sign up at www.mylifeasalandlord.com.
Thank you again for joining me, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury in this episode of My Life as a Landlord. I'll see you next time.