Pest control in rental properties is a challenging topic for any property management company. Treating for ants, termites, mice and other unruly pests is likely to come up in almost any residential property. And determining who is responsible for treating a rental property for pests can also be a sensitive topic. Is it the tenant's responsibility that a property may have a huge ant problem, or is it a severe problem that existed prior to move in and therefore may be the responsibility of the landlord?
With Bob as a guest on this episode of Property Management Brainstorm is Tom Clements of PestShare, a company with a new approach to pest control with the goal of happier tenants and property owner savings. Have a listen to learn a lot about the importance of pest control and this new concept for property managers.
Topics Covered
[2:15] Tom Clements tells us about himself and the concept of PestShare.
[3:00] The importance pest control when it comes to rental property care and maintenance.
[4:15] When a pest issue emerges, get it reported and treated quickly.
[9:20] Different pests may be specific to certain geographical areas and climates.
[11:00] Are chemicals used in pest control safe and should property managers be concerned about tenant safety?
[20:00] The importance of professional pest treatment within guidelines of state and local laws and ordinance.
[21:10] The value proposition of PestShare and the power of numbers.
[23:00] Tom explain the process and how it works for reporting and treating pest problems through PestShare.
[29:30] We here last comments from Tom about including PestShare in a property manager's Resident Benefist Package and a special program PestShare offers to NARPM members.
Connect with PestShare
https://www.pestshare.com/
Connect with Bob
Property Management Company in San Diego
https://www.ncpropertygroup.com/
This episode is always available for listening, sharing, or download at Property Management Brainstorm. Subscribe to Property Management Brainstorm on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TunedIn.
Transcript of This Episode
Bob Preston (01:06):
Welcome to all you brainstormers who are listening in today. This is Bob Preston, your host of the show broadcasting from our studio at North County Property Group in Delmar, California. If you're new here, please subscribe. So you have ongoing access to all of our great episodes. And if you like what you hear, please pay it forward with a positive review as a real estate investor and property manager. It's always a challenge dealing with pest control in our rental properties. I know our properties here in San Diego will frequently have issues with ants during the summer months when things get dry and it's hot out. Also, one of the issues we may face is if pest control as a tenant responsibility, most leases say it is or is that really practical? And should it be the responsibility of the landlord? For example, in cases of a more severe infestation with me on the show, today is Tom Clements of pest share a company with a new approach to pest control with the goal of happier tenants and property owner saving. We're gonna be diving into some of these questions today and talk in general about pest control and why it's important for your rental properties, Tom. Hey, thanks for being here today and welcome to the show.
Tom Clements (02:12):
Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me.
Bob Preston (02:14):
You bet. Hey, I always like to start our show by having my guests introduce themselves and tell us a bit about themselves and your company. So Tom, why don't you kick us off today with that?
Tom Clements (02:22):
My name's Tom Clements, my business partners, and I have been in pest control for oh wow. Shoot. One of 'em been in like fourth generation. So we ended up having this idea that we wanted to come to. It was like, you know, bugs are always gonna be around, how do we deal with it? How do we make it a benefit for property managers? How do we make it? So it's cheap enough to the tenants. Don't actually have to go, you know, crazy high cost trying to afford something like that. So this is kind of where Pet Share comes in is a Mel of property managers and pest control company come together and creating a very real benefit for the owners the property managers and obviously the tenants as well.
Bob Preston (03:00):
Terrific. Let's start with some basics and this may seem obvious, but why is pest control so important when it comes to rental property care?
Tom Clements (03:06):
It's just kind of depends on what is the extent of the pest problem. I mean, everybody's had ants and spiders and but then it comes down to these like roaches and bedbugs. And we're just looking at these pasts, all of these pests live somewhere. And when we start taking over their territories, well guess where they gotta go. They start living in the walls, they start living in the crawl spaces and do damage to the property one, but then you also gotta heal a bit of a health hazard. Definitely not a sanitary thing. So keeping 'em under control pretty much everybody's benefit. I'm not saying pest eradication cuz pets are needed on air too, but we wanna keep em under control and place you live as well. Have this happy medium in there.
Bob Preston (03:47):
Yeah. Well I think certain pests can definitely be a health issue, right? Rats and mice, their droppings, their urine.
