Why renting should be your #1 choice when moving

Whenever you’re looking to move to a new town, the first thing you need to worry about is where you’re going to live. This brings up the question: is it better to rent or buy a home? Though buying a home does provide you with a sense of ownership and security, renting a home should definitely be considered before jumping the gun.
A rental property has significantly less maintenance for you to worry about, your landlord is the one who takes care of it. Many are concerned that landlords will not cooperate and take care of the property as they agree to, but this lack of regard for tenants is becoming a thing of the past. At this day in age tons of property management software programs, like Tenant File, allow landlords to actively manage their tenants and property’s to ensure that everything is being taken care of in a timely manner. As someone who is moving to a new town, you don’t want to have the burden of taking care of all the maintenance of your home (something that’s fully your responsibility if you buy a home), you want to be able to adjust to your new life.

Renting is also beneficial because of the lack of commitment it requires. The amount of time and money you need to invest when buying a home is significantly larger than when you rent a home, but this is just the short-term issue. Buying a home also commits you for the long-run too; a rental property may only require a minimum of a year lease (totally doable!) while buying a home commits you to that property for as long as it takes you to pay it off and/or sell it. Since you’re new to the town you may not know a lot about where you want to live yet, so renting a home can allow you to test out different areas to see what suits you best. Imagine buying a home and later finding out that the area of town you moved to is far from where you end up working, but because you bought the home, you’re stuck there.

Though there are tons of factors to consider and it is subjective, renting a home when you move to a new town instead of buying one should definitely be your first option. Check out this interactive calculator designed by the New York Times to see what works best for you!

If you are in the property management business you should be alarmed. ANOTHER major security breach, in fact the largest in the history of the Internet – only 1.2 BILLION (yes, with a ‘B’) ID’s were stolen by a ‘Russian gang’. Not to mention, also 500 million email addresses, possibly yours. By the way, the name of the gang is ‘CyberVor’. ‘Vor’ in Russian means ‘thief’, so with a name like ‘CyberThief’ they are not exactly playing coy. In fact, I get dibs on that name if I ever start another band, I love that name.

But this is no laughing matter, fellow property managers. This is serious business. You are responsible for your owners and tenants information. Not just their accounting, but their passwords, their Social Security numbers / Federal Tax ID’s, and their bank account numbers. And apparently, it’s not really that difficult for criminals to get them. This was a ‘gang’ no bigger than the group of friends you hang out with on Friday night. I’m not saying you are in a gang – I’m betting you don’t sit around swigging vodka and hacking into servers when you get together.

But think about it – think about how easy it is to sign up with some software company in the ‘cloud’, pay them an inflated amount per month, then sit back until your server gets hacked and you are out of business. If the server gets hacked, not only could you lose the credentials for your owners and your tenants, it may need to shut down to stop the bleeding. Where does that leave you and your business? Without data, without customers, without a way to post rent, unable to find out who owes you money, and without any alternative. Here in Austin we call that ‘up a creek without a paddle’, or more often SOL (can’t spell that out…the FTC or NSA is probably reading this…).

Just sayin’, think about it, be careful, and change your passwords often. I sincerely hope none of us were affected. I’d hate to think that you lost your business and ended up sitting around swigging vodka all day…

As a landlord, your goal is to make money right? Of course, but sometimes even the most experienced landlords leave money on the table. A bad tenant can leave you tired, frustrated, and you may want to just get on with other business. But, if you expend a little more effort, you can get some of that money back that you were prepared to just write off.

1. Sometimes just a letter to the tenant can translate into money. Even though your tenant may have gone through rough financial times during their stay with you, they may now have an improved financial picture as the economy has picked up steam. Maybe they are concerned about their credit now and trying to get financially stable again. So this might be the time that they pay the back rent owed, or at least make a payment arrangement with you.

2. If the previous tenant is still refusing to pay back rent owed, you still have options besides the legal route. There are services on the Internet that will do the heavy lifting for you. These rent recovery services will generate the collection letters, and handle the credit reporting for you. Many of them will aggressively pursue collection so that you don’t have to. With the information that they obtain, you can make an informed decision as to whether you need to eventually go to court or not, such as whether is it worthwhile to garnish their wages. You are wasting your time if they don’t have a suitable job.

