Step One of the Renovation: Evict 80 People. The Paint Came Later. I've bought some ugly deals. Raw sewage, gang problems, the works. The Harbor looked quiet from the street and ran like a war zone inside. In fairness to the last managers, they weren't idiots. They were following the lender. The bank wanted occupancy up, so they dropped the screening standard to a 2.5x income and moved in anybody with a heartbeat. Fill a building that way, and it looks great on a report. Then reality shows up. Drop your standards and the worst applicants come running: people evicted somewhere else, people who blew up another property, all of them landing in one spot until you're the concentration of everybody's problems. Quiet part of town, and we had all the crime, because they rented to the folks nobody else would touch. They'd also stuck students in with construction crews. You can guess how that went at the pool. We took over and had to evict more than 80 people who weren't paying or causing problems. So how do you dig out? I run five Ps every time I walk a site. Just a memory anchor. People. Nine times out of ten, your problem is people. We inherited a staff of two, hired a full team, and rebuilt the bonus plan. Asked a leasing agent later if she liked her new commission. She goes, "what new commission?" I was paying her more and she didn't even know it. Pricing. We were under the comps, so rents went up. The property across the street charged a $350 community fee. We charged nothing. Add $350 across 576 beds and do the math. Promotion. Website, ads, photos. I used to think I understood marketing. I didn't. Product. Capital condition was terrible. Potholes, weeds, rotten wood. Close to $3 million later, plus a designer, a pickleball court, electronic locks on every door, and fresh paint in every hallway. Process. Start with screening. Verify income, hold the standard, file evictions on time. Skip those basics and you spend the next two years cleaning up what one shortcut let in. The gap between what corporate thinks is happening and what's actually happening on site is huge. The bigger the company, the bigger the gap. Nothing closes it like standing on the asset yourself. I broke the whole turnaround down with Dave Dubeau on the Property Profits podcast. Link's below. Give it a watch. Link to show in comments