Tom Clements (03:53):
Yeah. So dear mice specifically care the he virus mm-hmm, what we wanna make sure of is that we're pro properly managing it because mice and rest, they go into different territories ants. They crawl over everything. Let's take flies, for example, where do they go? yeah, not the most pleasant places. So just being aware and keeping places cleaner than normal is helpful.
Bob Preston (04:15):
When a pest issue emerges, it's important to get it reported and to take action quickly. Right? What are the ramifications? I'm sure you've seen some horrible infestations. Right? So tell us about some of the ramifications you've seen when things don't get controlled quickly.
Tom Clements (04:29):
Easiest answer with that. One is reproduction. I mean, if you let things go look, everything is about survival for all of these guys. So if you see something and it's all, no, it's just a couple Lance here and there. Well guess what you were probably only seeing about 10% of what that X colony is and not taking care of it, especially professionally they're just gonna reproduce and reproduce and reproduce. I mean, there is no slowing them down unless they're controlled and managed for. And so that is where a professional company comes into play as well is just going to the store and getting something like some home Depot raid or home defense or something like that, professionally done these products and actually target the nest and get ahold of these things, make sure that not just the surface area is getting maintained, but also the colonies and nesting sites, et cetera, et cetera.
Bob Preston (05:16):
Yeah. I've heard that said about cockroaches. You know, if you see one, if you see one cockroach, okay, that's the tip of the iceberg. There's probably thousands somewhere, you know, nearby. Right. But do you find that to be true?
Tom Clements (05:26):
Oh yeah. A hundred percent. So they reproduced very quickly. And usually, yeah, if you're seeing the one, you definitely got a problem because they like, they don't like to be seen, they're gonna live in these very tight corners. Typically the rural thumb is, you know three points of pressure on a cockroach. The, you know, they're flat for a reason. They like isolation and dark places. Mm-Hmm , you know, underneath a dishwasher or, you know, that little space on top of the dishwasher. They like to go in there quite often damp dark. They don't like to be bothered, but if you start seeing them, you know, fairly frequently, you got a lot more than you really realize.
Bob Preston (06:04):
I remember one time one of the houses I owned one night, I could hear this little "chik-chik-chik",
Tom Clements (06:11):
The in across the board.
Bob Preston (06:12):
Well, no, it was up in the attic, you know, and I'm kind of, that's kind of weird, whatever, you know, I kind of ignored it. And then, you know, I hear some footsteps, you know, little, little, little, you know, things running across, eh, whatever, you know, and then before you knew it, know it, I had this, you know, entire rat infestation in my attic. Ah, yeah. You know, and they came up through a plant and got into the attic somehow and it doesn't take, oh, my, it was a, it was a mess. And it took for, then they reproduced, it took forever clean it up. Right. And then they started chewing on wires. They chew through our chew through our phone phone line, believe it or not. So our phone went out. That was back in the day when you had landline. Right. so yeah, I'm a big believer, man. You gotta, you gotta nip this stuff in the bud quickly.
Tom Clements (06:52):
And it does not take much for these guys to get into anything. I mean, look at how small an ant is. I mean their point of view and getting at a home. Yeah. We like to think all of our homes are perfectly sealed up and everything like that, but there's no way, I mean, to keep an ant uh, you see the things they crawl through. It's like you, sometimes you can't even see what they're coming through in a, but they are coming out of it's like how in the world, can you get through a hole that small, I can barely see it. So there's no hiding 'em at least keeping the amount you just gotta control for 'em and make sure that, you know, you're doing the right things. And that's kind of where we come in.
Bob Preston (07:25):
I'm assuming though that some level of siding pests in your property is normal and shouldn't be alarming. Like, you know, I know we see occasional silverfish and stuff like that. I mean, at what, at what point do you go, wow, okay. That's kind of normal. I'm not gonna worry about that. And at what point do you go, whoa, this needs to be treated.
Tom Clements (07:40):
So a lot of that is very, very much personal preference. Like I was saying, we're not here to eradicate the world of pests. There's a balance with it, but what we wanna make sure is that like your definition of an infestation, Bob is probably gonna be different than mine. I've been in pest control quite a while, so I'm not very used to seeing bugs in my home. mm-hmm so I, I have it treated, you know, pretty frequently mm-hmm you might be different. I don't know. I'm just kind of guessing here, but at the same time, if you see, you know, a hundred ants kind of in a line on a countertop, maybe it's gross to you. Maybe it's not the point is if it is there's now we have a solution, right. And not an expensive one and a very affordable one for everybody at this point.
