Ep. 212: How to Avoid Mistakes and Be a Better Landlord with Laurence Jankelow
Ep. 212: How to Avoid Mistakes and Be a Better Landlord with Laurence Jankelow
Being a landlord is not as easy as some would have you believe. It also doesn’t need to be a nightmare if you have the right training, processes, and resources at your disposal. Laurence Jakelow was working for Goldman Sachs when he bought a 3-unit property and realized how tough it was to have a full-time job and be a landlord at the same time.
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While there were resources for large property owners, the individual property owners had few resources at their disposal. Jakelow decided to change this and quit his job to build Avail, a software platform to serve everyday landlords. In this episode, he shares why he built a property management software company, the common challenges and mistakes of landlords, and how to attract quality tenants.
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Partner: Get Multifamily and Marketing Consultation through the Capital Impact Club
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Key Multifamily + Marketing Insights
- Self-managing your assets as a landlord
- Didn’t find engineers and couldn’t raise money, so he taught himself to code and built Avail providing educational content for landlordsÂ
- The thought process of quitting his day-job and going all-in on building a real estate investing software
- Getting out of the rat race and doing something meaningful
"It wasn’t a financial decision, but a fulfillment decision to make sure our life had a purpose and we were making an impact."Â
- Creating transparency between landlord and tenant for a more efficient relationship
- Protecting tenants personal informationÂ
- How the landscape for tenants and landlords has shifted in the last 4 years
- Inbound marketing strategiesÂ
- Delivering value upfront: Focusing on the problem that you are trying to solve for your potential clients/customers.
- Leveraging your product for growth
- The challenges that individual landlords are facing today (watch those violations!)
- Understanding the nuances of different lease laws, legislation, and ordinances based on the market.
- How to avoid first-time landlord mistakesÂ
- How you can be a great landlord without a property management company
- How to manage problem tenants (this is not the norm)Â
- 3 ways to attract good tenants: Communication (set expectations) screen properly, and communicating lease details so they are clear to the tenant.
"Nightmare tenants are a reflection of a nightmare landlord: Treat tenants fairly, they will treat you fairly."
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Partner: Download our Sample Deal Package
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Bullseye Tips:
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Apparent Failure:
When they first built Avail, they had a product but no audience, and now it’s audience first.Â
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Digital Resource
G-Suite for Business (Google)
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Most Recommended Book:
Measure What Matters (John Doerr)
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Daily Habit:
He writes a to-do list every day and won’t start his day until he has written it and won’t end his day until everything on it is done.Â
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Wish I Knew When I Was Starting Out:
The time it took to build something from nothingÂ
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Current Curiosity:
SpaceX
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Best Place to Grab a Bite in Chicago, IL
Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder
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Contact Laurence:
Avail (Free landlord services)
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