Stress Management 101 for Salt Lake City Real Estate Investors!
Where is your happy place? A white sandy beach? The top of a snow capped mountain? Watching a show at a theater? Creating music?
Wherever your happy place is, let us help you get there!
If you own rental properties in Salt Lake City, especially more than one, and you are doing it on your own, you probably are very familiar with the word “Stress”. Owning rental properties in Salt Lake City can be incredibly rewarding, motivating… and also debilitating and causes major interruptions in your real life.
You know people always talk about work life balance…. So how do you manage your stress, and your Salt Lake City properties? Have a panic attack! Just kidding…
We have two essential aspects to help you cope, and get to your happy place!
Part 1 – Enabling yourself
The first aspect of stress management is, well… to remove the stress. I know, that sounds impossible. A lot of great leaders and entrepreneurs talk about the 80/20 rule… well we are going to apply it in a sense to this. Find the 20% of your process that causes the 80% of your stress and find a way to change that work flow. More often than not, the answer is to be pro-active. Being reactive in the property management industry is sure to give you a legitimate panic attack.
Example: If you are always having to chase down rents from several tenants, or their expectations of what you 
can and cannot do, or what you are in control of is can easily be solved next time around. If you are having to chase down rent, chances are you didn’t find all the information you needed on the background and screening in the application process, or you didn’t take enough time to call enough references. And if your tenants are constantly asking for things you have no control over, make sure your upfront communication clearly lays out expectations for all parties involved, that includes HOA responsibility, tenant responsibilities, and what you are and are not willing to do…. Ahead of time.
The same goes for great tenants – find their common attributes so you know what to look for in future applicants. The more tenants alike of this caliber, the easier life gets!
If collecting rent is a hassle, and time consuming on your part as well as difficult for the tenants, it creates unnecessary stress for all parties involved. There are so many great online rent collecting options now! Bigger Pockets took a review of some greatest ones here: review of rent-collection portals.
Consider help! Virtual Assistants are becoming more and more common to help small business owners. They can be incredibly valuable and take care of all the details you often skip over because your real life will always take priority! Here are 10 tasks a Virtual Assistant can help you out with as a landlord: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/landlording-with-virtual-assistants-part-ii-task-specifics/
Don’t let the snowball effect consume you… smash the snowball before it has a chance to roll down the hill. Have clear cut policies, and stick to them! Sob stories can add unnecessary stress and you are enabling poor behavior and decisions in your renters if you continue to allow them to slack off of their legal contractual obligations outlined in your lease. Be on top of maintenance – don’t put off warning signs of a bigger problem. Getting a call that the furnace went out in the middle of January, when it’s negative 10 outside, and of course at 3AM on a Sunday when you knew the ignitor was needing replace only causes you more stress!
Part 2 – Disconnect yourself!
I tell all of my employees you must respect yourself and your time enough to set boundaries. You need to set 
yourself for the ability to walk away without the world ending for a few moments. And taking an actual vacation. Have a plan. Have a support system and someone who could handle emergency calls if you are in midair on your way to Tahiti. Coming home to emergencies is not the way you want to end your break. Have a plan, have resources, and set yourself up for success. Your end goal of owning Salt Lake City rental property should be to have passive income, and freedom. Not something that ties you down 24/7 and interrupts your real life.
You can make a great vacation happen by making proper arrangements such as:
- Hire a property management company to handle things for a week. Most would be happy to be “on call” for you!
- Consider a fellow investor who could be on call for you as well and take over duties for a week.
- Make a list of all possible contacts that someone may need in case of an emergency and the process to go through if something does happen. That way you know when you do get back, you can just pick up where they left off without having disasters to clean up!
- Be upfront with your tenants about your availability. Most are understanding and will try not to bother anyone unless it is a legitimate emergency! Make sure they have enough information and contact information for anyone who may be stepping in to give them the confidence if something does go wrong!
Being organized, and maximizing your efficiency for all parties can drastically reduce your stress of owning Salt Lake City rental properties! Don’t be afraid to maximize your off time, and go dark if you have the right system in place to handle anything that may come up while you are relaxing in your happy place!
Visit our Education Center and Video Library for more tips, tools and resources to help you reach your investing goals!
Related posts:
Habits of Successful Investors
Why you should do a walk through of your property every 90 days
Is your current rental property helping you accomplish your retirement goals?
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
