by Shawn Boday | Jul 27, 2018 | Business, Real Estate, Renting, Shawn Boday
4 Ways Landlords Can Improve Their Relationships With Their Tenants
Investing in a rental property can offer many benefits. Not only can it help provide a steady monthly income, but it can help build your net worth. However, by investing your time with rental properties, as a landlord, you will have to maintain it, and make it attractive for tenants, and find renters who can be trusted.
Often the relationship between landlord and tenant is poor and strained. Talk to any landlord and they are bound to share a tenant horror story or two about an unruly renter. By establishing a more professional and positive relationship with your tenant, you’ll find that you will have less tenant horror stories to share. The following are four ways that landlords can improve their relationships with their tenants.
Be Approachable
Often, tenants are afraid to contact their landlord about issues they are experiencing. Sometimes tenants don’t tell their landlords about repairs until the problem worsens or is out of control. Tenants are afraid of asking for help because they don’t want to bother the landlord or are afraid. Landlords should be both supportive and approachable to ensure that their tenants feel comfortable calling in their time of need.
Be An Effective Communicator
A good line of communication is essential to solving many rental problems. Tenants should have an understanding of why something is happening and be given proper notice for anything that may be disruptive. By landlords providing the most up-to-date information, the tenant will be more willing to work with the landlord rather than against.
Be Hands On
When you lease your property, you must be hands on. Often landlords will want to have rent out their property but make little repairs to the home. You should help your tenant feel important by going out of the way to make improvements. Not only will this make your tenants happy, but it will keep your resale value high.
Be Considerate
One of the most important things that any landlord can remember is that tenants are people too. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that your tenants are people with feelings and not just a monthly profit. As a landlord, you have a direct impact on the social and emotional environment for other people. That being said, treat your tenants with the same support and respect that you would want.
by Shawn Boday | Jul 20, 2018 | Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Shawn Boday
Real estate investment has changed. House flipping is commonplace. Increased competition makes finding profitable investment properties more challenging.
Rising above the competitions often means turning to technology. There are two main ways that technology can benefit the real estate investor. Technology can help find new opportunities and improve upon the results of current investing techniques.
New Investing Opportunities
The main areas where technology can assist a real estate investor to find a profitable deal are in bidding, optimizing online efforts, and efficient property searches. Each plays a significant role in staying ahead of the competition.
DealMachine is an innovative tool for finding undiscovered properties. It is a simple idea with amazing applications. Investors merely take a picture of a house, then the app provides owner information. DealMachine’s other features include sending the owner information and express a willingness to buy their property. It also automatically follows up to encourage an owner to respond.
Optimized websites benefit real estate ventures. Carrot excels in this area. It also helps find relevant leads for buying and selling properties. HouseCanary is a nice compliment. It provides filters to determine which are the most profitable rental properties and areas within a community.
Improve upon Results
Managing customer relationships, finances, tenants, and cultivating leads all improve results of real estate investing. Most investors do not make the most of cultivating their leads, REIPro provides a tool for managing real estate relationships. It builds trust and nurtures relationships through features designed specifically for investors.
Another piece of software that benefits lead generation is Call Porter. Among its features is personalized phone communication. Overall, Call Porter is a specialty software that aids several aspects of investing like managing appointments and callbacks.
In regard to technical aspects, DealCheck goes a long way toward improving profits. It is a forecasting tool that estimates repair costs. This aids in analyzing properties and actualizing profits. Roofstock is of benefit in this area as well. Its focus is on cash-flow properties. Investors can purchase properties free of the concern of disrupting tenant occupancy. For out of state investors, Roofstock is a blessing.
More competition has indeed entered real estate investing. However, so have some very useful tools. The savvy investor can still rise to the top in profitable deals.
by Shawn Boday | Jul 13, 2018 | Real Estate, Renting, Shawn Boday
While your rental property can bring you in a nice passive income, it’s always a good idea as a property owner to reevaluate your property from time to time. Even though you can make money every month on your rental property, there are certain times when it might be more feasible for you to simply sell the property.
- When The Money You Invested Could Be Earning More Elsewhere
While you can’t predict the future, you can make an educated guess of how the real estate market will be by evaluating the present. If your rental property is located in a location with a dying industry, then it might be time to sell and reinvest elsewhere where you’ll be able to earn more in the future.
- When You Need Cash Now
If you need cash now or in the foreseeable future, you might want to consider liquidating your rental property. For instance, if you’ve had to undergo a major medical procedure or your need to fund your child’s tuition, then you might need to go ahead and cash out your rental property to get the funds you need.
- When You Could Get a Significant Tax Benefit
Tax laws are always changing, so it’s important for you to stay up on the latest. If you could realize a significant tax benefit from selling your rental property, then it might pay off more for you to do so than it would for you to keep the property. For instance, under Section 1031, you could avoid paying capital gains taxes when you sell your rental property so long as you buy another one in the next 180 days.
- When The Property Is Draining You
Sometimes you need to sell your rental property simply because it is draining you to upkeep it. If you’re ready to retire, for instance, you might not be up for all the property management and maintenance required to run a rental property. You could simply sell and cash out, or if you still want to keep earning the money from rents, you might want to consider automating as many tasks as possible and turning the rest over to a property management service.
