In this episode of The Same Day Podcast, host Walter Bowser sits down with Senior Property Manager Caleb Kunze from Keyrenter Property Management in Oklahoma City to discuss optimizing make-ready processes. They explore the importance of first impressions, strategies for balancing costs and quality in property upgrades, and effective ways to hold tenants accountable for maintaining the property’s condition.
Optimizing Make-Ready Processes To Minimize Vacancy With Caleb Kunze
Caleb Kunze is the Senior Property Manager at Keyrenter Property Management in Oklahoma City. His expertise lies in overseeing a portfolio of 650 homes and cultivating property manager communication and tenant relations and retention. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma in 2018, Caleb transitioned from managing a storage facility to real estate, driven by a desire to engage more meaningfully and help others. Praised for his leadership and hands-on approach, Caleb plays a crucial role in driving growth, maintaining tenant relations, and streamlining operations to mitigate the headaches of property management.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [1:31] Caleb Kunze’s background and his path to becoming a Senior Property Manager
- [1:44] The shift from other industries to property management
- [2:01] The daily roles and responsibilities of a Senior Property Manager
- [4:57] How Caleb supports his team and addresses property management challenges
- [9:26] Problem-solving in property management scenarios
- [10:22] The importance of vendor relations and customer satisfaction
- [17:03] The crucial steps of the make-ready process and its timeline
- [23:20] Understanding the costs involved in property turnovers
- [28:01] The impact of making a strong first impression on potential tenants
In this episode…
Preparing a property for new tenants is a critical aspect of property management that can significantly impact vacancy rates and tenant satisfaction. How can property managers streamline the make-ready process to ensure properties are swiftly occupied while maintaining high standards?
According to Caleb Kunze, a seasoned property management expert, the key to minimizing vacancy lies in meticulous planning and execution of the make-ready process. He highlights that first impressions are crucial in attracting quality tenants, making presenting a well-maintained and inviting property essential. By implementing efficient systems for inspections, repairs, and communication, property managers can reduce turnaround times and enhance tenant satisfaction. This approach not only maximizes rental income but also fosters long-term tenant retention.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Walter Bowser on LinkedIn
- Yonatan Schmidt on LinkedIn
- Mat Zalk on LinkedIn
- Keyrenter Property Management
- Keyrenter Property Management in Tulsa | Oklahoma City | Arkansas
- Keyrenter Property Management email address: [email protected]
- Caleb Kunze: LinkedIn | Email | Phone: 405-643-0816
Special Mentions:
Quotable Moments:
- “You always hear about these people saying, ‘Hey, real estate is a great industry.’ It’s a great investment for not only you but for your assets.”
- “No day is ever the same in property management; one day, it’s less exciting, and the next, you’re handling an owner’s house that burned down.”
- “Sometimes property management isn’t about the set hours — it’s about being ready to address emergencies and ensure owners’ and tenants’ needs are met.”
- “We want tenants to walk in and think, ‘Man, I love this house.’ That first impression directly relates to their likelihood to care for the home.”
- “Prepare for the worst, but expect… well, expect the worst too. You never know, so always budget for it.”
Action Steps:
- Review financial preparedness regularly: Stash away 10% of monthly real estate income to prepare for unexpected costs, reduce the risk of being caught off guard, and build a safety net that can absorb the shocks of turnover expenses.
- Establish strong vendor relationships: Cultivate a roster of reliable service providers to ensure prompt and cost-effective repairs to foster a network of trust that can expedite turnover processes and maintain property standards.
- Adopt proactive communication practices: Keep communication lines open with tenants, property managers, and owners to collaborate and resolve issues efficiently.
- Invest in high-impact updates: When conducting make-readies, focus on improvements that heighten the property’s appeal and attract quality tenants since first impressions are significant, and investing wisely in updates can lead to higher rents and tenant satisfaction.
- Maintain attention to detail during inspections: A thorough inspection can identify issues early and decrease future make-ready costs.
Sponsor for this episode…
Keyrenter Property Management:
This episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management.
Keyrenter Property Management is a full-service property management company that helps clients buy, renovate, and operate real estate assets.
The team helps clients build wealth while taking the headache out of property management.
That’s why, no matter what rental you have — single-family homes, condos, townhomes, or apartments — they can give you the management solutions you need.
To learn more about their services, go to https://keyrenterpmc.com/ or send them an email at [email protected].
