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Landlord Video Tip – What Should I Look For When Buying A Rental Property?

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Choosing Profitable Rental Properties

Choosing effective rental propertiesIn my last article, I talked about what types of properties I don’t personally like as rental properties.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can check it out here, Do Condos Make Good Rental Properties.

In today’s article/video, I’ll be talking about my preferred types of rental properties.

Now, before you get in a huff and tell me you’ve made a ton off of condos and think they rock and that the properties I suggest don’t work in your area, remember, this is based off my experience.

For some people you may have had other experiences, and if you are only looking at one or two properties, maybe that works perfectly for you. I applaud that you are successfully running a landlord business and your property works.

In the long run though, if you’re looking at expanding your landlord business, want to increase your monthly cash flow and create your own little mini Real Estate empire, you might want to watch this next video.

In it I will explain why I think the properties I like make the best rental properties for people looking to either get into the business or to expand their portfolio.

I look forward to your feedback, so leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts!

Landlord Video Tip – Do Condo Make Good Rental Properties?

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Condos As Rentals

Do condos make good rentals?When I first started in the landlord business a decade ago, we started looking at condos to use for rental properties. They were cheaper than single family homes, they were low maintenance as I didn’t have to deal with snow, lawn or building maintenance and they were in high demand as rents were a bit lower than renting a house. Also many buildings offered rental pools making my job even easier.

Fast forward a few years and I had a few more insights into the positives and negatives of condominiums as rental properties. That’s where today’s video comes in.

If you’ve just started reading the Educated Landlord, this video is off my normal beaten track. Typically my articles revolve around being a landlord, but recently people have been indicating they’re considering picking up additional properties.

I’ve been there, I’ve made some mistakes and I’ve made some great decisions. So rather than you finding out about the mistake part on your own, I’ve created a few videos addressing what to look for with picking up another property and what to watch out for.

But don’t worry, I still have plenty of additional landlord tips coming too, so watch for them as well. So check out the video below and don’t forget to share it with other landlord or potential landlord friends!

Did the video help? Did it give you a different perspective on using condos as rentals? And would you like more videos along this vein?

As always, leave me a comment if you have one (or can make one up). Let me know if you find the videos helpful, or what else you want to know about and I will do my best to get more info out to you!

Also, if you were paying attention, I’m just about ready to release my new E-course on screening tenants. It’s a short five day course that will prepare you for screening your first or your fiftieth tenant and it’s going to be absolutely FREE!!!

My “beta” reviewers have already been giving some hugely positive feedback and I’m pretty excited to hear form everyone once it’s live. If you’re not currently registered on the site, please take a moment and register on the bottom of this page with your name and email so you can be among the first to find out when it’s released.

Thanks for joining us here at The Educated Landlord. FYI, the picture at the beginning is the building where we bought our first condo(s) back in 2004 and this was one of our advertising photos when we rented them out. And that is why you turn the date stamp off on your advertising photos!

Landlord Video Tip – Saving Time With Future Ads

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Rental Ad Time Saver

Inevitably you end up with a vacancy and suddenly you have to fill that vacant property again. Now you’ve got to try and find all those old pictures, remember what you wrote about in your last ad and then compile it all together again so you can start filling up your space.

Does this sound familiar? If you have multiple properties the problem compounds as you try to keep them all straight. Fortunately I have a solution for you, actually a couple solutions.

In the following video, I’ll go through how to save your time later by taking some action and being pro-active now. then after you’ve watched the video, I have an additional tip to help you out below.

As always, I love to hear any feedback you have and I also appreciate it if you can like and share the video and the post with other landlords you know. So here’s today’s video,

Was that helpful? Is it something you can implement today to help your landlord business in the future?

I talked about the creation of folders on computer as well and this is one of the best tips I can recommend to you. We have folders for each of our properties, folders for our rental forms and folders for almost every stage and type of form we use.

A quick review shows folders for each company, for rental forms, for purchase forms, for our shared accommodation properties and even for faxes/notices.  All logically broken out so we can find them quickly. Well logically to us at least.

Anyway, as per the video, when we write up our ads, we store copies of them in the appropriate folder and also the images we use for our ads. We don’t just limit it to a couple images, but keep adding as tenants and the look of the property changes so we have a range of pictures we can use.

So again I ask, have you already done something like this, or is it something you can start? My plan for the next few months is to try and add one new either video tip or post for you per week. Looking forward to any feedback you may have!

Landlord Video Tips – Set Your Rents Higher to Avoid Headaches

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Tired of getting stuck with problem tenants? Want to make sure you have more quality applicants for your vacant rental rather than trying to weed through quantity?

In today’s video tip I explain a tip that has helped us get better quality tenants who not only take better care of our properties for us, but also tend to stay longer. Two qualities than can definitely make your life as a landlord easier.

 

As always, i love to hear any feedback ou may have, so leave a comment and don’t forget to share these tips with other landlords you may know. And if you have questions, send them in and I’ll see if I can answer them in a video for you!

Out With The Old, In With The New

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Tenant Turnaround Time

One and a half hours. That was the shortest turnaround time I had between one tenant moving out and another moving into the same property. What was your shortest time?

