Tag Archives: real estate

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Is your listing lost in the internet jungle?

The internet has proved to be a phenomenal tool for real estate. Properties can be shared on just about any site, becoming accessible to billions of people within seconds. That being said, with all of the content available on the internet, it’s pretty easy for your listing to get lost somewhere in cyberspace. What can you do to make sure that your listing is reaching enough people?

A good place to start is social media, specifically Facebook. Facebook has millions of daily users, all having something in common: the ability to share posts. If you post your real estate listing on Facebook and have your friends and family share it, the reach is automatically getting bigger. Their friends and family can also see the post and share it themselves, presenting your listing to tons more people. This constant sharing will keep it as a relevant post and will prevent it from getting lost amongst memes and family photos.

It’s also a good idea to post your listing on trusted real estate websites, like Zillow, or Yahoo! Homes. People trust these sites because their main focus is real estate, and that’s what they’re known for. It’s like buying a car; are you going to look on Craigslist first, or look on Autotrader, a site known for car sales? Take advantage of the credibility of these sites and let your listings be seen! Using Craigslist for real estate is useful, but it’s really more targeted towards your community. If you go for a bigger site, the listing will be seen by those who don’t live in your area (yet) but are looking for a home there.

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How will you manage?

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Should you be working with a property manager?

If you’re looking into real estate and rentals, hiring a property manager, or property management company, is definitely something you should consider. Property managers basically serve as the middlemen between you and your tenants, keeping up with rent, tenant issues, and maintaining the property.  Also, property manager can also work with you if you’re investing in commercial real estate!

Property managers are well equipped to deal with tenants and issues they may have so that you won’t have to. If this is your first real estate venture, you’re already going to have a lot of different duties as far as getting everything situated and ready; do you really want to figure out property management on top of that?! I don’t think so. If your tenant has a maintenance problem, your property manager can find and hire a contractor so that you don’t have to.  If a system for rent needs to be set up, it won’t be your duty, it’ll be something that the property manager handles. With a property manager, you won’t have to invest tons of your own time into your property; they’ll handle the work

Property managers also know all the rules and regulations that you must abide by, and what kind of protocol needs to be used. Their jobs are to manage properties, so they know what they’re doing.

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Communicate Effectively

How should you be communicating with your tenant(s)?

Sometimes it may seem a bit difficult to manage tenants and properties in an effective way, and that’s why communication is so incredibly important.

First of all, make sure you have the right information! Be sure to have at least one phone number for each tenant, a number that you’ll always be able to reach them at. Having your tenants email addresses is also a good idea because it allows for communication on  a bigger scale. If you have a property-wide announcement to make, you can send an email out to all of your residents. Tenant File offers this feature, check it out here.

If you have multiple properties and tenants, a great way to ensure that they can all communicate any issues they have (effectively) is to set up an online portal where residents can input different requests they have pertaining to the property. Tenants can have an online login that is linked to their property so that there is never any confusion about where the work needs to be done. All these requests can be sent to management in an organized way and be handled quickly.

In addition to the online portal, you should also have a phone line, aside from the normal phone line, that tenants can use in the case of an emergency. For example, if the pipes burst and begin to flood the property, waiting for the online request to be received may not be the best option. communication

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It’s All in the Family

Recently, we talked about the different benefits and costs that come with investing in single family homes vs. apartments (multi-family homes).  Like we talked about before, multi-family homes allow you to house several families, meaning toooons of tenants. Because of the cost and management, apartments aren’t typically everyone’s first choice as far as real estate investments.  Aside from apartments, what other kinds of multi-family homes can you look into?

Duplexes

A duplex is pretty much two separate homes, side by side, under the same roof. Each half of the duplex is equipped like it’s own mini-home, allowing for two separate families to live there. Duplexes are nice because you have two separate rental incomes coming in from one single property. If you have a big house that you might want to convert, a duplex is not difficult to achieve with the right permits.

Townhouses

Townhouses are multiple separate homes, side by side, usually within a communal style neighborhood. Townhouses definitely require more work than duplexes, because you’ll definitely have more than two families, but they can be less work than apartments. Like apartments, you’ll typically use a property manager to manage your property.

Two-Flats

Two-flats are structurally similar to duplexes in that they are pretty much built in houses. In a two-flat, you have one apartment on the top floor, and another on the bottom floor. Both usually share a common basement, and front entrance, because they’re constructed in what looks to be a normal house.

multi-family home

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Where should you invest?

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As someone looking into investing in residential real estate, you need to figure out what kind of properties will be most profitable. Typically, the choice lies  between single family homes, and apartments. Both offer different benefits and require different levels of investment so it’s important to do research on what will serve your market (and your budget) best.

