Chandler Properties Blog

A couple of years ago, I saw a billboard w/ Donald Trump promoting the Learning Annex in Atlanta, Georgia.  This was during the height of the Apprentice and I thought it would be a good way to see Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in person. 

For those of you that aren’t familiar with The Learning Annex, it is a well organized program that includes many of the top “self help” gurus.  They promote everything from real estate investing to “How to be a Better Person” seminars.  The programs are high energy level and push strongly toward selling products.  The prices for the products generally range from $500 to $5,000.

After my dad and I purchased our tickets separately for about $150 a piece, we were each sent a package with a couple extra tickets enclosed.  I thought this was a little unusual since they had just charged us $300 for two tickets, that they would accidentally enclose an extra $600 of tickets.  What was really a coincidence was that my dad got extra tickets when his package arrived the next day.  A day or two later we each got a pre-recorded phone call from the Learning Annex saying they had accidentally included the tickets, but since it was an honest mistake we could go ahead and bring a couple friends for free.  (This is when I started to get a feeling this wasn’t going to a learning seminar, but a “hold onto your wallet” marketing free for all.) 

Anyway, dad and I still wanted to see Trump so we started looking through the itinerary to determine what time on the weekend he would be speaking.  We live two hours from Atlanta and were going to drive down that day and see him speak and not go to both days of the seminar.  My dad called the Learning Annex to get the time and day of his speech.  This is when the “Bologna” got real good.  They informed us due to security reasons, they could not disclose when the main speakers would be speaking over the weekend.  Not even, which day. WTF!  These guys have some serious brass to use that line. Can you imagine if you bought tickets to Game 7 of the World Series and they would only narrow down the time of the game to a 48 hour time period in the fall.  As a consolation, there will be plenty of minor league games playing that weekend for you to watch while you are waiting.  People would storm the Major League baseball office in protest.

My opinion as to why they did this was to make people show up and sit through all the extra high pressure sales gurus.  I would guess the Learning Annex gets some sort of commission off sales and they knew no one would want to listen a “no name” sale his product. 

After this incident, we decided this was probably not a learning event, but a marketing event and therefore did not go the actual event.  I am interested if anyone has been to these events and had a similar experience.  If you have a similar story, feel free to post a comment.

When Did I Change that Air Filter?
The other day I was scratching around trying to remember when the last time the air filters on my apartments had been changed.  As part of the lease agreement, the tenants are supposed to change the filters out on their own.  However, this only rarely happens.  Therefore, every three to six months I’ll go around and check the filters.  I am always amazed at the dirty condition of the filters.  In order to keep up with the age of the air filters as well as the dates of other routine maintenance I put together a maintenance log for each of my properties the other day.  I have decided that starting now, I will change the air filters every three months and reduce the strain on my air conditioner units.  If you would like to download an excel version of the maintenance log, go to the Resources Page and download it for free.

Maintenance Log Details
The maintenance log spreadsheet is a form that can be printed out for each property that a landlord manages.  It includes dates, amounts, and notes related to the following maintenance types.

• Lawn Care
• Pest Control
• Air Filters
• General Maintenance

IRS Consequences
This form not only provides an easy way to keep up with routine maintenance, but it also helps provide evidence that you are an active owner of real estate.  This is an important criteria for determining your tax status with the IRS.  There are tax advantages to being classified as a business owner by the IRS instead of a passive investor.  Keeping records of routine maintenance that you performed helps provide evidence that you are actively engaged in the management of your rentals.

I hope this form is helpful to the landlords out there.  Feel free to download and modify it to best suit your needs.  Any feedback is appreciated.