When you have to tell your tenant that you need to raise the rent this can become a very sensitive issue for you and the person renting from you. After a while most renters and landlords have had enough time to get friendly with each other and this can make raising the rent that much harder. Once you own a rental property you will see the business side of it and what it takes to break even or make a little money. As with any investment the ROI, or return on investment is what it’s all about and eventually raising rent will become a necessary part of the business that will keep your bills under control.

If all the other rental companies and landlords in your area are raising rents then it’s probably time for you to do so also. If you have done your research and see that this is true, then you probably won’t lose the tenant because once they start searching other properties then they will see that you are actually just charging what everyone else is and stay. Of course this would probably make them unhappy, but you are not charging more than anyone else for the same thing, and do they really want to move out and deal with relocating all their stuff just to pay the same price so they can get even with you, probably not. (more…)

Real estate has always proven an attractive market, ways to increase wealth according to the value of a property. While this market has always proven highly volatile, one of its more stable components is managing rental properties. With the recent downturn in home prices and the turn away from buying to renting, it perhaps has never been better to jump into the rental management business. But before you make the plunge, here are a few considerations to keep in mind.

Rental properties-especially foreclosures that you might pick up on the cheap-are prone to requiring constant repairs and maintenance. This is compounded if you let your apartment to renters who are particularly careless about the home’s upkeep. Not only do you need to carefully screen for quality renters, knowing how to-and having the time to-personally deal with household repairs can mean enormous savings over the long run. If you constantly have to contract a plumber, electrician, and a handyman, your bills can quickly overcome any income generated by the property. (more…)

Are you a landlord with tenant problems? Don’t Stress! This guide will walk you step by step through the process. You will learn all of the necessary action steps.

Sometimes no matter how well you screen a prospective tenant, you end up with a problem one. This is where your tenants need to be properly trained just like a new employee would. (more…)

Rancho Palos Verdes has several sub-areas, including the area known as West Palos Verdes. Sales of single family homes here have held steady for the last few years, which is pretty unusual for the South Bay. What is particularly noteworthy is that the median prices of these sales have had a surprising volatility.

Back in 2007, the median price exceeded $2,700,000, but then dropped to $2,100,000 the following year and then again to $1,200,000 this past year. It’s as though there are really two distinct markets within West Palos Verdes. On the one hand, there continue to be several sales below $1,000,000, but on the other hand there are many over $2,000,000. In 2008, more than half of all sales surpassed the $2,000,000 threshold, but less than a quarter did last year. To put this in perspective, back in 2000 the median sales price for a single family home was $645,000. (more…)

In today’s time, owning a home especially in a metro or in developing cities has become too expensive and unaffordable. This makes people look out for homes or apartments on rent. On the other hand, if you have the luxury of owning two homes or an extra space, renting it can be a good decision. Also, it helps you in getting an extra monthly income without putting in much effort.

When planning to rent your place, you should be very careful with the terms of lease as it was not meant to be a rental property originally. You may take the following few steps to draft a secured way of renting property. (more…)

The word obsolescence comes from the Latin word “obsolescere” which means to grow old. It is not age, however but change that is the chief cause of obsolescence. Many ancient buildings are still useful and may perhaps serve their functions better because of their age. For instance, churches, mosques, shrines, monumental and historical buildings are known to have been constructed many centuries ago and are even more functional and useful in their old ages in their respective uses than when they were initially constructed.

According to the chambers dictionary obsolescence can be defined as the going out of use of: in course of disappearance tending to become obsolete. (more…)

As we are all aware, we are experiencing a very challenging economy. 7 million jobs have been lost since 2007 and is expected to be revised to another 1 million to the “loss column” in 2010. Its becoming more and more difficult to land a job much less a career. U.S. Foreclosure rates have exceeded 250,000 for each of the last 10 months according to a report by Bloomberg on Feb. 12. (see link to report below)

The economy will get better but there are a lot of us taking whatever job we can to survive. The single family housing industry has been and continues to get crushed in many markets abroad. The banking industry is near obliterated and the auto industry has imploded. No career is completely safe. Depending on its geographical location, there is at least one industry that is actually growing vibrantly thanks to the “housing bubble.” The Apartment Rental Industry The result of foreclosure and the credit crunch is shifting thousands upon thousands of families into rental housing. (more…)

For those of you who live in the Greater Toronto Area, it was reported in February that an incident at a rooming house in Toronto resulted in the death of it’s operator.

This horrific story should serve as a reminder to all managers and on-site staff of the importance of personal safety in our workplace.

Property managers deal with elements every day that put them at risk. Steps should be taken to ensure the safety of all staff working in a residential management office. (more…)

So Why use a Managing Agent?

Now obviously one doesn’t see the three words in the heading grouped together that often, but ask any house owner, about tenants, and I can assure you they are all too familiar with sweaty stomach pains and diarrhea, oh the diarrhea – in other words, the lots of sh*t, associated with some tenants.

So why the problems with tenants? If you have ever met with prospective tenants during the viewing stage of trying to let out a unit, you will know that they all appear to be model citizens.

A nicer bunch of people you will not find together except perhaps on a Sunday school picnic! So, you choose the one you like the best, or you give it to the single mom to help her, or the young couple with the puppy – and then when all hell breaks loose – and you act surprised – well duh.