With apartments, you definitely have lower cost-per-unit than if you were to buy multiple houses as investments.Even though your cost-per-unit is lower with apartments, the startup cost is much lower when you invest in single family homes. Buuuuut…if you invest in an apartment building, you really have no choice as to how many properties you’ll be managing, it’s pretty much all or nothing. With houses, you can pick the number of properties you want to invest in and go from there.

As far as managing the properties, there’s definitely more of a need for a property manager when you’re investing in apartments. With a house, or houses, it’s pretty much your responsibility to deal with the tenants and properties, because hiring a property manager is not a cheap deal if you’re only renting out a few houses. Now that we’re talking about dealing with tenants, you should recognize that those who rent single family homes are usually long-term tenants; those who rent apartments typically do not expect to stay there for an extended amount of time.

Basically, look at how much you’re planning on investing in start-up costs, and whether or not you want a property management company to work with or not, and go from there.

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New User Questions

Expanding Your Business

As a property manager, you always have toooons of room to expand your business. But, the question is, how do you expand?

property management

Before anything, make sure you have a stable and organized property management business. Imagine if you have a house that doesn’t have a stable structure, do you think it’d be a good idea to expand it? Probably not. This same thing applies to business expansion. Without a stable facility, expansion isn’t in your best interest. Make sure your business is stable and that you have a good team, and good tenants.

A huge component in expanding your business lies within social media. A while back we talked about harnessing the power of social media for real estate, and as a property manager, the same tips are applicable to you. Using social media will give you followers beyond your tenants or direct business partners; it’ll let more people know what you have to offer and how they can get in on it. Maybe you can create a specific hashtag that your tenants can use to share your site across social media platforms, like Facebook, or Twitter.

Once you have maintained a strong and stable property management business, it may be time to physically expand your business by adding more properties. If you have the financial capacity to expand and have planned accordingly, look into similar properties that you can see as good investment options. Or, if you want to branch out of the property management route you’re currently taking (residential or commercial) and see what other kinds of properties would also work in your area. It’s really important to research the specific market that you’re working with and see what the needs are so that you can find a property that meets those needs.

 

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Should you be insured?

A couple of days ago we brought you some awesome tips for making your property hurricane safe, check them out here.  One of the things we touched on briefly was hurricane insurance. Hurricane insurance can come in handy if your property is located in an area where hurricanes are likely to hit, but it’s important to assess whether or not it’s right for you.

So, what exactly is hurricane insurance? 

Well, the deductible works a bit differently than it does with most other insurances. With hurricane insurance, the deductible is typically a percentage of the home’s cost (usually between 3 and 5 percent), but this will depend on your state and homeowner’s insurance policy. The state you’re in also determines the kind of coverage that you’ll get as far as hurricane insurance, because of the fact that not all states offer extensive hurricane coverage in homeowner’s insurance policies. Hurricane insurance will typically cover damage caused by wind and rain, not flooding.

Time to talk about flood insurance! Flood insurance can be useful if your property is in an area susceptible to hurricaneinsurances, and is also in a flood zone. There are different kinds of flood insurance you can get, depending on the type of property you manage. For commercial properties, look into building policies; building policies cover damage done to the structure of the building, like foundation and exterior, as well as some indoor things like paneling, air systems, and flooring. The coverage is usually up to $250,000. If you manage a personal property, a personal policy is better suited for you; a personal policy covers things like furniture, clothing, appliances, etc. Usually this covers up to $100,000.

So, now that you know a bit about the different kinds of insurance available to you, do some research and figure out what’s best for your property.

New User Questions

On To The Next One – Prepping Your Home

Prepping your home for your new tenant!

Your tenant has officially moved out and it’s time for you to prepare your property (and yourself) to find a new one. What do you need to do as far as the prepping process?

  1. Clean! Make sure your place is all cleaned up from your last tenant so that you’ll have a fresh canvas to work on.
  2. Paint. A fresh coat of paint makes all the difference in a room. Choose a standard color, maybe a beige shade, that will make the room look bigger and brighter.
  3. Take care of the floors. Once the painting in all done, make sure the floors are spotless. If the carpet has stains, get it steamed. If your wood floor looks dull, it may be time for a wax.
  4. Take pictures! You should take pictures of the home while it’s empty so you can document the exact state that you’ll be handing it over to your tenant in. You’ll end up taking pictures again when you’re staging, but these pictures won’t show the home completely empty.
  5. Staging. Staging is a very important step! Make sure your home looks awesome so that people will want to live there. We have some great staging tips here. Once your home is staged, take pictures so you can put it on the market.
  6. Listing. Having a good listing is one the biggest things that will affect your tenant search. Mention all the big things your home has to offer (pool, new kitchen, etc.) so that you can catch people’s attention.

These are pretty standpreppingard, but if you skip a step you may not be as successful in finding a tenant as you’d like.  Good luck!