Another Successful Board Training Event

If you weren’t able to make our training seminar last night, you really missed out! It was sponsored by Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Renton and the Speakers were Kent and Keith with CBI Consulting.

We learned about the importance of getting very specific bid specifications, the necessity for proper inspections and maintenance plans. Who knew that a five dollar price difference on a gallon of paint could affect the life of the painting for more than 5 years?! We, as property managers, are here to guide our boards and give them the best of the best in terms of vendors. These guys are the best! They have been in business for over 30 years, are certified on all levels, use the most up to date equipment, and know what they are doing. If you have any questions or would like more information about the presentation, please contact your property manager.

Also, thank you to Jennifer with Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Renton for providing such great refreshments! Mr. Rooter is also one of our preferred vendors and they don’t charge extra for after-hours emergencies.

Thank you to all the board members who were able to make it to our seminar. We appreciate your involvement.

Why Use Bell-Anderson?

by Vickie Gaskill, CPM®, MPM@, RMP@, Owner/Broker

Recently, I had the opportunity to evaluate the income and expenses of the single family rental homes that we manage. If any of you are thinking about investing in real estate and want to take advantage of present day purchase prices as well as lower interest rates, here’s what I found out after looking at the past five year’s history:

As you can see, our properties are spending about 22.1% of their income in operating expenses. There are a number of items that are not included in this analysis. Collection costs as well as Professional Services for the owner were less the .2% so I didn’t see a need to add them. Also, because we do not pay the mortgages of our owners, one would have to include their debt service when looking at a complete income and expense analysis.

A friend of mine did this same type of analysis for the properties that he manages in Boise, ID. He found that his total expenses were running at about 30% of the income collected. That might seem a bit higher then my figures. However, Tony included the apartment communities that he manages as well as his single family homes in his overall analysis. Multi-family communities will tend to have higher turnover rates then single family thus lending themselves to slightly higher operating costs. His figures also did not include debt service.

As far as how Bell-Anderson is doing in the marketplace, here’s a couple of graphs that demonstrate that overall in the past seven months we (green line) are slightly below the surrounding area (yellow line) in our vacancy rates. Also, our rental rates were running above the local and national rates but seem to have tapered off to meet other management firms in the local area, yet are still above the national average for rents. As you can tell, this is a great area of the country to invest in single family home rental property.

Successful Board Training Seminar

BOARD TRAINING SEMINAR~“Delinquent Accounts, Collections and Foreclosures” Held on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Due to the overwhelming interest and support from the last Board Training Seminar, Bell-Anderson hosted the first seminar of 2010. The topic of discussion was Delinquent Accounts, Collections and Foreclosures. Expert Attorney’s Dean Pody & Patrick McDonald of Sundberg & Pody Law Office, PLLC presented this informational seminar. Many great questions were presented and answered and the participates felt the information was extremely beneficial. Everyone (Bell-Anderson staff included) gained a bit more knowledge in this complex area. If you would like an emailed copy of the seminar outline that was handed out at the meeting, please contact your Property Manager. A big thank you to all who attended!

Janice McCurley

Hello From Bell-Anderson!

Hello from Bell-Anderson & Associates, a full-service property management company located in Kent, Washington. Whether you are a tenant looking for a single family home, townhome or apartment for rent, an owner with one or more investment properties, business seeking a small commercial space or a condominium or homeowners’ association in need of management, Bell-Anderson offers the service for you.

Our company motto is “Our family serving yours.” Not only does our company operate much like a large family, but we do our best to treat everyone we come in contact with like our family as well. In order to reach out to our owners, tenants, board members and community association residents, we will be posting updates to this blog on a regular basis. Our hope is not only that we can keep you updated with company and personal news but also provide general information relating to everyone involved with property management, as well as legislative and trade association updates: a little of everything if you will.

To get us started, let’s meet the staff of Bell-Anderson!

First off, our fabulous owners Tim and Vickie Gaskill: they bought Bell-Anderson in September of 2002 from Gerry Anderson, who started the company in 1963 with Don Bell, Jr. Vickie Gaskill joined Bell-Anderson in 1986, and worked as the General Manager for the last three years before she bought the company. Vickie has earned four professional property management designations (CPM®, ARM®, MPM®, and RMP®) and serves as an instructor on the national faculty for the Institute of Real Estate Management and the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM®). In 2010, Vickie will become the national President of NARPM®. What an accomplishment! Tim Gaskill works as our all-around handyman and police contact. Together Tim and Vickie foster a sense of family that is enjoyed and appreciated by all of the staff. In their spare time, they like to spend time at the ocean and spoil their three grandchildren.

Vickie Gaskill

Our community associations department is made up of three property managers, two bookkeepers and a few support staff.

Property manager Ken Allen, CPM ®, ARM ®, CMCA®, AMS® has been in the industry since 1978 and is an active member of the Institute of Real Estate Management.

According to Brandon Benavides, another community association manager, “Family, friends, work and sports are my life.” He is our resident baseball expert and coach.

Brandon & Ken

Jenise Doty is the most recent association manager to join the Bell-Anderson family, but has been in the property management industry for over 20 years. She also works selling real estate and loves quilting and gardening.

Stephanie Durham, our condo support person assists all of the property managers. Her real estate career began as a Realtor in Southern California, and in 2006 she earned (and still maintains) her Washington Mortgage Broker’s license.

Stephanie, Jenise & Shannon

Jennifer Collins works as the accounts payable bookkeeper. She received her Human Resources degree from Eastern Washington University. Stefanie Octave, a West Virginia native, recently earned her Washington Salesperson’s license and is our accounts receivable bookkeeper. Together, Jennifer and Stefanie’s bright smiles and April fool’s jokes keep our office laughing.

On the residential rentals side, there are three property managers, a full-time maintenance coordinator and one bookkeeper.

Carrie Fjeld, ARM®, RMP® manages the majority of Bell-Anderson’s apartment communities, as well as single family units. She is busy serving on the convention committee for NARPM’s 2009 national conference, and will co-chair the 2010 convention in Seattle.

Stefanie & Carrie

Dawn Hardley, ARM® began her property management career in commercial management, and now manages single and small multi-family units. She is an avid outdoorswoman, enjoying camping, fly fishing and photography.

Residential manager Kasey Medina recently joined NARPM and is looking forward to working toward her first professional property manager’s designation after having graduated from Central Washington with a Business degree in December of 2008.

Maria Garcia works as our Maintenance Coordinator and all-around smart and helpful person. She has been with Bell-Anderson for 10 years, and usually knows the answer to most of our questions. In her spare time she enjoys basketball and spending time with her family.

Maria & Kasey

Shannon Richardson works as both the Residential and Corporate bookkeeper. She has been with Bell-Anderson for 9 years and loves golfing in her free time.

Last but certainly not least is Debi Alexander, our front desk coordinator. She may be the most familiar person to the majority of our clients, and her hard work and organization keep our front desk running smoothly.

Debi

Well now that you have met the family, we hope you will check back in the future to see what else pops up on our blog. It is a pleasure to serve all of our clients and the community. From our family to yours, have a wonderful day!