Knowing when to buy and sell can be tricky parts of the real estate. If you already own rental property, the above situations can help you know when to sell.
by Shawn Boday | Jul 6, 2018 | Real Estate, Real Estate Investing, Shawn Boday
There’s an age-old debate in the real estate market as to whether primary residences should be viewed as investments or simply as a place to live. While this debate is something that every homeowner should carefully consider, it is clear that there are reasons for buying a nice home, no matter the market conditions, other than simply to maximize one’s wealth. After all, everyone needs a roof over their head.
The same cannot be said, however, for professional real estate investors or anyone who is investing in a property that has the main purpose of income generation. These investors need to be much more careful about things like market timing. Real estate cycles can often last even longer than business cycles, meaning that an investor that buys into an overheated market could be waiting decades to realize any returns at all.
Unfortunately, there is currently ample evidence that real estate markets from coast to coast are overbought. While there still may be opportunities for solid long-term returns that can be located by savvy investors, the current trends in real estate prices indicate that there will be a reversion to historic averages in the near-term future. Buying into a market at a peak like the one we’re very likely seeing now can have disastrous consequences for the long-term performance of any real estate portfolio.
One of the key indicators that the real estate market is well above sustainable price levels is the number of hours that the average wage earner needs to work in order to buy the median home. In some cities, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, the average wage earner would need to work the majority of their waking hours in order to afford minimally decent housing. Contrast that with the norms of the 1960s when many American families only needed a single wage earner to work for 10 hours per week in order to afford the median home.
Another key factor that may bode poorly for the performance of real estate prices over the next five years is the almost certainty that interest rates will soon begin rising. The real estate market is exquisitely sensitive to interest rates, and worst-case-scenario interest hikes could put a big dent in the price gains that housing has seen nationwide since the financial crisis of 2008.
by Shawn Boday | Jun 29, 2018 | Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Value, Shawn Boday
Riding the heels of an especially strong housing market, investors are turning more and more toward real estate as a viable and profitable business venture. One of the hottest segments of the real estate market is the multifamily housing sector. Despite being a longer process when it comes to generating income and profit than its single-family property investment counterparts, the multifamily market can be extremely profitable when executed properly.
Although it seems counter-intuitive, securing financing for a multifamily property can often be easier than getting the money for a single-family property. The reason for this is because there is a much smaller risk of not generating enough cash flow when there are multiple properties involved. What can often be confusing is calculating the value of a multifamily property because of the myriad of complexities involved. In order to calculate an accurate value, the following considerations must all be examined:
OPERATING EXPENSES: This list of expenses can be varied and long. Examples include snow removal, landscaping, pool maintenance, and pest control.
CAPITAL EXPENDITURES: Also known as CapEx, these funds are used by the property management or investor to acquire new assets or upgrade existing facilities with the intention of improving or increasing the breadth of the operation. Examples of capital expenditures in multifamily properties include new air conditioning units, roofing replacements, playground additions, water heaters, and more. Property managers will want to set aside larger amounts for annual capital expenditures if the property is older since repairs and upgrades will be more likely. Newer properties will not require as much capital expenditure investment, which will make these more attractive to investors.
NET OPERATING INCOME: This definition is self-explanatory. Net operating income is simply the total income generated from the multifamily property after the total operating expenses have been subtracted.
CAP RATE: This calculation is a little more specific. It refers to the exact rate of return from the property after income is considered. These rates are distinct to a certain market and drawn by the kind of property class of the investment. To calculate multifamily value, the net operating income of the property is divided by the cap rate. This is why knowing the cap rate is imperative to understanding the overall value.
by Shawn Boday | Jun 22, 2018 | Real Estate Investing, Shawn Boday
While many people get involved in real estate investing, they don’t all take the same path to success. There are several ways that you can get started and that which may not work for your colleagues may work much better for your circumstances. The most popular strategies for investing in real estate are fixing and flipping, wholesaling, creative real estate investing, and buy and hold.
Fix and Flip
This is the most commonly known of the popular types of real estate investing, particularly because it’s something that can be done relatively quickly. It involves buying a property at a low price, repairing and updating the home, and selling it for significantly more. This requires selling the property at a price that will help you recoup the original investment, the money you spent on renovations and repairs, and still provide a tidy profit.
Wholesaling
This is the practice of making a profit by finding real estate deals for investors. In wholesaling, the individual gains a profit by selling the property for a higher price to the investor than paid in the contract with the original seller. While this is similar to flipping houses, there are no repairs that need to be made. In this way, it’s a faster and less costly method of investing in real estate.
Creative Real Estate Investing
This is a much riskier way of investing in real estate, but it can be lucrative with enough knowledge of the market. It involves buying properties without traditional bank loans and without having to provide big down payments. One common way this is done is in buying a depleted property with cash and selling it to another investor at a profit.
Buy and Hold
This involves buying a property, possibly renovating it, and holding onto it for an extended period of time. By renting out the property, you can turn the property into a stable source of income. However, this practice requires intimate knowledge of the market and an ability to predict trends, or you may end up with a property that won’t attract tenants. A vacant property will end up costing you money.
These are four unique and very different investment methods and there’s no rule that says you can’t adopt several of them. You may combine a couple methods to develop your own strategy. As is true with any type of investing practice, you will have to find the method that works best for you.
