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May 10, 2013
Tenants Want a Home
They are not renting an apartment or a house. They are moving into a home. Sure, you know that, but do you understand what that means as it relates to rental property marketing? The home your new tenants move into will be where they go when they leave work, where they look forward to coming [...]
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April 11, 2013
Lawsuits Happen
“It’s called a legal shakedown,” says Robert Mintz in his book Lawsuit Proof. Of the about 15 million lawsuits filed last year in US Courts, the majority of the targets did not do anything they should have been sued for, says Mintz. Almost every landlord has a pretty good idea that trying to save a [...]
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March 8, 2013
Lease or Rental Agreement?
A lease is a contract that allows a tenant to occupy a property for a specified period of time, at an agreed-upon rent, as long as the terms of the lease are followed. Does that benefit the landlord? Or is it only a benefit to the tenant? A lease is nothing more than a rental [...]
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Tenant Screening, Selection & Management
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The Price of Illegal Discrimination
Maria Riga didn’t like blacks much. Of course, that was her privilege. If she wanted to be a racist nobody could tell her she could not be. She could hate everybody if she wanted. That’s simply her loss and choice. The problem is that Maria Riga was also a landlord. She could still hate blacks, [...]
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Rule Number 7
How do landlords screen tenants? The US Census Bureau’s Property Owners and Managers Survey shed some interesting light on screening methods. Many do it by breaking Rule Number 7. The Survey reported that most private landlords (64 percent) use personal interviews as their main source of tenant screening as do multifamily units (75 percent). It [...]
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Who’s in Charge Here?
I just got a call from Rick. About a year ago, Rick had been referred to me and asked me to put together a lease.. He was wise to do that because he had a lease form he had downloaded free from the internet. That lease form of course had numerous errors and illegal clauses, [...]
Legal
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Taking Back Your Month-to-Month Unit? No Short Cuts!
By Tracey March When you need to terminate a month-to-month lease, it’s important that you give “proper notice.” If you don’t, your tenants won’t be obligated to leave by the date that you want them to, so make sure you get it right the first time by doing things exactly the way you’re required to. [...]
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Get Rid of Bad Tenants Now!
Get Rid of Bad Tenants Now! Whether it’s no rent or just your standard bad-tenant behavior, if you wait another month, or possibly even two weeks, you may lose your chance until January. The reason you want to do it now is that evictions, if done properly in most states, will be complete in a [...]
Marketing
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May 10, 2013
Tenants Want a Home
They are not renting an apartment or a house. They are moving into a home. Sure, you know that, but do you understand what that means as it relates to rental property marketing? The home your new tenants move into will be where they go when they leave work, where they look forward to coming [...]
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May 1, 2012
The Secret Rental
Are you keeping a secret? If that two-line classified ad you ran in the newspaper is lost among the other 2-bedroom ads, you might be keeping a secret. If the For Rent sign in front of your property is so small no one can see it more than 20 feet away and is covered by [...]
Maintenance
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How to Sell a Property with a Tenant Living in It
How to Sell a Property with a Tenant Living in It This primarily occurs with single-family homes and duplexes or fourplexes. However, it can be a problem with large complexes, as well, if the showing and sale process is handled with no regard to tenants. The reason it becomes a problem is that you, as [...]
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The Return of The Renter
The Return of the Renter We can trace the origin of the return of the renter to 1977 with the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act. But the act’s passage and initial enforcement didn’t have any particular effect on home ownership. That had to wait 28 years. There were fewer and fewer renters for about [...]
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Software and Tools
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Setting yourself up for Success in 2012
Setting yourself up for success as a landlord in 2012 You are already a success if you own rental property. After all, only a small percentage of the American people have made the commitment to invest in rental real estate. For those of us who did it on purpose, being a landlord has sometimes come [...]
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Success One Landlord at a Time
How will you know when you are successful? If you believe you are now, how do you know? Most people, landlords included, simply cannot point to a goal and state positively that they have accomplished it. I know that just about every landlord had the plan to be successful when he or she bought the [...]
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Buy & Sell
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Investment Property Buying Pitfalls for the Soon-to-be Initiated
You’ve found an investment property that looks great. You can see the dollar signs in front of your eyes and imagine the figures in your bank account climbing exponentially. The good faith estimate from the real estate agent looks good and you have more than enough money to close. You are excited. That’s your first [...]
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I Never Thought of That!
Smart and experienced investors plan carefully. Because they have been doing it for so long, they have a list, possibly only in their heads, of possible issues that can pop up with any property they might be interested in buying. A search of the internet and the numerous books I have on the shelves in [...]
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Recent Posts (Question & Answer)
