Being a Duke Hoops Recruit & Landlording: YDKWYDK

As much as I hate to admit it (being a UNC guy), Duke University is a worthy rival on the basketball court.  A big part of that is their ability to recruit great high school players.  They go after the best of them and have been very successful in landing them in Durham.  Many of them were so good that they only played one year at Duke and then left early to play in the NBA for millions of dollars. 

But, for others, it didn’t work out that way.

Point guard Derryck Thornton was one of those Duke recruits.  He was an esteemed 5-star recruit who was finishing his junior year of high school in 2015.  Duke was thin at point guard for the upcoming season and they convinced Thornton to “reclassify”; this allowed him to graduate early from high school and join the Blue Devils for the 2015 season. 

It was a great honor.  The defending national champions needed him to come early and play.  He was only 17 years old!  So he said “yes”, enrolled at Duke early, and was starting at point guard.  It seemed like he had the world at his fingertips!

But, YDKWYDK (You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know).  A year later (when he originally should have been starting school at Duke), Thornton was transferring out to play basketball for the USC Trojans.  It was allegedly a combination of factors he could not have seen coming: his freshman year didn’t go as well as they had hoped, certain Duke players inexplicably didn’t go pro (that would have made more playing time available to him), and other more heralded recruits joined the 2016 team.  He went from being really needed to being really expendable.  So he was gone.

YDKWYDK.  By definition, it’s hard to protect yourself against the unknown.  This is especially true in property management when there are so many variables; renters (people) are complicated and they are all so different!  It’s best to have someone who might know what you don’t know because they’ve been there before.  Experience counts! 

I know I’m biased towards using a property manager, but I understand the self-management side of it as well; I’m all for saving money!   It’s cheaper if I fix the sink, as opposed to my plumber, but what about if I miss something and it causes a leak behind my wall?  Then I’ve got a bigger, much costlier problem.  YDKWYDK

And if property management is merely a hobby, it’s really tough to know what decisions can be costly down the road:

“My friend/co-worker wants to rent the property.  He seems like a good guy.  Should I rent it to him?”

“Should I allow any pets in my rental home?  If so, which ones are okay?”

“Is it important to do credit checks?  If their score is low/high, is that an instant denial/approval?”

“Do I need to do home inspections?  If so, what am I checking for?”

If Thornton had been told in 2015 that he would be transferring to another college after his freshman year at Duke, he probably would have had a good laugh.  But it happened.  The same can be said of many decisions being made today by landlords who dabble in property management; the unforeseen long-term costs of seemingly innocuous choices might make the expense of having a property manager seem very reasonable!

YDKWYDK.  Happy Landlording!

Brett Furniss is a property manager at BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte landlords & Home of $100 Flat Fee Property Management.   BDF Realty utilizes their innovative Pod System for exceptional customer service in residential property management, home repairs, and home sales for single-family homes, Uptown condos, and town homes in the Charlotte-Metro Area.  Contact Us Today!