A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
Stick to what you do best
This time of year, Property Management Companies like mine,
are getting all our end of 2015 reports out to our clients. What comes with
these reports are the accounting questions from clients. I am always trying to
help my clients, but when I get those accounting questions I have to decline to
give advice.
It is so hard to turn client questions away and tell them to
seek other advice since I want to be the go to guy, but accounting advice would
be a huge mistake for me to give since I have no expertise at it.
When I was
selling properties on a daily basis, I would advise clients of the potential
tax write offs they could get buying a home, and I also would give people
information about 1031 exchanges, but I would also make it clear that they need
to seek more professional advice before moving forward. But as a Property
Manager, I give no accounting advice, I just go over the reports and answer any
questions they have about those reports and the conversation ends there.
Branching out of the range of your expertise can be a very
dangerous thing, I remember a few years ago, I was in Escrow and the buyer had
a home inspector come and give that buyer very bad information. I confronted
the inspector and since I am also a General Contractor, I am qualified in this
area. When I asked the inspector what his qualifications were to give the
advice he gave, his response was that he had no qualifications. I ripped into
him and was able to save the sale once I had a chance to talk to the buyer and
explain the mistakes the inspector was making.
Bad advice is common place in business and unfortunately people
are much too easy to believe someone who they may trust in one area of their
life, but they are not qualified in other area’s that they are advising on. I
say, stick to what you do best and don’t take the chance of leading people in
the wrong direction, because you want to be the all knowing business person to
your client.
The bad advice you give them will end up destroying your
relationship with that client, so your effort to help will only hurt all
involved.
It may not be easy to say “I am not qualified to answer that
question”, but in the end, both parties will benefit from the honesty.
A.D. Cantelmo Property
Management Specializes in
Property Management in Orange County Ca