American Apartment Owners Association's (aaoa) Blog

"The nature of tenant debt collection is very different than collecting other types of debts," explains Jeff Cronrod with FIC, an expert in collecting tenant debt. "With other types of debt, time is of the essence.  You have a better chance of collecting a medical debt, for instance, if you colle...

Choosing whether to provide common area laundry facilities for tenants or in-unit washers and dryers relies on a lot of factors - the number of tenants, availability of maintenance workers (to dredge socks out of the drain pipes of hungry washers), the layout of your space, and the preferences of...

President Bush signed an energy bill last year that will require phasing out of incandescent lightbulbs to begin by the year 2012. The old-fashioned incandescents are being replaced by compact, energy efficient fluorescent lightbulbs. We know these lightbulbs cost a little more, last ten times lo...

an interview with Denis Clark, Vice President, Marketing:Domin-8While property management software is an obvious must-have for the larger management companies, smaller landlords need to consider when to make the transition from manual or spreadsheet record-keeping to a more tailored application."...

A California law, effective since January,  prohibits a landlord from inquiring about a tenant's or prospective tenant's immigration status or citizenship and requiring proof of legal residency or citizenship as a prerequisite to renting. Kim LaVielle, Area Manager with PPM, a national property m...

Many landlords hold on to their tenant debt because they believe the hassle of collection, especially the cost, outweighs the gain.  Why bother when you stand to lose 50% of anything you recover to collection costs anyway?  But you may be able to collect tenant debts quickly, and much cheaper tha...

an interview with Tom Villante, Founder and Chairman: RentPayment.comTom Villante has seen an incredible increase in the use of electronic payments, a system that benefits both landlords and tenants alike. Landlords spend an inordinate amount of time opening paper checks, manually entering report...

TENANT BACKGROUND CHECKS: Checking Personal ReferencesObtaining references on a tenant application is important for a variety of reasons. Collecting references is a worthless exercise unless you check them out.  Here are some tips:

HOW TO CREATE A SOLID LEASE AGREEMENT:  Part Four of FourBy Wayne GathrightPart One, Make Your Lease a Tenant Satisfaction Agreement Part Two, The Basic Lease Agreement Part Three, Build Tenant Incentive Clauses into Your Lease Agreement Important Clauses To Add To Your Lease Agreement  While the...

Apart from the basic provisions, you can build incentives into your lease agreement to reward a good tenant. In return, you can turn your tenant lease into a valuable marketing tool for your business, while at the same time providing extra satisfaction for your tenants.Here are a few ideas: Read ...