Tom Clements (08:25):
But whereas before it's well, do I wanna spray my countertop with raid? Probably not. It's not a great idea because then when you do, you gotta clean it off and guess what? It's no longer affected. Let's use the right products, let's use the right stuff. And just most pests are gonna be based on tolerance. Going back to your original question, there is a personal preference. The hardest part though, is not everybody sees pests as a problem at all. I actually went to an apartment complex where there were roaches everywhere where you just would step on. 'em Like just cross crunch goodness. Oh my, it was, it was ridiculous. That is not a personal preference thing. That is a very big health hazard. And sometimes this is where a property manager has to step in and say, look, I have an owner that I need to protect a property for, and you're not doing this. I need to get this taken care of.
Bob Preston (09:17):
Okay. Probably to a certain extent to depend upon where you live, right? Your, your geographic area. And also even in your particular micro climate, we live in a canyon that's near the coast and we have things that are unique to us and we we've got it all. We've got mice, we've got not in our house, but I mean on the property, you know, we see it on rats mice, skunks, posums raccoons. I mean, we see the full gamut, right? yeah. I think I was sharing with you. We chatted last week that there are these little tiny spiders that are all over the San Diego, coastal, you know, Southern California coast. And they're not really harmful, but they're annoying cuz you have to wipe the webs away. Right. So some of it is a matter of purse tolerance and what you're used to and what's in your particular area, right?
Tom Clements (09:59):
Your geography makes a huge difference. Like, I mean up here in Idaho, for example, I mean, roaches aren't as big of a thing. If I'm gonna go to Florida there's I mean, roaches are just part of life. Actually, and that speaks volumes to, you know, people move and there's a lot more people who can move across the country. But, and even from when I was younger, it wasn't as actively moving across country or anything like that. It's a lot easier to do. So. So somebody from Florida comes up to our place in Idaho and, and starts living here. Well guess what? It's like, ah, there's no bugs up here, but if I go down to Florida and I was like, I'm gonna set of residents there. I'm gonna be like, what did I just move into? Like, no, this is Nope. I'm going back like yeah, preference tolerance, big deal. and it's just geography, like you said. So
Bob Preston (10:53):
It occurs to me that some tenants and property owners might be sensitive to people spraying certain types of what they perceive as being chemicals in their homes. Mm-Hmm what do you say about that? How safer the chemicals are, different chemicals used depending upon the problem, educate us on what is used to, I guess, control pests within the household and the environmental safety mm-hmm
Tom Clements (11:13):
Sure. Well, okay. So the big, the nicest thing about Pet Share is this, it's not this ongoing pest control all the time. You know, that's happening, you know, at monthly, a quarterly, whatever it is, it is at your choice and convenience. So whether you choose to use it or not, you don't have to, if you do have a tolerance or not, not a tolerance of sensitivity to chemicals and things like that, you can completely avoid it. If you want to, there just comes the point to where say you are dealing with a bed bug or Roach infestation or something like that, then it has to happen. So if you do have a sensitivity to it, which is very, very rare because we don't carry typically the proper enzymes to be able to affect us. It's all been designed to go after these certain targets.
Tom Clements (11:57):
And honestly, every single label has a target pest on 'em. Some have multiple target pests and others are very specific. We don't try and just, you know, spray and pray everywhere and hope it works. It's very selective in where you're the professionals, the vendors are treating to make sure that you're controlling for the proper thing and not just everything that might be around. Like that's just bad practice. Okay. Well let's say you're a tenant and you do have a sensitivity or maybe, maybe don't know if you have a, have a sensitivity, but you, you might have a worry for it. Well, not a problem. You can go ahead and leave the property. It's recommended that you can be out for about an hour because once the product DRS, it has absolutely no effect on you. All right. It's more just the idea of inhalation or contact with the eyes, the most sensitive parts of the body. So if you avoid that altogether, yeah. You're gonna be totally fine. There's no residue that wants to bound to the surface area is gonna affect you as an individual.
