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Showing posts from November, 2018

Making Your Rental Properties Pet Friendly Can Have Financial Benefits

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  Offering Pet Friendly Amenities  With so many households owning pets (est. 70%), offering pet friendly amenities will attract a larger pool of potential renters. These pets are ‘children’ to these families and if you are willing to show some ‘love’, property managers might just reduce your vacancy rate. Being a pet friendly place can be a go or no-go decision for potential renters. Especially families, who look for property landlords who except pets.  Here are some ways property managers can make their rental properties more pet-friendly  Pet Parks  An excellent way to help renters keep their pets active. Outdoor pet parks provide the opportunity your tenant’s pets to socialize and get to know each other while at the same time, run off some energy which equates to calmer and quieter time in your property.  Running Paths  In addition to pet parks, a running path for owners and their pets can also be very beneficial. These spaces also provide your te

Should You Worry About Rent Controls?

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  Rent Control Advocates If you do any amount or reading or watch any news, advocates are everywhere and for every cause. Some good, some not so good. Rent control is no different. There are advocate groups pushing for rent control. A recent defeat in CA had set the rent control push, a few steps back. California Prop 10 would have allowed new tougher rent laws. Rents have continued to rise faster than incomes in many cities across the US. State Laws Most states (approx. 45) prevent local governments from enacting laws that place any type of rent controls. But what is now, doesn’t mean it will remain the same. Just a short time back, most states had laws against illegal immigrants. Today is a different story. Multi-Family Investors Investors who own apartments or other multi-family properties would be most impacted if any rent control laws were to be passed. Experts in the mulit-family sector worry that laws could freeze rents on existing properties. Tha

Remote Workplace – Can You Handle It?

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Oh, the joys of working remote (aka:telecommuting). Flexible travel, hours, locations all have an enticing draw to them. With improved technology, working remote is now possible whereas a decade ago, it wasn’t. But Can You Handle it? Everyone is different. From extraverts to introverts to emotionally needyindividuals to the secure and insecure to the self-motivator to the ‘tell me every move to make’ individual. Working remotely is not best for everyone. While there are certainly advantages, it does require individuals with certain personality traits.Before you ever apply for a remote position, look past the obvious, ‘I get to work butt naked’ and really analyze yourself. If you do not have the traits needed, you will quickly regret your decision, hopefully before your employer regrets theirs. Remote Companies More and more companies are allowing team members to work remotely. Some companies are 100% remote while others are 0% remote and everything in betwe

States That Are Seeing an Influx of Population Growth

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  Real Estate Investors   Need to be aware of which markets are experiencing strong   population growth. Having this knowledge will help you decide where to put your real estate dollars.    Top 20 Long-Distant Destinations States       About PropertyZar   PropertyZar is a real estate technology company specifically in the web-based property management software for owners and  professional property managers . Read more  Top Property Management Blogs . Learn more  www.PropertyZar.com  

Flip Or Hold, Which Is It?

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  Depends on what type of investor you want to be. Profits are made in both scenarios but choosing the right strategy depends on several key factors. Consider your age, need for cash flow, retirement goals and many other factors. Holding Properties  Buying and holding properties usually are for longer term investments for the purpose of cash flow. In addition to cash flow, the buy and hold investor is also building equity as the mortgage decreases and the home appreciates in value. Flipping  On the other hand, flipping properties is a short-term investment (at least that’s the initial intent). It is intended to produce capital gains quickly (in theory). There are many risks associated with flipping homes. From underestimating the repair costs, over estimating the market value after repairs, repairs taking longer to complete, property on the market longer than expected, unexpected issues such as structure and a plethora of other potential issues. So What Approach Should Y

Should You Abandon Technology?

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  There is no argument, technology has changed the landscape of nearly every industry in the world. That includes property management. There are many positive outcomes from technology but also some downside. So, should you abandon technology and go back to a more one on one personal relationship with your tenants? In short, No! However, there is a balance that can be had and to see the best results, you need to know where that balance lies, for today anyway. All Technology Is it possible to go completely technical in all aspects of property management? I would say no as of today but that is quickly changing. Look at the storage unit industry. They now have self-serve kiosks for renting units, gaining access, signing leases and everything else. Can this amount of automation work in other markets such as the vacation, commercial and residential? Vacation Rentals (short term) If you look at the vacation rental market, their technology is closer to fully automated