Episode #625
5 Ways to Increase Your Rental Property Income | 625
Join Keith, Terry, and Matthew live for a properties event on September 30th. Sign up here: GetRichEducation.com/MidSouth Keith Weinhold asks why so many people end up competing in the "Grind Olympics" of the traditional day job, and explains why separating income from time is key to building real wealth. He then counts down the top five ways to give a rental property a raise by increasing its net operating income, and points to the lever investors most often overlook. Keith also looks at what has happened to home prices during every major stock market crash since 1980, and shows why negotiating better financing terms can beat simply getting a lower purchase price. He offers practical strategies for building cash flow, creating value and investing with more confidence in any market. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/625 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments. For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text FAMILY to 66866 Join Mid South Home Buyers' one-time, free live webinar featuring Keith Weinhold on September 30 at GetRichEducation.com/MidSouth to learn how Memphis' economic expansion could create new real estate investment opportunities, and have your questions answered in real time. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review" For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold 0:01 Welcome to GRE. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Does your day job have you competing in the Grind Olympics? It's something that you never signed up for, and the top five ways to increase your rental property's income. Then, when stocks crash, what happens to real estate? You'll see historically today on Get Rich Education. What if I told you that one of America's strongest cash flow real estate markets is also becoming the new brains and brawn behind AI? That city is Memphis, believe it or not. In September 30th, we're going to show you why the smart money is paying attention now, along with an investing opportunity you won't want to miss. Join me, Terry Kerr and Matthew Van Horn of Mid South Homebuyers, the largest turnkey company in Memphis with more than 6000 homes under management, for a free live webinar the likes of which I've never done before. We're going to look at what billions in new investment could mean for jobs, housing demand, neighborhood appreciation, and your portfolio. Everyone who attends live will also get exclusive access to the best deal terms Mid South has ever offered. Reserve your free seat at getricheducation.com/midsouth again. that september 30. Don't say we didn't tell you. Save your spot at getricheducation.com/midsouth. Speaker 1 1:34 You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education. Keith Weinhold 1:50 Welcome to GRE from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Whiting, Indiana, and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you're listening to Get Rich Education. Before I get into basically giving your rental property a raise with the top five ways to increase its income, first let's get the context of pulling back and understanding your compelling why for all of this. You may or may not like investment property itself-it's more likely rather that you love what it does for you. That's how it is for me. What do most people do? It's like they're training for the Grind Olympics. Are you doing this too? But you don't remember signing up? I mean, that's kind of what the day job is, society's vortex gradually pulls you into it. The investment property is what gradually tilts you out of it, or it gives you that option. For so many, the day job, it's sort of like this competition that really no one officially announces it yet. Millions enter it. Who can work the longest hours? Who can answer the most emails? Who can miss the most family dinners? Who can delay their life the longest? And at the end of it all, something we call retirement. If you're a winner, not a loser. The winner, you receive a gold-colored watch, lukewarm sheet cake, and a little party at age 65, and that's assuming that the finish line hasn't been moved to 70. Keith Weinhold 3:40 This is especially bad and prevalent in the United States, where you start out with just two weeks vacation. That's about the worst grind in the developed world. I really myself started questioning this lifestyle when I was a teenager, and this is because my older friends, sort of those that were getting into their late teens, they were relatable to me, and they started going down this path and telling me about it. And suddenly, they couldn't play baseball or tennis with me during the day because they started working during their summers. Now that's not so bad in itself, but stay with me. I also looked at the adults around me and noticed that most traded the majority of their waking hours for work that they didn't even like. Now, my dad was a good worker. He worked 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. faithfully Monday to Friday, and despite being a good worker, he certainly didn't love his job. As a teen, then I found it confounding that so many people were working Monday through Friday, primarily why, primarily to reach the weekend. Wednesday was celebrated as. Day, this sort of strange admission that the work week was something to climb over and survive. You're surrendering 50 weeks to earn two weeks of vacation. You're repeating that very bargain for 40 years and hoping you still have enough money, energy, and health to enjoy retirement. And what puzzled me most was where this was happening. We are not some impoverished nation with paltry resources and limited opportunity. This is the United States, the most powerful and perhaps the most prosperous nation in the world. Keith Weinhold 5:40 This is the part that I still can't work out in my head. Almost everybody falls into a narrow, rigid groove and grinds. Eventually, the groove becomes a rut. Then the rut gets a job title and a dental plan. Many even form their identity around this. Fear is the number one motivator that gets employees to show up at work. So then, do most people lead fear-based lives? It's almost insane. Sheesh! We have skyscrapers, interstate highways, world-class universities, abundant natural resources, advantageous geography, rule of law. We've got vast capital markets. We've got technology that sent people to the moon before I was born. Endless possibilities, but