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:05
Welcome to The Same Day Podcast where we discuss driving incremental business growth and other topics related to real estate, property management and entrepreneurship. Now to the show at hand.
Walter Bowser 0:20
Walter Bowser here hosting today’s episode of The Same Day Podcast where I connect with top business and real estate leaders. Today’s episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management. At Keyrenter Property Management, we are a full service property management company, helping our clients buy, renovate and operate real estate assets. We help build our clients wealth while taking the headache out of property management. Listen, Caleb, we’ve helped tons of clients, as you know, you know, build their wealth through real estate. And, you know, leaving that headache that often is caused by real estate ownership. So that’s no matter what your employee may have, single family homes, condos, townhomes, apartments, we have the management for it, so I’m really, really excited to have Caleb Kunze on today’s episode. Caleb is our Senior Property Manager here in Oklahoma City. He helps manage all 650 homes here in Oklahoma City as we continue to grow and really brings leadership to our property managers here in the Oklahoma City market. Caleb, it’s it’s a pleasure to have you on our agenda today.
Caleb Kunze 1:31
No Walt, thank you very much for having me on here. Excited to be here. Share my knowledge, talk to you for a couple of minutes, couple of hours. How long? However long it takes, just share my knowledge and happy to have fun talking.
Walter Bowser 1:44
Absolutely. I think we’ll have a lot of fun. Kind of one of the people to get to know you first tell me a little bit about your background, and you know what got you started in property management and to where you are now?
Caleb Kunze 2:01
Yeah, I graduated from the University of Oklahoma back in 2018 after that, I then managed a I was a property manager for a source facility for about two and a half years, until, like, right after covid did that. I mean, it was fun, exhilarating, but it was really just an office job where you sit in and obviously your PNLs, and, you know, I’m responsible for the market and marketing, but I wanted something more engaging, you know, something that would help me help others a lot more than just having storage. And then I met my current supervisor, Chris Mahnken, who randomly put a not randomly, but he had an indeed posting for a property management position at Keyrenter. So I thought, you know, indeed has an easy apply. I applied there. He sent me an email, gave me a call. Next day, we met at a we met at a coffee shop in Norman. Two days after that, with him and Yonatan Schmidt and then, I guess the rest is history. We had a conversation for about 30 minutes to 45 I like the vision key rare haves. I always wanted to get into real estates. You know, you always hear about these people. Chris Cronin is one and the other, like conglomerates, where they just continue to say, hey, real estate is a great industry. It’s a great investment for not only you, but for your assets. And so I thought, you know, hey, why not? You know, this seems like a good group of people. I even have a conversation with Mat Zalk, who is just an outstanding guy. And then got into Keyrenter as a property manager back in 2021, I think whenever we were down to, like, you know, we were relatively small, and so we had, like, 200 doors, manage them, and not necessarily the market, but obviously it was just me, and I think another manager at the time, and a small maintenance team. And now here we are, two years later, with 650 doors, we’ve added you that numerous other personnel, and it’s just a fun environment, fun industry. It’s challenging. That’s a good aspect of it. And you get to help people. You know, we have, we have the institutional investors who are great. We also have the mod pause of the world, who you just get to know, and I made a lot of relationships along the way, gained a lot of skills. You know, being able to not only manage doors or manage people, has come up. I mean, it’s just exciting. Real Estate in itself is is a headache, which is, you know, what we want to take away from owners, but at the same time, it’s just no day is ever the same in property management as you know, one day it’s, it’s doing, you know, not necessarily, absolutely nothing, but it is a lot less exciting. And then the next day, you’re like, Oh, I had an owner call me, and their house burned down. And so not only is it just, it’s just invigorate, you know what I mean?
Walter Bowser 4:57
Yeah, absolutely, man. Your hands, you know, are pretty full managing, you know, people, managing doors and relationships. It’s, it’s definitely a full time, you know situation. Tell me a little bit about, you know what your day to day looks like, and you know how you’re helping support your property managers?
