One of the great benefits of the reality television craze is that distance education no longer has to cost any more than the price of your monthly cable television subscription. Of course this certainly does not apply to all sectors of reality television, but when it comes to house-flipping and home improvement shows on channels such as A&E, HGTV, and TLC  it certainly is possible to mix entertainment and education. Here are a few of our favorite TV shows that offer up some great business-minded take-away.

Designed to Sell, HGTV
Designed to Sell is perfect for those real estate investors who have done the hard work of renovations and are ready to flip their home. Or, for that matter, for anyone who is looking to sell their property and wants to command the best price possible. This show is inherently budget-friendly, with the premise of providing sellers with a maximum budget of $2,000 to invest in making their home as appealing as possible to would-be buyers (and, thus, maximizing the sale price). Designed to Sell relies on the expertise of interior designers, stagers,  and home improvement gurus, bringing a team of helping hands straight into your living room.

Income Property, HGTV
Though Income Property is geared toward first-time buyers who are looking to make some money from their homes by renting out rooms within their homes to cover their mortgage, host Scott McGillivray offers up a ton of tips that property managers can apply. With ten years of experience under his belt, McGillivray has made a career out of generating income from property investments. On Income Property, McGillivray offers tips for making renovations that will appeal to renters and can also help property managers increase income by identifying creative ways to parcel off areas with income-generation in mind (for example, refinishing basements so that they can be rented out).

My First Home, TLC
Even if you’re not buying your first home, TLC’s My First Home still offers up a ton of useful tools to help navigate the property purchasing process with less stress and greater ease. While you may already be in the loop with the basics, watching others navigate the various trials and tribulations that come with the loan, home seeking, and inspection processes can still arm you with a wealth of knowledge that can be applied to your own future property purchasing endeavors.

Property Ladder, TLC
Any real estate investor (or would-be investor) interested in property flipping should be in the loop with TLC’s Property Ladder, hosted by veteran realtor and real estate developer Kirsten Kemp. As a designer by trade, Kemp offers up some great ideas for designs and renovations (with an emphasis on kitchens and bathrooms) that help home flippers maximize their investment when the time for the next flip rolls around. Best of all, Kemp shows viewers how to make these upgrades with not only aesthetic, but also budget and functionality in mind. With years of experience in the field, Kemp offers suggestions based on common mistakes, using hard-won lessons of her own and of other home-flippers to help make your flip as profitable and simple as possible.

Next time you feel guilty about watching TV, remember … you’re potentially increasing your profits down the line!

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

No matter who you are or what you do, everybody could use a little time off. Given the nature of property management, finding “me time” is often particularly difficult. Pipes don’t wait to burst on a Monday through Friday schedule, let alone on a 9:00am to 5:00pm basis. Especially when you run a small business with few employees besides yourself, making sure your tenants are covered is a major concern. These links will help to ensure that your time off it exactly that — time off.

• This Forbes article gives some great advice for business people on how to get away for a little rest and relaxation.
• This Q&A article from Careerbuilder.com addresses some of the most common concerns of business people regarding vacation time. How can you make sure you’re not overwhelmed when you return from vacation? How can you make yourself accessible only for emergencies?
• According to the Wall Street Journal, the recession has made it even more difficult for many self-employed professionals to take time off.
• Once you are able to get some time out of the office, make sure that you are making the best of your vacation time.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

It’s a well documented fact that Americans take less vacation time than business professionals in any other culture. According to a disturbing analysis in a May 2007 Businessweek article, “Americans take even less vacation than the Japanese, the people who gave rise to karoshi—the phenomenon of being worked to death.” While it’s certainly admirable to be a hard worker, there’s also a fine line between dedication and over-doing it. The truth of the matter is, taking time off work is important—not only does it give you the chance to attend to the rest of your life, but it also provides the opportunity to mentally rejuvenate and the distance to remain excited about your job over the long haul. Both of these, after all, are ultimately integral to your business success.

Even if you’re already sold on taking time off work, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Many property managers simply don’t have support staff. In other words, if you’re not doing the job, who is? When you’re dealing with tenants, work can come at any time on any day–it’s just not always as simple as a weekend or scheduling vacation time. So how do you take time off? Here are our five favorite tips to help make that “me” time more easily obtainable.

Tip #1: Plan Ahead
If you’re one of those personality types that has a difficult time relaxing when important deadlines are on the horizon, make sure you plan your relaxation ahead of time. Yeah, yeah—we know it sounds a bit counter-intuitive. But if, for example, you know you have a pitch with a potential client on Monday, be pragmatic about scheduling enough prep time to finish the project before the weekend rolls around. If you don’t start on it before Friday afternoon, chances are you’ll spend your weekend preparing for Monday as opposed to checking out of work-mode.

Tip #2: Meticulously Train Staff
If you do have staff on hand, it’s important that you train them to the point where you trust they can competently handle anything that may come up in your absence. The better trained they are, the more confident you will feel taking that time off. And if you don’t have staff (or even if you do), having a stable of reliable service providers and vendors on hand will ensure that all you have to do is pick up the phone should something require attention during off-hours.

