If you have a property that you are trying to rent and you are either preparing it for rent or doing some marketing for it, you will find that creating and using flyers to market it an important task. We cover creating and utilizing flyers for rental properties in the For Rent Flyer Checklist.
In this checklist, we cover how to create your flyer including the particular service that we recommend for quickly making professional looking flyers.
We give you a rough idea of the number of flyers to have printed up to have enough at the house and to distribute out to neighbors to encourage them to help select their neighbor or refer friends and family as potential tenants in your property.
Since using flyers is an inexpensive and highly effective way to fill vacancies, you will find yourself using this checklist often.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Are you landlord looking for ways to improve your property management skills to add more money to your bottom line? Download and listen to the Secret Property Management Tips and Tricks real estate investor audio course (free for a limited time).
To help avoid claims that you have violating fair housing laws you need to have a well documented system for selecting tenants and follow that system. The Screening Tenant Checklist is a great tool to help you have a written system describing exactly what you expect each tenant to provide to you when they apply to rent your property.
The checklist describes the process you would follow as a landlord when you take calls from prospective tenants and how to correctly gather information from them to be able to process their rental application.
We cover the types of identification and proof of income they should provide when you meet them at the house to complete an application.
We also stress that you should have each adult over the age of 18 that will be living in the property complete a separate application.
In this checklist we also discuss our policy for holding a rental property and what a prospective tenant must do to have us hold a property for them.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Want more information on how we recommend you manage your rental properties? Download, for a limited time for free, the Secret Property Management Tips and Tricks real estate investor audio course.
I hope this does not sound familiar to you, but it does sound too familiar to too many landlords. The first of the month comes and rent is due, but where’s the check?
You decide to give it an extra day or two in case the mail is slow because the tenant has been great about paying the past.
A couple days go by and its the weekend… I’ll just wait until Monday you think. Monday comes and you get called out on urgent business.
In fact, its not until Wednesday that you even remember that the tenant’s rent is late and by then, its 11 at night. So, on Thursday, you finally call and get the answering machine. I’ll give him a day to get back to me.
Friday comes and goes: no call back. You decide to give it the weekend. Still no word, so you finally go out and post a notice to pay or quit. That gets a call from the tenant. That’s odd they say… it must have been lost in the mail. I’ll resend it out to you.
Well… by now you get the idea. In the end, you don’t even start the eviction process until the first of the next month (if you’re lucky) and then it takes time to do that entire process.
First off, I hope this isn’t you and I am sorry to say it has been me in the past, but let me share with you a much better solution.
What if, instead of the above you had a very non-emotional system set up. Tenants have a 30 day grace period to pay: the period from when you paid rent on the first the month before to the first of the next month. If it is not received on the first, its late.
On the second you put up a Notice To Pay Or Quit. After the legal amount of time you need to wait (usually 3 to 5 days depending on your local laws), if they still have not paid you turn their lease and the Notice To Pay Or Quit over to a Collection Attorney (links to exclusive content for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members only) and they start the eviction and collect unpaid rent, late fees and pay the attorneys fees (as outlined in your Rental Agreement or Lease Agreement). Isn’t that a much cleaner, easy to implement system?
So, go ahead and look in your phone book to find a collection attorney and use the Collection Attorney Interview Questions as a starting point to find the right one to work with you and your properties.
Until my next post,
James
If you have rental properties, then chances are that over the years you’ve received a few certified letters from your city’s neighborhood department citing ordinance violations for your rented properties. These violations can take many forms. Most commonly they are simple *nuisance* infractions for things like not mowing the lawn and leaving garbage and trash out.
For these sorts of nuisance violations, unless your property is vacant, it is usually the tenant’s fault and therefore their responsibility to get it taken care of. That said, it requires follow up on your part to make sure that it happens and that the city doesn’t stick you with a heavy fine and possibly place a lien against your property. So, it’s helpful to have a clear system to follow to make sure that you get it taken care of in a timely fashion at the least cost to you.
Our Received City Ordinance Violation Notice Checklist on the Real Estate Investor Wiki is a great place to go to see a thorough rundown of the best practices to use to take care of these situations efficiently. It will take you through the simpler process of getting in touch with your Property Management Company to the slightly more involved steps of dealing directly with your tenant. The links provided are to additional resources that we have exclusively for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members.
One thing to remember when receiving these notices is that sometimes the infractions are not the tenant’s responsibility, but rather yours, the landlord’s. We once received a notice because the address numbers on the house were not visible from the street. It turns out that the last time the house was painted, someone accidentally painted over them. This was our job to fix. So, be sure to read the description of the violation before automatically calling your tenant.
Another thing to note is that sometimes a violation notice for overgrown lawn, trash, etc. can be an indication that a tenant has moved out without notice and has abandoned the property. So be sure to drive to the property and check it out in person if you don’t get a response from your tenant via telephone.