Bob Preston (12:57):
Okay. What about termite treatments too? I mean, obviously there's, there's extremes where you have to tent the house and if you on the gate. There's local treatments. Now I think using, I think it's orange oil, right? And I've even heard of this device. That's some sort of an electrode where you, you know, kind of electrocute the termites are those types of treatments effective.
Tom Clements (13:14):
Sure. Some are and there's a lot of gimmick products and here's, so here's what ends up happening is you're gonna find some things that do work. You're also gonna have some things that more of the pseudoscience that might work for short term, or just based on natural forging habits, they move away and it looks like something works. So a lot of testing and time has gone into all of these products. I mean, we're talking decades once something and then there's tolerances even for the past. So once something starts to be ineffective or notice that there might be an effect to a population, it is revamped for reworked chemically. We done to make it even safer for the individual and still at least as effective. It's just a matter of the rate of application. And all of these in almost every state, your vendor, your provider, your pest control provider has to be licensed for and take these mandated test to perform the service.
Bob Preston (14:17):
Right. I mean, there are a lot of, you know, like home Depot remedies, right. Or whatever you wanna call 'em drugstore remedies. There are these little, super Sonic silent mouth chasers. Okay. They might run away from your kitchen, but then they're in your, your pantry or something. I don't know.
Tom Clements (14:31):
Well, and that's kind of the thing. So that super Sonic stuff they, that super Sonic sounds bouncing out the walls. It's actually not within the walls where most of your mics are gonna be living anyway. I mean, there's insulation and safety there. So it reverberates off the walls, not within them. So they can still hide it out in a crawl space, in a wall mm-hmm and reproducing those areas kind of right. Onto your nose. Yeah. And then by that point, once they've done, so then you start getting these weird smells and then it's almost too late. I mean, it's not too late, but in your head, you're thinking I dang it. I wish I would've done something sooner.
Bob Preston (15:08):
To your point, you guys are licensed professionals, pesky control companies have a license. They know what products they're using and they know the proper way to administrate them. I had a pet one time, a large golden retriever who died of rat poisoning. Ah, yeah. It was not pleasant. They got, there was a big wind condition. Our gate blew open. Our dog got into someone else's backyard who had open rat bait out for a problem that they were self-treating and the dog ate the poison. And yeah, you know, I'm not gonna go through gory details, but my dog died from it. So it's really important to administer things the right way. I think going back to that rat infestation, we had in my attic a few years back, you know, we put out some bait stations up there and of course then you get the right.
Bob Preston (15:52):
I think you alluded to it. They, they, it is effective in broad treatment, but then you have the rats die basically in your Atter in your wall. And then that is also not a pleasant experience unless you're able to find the animal. Right. So, yeah. Getting people who know what they're doing the best way to trap the animals and, and deal with the particular pest is really, really important. I'm wouldn't dispute that that opinion okay. So some things kind of aren't treatable. Right? We were chatting about this a little bit. About three years ago, we had a huge mosquito problem in San Diego. Oh, okay. Yeah. Not so much lately cuz we're in the middle of a drought, right? So there were almost none this summer, but a few summers ago. And so we had some tennis complaint, oh my God, we got this huge con mosquito problem. We, what the heck are we supposed to do about that is kind of dicey. Now there might be standing water on their property that they're not paying attention to stuff like that. So there might be something that could be done, but in most cases it's just sort of a, you know, geographical zone problem.
Tom Clements (16:45):
There's not always the same option for pests as another. They don't translate directly over like one treatment for ants. Isn't gonna be the same effect. Is it like you bring up mosquitoes? And now that doesn't mean that there isn't anything that we can do for it. Maybe just the longevity or the residual effect of that product use for let's for instance, mosquitoes, isn't gonna be as long. So we actually do mosquito treatments up here as well. We do a missing and a fogging method for it and it works great. But it doesn't work as long. Like it breaks down quicker and it doesn't last as long in the environment. And so it needs to be treated more often. Everything has, I would say, oh, not everything I would say. Most things have a solution. It just a matter of how creative and how diligent you can be with the problem you say mosquitoes. Well, usually the biggest, well, the biggest source is standing water cuz those eggs are laid under underneath that water getting removing a lot of that. We call it exclusion work is going to be the greatest source for pest control. You can do is get rid of the reason that bugs wanna be it's your property. And it's gonna make the biggest difference beyond that. We sure we have extenuating circumstances. We can't control everything. So when it does happen and pest show up here we are.