Caleb Kunze 5:20
Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, yeah, you know, I have, like, sanction tasks in the sense, like I do have scheduled tasks, I’ll help audit. You know, my job is to support our managers, support our maintenance, tech support. You know, the accounting, the admin side, on day to day activities, and so, you know, that’s whatever I try and circulate my my actions about, you know, it can be, maybe one day it is, hey, you know, I found the gap in our maintenance that I need to fix. Whether that’s, there’s a, you know, not so fast of a response time, you know, go and find these gaps, these patterns, and plug them and, you know, course correct, recalibrate with the team if needed. I mean, it really differs. Can’t really give you, like, a straight answer of like, you know, hey, from nine to five, I do this for an hour, this for an hour, this for an hour. You know, they’re set meetings, but for the most of the time, you know, it’s, it’s up to me to go support the market, go find those problems and go fix it. You know, maybe one day I get a call. Hey, you know, Aaron Lagos, one of our great property managers, he gives me a call. He’s like, Hey, dude, I need a I need a new painter in the market. Or, you know, I’m having trouble with this one landscaping vendor, and I need another one. I’m like, great, you know, let’s create some action items to go find whatever it is you need. And so, and then after that, you know, when driving home, you start looking for a painter. All of a sudden, you see three painters on the way home. You know, I’ll stop, just stop by Home Depot, talk to John, who has pain on his clothes, establish a relationship with him, bring him into the market. Um, that’s one way. Um, I’m also, like the, I’m the talk through guy like, specifically for our managers. You know, the in day to day activities, being a property managers can be tedious, can be challenging, and they sometimes just need somebody who could, you know, talk out loud and process things just by talking out loud. And so if there’s never a problem that I, either I see or they bring up to me, it was my job to make sure. Like, hey, let’s find, you know, if there is a root cause, let’s find the root cause. Let’s get in there, fix it so that doesn’t happen again. Or it’s a Hey, Caleb, I have a question about account. Like, great. You know, put some, let’s, let’s reconvene at 1pm today. Get about 15 minutes on my calendar, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to sit down talk through your process, you know, give me, tell me about what your thought process was, and let’s see if we found where the error was, if there isn’t one, you know, you can do things right 100% of the time, and sometimes it can be wrong, or you can do it wrong, and then You can find out that the answer was right. And so like day to day it is. It’s just me finding patterns, finding gaps, closing them if needed, and then recalibrating. And then another important aspect of that, at least in my opinion, is just to, you know, keep a pulse on the Health and the mental state of my managers and the people below me, you know, it is, I know, one of our, one of the things that is preached to me is R&R, you know, rest and relaxation. Sometimes, property management isn’t a, let me rephrase this. Sometimes, you know, we have weekends and we have office hours nine to five weekdays, but that emergency calls you unfortunately are going to have to spend an hour working through plumbers, working through electricians. So I am I also need to make sure I have a pulse on people. How healthy are you? I want to make sure my managers have a good work life balance. I’ll call in check off on them. You know, Hey, how are you doing? How can I help? We just recently hired a new jpm. And so what can Elizabeth do to help alleviate some stress from you? So that, I mean, that’s about those are some of the things I do. I mean, I don’t know how long you want me to sit here and just continue to talk about it. I probably could for about 30 minutes, man. And so I’ll stop there, in case you have any follow up questions. Otherwise, I can just keep going.
Walter Bowser 9:26
No, I think, I think that’s a really good, you know, kind of overview of what you do. I think that you know, just a short list of of what you were talking about, you know, really shows you know how much of a headache property management can be, and know how we can alleviate that and take that off of the plate of owners, just like you said, you know, a car might come in over the weekend for a plumbing issue or, you know, whatever, but that’s, that’s something we’re going to pick up and take off of those owners plates and make sure that’s being taken care of. No damage is being done to their property, you know, X, Y or Z, wire, whatever needs to be done. We’re going to take care of it for you. Um, tell me You said something interesting to. Mean, tell me, or maybe give me an example of something that you’ve had to talk through with a property manager that they initially that might popped up, they, you know, maybe needed an extra set of eyes or ears or whatnot to to look at it, and how you were able to help, or, you know, come to a better solution for that problem. Is there something that’s, you know, on top of your head that, but he stands out to you, yeah.
