Protecting Your Blind Side in Property Management
I watched the movie – The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock about the touching story of the Tuohy Family and Michael Oher. If you have not seen the movie, I encourage you to do so. The short story line is about a wealthy family in Memphis helping a poor black 16 year old boy to become all that he was intended to be. It is based on a true story which makes it even better.
In the movie there is a scene where Leigh Ann Tuohy (Michaels’ adoptive mother) is watching Michael learn to play football. You see even though Michael was over 6 feet and more than 300 pounds, no one had really taught him how to play football and he was against any type of violence since he saw that all his life.
Michael has afraid to block and really didn’t understand how to play the game and do what the coach wanted him to do. Seeing that the coach wasn’t able to get through to Michael, Leigh Ann goes onto the field takes Michael aside and tells him – “protect him”, dragging the quarterback in front of Michael, “as if he were me. Don’t let anyone get near him or hurt him.” She then pulled another player in front of Michael and said, “this is Collins (Leigh Ann’s daughter) protect him as you would Collins.”
The point Leigh Ann was making was to do well in the game, you had to protect those in your family, your team. You protect the quaterback’s blind side which is where the name of the movie came from.
So what does this have to do with real estate and property management? Glad you asked. As a property manager, we are your Michael Oher. We are there to protect you against things you don’t even know are coming. When I speak with an owner about what a property manager does, I share with the owner that we do all kinds of tasks – over 100 of them to take care of the day to day, but I also talk about protection.
Protection comes into play in the form of insurance, HOA disclosures, legal documents, how to interact with the tenant, forms, etc.
Sometimes that means protecting the owner from themselves. You see we know more about the possibilities and pitfalls of owning rental properties than most owners. When we advise an owner about something, it is usually from the experience of a decade of experience. In addition to having managed hundreds of homes over a long period of time.
So when you are considering a property management firm, ask them – Do you personally own rental properties & how many? Have you ever used a property management firm for any of your rentals? Are you a member of NARPM to gain insight from other property managers across the country so that you can learn from their experiences? At Solid Source Property Management, we can answer YES to all of these questions.
May 20th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Anne this is a great analogy. Thanks for sharing! I know many rental property owners have no idea how many different skills are required to manage a rental property. Professional property managers do a great job of developing a skilled team that protects their owners’ investment properties.
P.S. I loved The Blind Side