The Secret is Preparation

It hasn’t always worked out this well for me and typically the turnaround is a day, but there is no reason it shouldn’t be a few hours or less every time. After all, the longer you are vacant, the more money is out of your pocket.

The secret to making this all work though is preparation. So, what do you need to prepare? Well obviously, you need all of your paperwork, leases, exit and entrance walk through forms and deposits paid in advance, but the catch that most landlords worry about, is the condition of the property when tenant #1 leaves.

This is where preparing well in advance pays off and is just part of another strategic system that landlords should have in their arsenal. The question for you at this point is, are you ok with sacrificing an hour now, to prepare some paperwork you can use over and over and over in the future and that allows you to turn tenants over quicker than you thought possible?

One Special Tactic

It all comes down to one extra tactic once your tenant provides notice. This tactic is simply a matter of mailing, or dropping off in person, a copy of the original lease, the walk through and one new form with the tenant, shortly after you have their notice.

The original lease points out their obligations, the walk through reiterates the condition of the property when they moved in and the new form is your ticket to happiness.

This extra form is the one you should prepare immediately and includes a list of expectations for the tenants departure. It reminds the tenant of their responsibilities by pointing to any pertinent clauses you have in your lease. Clauses such as the tenants being responsible to steam clean the carpets if you have them.

It goes over your charges for any cleanup or garbage removal you may require to complete after they move out and details costs they will incur if you have to replace any light bulbs, screens or any other minor items. It also explains that they can get their full security deposit back quite quickly if no extra work is required for cleanup on your part.

If there is significant work to get the property back to original condition this can affect the timeline of them receiving their security deposit and they need to be aware. So break this down in your form as well.

By the rules, you have to return any remaining security deposit back within ten days of them moving out, but if you require work to be done, you can also withhold approximate costs if you have a quote to get this completed and it’s always good to get high quotes, just in case!

The majority of the time though, this lights a fire under the tenants. So, as long as you check the property out a couple weeks prior to the move out, you should have a great idea how quickly the new tenants can move in!

Understanding Costs

You can charge your time out at the equivalent rate for other cleaning companies. So if you do the cleanup yourself, call a few cleaning companies in your area to determine a per hour cost for cleaning and use this in your form.

Also, when talking about costs to replace bulbs, it’s not just the cost of the bulb, but your time. So replacing a bulb isn’t $1, because that’s what it sells for at the store. It’s $5 because you had to buy it, and use your time to replace it. Explaining this and showing the tenant how it’s in their best interest could help you get your turnaround time even lower than mine!

Want To Fill Your Properties Faster?

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Then What’s Your Price Point?

fill your properties faster - advertising for tenants the smart wayWant to fill your properties faster when they’re vacant? Then take a page from Walmart.

Have you ever shopped at Walmart? I think I know the answer, but humour me.

Everywhere you look, items are priced at $19.97, $39.99, $89.97 or even $99.99. They are never priced at $20, $40, $90 or $100 and there is a reason for it.

It’s the same reason you should never advertise your unit for $1,000, $800 or $1,500. Psychologically people think of $995, $797 and $1,499 as lower numbers. Rational thought jumps out of the window and people feel it is less, even if the difference is just a few pennies or even five dollars.

This can be extremely powerful when you are trying to rent out a property, so humour me again and never rent your property out for an even dollar amount!

Bonus Tip

Here’s a quick bonus tip to help ensure your properties get found more often. If you advertise on any of the online rental sites (and I highly recommend you start if you aren’t already doing this) make sure you understand their search functions on the site.

Often the systems allow renters to search by price and you always want to be just under any cut off points. If they break the increments down by $50 it might be tougher to stand out, but if they break them into larger increments, you can make sure your rental fits in the right spot!

If the cut off points are $750, $1,000, $1,250 and increase by $250 from there, you want to fit just under those cut off points. Think $749, $999 and even $1,249. Don’t be afraid to experiment and even try $747, 997 and $1,247. Experiments have shown the number 7 included in a price actually sells better than 9!

Is Your Tenant Who They Say They Are?

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Are You Sure?

Another short tip for you. When you have a tenant applying, it never hurts to have them provide picture ID so you can confirm that you have the right person.

In today’s age of identity theft, criminals renting properties and turning them into grow-ops and meth labs and who knows what else as far as illegal scams go, confirming identities can help thwart some potential headaches.

It only takes a minute and you can then verify you have the correct last name, spelling and often even confirm their date of birth if that is a requirement on your applications (and it should be!).

Advanced Step

I operate a group of furnished shared accommodation properties. These properties are weekly rentals and require very minimal screening. With the minimal screening comes some additional headaches.

In my situation I have some techniques I use to pre-screen tenants, but they are not infallible. By only advertising these properties online I tend to get people educated enough to use computers. By charging higher rates than the low end properties out there, I avoid the majority of the alcoholics and addicts with minimal funds.

There are also several other techniques I use to help make this work efficiently for me. One of them includes checking into the local most wanted listings.

My particular city has a listing that gets updated every week to include the current “at large” criminals and every week I try to take a look to see if I recognize any current or former tenants. I also use this to potentially screen any incoming tenants I might meet.