Caleb Kunze 10:22
I mean, the most recent one, we had a we had a vendor of lawn care, vendor that we use, and it was for a solid replacement at one of our properties in Norman, and one of our PMS got a quote, right? Um, owner saw the quote was like, Hey, that’s a little too expensive. I want to see if we can shop around a little, completely fine. And then about a day later, we get an invoice for said quote, which is like $2,200 of work done. And my PMS are like, You know what? The heck? I didn’t approve this. There was no communication of this. I explicitly told you we’re not doing this job. You know what happens? You know, there were some not necessarily issues. One of their admin employees were out on sick leave. So, you know, stuff like that happens. So you get a call from a property manager who’s freaking out a little. He’s like, hey, you know, we have, we established these good relationships with our vendors. You know, in order to pass off savings, you know, vet these vendors, find the best relationships, you know, we want to keep these good relationships. And so whenever a situation like this arises where you’re like, Well, I, you know, I don’t want to get them free work, right? Like, I you they make a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes, you know. How can we find a good, amenable solution for both the vendor and the owner, so that both parties are happy. And so he this property manager calls me a little bit freaking out, because he’s like, Dude, I don’t want to and I don’t want to pay out the vendor, but they did do the work. I also don’t want to say, hey, we’re not paying you out. We’re not going to pay you out. And then all of a sudden they go rip up the side. It was challenging because other you call vendors, you’re like, hey, I need a bid for this side. They show out there. They show up. They’re like, What do you mean? Has already saw it put down. So it’s also challenging to get a second bid after that. So he calls me, you know, we talk through it, and I’m a big, big believer in, like, picking up the phone and just having conversations, like, we’re in a technology driven world, you have a lot of emails, you have a lot of text messages. There’s the there’s the application of the human touch, the the conversational piece between you and that other person on the line of like, hey, just pick up, call the vendor, you know, tell them, This is what we’re doing, you know, create some action items for it, you know, say you’re going to talk to the owner about, you know, what we can do for them. Kind of coach them through them, on how to have this conversation of the owner who, you know, not saying somebody would automatically go, Well, looks like I’m getting pretty sought. That’s a it’s a good vendor. Do good work with them. I don’t want to, I don’t want to put that kind of financial stress on either party. So the don’t call the owner, you know, just pick it up. Have a conversation with them. Tell tell them the story. You just transparent possible. Look, we had a vendor out there. We trust. We trust Henrich with with all of our lawn care work, they go out there. There was a slight mishap. There’s a miscommunication. They lay down. Sod, you know, the original code was 2200 I know you didn’t like it, you know, how can we? How can we find a solution for both parties? And I told them, you know, just throw out a number. Hey, this what sounds fair to you, because obviously the work needs to be done. But we did want to get another one. So let’s say, for me is, you know, an extra is $1,800 is $1,700 that seems better, you know, because you didn’t get, you didn’t get approval, which is adds a little bit more stress. Now we have to, because we wanted multiple bids, which now we can’t do, pick up the phone call, book up the phone and call that owner and then just have that conversation, which he did, called him. He’s one of our owners. He had multiple properties with us. Worked with us since two years came with a good solution, or, you know, came up the solution like, hey, you know, I totally get it. Stuff happens. Let’s go with, you know, $1,700 so this Pm, has that conversation with that owner? We turn around, have a conversation with the landscaper. Ask that’s fair? They both say, it’s fair. And now we got stopped. We got sought in at this place at a lower price, and we have both people happy, and it’s just one of those things where I think, you know, he owns like most of the time, like myself, I process out loud. So just thank it. Having somebody on the other end to just ask a question really helps. So you start asking them to like, hey, no, what would be fair in this situation that you think like an owner is, is one of our mottos. And so if you’re an owner and this happens, you know, we don’t want to be, we don’t want to be just a. A, like a, like a person who comes terrible and doesn’t care about other people, you know, like, let’s, let’s find a common ground solution. Yeah, that conversation, both parties are happy, and now we have good stock this property, really happy for it, and I’m also proud of this. PM, for, like, making that phone call, because it can’t be a little you never know what’s going to happen, right? Can be, can be a good conversation. Sometimes it can be a terrible conversation. Just never know, because what happens if the owner picks up the phone, he’s like, Listen, I don’t really care about paying him for his job. Keep as now, all of a sudden, we have to go there and deal with that aspect of it. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen here. But you know that that’s just first example that comes to mind whenever it comes to, you know, just helping support the market, just being there, taking your expertise, realizing, you know, taking the data, external stimuli, applying it, and finding a solution for everybody.
Walter Bowser 15:58
Yeah, absolutely. Man, that’s that’s very valuable. And I can really see how, you know, both parties won. That’s, that’s a, that’s a great, you know situation, great when, and you know, something that needed to be done happened and they got done, and the price was lower than what they originally thought. So, no, maybe a circumstance that No, might have been a double edged win, or that one, which is a rare, you know, kind of case to find, let’s kind of switch gears. Want to talk to you something about, you know, something specific and property management, and kind of the meat and potatoes of what I wanted the episode to be about today, and that’s, you know, kind of the Make ready and the term process for us here at key renter in Oklahoma City, and kind of what owners should expect. Whenever you know, a tenant moves out of a property, we’re getting ready to getting the property ready for a new tenant to move in. Let’s just start from the very, very beginning. Kind of tell me what it looks like once a tenant moves out of the property. What’s your first task? What’s the first thing that’s going on, and where we do it.
