Letter from the Executive Director for October 2018

This month’s update covers the Directory Revamp, the benefits of membership, and our year-end elections.

In mid-September the Directory Revamp beta test was started with MassLandlords staff. At time of writing, we were one week delayed in the planned release to member beta testers. We hadn’t set a specific date for launch to the general membership, but we are still on track for October.

The Directory Revamp will offer something different from AngiesList and HomeAdvisor, the base levels of which are free and worth checking. The MassLandlords Directory will allow us to search for rental businesses like our own to find providers that match our pricepoint and service level. For instance, if you’re a small landlord in Worcester County, you’ll be able to search for other small landlords in Worcester County and see their contacts list. This will show you the contractors most likely to return your calls. Likewise for larger landlords looking for volume pricing or service level commitments.

The Directory is one service of many that we have designed to make membership pay for itself.

Our education and networking events provide the largest opportunity. We’ve had members save on everything from boilers to brownstones thanks to the connections made at events.
Our Home Depot affiliation saves all members 20% off paint gallons and up, and returns 2% of spend to MassLandlords to fund our policy work. A similar relationship with ClearScreening SmartScreen saves on credit reports.

Our website and newsletters are an enormous resource, at time of writing, 1,149 published pages on the website alone and counting. With the exception of our rental forms, most of our website resources are freely shareable, and we hope you will share.

Members get a break on fixed-price entity formation services with New Leaf Legal. We also get our first tenant free for a year with RentHelper, the right way to have the “rent is due” conversation.

There are many other benefits, including our message boards to reach other owners and our policy advocacy at the city and state level.

Legally speaking, members govern MassLandlords. Each year our form of term limits frees a board seat for an open contest. This year we will lose the business savvy and guidance of MassLandlords President, landlord Yvonne DiBenedetto. You or another member must take her seat.

We are taking nominations via hello@masslandlords.net for the Board of Directors as well as our good neighbor award. For more information, see last month’s or this month’s articles.

Let us know what we can do for you. We’re here to help you run a compliant, quality, profitable rental business.

Sincerely,
Douglas Quattrochi
Executive Director
MassLandlords, Inc.