CALNARPM stands for California Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers. I am the President of the Monterey California Chapter and the VP of the California State Chapter.
I just attended our annual California Conference last week – April 20-23, 2009 in Burlingame, California. Anyone that is a property manager can attend the conference. Go to www.NARPM.org to check out the classes, conferences and other resources available to property managers.
So, Why Should You Care?
Well to start with we had Jeff Davi, Commissioner for the Department of Real Estate, speak to us about the State of the Union of the DRE. It was very informative about where real estate is headed in the coming year. More Foreclosures….
We had the key Auditor of the DRE speak to us about the audit process and what can trigger an audit and how to go through an audit. This was very valuable information for Broker/Owners on how to keep their files, trust funds, and employees compliant.
We had representatives from the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) speak to us about compliance with the Resident and Nonresident Withholding Guidelines and our role as Withholding Agents. The FTB considers California residential property management companies to be withholding agents in terms of residential housing rental payments made to non-California property owners. They discussed the guidelines of withholding 7% of gross rental receipts and forwarding the funds to the FTB Quarterly.
Enforcement of this withholding was to go into effect this April 15th. Needless to say CALNARPM was able to negotiate with FTB representatives to delay compliance for another year in order to educate our members and owners. This is why you should care about what NARPM does and the California State Chapter. We are your Go To Source for Residential Property Management needs.
The other workshops covered topics such as:
§ What to do if a tenant dies in the property
§ What to do if the tenant goes to jail
§ How to prepare notices so they won’t be thrown out in court
§ Marketing your business and offering excellent customer service
§ Internet marketing
§ Accounting software
§ Applicant screening
§ How to grow your business with mergers and acquisitions
§ Time management and office procedures
§ Eviction Protection Programs and Rent Loss Guarantee Programs
§ Fair Housing – Are you in Compliance and Know the Law?
§ Finding Opportunity in Chaos – Foreclosures
In addition, members can work towards professional designations. Classes offered towards this end that were offered were: Marketing, Ethics (which is a required class for all members), Leadership, Starting a Maintenance Company.
I already have my RMP (Residential Management Professional) designation and will write about that later but it took a lot of work to get that designation. I am now working towards my MPM (Master Property Manager) again a lot of work and classes to attain this next level of professional development. Towards that end I took the 2 day class of Starting a Maintenance Company. It was well worth the time.
I learned:
§ It provides quicker response time to the property
§ More quality control of the work being done
§ Maintenance employees get to know properties and can handle emergencies faster
§ Costs are equal to or lower than independent vendors
§ Employees visit property on a more regular basis and become a second set of eyes and ears
§ Completion of work quicker
§ Tenants get to know maintenance crew and allow entry when at work
§ It provides another revenue stream for property management company
§ Your maintenance company has been trained in fair housing laws and your company procedures – leave house clean, don’t enter house with anyone under 18 alone in house etc.
§ Control over employees and their time (not gone surfing for the day)
I am not in a position to start another full fledge company but I am at the point where it might work better for me to hire my handyman for all of the reasons listed above.
Bottom line, providing consistent, quality, responsive maintenance services at a better price than the open market to Owner and Tenants would be my reason for implementing an in-house maintenance department.
If you ever want to learn more about property management attend a local NARPM chapter meeting. The two close ones to us in Santa Cruz are Monterey (I am the President and personally invite you) and the Santa Clara Chapter.
Professionalism through Education!
Kathleen