yet the standard life plan is to spend our most vivacious years doing something that we didn't even want to do. What a paradox! How could a nation create so much wealth while so many people have such little control over their own time? Even then, as a teenager, I remember thinking, "Gosh, there has got to be a better way than this system somehow. I didn't yet know the way, so I started going to college at age 18. Keith Weinhold 7:16 But this path put me on that same trajectory of get good grades, land a job, max up my 401k, which would reduce my salary, and work for four decades, and then cross my fingers and just somehow hope that promotions, inflation, taxes, a stock market that I couldn't control, and life itself would cooperate. I mean, that plan could kind of work, but your time is still doing most of the work. Your employer rents your time usually one hour at a time, and if you stop supplying the hours, then soon enough your income stops too. Capital compound. labor doesn't. The better path is to gradually separate your income from your time. That's what I began doing when, while I was working full time, I bought my first income-producing rental property a few years later, a few years after college, in fact, doing that on the side, divergent, black sheep. I was stepping out of the groove. Now I own an asset that created leverage and income, whether I'm working, sleeping, camping, climbing a mountain, or spending time with my family. So the goal then it's not to avoid hard work entirely. I mean, meaningful work that can even provide some purpose and achievement and pride. But what provides wealth? What are you going to do for that? Wealth is what happens when you're not working. Wealth is what happens when you're sleeping. Labor produces income. Assets create wealth. Grinding should be a season, even your contribution to society, but not your primarily financial strategy. So the bottom line is that we don't want to win the grind Olympics, income-producing assets help us build a life that we don't have to postpone. The entire conventional life plan, the whole thing, just never felt right to me. Intuitively and rationally, deep down, you know, think to yourself: Doesn't at least some part of you feel that way too? Thank God that I found real estate. I don't love it. I love what it does for me. You've got to love what it does for you. Keith Weinhold 9:54 One attribute that your income property gives you is control. So. With that in mind, I put together the top five ways to increase your rental property income countdown style from number five to number one. Since you do own an asset that you can control, so we're talking about giving your rental property a raise here, and you know your property does not even need to appreciate in order for you to make it more valuable, your property doesn't need to sit around waiting for the market to appreciate like it's waiting for a promotion from corporate or something, which always takes too long. You can manufacture more income yourself. So net operating income or NOI, it only has two moving parts. It is property income minus operating expenses. Push income up or pull expenses down, and you've effectively given yourself a raise. Better yet, on an income-valued property like a five-plus unit apartment building, every additional dollar of NOI can create far more than $1 of property value. So here are the top five ways to increase your property's income. Keith Weinhold 11:10 The fifth best way is to add ancillary income, because monthly rent it's not the only asset inside your property. Now, depending on what property type you have and what the local laws are, you can charge for pets, parking, storage, laundry, furnishings. You can charge for internet packages, utility reimbursement, reserved garages, upgraded amenities, or you can even charge in some cases for application, administrative, or lease break fees. The best ancillary income it provides something that the resident genuinely values. We're here to serve and give value to others. Importantly, it should feel like an option for your tenant with these things, not some toll booth placed between the tenant and their front door. We know how annoying it is to have a tip screen swung around and placed in your face. Even an additional 25 or $50 per unit each month that can become meaningful across several properties. The fourth best way is to cut your controllable operating expenses, and you know what most investors do, and it is easy to fall into this, and I certainly have too at times. You know, most investors they carefully negotiate the property's purchase price at the beginning, and then they spend years casually accepting every recurring bill, audit your expenses rather than just accepting last year's cost plus inflation. Keith Weinhold 12:49 So closely look at your property management fees, landscaping and snow removal, pest control, cleaning, trash service, water consumption, and any leaks that you might have. Common area electricity, repair labor and material markups, service contracts, and preventive maintenance. Gosh, I really lost a lot of money in pest control one time when the pest would just move from one apartment unit to the other, and we just couldn't get it trapped or stopped. Loyalty is admirable in marriage. It is less compelling when your landscaping company raises its price 14% every year. So solicit competing bids, consolidate your vendors where you can, install efficient fixtures where the payback period makes sense and where the break-even math works. But now, don't confuse expense reduction with maintenance neglect. Keith Weinhold 13:53 That is one danger. So you know, if you delay a $300 repair until it becomes a $3,000 emergency, well, that really doesn't increase your NOI. It merely makes this month's numbers lie. Now, as I tell you about this list, you might think sometimes, "Oh, I've heard of that one before. Okay, but yeah, are you actually doing it? The third best way to increase your property's income is to challenge taxes and shop insurance because property taxes and insurance they are really among your property's largest operating expenses. So therefore, if you get good at this, you can both increase your net income and you will have gained a new skill that you can apply later and elsewhere. Yet you know a lot of owners they treat property tax and insurance sort of like the weather. They complain about them and then they just assume that nothing can be done. Possible