Caleb Kunze 17:03
Yeah, so tenant, it’s part of real estate. As you know, people are going to move, not necessarily for anything we can do like some people just have different life, life events that happen. People need to move. And so once the once a tenant moves out, we require a 60 day notice that at the at a minimum, if they’re on our lease. And so tenant puts me, gives me a move out notice on, let’s say, June 1, right? So we have the appropriate paperwork. We’ve gotten their written notice. We approve it. We tell them, hey, we understand. Then after that, we the about day 45 to 60 is whenever we put this house on the market. And that way two things can happen. One, it gets us future exposure. As you know, most people don’t, you know, unless it’s a, you know, a random event or an anomaly, most people need time to move a house. You can’t just, hey, I’m going to move out tomorrow and I have another house tomorrow. Rarely does that happen. So later, we give them enough time. We post a house at the 4560 day mark, get the owner enough time to gage interest. And, you know, also decide, hey, do you want to put a little bit more capital into this house? Let’s you know, redo some cabinets. You know, the fans in here from the 70s, they still operate, you know, let’s modernize them. Put up, you know, $120 modern fans go in there, slap new a new sheet of paint on there, you know, redo some carpet, put in some LVP with some quarter rounds, you know, put in some capital in here to either bring it at or above market rent, right? Because, as you it is a business, and so the more rent you can bring in happier everyone else is. So we give owners enough time to, you know, Hey, you want anything in the budget, you know, no, no or yes, then we have that conversation. And also in between the 45 to 60 day mark, whenever we are listing it to the move out date, he will also schedule showings with the current tenants. We need to require them to give us two days in a certain time frame so that we coordinate with the current prospects. Say, Hey, you know it can go at this time. It’s Mondays five to seven, or Thursdays from one to three. So we’re also showing the house because our our goal is to limit vacancy. You know, house sits on the market, vacant. No one’s making any money. No one likes no one likes vacancy in your barrels. So our plan for make Brady’s, we shoot for a 10 to 15 day turnaround mark. And that is both with the that is with the Make ready and if I can sign a lease for the 10th or 15th, depending on the severity of it, happy days. So what we’ll do is back to the actual process at about five days beforehand. You know, we’ll, along the lines, they get automated notices for. Um at about the 30 day, 14 day mark, the day before mark of hey, remember, you’re moving out. Owners are also getting, uh, notified of this as well. And then we’ll turn on utilities about three or four days beforehand. That way there’s no laps. And then we can automatically go in there and do the inspection as quickly as possible. So well also do our best to schedule out these make readys. Because, you know, it’s peak police in season right now. Sometimes we have 10 move out. Sometimes we can have up to 30. And so our wonderful maintenance team, the more we can give them a heads up to schedule these out, the better. But after after 10 moves out, they’ll come in and turn the keys into the office, or we have a lockbox on the property, and we have them turn in the keys on the lockbox, Inspector goes out there and specs the home and does, does that throw inspection of the interior of the property? Well, then send that to the let the pm know.
Walter Bowser 21:00
Let me right there. What are they looking for when that inspector goes out to look at the property the first time, what exactly are they inspecting for? What are their you know, the high ticket items are looking for? What exactly should owners be preparing themselves for whenever that initial inspection comes back and they’re like, hey, you know, we saw X, Y or Z, what are the main things that we’re looking for? It’s a high level. Don’t listen, let’s not get too far in the nitty gritty. But you know, a high, high kind of level. What are they looking for in that situation?
Caleb Kunze 21:27
It is, obviously it’s a house you get on a rent rate. Whatever we need to do to get a house to your rent rate. Usually that involves paint, you have carpet. You have a higher likelihood of either replacing it after two years. There is usually, like, wear and tear items, and then fence panels get damaged. Exterior parts of the house are big point. You know, when weather, rain washes way at a house and then just miscellaneous items, unless an owner explicitly wants us to put money into the house, you know, just have that in the back of your mind. You know, budget away 10% of your monthly income just for Make ready turns. Because while we do, we do our best to put in good tenants and collect and have a security deposit. You know, sometimes there are, there are tenants who don’t leave in such a nice, safe shape. So it’s nice to have that padding on the back end, but for the most part, you know, paints a big one, wear and tear does happen, but a nice new coat of paint can make the world difference. New flooring and just, you know, kitchen’s a good one. Make sure your appliances are good cleanliness, is it? Those are about those are the ones that come off the top of my head without getting too much in the weeds, of course.