Bob Preston (18:05):
We've had a couple of bee infestations this past year too, you know, and , that's always kind of shocking and a little bit scary for the residents at time we had one resident call this property's horrible. You know, I've got, I've got bees that are coming onto my property. Well, you know, I hate to tell you Mr. Tom, there's not much we can do about that. You know, except now treat it. Typically we try to do that humanely. Right? So there's some things that require some specialties. I would think that bees are one of them, particularly here in Southern California. You guys probably don't have it in Idaho, but you know, we've got this Africanized bee population now that's quote unquote killer bees. They're very aggressive. Right? So it's something that's pretty important if they're, you know, getting into the house or they're getting into your walls, that really has to take, be taken care of quickly. But they come in from anywhere, nothing to do with a house,
Tom Clements (18:50):
Seen quite a few times the honeybee population come through and create a hive within the sots of a home. Yeah. Or shoot one I'm in the chimney and it is a mess. I mean, it really is. The problem is, is we don't wanna go and just kill all the honeybees. I mean, that's, I mean there's short and there's short enough supply anyway. So we try to extract them in all cases first and that's where beekeepers come in and all that. And they can use smoke and a bunch of their own different methods, just having professional knowledge of how and where you're treating cuz products can affect these guys. So if you just spray everywhere because I don't like earwigs or I don't like spiders, I want 'em all dead. Well, if you're not thinking about the other pests around your property that are needed as well, you might be affecting them. We call it, IPA, Integrated Pest Management. So we wanna make sure that we're doing the proper procedures for every pest and not just killing bugs because it's a bug.
Bob Preston (19:47):
So yeah, in our landscape areas around San Diego county too, we have a lot of white flies. Yep. We have, I think they're called mealy bugs or meal worms. Do I have that? Right. Okay. But there are now laws against some of these pesticides that can be used in particular on flowering plants, right. To protect be populations mm-hmm . So it's really important that these all be done properly. And it drives me crazy when I see some, you know, big track sprain like a flowering tree in our neighborhood. I mean, it's just like indiscriminate right. Really, really wrong. And there are a lot of now city ordinances. I'm sure you're seeing it too, that outlaw, that kind of indiscriminate sprain
Tom Clements (20:22):
And every state's a little bit different. And so every past control vendor in that state, which is why we've been 'em and we, we know all the States's bylaws and everything that as far as pest control is concerned anyway. So they need to make every vendor needs to make sure that they're abiding by those standards. And we have a rating system for them as well. So if they're not providing the best service for the tenant and they get negative feedback and things like that, we wanna make sure that, you know, any, everybody is getting the best service and if somebody's not providing it well, let's find somebody else. It's usually not that big of an issue,
Bob Preston (20:58):
But okay. So let's get back to Pet Share and your value proposition. Sure. Thanks for kind of schooling us on some of the details of pest control in general. That's super helpful to our audience. I'm sure. So it seems like the value proposition that you guys bring is kind of the power of numbers. You have pest control companies that you contract with at a discounted rate that are all over the country, right? Mm-Hmm , in other words, if a property manager's property portfolio is pooled together to protect their homes and families, the cost of that pest control significantly drops while everyone enjoys a safety and kinda luxury of a pest free home. Tell us about that. How does it work? Maybe you can even walk us through a typical scenario of a tenant who requests pest control and how that would work for either an individual investor who has a multiple properties or a property manager.
Tom Clements (21:44):
Yeah. It's basically on a monthly basis on a per door aspects. So on the tenant side of things just comes as part of the lease and rent agreement or something like that.
Bob Preston (21:52):
I mean, it's almost like, I don't know if you've ever used this analogy in your business. It's almost like buying a pest control warranty, right. You're paying a small amount each month, but then you get certain treatments free if a problem should emerge. So let's assume my company, North County Property Group, we have our properties under your program. We find out that there's a problem. Yeah. Tenant complains about something. Take me through the scenario on how that gets reported, who submits the request, you know, do we do it as a property manager? Does the tenant do it? Then what happens all the way from the initial identification of the problem all the way through the treatment being taken at the property,
Tom Clements (22:29):
Generally Pet Share, we designed it so that the tenant can handle the solution on their own. Pretty simply. So petshare.com is where they would go. And that site can also be linked to your site as well, so that they already have a trusted site they can go to, but then all they're gonna do is click petshare. And then they're gonna request a service simply is that now I'm pretty sure everybody knows what their name is and the basic contact information, phone, or email, and to those in the physical address of the property that needs to be treated right. And for whatever pest it's going to be, because that next step is it indoor? Is it outdoor? What are you dealing with? Whatever the situation is, let us know a little bit about it. Cause we're gonna send that over to the, so they have a good starting point, cuz it's gonna make their job quicker with are resolution to your problem.