3. You can get peace of mind by purchasing ‘collection protection’ from the beginning. Some companies offer this preemptive service for a small fee, which will underscore the importance of prompt rent payment to the tenant from the start. They will know that their future credit rating is as risk if they don’t pay on time, and that payment will be aggressively pursued if they skip out.

As a landlord, you have enough to deal with. There is no reason why you cannot be worry-free about tenants that don’t pay their rent and move out. Just a little action and prevention can go a long way.

Despite all the depressing economic news, it can actually opens up a lot of new doors for property managers to lower their vacancy rates and incorporate new business strategies that can pay off in spades over the long haul.

It’s important to keep the traditional marketing strategies alive and well. And one of the most effective approaches for those in the real estate business is partnerships with local businesses. More likely than not, businesses are open to strategies that will bring a steady stream of new customers into their establishment, like a restaurant, grocery store,video rental store, or salon.

First, sit down and figure out what your goal tenant pool looks like. Is it students, young professionals, or families? Once you know what your target tenant demographic is, take a look at the businesses within a mile radius of your property and figure out which shops and stores your potential residents will most likely visit. If it’s students, it could be the local pizza place or bar. Young professionals may be frequenting the hip salon a few blocks over. And those families you want to rent to most likely make at least a couple visits to the grocery store each week.

Now it’s time to approach the businesses you believe may have a line in to the pool you’re looking to draw from. Approach the managers of these establishments to suggest a mutually beneficial relationship. Explain how your current tenant demographic is in line with their clientele. Offer to promote their business by including coupons for a half-off lunch at the pub in move-in packets and to regularly advertise their business through fliers posted in your property. In return, you might suggest that this business keeps your card on-hand to distribute to customers who mention they’re looking to move or suggest that they allow you to post vacant unit listings on their bulletin board or in another prominent place.

Deals like this can be applied to basically any service institution and both parties stand to benefit. Your access to the tenant pool will bring new business into local neighborhood establishments which will provide you with a trusted voice to turn regular customers to your properties.

Promoting units doesn’t have to involve large investments or fancy technology. Sometimes proven, time-tested marketing techniques are the best ticket to success — and promoting local businesses is an added benefit you can feel great about. Everyone wins when your property’s neighborhood is thriving.

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There are several different avenues that may lead one to a property management career. Your background may be in real estate, finance, law, or marketing. Or you may simply find yourself wanting to utilize certain qualities or characteristics, such as dealing with people on a consistent basis, problem solving, or multi-tasking. In real estate, elements of all of these professional areas and personal skill sets will come into play. While you don’t have to be a master of all of them (or any of them, for that matter), you do have to possess the willingness to learn certain specific tasks. For example, you don’t have to be a finance whiz to be a real estate pro, but you do have to perform accounting functions; likewise, you don’t have to have a law degree, but you must have a solid grasp on local, state, and federal laws and regulations to ensure your property is always in compliance.

Do you know you want to get into real estate but don’t know what your options are? Real estate positions come in all shapes and sizes. You can be self-employed handling only your own property or you can oversee multiple units for a third party. You can be an operations manager, maintenance supervisor, or regional portfolio engineer.

Where do you actually go to learn about real estate and arm yourself with the skills necessary to enter into the field? Here are a couple of resources for starting your property management career on the right foot.
 

IREM: Institute of Real Estate Management

Obtaining industry-specific knowledge is a great way to market yourself to potential customers and, also, to ensure that you have a solid education and grasp on the field. IREM offers a catalog of classes that include everything from professional ethics to on-site maintenance to fair housing. A wide variety of online offerings allows you to take these classes from the comfort of your own home.
 

BOMA: Building Owners and Managers Association International

BOMA offers both new and veteran real estate professionals the opportunity to build both basic knowledge and area-specific expertise. Whether you’re looking to learn about the basics of real estate management or to educate yourself on energy efficiency programs, BOMA has you covered. Like IREM, they have online offerings as well as audio seminars, which can be attended by phone.

Real estate is one of the few fields that allows professionals to use a wide variety of skill sets, keeping work interesting on a day-to-day basis. If you think real estate might just be for you, the resources above are a great place to start.

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