Walter Bowser 22:42
Yeah, no, absolutely so. So let’s just, let’s think about this real quick. You know, I know this is hard, because every house has a different square footage. Every house has, you know, different bedrooms, bathrooms, all that stuff. When you, when you look, you know, say, a very broad spectrum of, you know, hey, this is, this is what a normal, let’s say, not something crazy, like the but tenant didn’t completely destroy the house. It was a normal move out. What would be, you know, a kind of an average, I know it’s hard to say, but like, a average turn cost for that to happen? Or is that even something that you can think of?
Caleb Kunze 23:20
Oh, I mean, what you just asked Walter is loaded question that’s incredibly hard for me to, for me to say without being quoted later on. You know what I mean? I mean, it’s, did you ask like, average items or average cost?
Walter Bowser 23:34
Let’s say, let’s just say an average cost, like, because I know you said paint and carpet or flooring, depending on what’s going on, but let’s say, like, a, like an average cost of a normal turn. You know, what would that look like?
Caleb Kunze 23:46
Well, I won’t, I won’t give you one for a normal turn, because I don’t think there’s like, I can’t, I can’t say there’s such thing as a normal turn. I’ll give you like, two different levels. The first one is a is a good turn, in which case it’s like anywhere from 500 to $1,000 which is normal. Re key, hey, there’s some slight touch up paints in here. Don’t even have to clean it. Or maybe I’ll just do a sparkle clean, fix some fence panels, boom, like, that’s it. That’s, that’s happy days. That is your, that is your perfect scenario. Owner has, you know, out of pocket. Owner is anywhere from 100 to $300 and then I’ll, then I’ll go into the range of what you would call, like a normal turn, which is, you know, there’s combination of wear and tear and and the damage is how I can, like, categorize it that ranges anywhere from like, 1500 to $2,500 and that’s usually, you know, maybe you paid a bedroom. You don’t need to pay the entire house, but you need to paint a bedroom. You need to do some we need, maybe we need to restain cabinetry, and then maybe we need to repair some nail holes. You know, that’s a lot. We always want tenants to use Command Strips. But, you know, I can understand heavy, paying something heavy, you have to use nails. Found. So we repaint walls. And then, you know, a lot of other miscellaneous items. Replacing blinds are a big one, let’s say, for a normal one is about, yeah, 1500 to $2,500 and majority of that comes out of the 10 security deposit. And then, of course, you have your your nightmare situations, which is 25 2500 plus. And those are pretty much, hey, I need to, I need some money, because I need to turn this house around with, you know, new flooring, full paint on the house. There’s some holes in the wall. This panel broke down. They broke X, Y or Z, like those. Those are your nightmare scenarios. So that’s to answer your question. And to the best of my read, that’s, that’s what I would say.
Walter Bowser 25:45
Cool. So now tell me, you know, the inspector came out. He did the inspection. We saw those items come back. I’m the owner. I said, Hey, you know, I’m good with all this happening. Go ahead and go do it. You know, tell me what? What happens next? Do you how long should I expect for the properties to take getting turned? I know it’s marketing the whole time, because he goes put it up on the market previously. You know, I guess, tell me you know what’s happening from then on out?
Caleb Kunze 26:15
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is also one of those loaded questions where we probably divvy this up into three different podcasts, because I could tell you about the good scenario. The good scenarios, the decent ones and the not so good ones. But, you know, average, we always budget in about 10 to 20 days. You can usually tell with the inspection how long that could take. You know, we have the inspector who gives it back to me. I do the bids and on the city market so I can look at it. And if I know there’s a lease, I can call them. Hey, you’re going to have to push this lease back maybe a week. But in terms of, like, total turnaround time for Make ready our team and our vendors, we have a good source. So I’m, I’m shooting from if the tenant moves out on the first I can do my best to get it in between the 10th and the 15th. Now, every everything’s good. There’s no underlying factors. There’s nothing giving us hiccups. Most normal turns can have, can happen and then in the first 15 days, about about two weeks. And of course, you know, we’re trying to get applicants in there. We don’t want to show the house during the Make ready process, unless it’s just a small clean and we have to change locks or anything, um, but not barring, like, a whole remodel or completely torn apart house, 10, 15, days.
