I receive calls from Yelp at least once or twice a month to sign up for their ad program for Business Owners but I have yet to sign up and for very good reason. As many property managers know, managing rental properties is a thankless job. It’s very rare you receive phone calls from landlords or tenants stating how happy they are with your services. It’s usually a tenant calling to notify you of some type of repair that is necessary or a repair that wasn’t completed to their satisfaction.  Many tenants believe property managers are at their beck and call and if a repair isn’t handled quickly enough or to their satisfaction, they won’t hesitate to place a negative review of your company on Yelp or threaten to place a negative review.

Am I worried about the negative reviews we have received? Not at all, as I know almost all the negative reviews are inaccurate.

Shelter Realty currently manages over 600 rental properties and have rented to thousands of tenants over the years and only have a few negative comments. There are just some tenants that no matter what you do, you will never make them happy.

The problem I have with Yelp reviews is that almost all our positive reviews aren’t displayed. You have to click on the link that states “other reviews that are not currently recommended” to view all our positive reviews from landlords who have shared their experience with Shelter Realty as their property manager. I asked the representative from Yelp why these positive reviews don’t display and the only answer I received is that it has to do with the algorithm. So my response to Yelp is:

Why would I pay to use your ad program and have my target clients (landlords) only see negative comments from tenants but none of  the positive reviews from my landlords?

I will continue to ask my clients who have advised us of their happiness with our services to take the time and share on Yelp but I would not recommend to any colleagues to pay for Yelp’s ad program until they fix their algorithm issues.

It seems like a simple term, “unit owner”, however the Nevada Real Estate Division was recently tasked with a request to formally define what a unit owner is. According to a newly drafted opinion provided by the Commission, the term “UNIT OWNER” has been clarified and defined as follows and is referenced in NRS 116.095 and NRS 116.093 as well as NRS 116.2105:

“A unit’s owner is any person who is considered an owner of real property by law. Real property interests must be transferred in writing. Therefore, a unit’s owner is a person or entity that can provide a written conveyance or other writing that transfers a unit to them. The written conveyance or other writing must be signed by the person transferring the unit. A unit’s owner is also a lessee of a unit if the written lease expires when the common interest community expires. An owner of an entity that is a unit’s owner is anyone who can provide the association with evidence of ownership of the entity regardless of the ownership percentage.”

Note:  A deed does not need to be recorded for ownership to be effective, the law only requires that any transfer of interest in real property be in writing, signed by the grantor and notarized.  *Draft Nevada Real Estate Division Advisory Opinion, November 20, 2013.

This, like many other definitions that we hear on a daily basis can be somewhat confusing. We have compiled a number of commonly used terms, like the one above, and provided an abbreviated version of the definitions of those terms for your reference on the Shelter Management Group website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact a member of the Shelter Realty or Shelter Management Group (SMG) team, we would be happy to help.

*It is highly recommended that you review these definitions with those sections of NRS 116 mentioned by logging on here.