Bob Preston (23:16):
So sort of a concierge approach, right? You, you you're there for the tenant. The tenant would submit some kind of a claim and then you would, I'm assuming you inform the property management company then that, Hey, we got this claim. Tell us how that works.
Tom Clements (23:30):
Yep, absolutely. So as a property manager, you can actually see these claims come through anyway through via portal. I see. One but at the same time, you're still gonna get the email of the service that has been performed. Just the service ticket says this service has been performed at this property for this pest type. And these products were used, I mean pretty standard stuff for any pest control company out there basically requirements of the department of ag in any state. We just need to have all that documented one. Now you, as a property manager, you might have a maintenance manager on hand, or maybe you just wanna handle it yourself. You can still make claims for that property on the behalf of the tenant as well. And when I have some who do act, the maintenance manager handles all of it, tenants just report it of whatever they're seeing with the maintenance manager. And then they make the claim. That's just an extra step. And if people, people feel comfortable with doing that great and not a problem, if they wanna do it through the tenant, great. Not a problem.
Bob Preston (24:30):
We have sometimes tenants who will call and they'll say, Hey man, you know, this isn't my problem. You know, this property's, you know, got these, got these ants. I mean, they're all over. Why should this be my problem? Right? And sometimes we have to make a call as to whether, right, is this an issue where the tenant and left dirty dishes out and that's attracted the ants or is this potentially some sort of an epidemic infestation that's going on in the whole neighborhood? It's not really the tenant's fault. Right. So should the landlord pay for it? So that's always kind of interesting. Right. So what you're saying is that the tenant could make the claim or if my team, you know, my maintenance facilitator wanted to submit that claim on behalf of the tenant, then we could do that on their behalf as well. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So then you guys are sort of the triage point. You understand the problem what's going on and you would pick the proper pest control company to handle that particular issue.
Tom Clements (25:19):
Mm-Hmm yeah, well, we have already vetted him. So we'll usually have about two to three on hand cuz I mean in a Pacific city county or whatever it is, there'll be multiple property management companies out there. One, one pest control vendor is just not gonna be able to handle all of them. So we wanna have a, a proper turnaround. Usually it's within 48 hours for a contact of the resident of the property to make sure that they can get out there and treat it. But if they're overloaded, well guess what? We still have others who can do that. And maybe there are some too where not all pest control companies do treat termites or maybe they don't all treat bedbugs. So we need to make sure that we have the proper ones on hand and that's why we thoroughly vet them before any claims ever come through. We'll have them already to go before the first claim is ever made.
Bob Preston (26:09):
Uh reach out to people in different time zones, different zip codes, right. All over the country. Mm-Hmm and you vet pest control people and you sort of bring them under your umbrella as, as vendors that, yeah. Okay. And so you've got the power of volume behind you guys too, which helps our tenants helps our owners. Exactly. Hey, we were chatting earlier a little bit about knowing a okay, whose responsibility it is. Is it the tenant or the landlord and where do you kind of draw that delineation? And this is just a personal, you know, from your experience, I know you and your family have been in pest control for years, right? So at what point do you determine, okay, this is a tenant issue. Most leases say pest control is on the tenant almost mm-hmm our, our California lease says it, but there's also some reasonableness where, okay, now wait a minute, the tenant just moved in and they find out that once they moved in that they've got a cockroach problem. That's not really on the tenant, right. The house should have been ready for that. Sure. And if it's not, it's kind of on the landlord sore, where do you delineate? Okay. Landlord versus tenant responsibility. When it comes to pest control.