Walter Bowser 27:29
Gotcha. That’s, that’s, that’s really quick. I mean, that’s, that seems pretty quick. And, you know, really important that we’re cutting down on that vacancy and and time, you know, with, without in there. You know, one other question I have for that is, you know, tell me why it’s so important to make this property ready for a chance to move in and look like not a new house, but, you know, a a new a new house for them to move into and live in. Why is that so important to do?
Caleb Kunze 28:01
Oh, this is, this is for a couple reasons. First one I can think, is first impressions are everything right now in Oklahoma City. I mean, you told me this the other day. It’s about 2 thousand and 22 hundred houses on the market right now. And so, you know what? What can we do to make sure that tenant that goes in there who is pre qualified. Whenever they go through our vetting process, whenever they first walk into their home, they’re thinking, Man, I love this house. I will call the property manager right now. They send me the application link afterwards, like, I want to move into this house. Because one of my philosophies is if, if they see that us and the owner taking care of the house. They know we take care of them, right? You can walk into a house, who’s, it’s, it’s dirty, it’s, it’s there. You have stuff hanging out. The blinds are broken. One of the paints, paint in the house is just off. You’re thinking,
Walter Bowser 28:55
Yes, no, yeah.
Caleb Kunze 28:59
You think, wow, if they don’t take care of the house, like, are they going to take care of me? Like, this house is like, they don’t even know me, and already feel like I don’t like being in here. You know, apply. They’re going to apply this psychology, not only to them, but to the people who manage the house. You know, it is you walk into a restaurant, if it’s a dirty restaurant, you’re probably not going to eat there. I will say my only Aster to that is like Chinese restaurants. You know what I mean? Like, if it’s a little dirty, I know it’s going to be good Chinese food. That is not how real estate works. So, you know, first impressions are everything. We are property, minimum property standards. For a reason. We want to make sure it doesn’t have to be perfect. You’re right. But what we do want is that tenant to walk in here and go, I love this house. Like, let me put in an application now. And today’s, you know, climate in the market. You want to, you want to hop on every league, and you want to make sure you take them away right here before they go to the next house. You know, if. They think your house is okay, and they go to the next one for an extra 50 bucks, and they’re like, I love this place because paints good, it’s painted, it’s even Smells good. Smells like mom’s cookies in here. And they have new cabinetry. They have X, Y or Z. They’re going to go with the new house, even if maybe it is an extra 100 bucks a month. They would much rather go to that because they know, you know, hey, this, this house has better amenities, but I also think that they’re going to, they take care of the house. I know they’re going to take care of me, you know, they, maybe they, they think that maintenance requests and maintenance is taken seriously, because that is, you know, that’s one headache most tenants deal with, is maintenance is just, you know, Hey, are you highly responsive? Is my stuff taken care of? Is it done right the first time? So that’s what, you know. Once we get that inspection done, you go to the owner like, Hey, this is, this is where we come into play. We share the the inspection, inspection report with them, and we say, you know, go, look at it yourself. Here. Here’s why we need to spend that $3,000 and you know, here’s why. You know, we want that 75 percentile on the market rent too. Like, that’s what we’re trying to get for the owner. So it’s important just make sure that houses aren’t ready and make sure it’s done the first time.
Walter Bowser 31:13
Yeah, super important. And I just want to make sure that, you know, we reiterate it is, that the market is, is, you know, flooded with with, you know, rental properties. And what can we do to make ours stand out and make that first impression? And then also, you know, if, if the home is well kept when they move in, there’s a highly likely, or a higher likelihood of them taking care of the home, and they move in and live there themselves. And so, you know, what can we do to make them say, Hey, I don’t even want to go to other homes. I want this one right here. I’m going to get the link to the application right after I tour. Let’s just fill it out and take care of it, right? So I think that’s that’s really important, and I don’t neglect over that, because I think it is, you know, sometimes, you know, some owners may say, hey, you know, I need to really, really, you know, cut down the cost which, yes, it’s a business, but let’s be as cost effective as possible. Take care of the items that are going to make people want to move in, and, you know, do it in a quick way and make sure that the work is done correctly, and that way we’re paying our vacancy, get that higher rental amount, and let the return on investment work for itself. I think.