With good luck and great tenants, hopefully you’ll never receive one of these notices, but chances are the inspectors will be out at some point when your property is waiting to be cleaned up during a vacancy or when a tenant may be temporarily remiss in their duties. When this happens, know what to do by reviewing the Received City Ordinance Violation Notice Checklist.
Until my next post,
James
This article was submitted to us for publication. It provides a good alternative outlook on dealing with those unexpected and unwanted vacancies during the slower times of year.
Depending on where you live, you will have heard quite a bit about when the “hot months” are for rentals. If your rental property is, for example, near a university, then you’ve probably come to expect that the rental market is driven by students who are looking to rent in August and September. So what do you do when your unit empties out in February?
Some owners do the exact wrong thing: they panic, take out extra advertising, and lower their rental rates. Or, they do the opposite, equally wrong thing. They are discouraged by the thought of hunting up the mid-winter tenant, write it off as a loss, and wait for some opportunity to drop out of the sky.
The thing to remember is that the off season is not necessarily a time when supply outstrips demand. Sure, in September there may be 9,900 renters who are going to select from 10,000 available units. But now, in February, even though there might only be 99 renters out there, the number of available units has also shrunk, possibly to only 100 units. The point is that the laws of supply and demand are independent of the number of units that are going to be turned over that month.
The right thing to do is usually to stick to your game plan. Try to think about where those off-season renters might be coming from. In our college town example, you might want to change the wording of your flier ads to include “Roommate problems? Try renting this affordable one bedroom on your own!” Sometimes a little tweak like that can really make a difference. And it’s certainly more economical than accepting a huge loss because you fear the altered market.
Finally, if it does turn out that the off-season coincides with a disadvantageous change in the local supply and demand situation, then ask your prospective tenant to sign a 6 or 18 month lease. This way, you won’t be caught with your pants down next year.
You can also get more information about Property Management including an extensive collection of free property management forms exclusively for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members.
The following article on property management was submitted to us for publication. It covers the basics of property management. The links shown are to exclusive resources for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members. Considering upgrading today to access all our training materials.
Say the words “property management” to a group of people, and one can get as many ideas as there are letters in the words. There are many misconceptions about the position of Property Manager, whether it be for a small residential property or a large commercial property worth millions. And,the Property Manager can be an individual, real estate broker, or a large company which speciliazes in Property Management. The position does require much more than just a warm body sitting in an office, and occasionally meeting with tenants or prospective tenants.
Property management can be summed up as assuming the responsibility of another’s property. Of course, the actual agreement between the owner(s) and the manager/management company would spell out the fine details of the arrangement but it typically includes the basic areas sale/maintaining tenancy, recordkeeping/financial stewardship, overseeing the physical plant and real estate which can include maintenance, curb appeal, security issues and more. This can include smaller apartment communities, mobile home parks,and commercial properties. Although not usually included in the list of traditional Property Management, general managers in the hospitality industry and managers of storage facilities also deal with some of the same concerns.
In an overview of each category, there will be obvious similiarities and some things unique to the category. Staffing is one similiarity, or rather the ranges of staffing can be similiar. It can be a one-man office, or a fully-staffed company including the top manager with a staff of office/leasing, maintenance, housekeeping, groundskeeping, and possibly security. Or, it can be anything in between the two. Licensing can vary from state to state, as can regulations regarding evictions, leases and such. Anyone interested in becoming involved in Property Management should take the time to do thorough research for state and local regulations, and licensing requirements including those required for any staff members.
For residential and commercial managers alike, maintaining tenancy levels is important. This can be accomplished in two ways- sales and stability of current tenants. While great sales techniques are beneficial, anyone in this business should have a pleasant personality and actually like working with people. Don’t bring prospective tenants in to have them driven right back out by a bad first impression in the office. Correspondingly, curb appeal is of the utmost importance. Something as simple as planting flowers or sweeping a sidewalk and washing windows can make a difference for those important first impressions. A clean office can do wonders as well. One word of caution: a great smelling office is also good, but an overpowering fragance can affect those with allergies or asthma. Use common sense in this. Sometimes just CLEAN is more than enough.
Financial responsibility and integrity is another similarity of all forms of Property Management. Maintaining a steady income, and if possible growing that income is the ideal. In shaky economic times, that can be more challenging and may require more creative approaches. Going hand-in-hand with the finances is record-keeping. There are all types of software available, some just for the financial records and others which combine the financial and tenants records. Different owners may require different reports and the software can be a great tool for both owners and managers. Maintenance is perhaps one of the most important similarities of all management positions. Preventative maintenance protects the owners’ assets as well as makes the tenants more satisfied. Emergency maintenance should be done promptly. It is important to know and follow any state and local codes for inspections and operations of the physical plant.
You can also get more information about Property Management including an extensive collection of free property management forms for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members.
Until my next post,
James