Tom Clements (27:07):
Here, I'll answer this fairly, a little simpler than that. It doesn't matter at this point with Pet Share like that question's gone. Like there, you don't have to figure it out because it doesn't fall on anybody it's already taken care of for the most part, for the covered pest. Anyway. So if I do make a distinct draw, something that is a wood destroying organism and typically something that like termites or carpenter rant or something to that effect that is going to damage the actual property itself. And pretty significantly they, that usually goes over to the, the owner of the property makes sense. Which, I mean, makes sense for most people beyond that, even the bedbugs and the roaches, I mean, sure. We cannot control for all pests, but at the same time, why should you be as an owner of the property, always be controlled if we don't know who's responsible for the problem and we never do that is just part of a natural process of being a, a renter.
Tom Clements (28:10):
We just wanna make it fair enough. Well, in this situation with pest share, look sure there are some damaging pests out there that are gonna cause a real problem to the home. Yeah. That's likely gonna go to the owner, but if we can't determine a source for something like roaches, a tenant could bring them in. Even with just their luggage, if the luggage is there before they actually move in. Well, it's hard to tell and I'll leave that up to the property managers to make that distinction specifically. But if you don't want to, Hey, this is like I said, this is where that comes in. Cause I don't have to deal with it.
Bob Preston (28:44):
Okay. So your program brings some other specific advantages to property managers as well, right? In terms of revenue sharing. And so can you explain how that works?
Tom Clements (28:53):
Most property managers out there, you know, know about resident benefit packages and things like that, or at least the idea of amenities, but now you have obviously a little bit of an admin fee on top of it. So make a dollar on it, make, make some money on this. because you're in business for a reason. And if you have a very viable benefit then nobody's really gonna complain about it anyway, like pest control in this scenario, we're talking about pest share. This is kinda the whole point for me is pest control. We deal with very often take a look at exactly what you're offering are providing real value to either your owner, your tenant and yourself. Cuz we look for that triple win.
Bob Preston (29:31):
So what you're saying is you bundle it in with a resident benefit package, you're charging something for that package. So mm-hmm, in essence, you're, you're able to make some revenue share or some amount of profit off of that particular program.
Tom Clements (29:45):
Yeah. Whether it is just an added to your lease agreement as a, just a standard amenity by itself or part of a resident benefit package.
Bob Preston (29:54):
All right. You're a NARPM affiliate too. I believe mm-hmm yes. Yes I am. Okay. Are there any special programs or offer you have for NPA members to connect with you or maybe sign up anything you got going there?
Tom Clements (30:05):
So, for all NARPM members specifically, it's we usually have a $500 onboarding fee. It is completely wiped away. There's nothing there. So it is no onboarding fee for you guys.
Bob Preston (30:14):
Terrific. Okay. So there's a incentive to jump in, get involved with Pet Share and, and especially if you're a NA PPA member's all right. Terrific. Hey Tom, this has been a terrific conversation with lots of great information. I know we covered a lot of topics. You know, some of them probably just on the surface level, but thanks so much for coming on the show. I would love to continue, but in the interest of time, you know, we gotta wrap up, get you back to your business day and me too. And so do you have any last words I guess, for our listeners today? And if someone wants to, with you to discuss this pest control and Pet Share on what it's all about in greater detail, what's the best way to get connected.
Tom Clements (30:47):
Thanks for having me, Bob. Yeah. I always a pleasure talking with you, but as far as getting ahold of me and contacting simplest way, www.pestshare.com/property managers is the easiest way to get ahold of us. Cuz you can schedule a demo. It links right to my calendly and I'll see it right away. And that's pretty much what I live by anymore. Or if you, you know, do the old fashioned way, which I actually like the old fashioned way typically is a phone call and I'm, it's weird that I'm calling that old fashion, but (208) 800-2744 is my cell phone.
Bob Preston (31:19):
Terrific. Hey, thanks so much, Tom, for coming on the show, we really, really appreciate you being here.
Tom Clements (31:22):
Yeah, not a problem. Thanks Bob.
Bob Preston (31:24):
As we wrap up today, I'd like to make another quick plug to our listeners to click on the subscribe button and give us a like also please pay it forward with a positive review to help encourage more great guests to come on the show that concludes today's episode of the property management brainstorm. Thank you for joining until next time we will be in the field, working hard for our clients to maximize rental income and property value while maintaining top tenant relations. And we'll catch you next time.
Author