Tip #3: Contract an Answering Service
It may sound a bit antiquated in this day and age of constant and instant access, but hiring an answering service still serves a purpose even in this high-tech age. Having a live person answering calls at all hours gives your tenants and clients the peace of mind of always having a live voice to speak with should anything go awry. Moreover, it allows you to unplug with the knowledge that you will be alerted should anything arise that truly requires your immediate attention.

Tip #4: Unplug
In that vein, if you’re still having a difficult time unwinding, make a point of unplugging yourself. According to the same  Businessweek article, ”Making yourself available 24/7 does not create peak performance,” says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, an instructor at Harvard Medical School. “Recreating the boundaries that technology has eroded does.” So, turn off your Blackberry and log out of your email. If you don’t see the minutia coming through in the first place, you won’t be tempted to dive back into work when you’re supposed to be taking time off. If you’re uncomfortable with this, give a trusted employee (or answering service) a number to reach you at, but warn them to call only in the case of emergency. That way you can rest easy knowing that if something truly requires your attention, you’ll be alerted. Otherwise? Your time is your own and it’s safe to assume everything is being taken care of.

Tip #5: Compensate Yourself
Of course, there are certain situations that will necessitate your attention, whether it’s technically your time off or not. If you do find yourself in such a scenario, make up that off-time that wasn’t. For instance, if you find yourself working a couple of hours on Sunday, perhaps you can have your staff pick up some slack for you and cut out a bit early the next Friday afternoon. Or, if it turns out that the vacation day you had planned for Monday simply isn’t going to work because you have to meet with an important potential client, go ahead and reschedule it. But, reschedule is the key word here—do make sure you pen lost vacation time in for another day in the immediate future.

Ah, property management. It can be a 24/7 business with units to fill, repairs to be made, tenants to attend to, and property owners to look after. But no matter how productive and business-minded you are, it’s essential that everyone takes a break sometimes.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

Hi All,

Geoff here from Buildium. We already wrote a subletting links post last week in response to our To Sublet or Not to Sublet: A Property Manager’s Perspective post. That said, I figured I’d tell you a bit about a book I just finished reading; The New Non-Nonsense Landlord by Richard Jorgensen. The book focuses on the building wealth with rental properties, from the perspective of the individual real estate investor rather than from a property management company’s perspective. Regardless of this fact, I felt that this book was worth sharing — many property management professionals pursue rental properties as a means of building their own nest egg. Jorgensen writes in a direct and succinct manner, offering what I consider to be very practical and straightforward advice on building wealth through rental properties. He emphasizes hard work and efficient fiscal management, continuously downplaying the “get rich quick” schemes that are so prevalent in real estate investing circles.

I think that this book would be a great resource for any beginner investor. The book certainly opened my eyes to the benefits of owning rental property and motivated me to do so on my own. Whether you’re thinking of investing in properties of your own or not, Jorgensen offers several chapters worth of advice that speak directly to any property manager, including chapters on:

Managing Real Estate through a Crisis

Tenants: The Lifeblood of the Real Estate Industry

Establishing a Sound Credit and Collection Policy

Dealing with Tenant Problems, Complaints, and Rents

The text is very inexpensive and is available through amazon.com in both Kindle and print editions. It’s worth a read.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

Throughout the course of my college and young professional years, I moved quite a bit — to new student housing, then back home for the summer, then to a new city for a new job. Throughout the course of these events roommates were shuffled and I encountered several different subletting scenarios, each of which was handled differently. For sake of better understanding a tenant’s reasons for subletting, I thought I would share a couple of the different scenarios that I encountered.

Scenario #1: The Summer Sublet

I first found myself subletting the summer following my graduation from graduate school. I hadn’t yet landed a job and wasn’t prepared to move back in with my parents, so I found an apartment to sublet in a condominium complex near a local university. I didn’t know the student whose room I was subletting or either of his two roommates, but the place was clean, spacious, and I’d have a balcony off of my room. I was psyched. In this scenario, I simply paid rent to the tenant whose room I was subletting. He asked for a $300 security deposit and then I mailed him a rent check every month for the duration of the summer. I wasn’t in my new place very much and was always quiet and respectful, so the situation worked out great — I even got my security deposit back. That said, I’m pretty sure the property managers had no idea that I was living in the apartment or that it had been subletted at all. Their was no sublease signed, no tenant screening process, nothing. As I now work with property managers everyday, I know how much risk this arrangement opened them up to. I’m sure they would have preferred a more formalized arrangement, but I think there is still a lesson to be learned from this scenario: Good subletors do exist, and can often help you retain tenants who might have to otherwise vacate your property. Win-win situations do exist.