moves that you can make are appealing in excessive property tax assessment, correct inaccurate property records. You can compare insurance carriers as often as annually. Adjust your deductibles when it's appropriate. Be sure you remove redundant coverage. Make sure that there's no overlap there. You can add safety or resilience improvements that qualify for insurance discounts, and then at the same time, sometimes that improves your property's value. You can check the property's classification and claims history for any errors there. So you know every legitimate dollar saved that flows directly into your NOI, your net operating income. Remember, mortgage payments though they do not factor into NOI. Neither do major capital expenditures. Refinancing can improve your cash flow, but that does not increase the property's NOI, and that's what we're talking about today. But when it comes to property tax appeals, you remember a while back on the show, perhaps a year ago, I went into detail on just how you can do that. Keith Weinhold 16:00 Now we're up to number two. The second best way to increase your NOI is to raise rents intelligently, and really this is the most obvious strategy. But it isn't as simple as typing a larger number into your renewal letter and then just sort of hoping that your tenant doesn't notice. Bring rents closer to market without automatically chasing the absolute maximum. That can include gradual increases at renewal, premiums for upgraded units. How about a premium for the unit with the best view? If you have one of those, higher rent for furnished units, appropriate charges for garages or shorter lease terms. I mean, shorter lease terms, like a six month instead of a 12 month, that can get you a bump up in the rent. Be sure to eliminate any unnecessary concessions, like the first month's rent is free. Do you really have to continue to do that? And use better listing photos and copy to support higher rents. It's easy to have AI write some good snappy copy for you today. So the objective here is economic occupancy, not merely the highest advertised rent, because raising the rent $100, if that's going to create an extra month of vacancy that is stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. Know the market, understand the tenant, and make increases that improve NOI rather than merely improving the asking price for the REM. And the top way, the number one way to increase NOI is reduce vacancy and turnover. Yes, you might have heard that before, but it is still the most overlooked NOI lever, even though it's number one. An occupied unit at a sensible rent that often produces more income than an overpriced empty one. Keith Weinhold 17:58 The way to improve your occupancy is by you starting renewal conversations 60 to 90 days before that lease comes due. Respond quickly to maintenance requests. I mean, few things frustrate a tenant more than a ceiling that is leaked for a month. Pre-market an upcoming vacancy that you have. Start that process early. Complete your turns faster, screen residents carefully, and unless you're in an especially hot market, consider offering renewal incentives when turnover would cost you substantially more than doing that. So there are a bunch of ideas for reducing vacancy and turnover. Another one, more of a modern-day one, is for you to buy and operate new build property because tenants tend to stay in new builds longer. They love that feeling that no one has ever lived there before. Suppose a unit rents for $1,800 a month. All right. Well, then one vacant month costs you $1,800 before cleaning, repairs, utilities, advertising, and leasing expenses. So the true cost of that turnover could easily be three or $4,000. And when you consider that, then giving a good resident a $250 one time renewal incentive that doesn't look generous that looks profitable for you. Keeping a responsible tenant, you know that might be the biggest quote unquote rent increase available. Just simply keeping a responsible tenant because occupied properties produce income, and empty properties produce invoices. Keith Weinhold 19:48 Now that I've told you about the five ways to increase your property's income, let me give you some more motivation for this. It's about how $250 can become 50. $1,000. Suppose you select just a few of these five improvements, and say that that increases your NOI by just $250 per month. Okay, that's nice. That's cash in your pocket, and if you happen to apply it to a five-plus unit apartment building, since it's also valued on NOI. You take 250 bucks times 12. That is $3,000 a year at a 6% capitalization rate. Take 3000 divided by point 06. That is $50,000. You just created 50k of additional property value from only $250 of monthly NOI creation. Yeah, you are up 50k now, and here's the thing: you did not do anything that substantial. It's not like you added another story to a property, or you discovered oil underneath your parking lot, or you convinced a celebrity to move in. Okay, these are practical things that you can do in control. You simply operated the property better, and this forced appreciation relationship that applies most directly, though, to commercial and larger multifamily properties because those are the types that are valued based upon their income. A single-family rental or a duplex or a fourplex that is generally appraised primarily through comparable sales. So its higher NOI might not immediately produce the same increase in appraised value, but in either case, higher NOI it still means more cash flow for you, a stronger financial cushion, and a better performing investment. The bottom line here is that you can wait for the market to increase your property's value, or you can operate the property better and create value yourself, raise income, control expenses, and keep good residents. That is how you improve NOI without increasing your blood pressure. Keith Weinhold 22:10 Coming up on the next few shows, we're going to speak with the original co-author of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Yes, we had Robert Kiyosaki on here earlier this year, but we're going to talk with the co-author alongside Robert Kiyosaki. A lot of people don't know who that is. That is going to be interesting on another upcoming episode. The man that wrote the book on the 8020 rule called the Pareto principle, he will be here. That's where 80% of the results come from. 20% of the effort. So here on GRE, there's a lot of education, strat