Caleb Kunze 32:21
Can I say something else? Yeah, please. Like, help. Whenever we have kickoff call, owners always tell them, like, hey, you know, it might be right like this. It’s a business finances matter. You know, is that extra? Is this new paint job that you’re doing the first time? Guess what we’re going to do? We’re going to uphold that tenant to this standard. Hey, I know you put in $3,000 into this. I have a $2,000 security deposit, and I’m using as much of it as I as I can, because we have pictures of it. You did a new paint job. I understand the condition of this house. I’m going to make sure we’re going to fight for you at the end of that to ensure this tenant is held accountable.
Walter Bowser 32:59
Yeah, absolutely. That’s that’s a really good I’m glad you said that, because you’re right. You know, we want to hold the tenant accountable, and it’s an easy way to do that when we know, hey, we’ve done this inspection, all this work has been completed. Here’s, here’s the proof of us, you know, having this, you know, made ready home for them to move in and live so, yeah, I mean, I really appreciate that and whatnot. And so I know, kind of getting towards the end of the conversation and kind of asking something just personal about yourself, um, you know, tell me, you know, Caleb, we find you on a Saturday afternoon. What’s your hobbies? What do you like to do? And where do you find yourself at?
Caleb Kunze 33:41
Listen, if it’s, if it’s from August to August to about November, you’ll find me in one place on a Saturday, and that’s either in a restaurant on front of the TV or at an OU football game. You know, I’m just going to say it out here over sooner. There’s only one, um, apart from that, you know, I’ll play, I’ll play Guitar Practice couple hours a week, walking outside, working out is a good one firm believer in you know, as above so below, so take care of your body, your mental health is going to come right next to that, reading books, playing video games, Xbox, PlayStation, watching shows, going out, socializing with my friends. You know, going to sporting events are a big one. I think this is about it, taking care of my house like most of the time. On weekend, you can just find me sitting in front of a TV for about two hours after I work out. But you know, if it’s a nice sunny day, about 8590 degrees, I do my best to find a pool, a group of friends and a cooler, and we’ll just go have a good time. But I’m also a late guy. We don’t, we know we have HEFFNER, but I can find a lake, go wakeboarding or tubing.
Walter Bowser 34:54
I’ll do that too. Man, sounds like you’re, you’re a busy guy. I appreciate that. And it was, it was, it was great having you on, you know, Halo, I’ve been, I’ve been watching you manage this market and, you know, really grow and and efficient way and really take care of others. And it’s something that, you know, I’m, I’m really proud to watch and be a part of here in Oklahoma City. And thank you for taking care of our owners specifically. That’s what I feel like you do, along with taking care of our tenants. So I appreciate you doing that. And just one last tidbit, if you could get one, one piece of advice to to our owners that are, you know, going through a make ready or a turn, or that one piece of advice you need, just to kind of round that off.
Caleb Kunze 35:46
Yeah, let me. Let me think about this. If I had one piece of advice for owners, it would be budget, budget for the worst. Now, you know, I’m trying to make it sound philosophical, but it’s just not coming to my head, you know, prepare for the worst, but expect, I guess, expect the worst too. You never know, like, that’s, that’s what I wouldn’t I know it sounds, it sounds like, you know, adding extra stress, but in the back of your head you should go, Alright, I’m gonna have to spend some money on this. On this. Make ready like always. Budget for it, because you don’t want to get surprised. You don’t want to go shoot. I had, you know, I had an extra 2000 put away, but I put it on this new car now, like always, have never be surprised, I guess.
Walter Bowser 36:31
Yeah, that’s a great piece of advice. You know, you don’t want to be caught off guard. If you can budget for it, then do budget for I agree. That’s a really good point. And you don’t, you don’t want to be caught off guard. I agree with that. So, yeah, I mean, I mean, it was a, it was a pleasure having you on we’ve been talking to Caleb Kunze, the Senior Property Manager for Keyrenter Oklahoma City. If you’d like to connect with with Caleb, his link is going to be listed in the description below, Caleb, if you wouldn’t mind, what’s your email address and your phone number of people to connect with you?
Caleb Kunze 37:04
Yeah. So my email is [email protected], and my phone number is 405-643-0816.
Walter Bowser 37:16
Alright. Caleb, it was a pleasure having you on my man. Until next time. Have a good night.
Caleb Kunze 37:21
Alright. See you, Walter. Thanks everybody.
Outro 37:26
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