Managing Agents are never surprised. I have been a letting agent for a number of year now, so I wasn’t surprised when, for instance, during an inspection we discovered 8 people in a 1 bedroom flat, nor was I surprised when the Asset Forfeiture Unit told a client that they were moving to attach his house because his current tenant was a drug lord – a drug lord, with a Maltese poodle, who lives with his mum, (any way that’s what the owner was told at the time!)

You see tenants are, if anything, absolutely predictable and will, without fail, behave like tenants. Most tenants will eventually land up doing one or all of the following, (this list is not exhaustive, nor is it in order): Break a law or break a lamp, not pay rent, sublet to their brother, (sister, cousin or uncle), even all of them, even all at once, break the toilet, steal the toilet or, in a puff of marijuana smoke, disappear without a trace, as if summoned back to a distant planet by alien masters – you’ll notice paying rent wasn’t mentioned, not even once!

At this point ID numbers and leases are useless and even the very cell number that they used to call you on so enthusiastically at 3 am, just the week before, about the noisy geyser, next door, is suddenly, “no longer available on this network”, WHAAAAAT?

Now spare a thought for the average managing agent, a family man with strong community ties and a lovely wife and 2.4 children! They’ll be looking after maybe a 100 residential units, with tenants, for owners who have decided to follow a more harmonious and peaceful path, (think lush daisy covered hills, waterfalls & peaceful pools – Mike Oldfield’s – Tubular Bells, if you will.)

But strangely enough their lives are not filled with tranquilisers and heavy drinking and the reason is that they are not emotionally connected to the property or to the tenants. Their relationship remains professional and arm’s length, so it’s easier to evict or demand performance without guilt or remorse.

If you’ve ever been cornered by a non-paying tenant, (usually sporting a sudden limp and/or black eye) begging for, “just one more week’s grace”, you will know what I am saying.

Managing agents, however, are unswayed by tenants looking for favour – if they don’t qualify they’ll tell them, “YOU DON’T QUALIFY – NOW BUGGER OFF” and not, “of course it’s ok to pay me the deposit over 37 months, and keep 9 pit bull’s and 3 bags of, ‘green tea’ on the balcony.”

Lately, as the economic times get tougher, better agents have adopted slightly stricter criteria on rentals, in order to prevent tenants fleeing to the aforementioned distant planet without paying rent. Some insist on 2 months deposit, plus a cleaning & key deposit, while others get everyone involved in the unit to sign the lease, even their parents if they are students or newly employed.

Sometimes it may take a little longer to get a tenant but it’s always better to wait a month or two than have a non-paying tenant breaking your unit and thumbing his nose at you through your smashed lounge window as he lights up a 3 foot long joint!

With proper deposits you can apply the excess funds to repairs and when the tenant doesn’t pay the last month’s rental, as they are wont to do, you are covered. This also gives you 2 months to react to non-payment and delinquency, so we can evict before you start losing money.

Aside from that, agents also undertake regular inspections of the property, so any problems are sorted out immediately. They can have the blood stained carpets cleaned, mid-lease, using the tenants cleaning deposit, evict and still have change to pay for the removal of crime scene artifacts and bits of flesh.

Just as importantly, they find out quickly if the tenant have gone inter-galactic and maybe sub-let to a charming man with 11 sisters and lots of short-stay visitors, don’t laugh – it happens!

Agent’s generally don’t charge you an upfront finder’s commission for tenants, but rather take a percentage of rental collected for this service. This means if the tenant doesn’t pay you, they don’t get paid, and, as you can imagine, this also means they get just as excited about the prompt payment of rentals as you do.

Know another thing; the financial pressure on tenants is real and growing fast. The rental market appears to have flattened out a little as tenants have less disposable income to live with.

Also know that if you let your rental slip just one month, you can consider it gone forever! Tenants traditionally use overtime or bonuses to get rental backlogs up to date – but these are scarce these days so arrear rental rarely gets caught up with, and certainly not without a great deal of effort that is. Something you should really not be wasting your time on, unless you also want to get,” down-sized” by your over zealous boss.

So leave the rental stuff to the professionals, they really do it well and even have lists of potential tenants, (good ones). Remember, after all, even one skipped rental costs you more than the entire year’s fees you’d pay the rental agent… and of course, its never just one payment, the breakages and non-payment just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on… until your peaceful Nirvana grows teeth and starts biting and you finally decide to sell and tell all your mates at the pub that property is a rubbish investment.

Anton is a Property Broker at Big Bay Properties and a senior Debt Counsellor for the DEBTSMART group. He consults as a debt counsellor a training provider and develops systems for the debt counselling industry.

http://www.becomedebtfree.co.za or http://www.debtsmartsa.co.za for franchise help.

If you are new to the rental property business, or even have been in it for years, once an apartment or house becomes vacant than getting it filled as quickly as possible becomes very important. If you have no rent coming in then paying the monthly bills can start stressing you out. Learning different ways to get new renters can get easier once you do it a few times and use some techniques to find out who is looking to rent in your area.

Some of the fastest ways to let people know that the unit is for rent is buy it posting rental signs or banners on the property, or you can offer a referral fee if you have some existing tenants. If you keep your current tenant6s happy, they can become your best reference. You can hold an open house to let prospective renters see it, posting flyers at some local businesses with a contact number and information about the features and rent. You can always place an ad in the local newspaper or circular, Craigslist seems to be one of the more popular ways of advertising, and you can also register with the local rental agencies to let them know they have a property for rent. (more…)