I love managing properties, and I've been doing it in some fashion for over 20 years. I began professionally doing this for a lovely family in Beverly Hills. I'd moved into a charming but run down apartment on Orange Grove, just off Fairfax & Pico in Los Angeles. It was a gorgeous Mexican Mission style courtyard building with 16 units and an eclectic mix of long term tenants. The then-manager was succumbing to HIV sadly, and because we had an affinity as I worked for the City of West Hollywood, I took over for him. The owners of the property had over 100 units in various small buildings in the area.
I first began by managing the Orange Grove property and Mrs. R, a witty and elderly lady in her 70's gradually gave me free reign to upgrade the property as I saw fit. I re-landscaped the courtyard, removing problem trees and replacing them with palms, restored the mosaic tile fountain, repainted the building to white with blue trim, replaced faulty windows, installed a lovely gate and planted low maintenance flowers and greenery that still look lovely to this day. In her wisdom, she never skimped on maintenance. She believed in paying for repairs just once, with top quality fittings and goods, as the value is in the lack of need for attention later on. It was a lesson that has benefited me and my clients to this day. Within 3 years that property value nearly doubled as we raised the rents on incoming tenants to just above the market value. I took over the leasing and maintenance on her other buildings as well and with a good team, we had nearly 100% occupancy rates at all times, with little turnover. Problem tenants were dealt with efficiently and if a tenant was unhappy, we simply let them break the lease and go, although that was very rare.
I learned much from Mrs. R, and in return, I increased the value of her properties portfolio substantially, and it was a very rewarding part of my life.
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