Scenario #2: The Job Move

The second scenario I encountered happened a few years later after I had already established a permanent residence. I was sharing an apartment with another guy, when I suddenly landed a new job. About the same time, I found out that a couple of my friends would be moving to the same area that my new job was in and had found a great new place with plenty of room for me. I had to move and I had to move quickly, but there was no way I could afford to pay the remaining 4 months’ rent at my current apartment in addition to the rent at the new place. I went on craigslist, found plenty of willing subletors who seemed as though they’d make good tenants, and called my landlord. My landlord decided that he was not going to let me sublet my bedroom — subletting was not specifically addressed in lease that I had signed. My options quickly became 1) Pay 4 months rent out-of-pocket in addition to rent at the new apartment, or 2) Leave my existing roommate (who was a friend) to pay the entire rent on his own. Needless to say, I was between a rock and a hard place. Ultimately, the landlord decided to allow us both to move out at the end of the following month, thus allowing us out of our lease agreement 3 months early. He was able to find new tenants very quickly, and a bad situation worked out pretty well for everybody involved.

That said, there is a lesson to be learned here as well — if you’re renting to college students or young professionals, you’re often putting them in a terrible predicament by not allowing them to sublet their unit if necessary. If my landlord had required a stringent tenant screening process for any subletor I would have totally understood and even paid for the process without any questions asked. I got out of the dilemma in one piece when the landlord decided to let us out of our lease, but if he hadn’t you can imagine the predicament I would have been in. My advice to any property manager, from a tenant’s perspective at least, is to do your best to understand the issues of your tenants. Situations arise and you should do your best to work with your tenants to find a solution that satisfies everybody involved. If you’re not willing to be flexible, you may find word-of-mouth can hurt you and finding tenants can become much more difficult.

In property management, this is just another scenario where your satisfaction is intrinsically linked to tenant satisfaction.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

Whether you’re a landlord, a professional property manager, or a tenant you’ve got your own unique concerns when it comes to subletting a property. As a landlord, you want to ensure that the new tenant is screened properly and won’t be a disruption. As a tenant, you may not be able to pay several months’ rent at two different properties if you are not allowed to sublet. Whatever your specific concerns are, these links will ensure that your decision whether or not to sublet has been given due diligence.

• This article on 5 Factors to Consider Before Subletting is a great place to start — it’s all about understanding the risks.
• The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco provides these guidelines on dealing with roommate issues in regards to subletting.
• eHow offers a simple, easy to understand summary of the issues you may encounter when subletting.
• Sublet.com is a great site for listing units available for sublet or finding a unit to sublet for a short period of time.

Whatever you do, make sure that you take the time to consider state and local laws before entering into any specific subletting scenario.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management

Chances are you put a lot of effort into finding just the right tenant to entrust with your unit: you run a credit and criminal background check, you verify employment, you speak with applicants’ past landlords, and perhaps you even require an additional personal reference or two. In short, you do everything within your power to make sure that your unit is rented to the most reliable, responsible tenant possible. Performing this due diligence protects your property, your financial well-being, and also generally makes your life easier by bettering the chances that you’ve selected a tenant who will be a thoughtful neighbor to other tenants on your property.

Therein lies the biggest problem with subletting units: in such instances, you are typically entrusting this screening process to another party, essentially allowing a pre-existing tenant to select someone to occupy your unit on your behalf. Of course, it certainly works in the pre-existing tenant’s best interest to find a subletor who is responsible, who will take care of the unit, and who will make rent payments in a timely manner. After all, it’s the pre-existing tenant who will remain on the lease and ultimately be held responsible for any damage or financial obligations until the initial lease term has run its course. However, most tenants simply don’t have experience in property management or a complete handle on what it is that constitutes an ideal tenant. Because of this, problems can arise when subletting enters the equation.

On the other hand, there are benefits to subletting. No matter what a lease states, most property managers will at one point or another find themselves in a situation where a tenant simply must vacate a unit prior to the end of a lease term due to circumstances beyond their control. Unfortunately, this situation will not necessarily arise at a point where would-be renters are readily available. No matter what your lease states, if a pre-existing tenant finds himself in a position where he has to move with nine months still remaining on the lease, he simply may not have the financial resources to fulfill the terms of the lease on his own. Depending on your lease terms and state law, you may have the right to take this tenant to court to collect unpaid rent — in and of itself an expensive and arduous process.

For as much as subletting is not always an ideal scenario, if you find yourself in a position where the alternative is lost rent, a sublet may be the most viable option. If you do find yourself in this situation, it’s important to make sure that all of the following are in place:

• The pre-existing tenant (who is charged with finding a subletor) has proven himself to be responsible and generally exercises good judgment.
• A credit and criminal check are required of the subletor (whether this is covered by you or the pre-existing tenant).
• All necessary legal documents are in place to ensure that financial and other obligations are fulfilled, both in terms of monthly rent payments and any damage incurred on the unit.
• You maintain final approval over the potential subletor.

Remember, as a property manager, subletting is strictly under your control. If you opt not to allow subletting under any circumstances, be sure that you include a clause that states this in your lease contract. For an alternative view on subletting, be sure to check back next week when we’ll look at subletting from a tenant’s perspective.

Comments »

Property Management Software Rental Property Management Software Landlord Software HOA Software Property Management