What Real Estate Investors Need To Know About Property Management

Once you purchase a real estate rental property, you virtually become the CEO of your own small business. Sure, you feel good about becoming a landlord and owner of your own private money-maker, but unless it?s raw land, your work has just begun.

Now you must manage the property. As a real estate investor who has chosen the renting of apartments as a business, your goal now is to keep the units full, and at the highest rent per square foot possible.

So let?s consider the big picture of property management and look at some rental management basics every real estate investor should be aware of inside real estate investment.

1. Property condition. Getting the best tenants and commanding the highest rent starts with a sharp-looking building that has good curb appeal. Keep the structure, landscaping, common areas, and parking in good clean condition.
2. Tenant applications and screening. Require each potential tenant to complete an application, and then follow up to verify their employment, rental history, and credit and criminal history. Remember, it is always easier to get tenants into your building then it is to get tenants out of your building.
3. Emergency repairs. Be sure you have reputable maintenance personnel on-call to service emergency repairs. This may be your job or someone you hire, just be sure the tenant has a repair ?help line? they can call 24 hours a day when something must be fixed immediately.
4. Aggressive marketing of vacancies. Get the word out about an upcoming vacancy instantly. Use signage, advertise in the newspaper, or post it on the web.
5. Move-in/move-out coordination. Always plan to get a unit ?rent-ready? within a day or two after it becomes vacated. Even when you don?t have a new tenant in the wings, a clean unit ready to show a prospective tenant does help.
6. Keys and locks. It is always a good idea to change locks each time you have a turnover in tenants. This added security is good for you and your new tenant.
7. Learn the laws about eviction. Know what you must do to evict a deadbeat tenant even when you don?t think it is necessary.
8. Keep accurate books and records. Maintaining a good income and expense history is vital to your rental property business and the cornerstone to profitability.

Many real estate investors simply turn their properties over to professional management companies. The advantage being that it relieves the real estate investor of the time and stress of having to deal with tenants and repairs, and puts matters like late rents into the hands of experts.

On the other hand, a professional management company is not free. Moreover, in cases where the property is small enough for owner management, the cost of outside fees for professional property management might not be justifiable.

You must decide whether you want to hire out the management out or to do it yourself. The important thing is not to neglect a sound plan for property management. Otherwise you could find that owning and becoming CEO of your rental property business can quickly become more unpleasant than profitable.

James R Kobzeff is an active real estate broker and developer of ProAPOD Real Estate Investment Software - Rental property analysis at your fingertips! Free real estate investing tips are available at ProAPOD's real estate investing blog

Top 3 Commercial Real Estate Investors Time Management Strategies

One of the questions I get asked a lot from clients is how do I manage multiple real estate deals projects all at once? Here are some specific strategies for you to consider:

a) Who to spend time with?

You need to consider spending BUSINESS TIME on only those who are going to contribute to your bottom line and goal achievement. All else needs to get put into the "we'll get back to you" pile. It is easy to get locked up with people that do nothing but take up your time. Don't do it.

I constantly have people wanting to meet with me, talk with me, etc. that don't contribute to the achievement of my goals they get put on the bottom of the pile and sometimes I never get back to them.

b) Keeping away from time vampires.

Time vampires are those that call you, come into your office, and tell you the "whole story" constantly. You need to politely tell these people "adios". You ever notice that you have those days where you have a lot of activity and by the end of the day you really have not gotten anything done? Time vampires are the main reason why.

c) Having a clear objective in the first place.

What are your goals, your objectives?? Where do you want to end up? How do you plan on getting there? Without a plan you will be spinning your wheels and the cash flow and value of your will suffer because of it.

So, there you go. We did not reinvent anything today, but it is surprising how the use of your time is tied to your income and the results you want.

About Darin Garman, CCIM?Considered by many to be one of the foremost experts in North America on Apartment and Commercial Property Investments, Darin Garman assists investors in maximizing their wealth through commercial real estate investments. Over the last 13 years Darin has assisted investors in the purchase and sale of over $300,000,000 in apartments and commercial real estate, and has direct ownership and management of over $11,000,000 in investment real estate himself. Darin is a frequent guest on radio and TV talk shows, and has co-authored books such as ?Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs...The No Holds Barred Kick Butt Guide To Becoming Rich?, which was co-authored by Darin with business and marketing guru Dan Kennedy. ***** Have you taken advantage of the "FREE 2-Month Test Drive of Darin Garman's Commercial Investment Property Owners Association Membership" ? Go To: ***** www.garmanupdate.com or www.commercial-investments.com

Property Management Software

Property management software is a computer program or computer programs that serve to simplify, streamline, and otherwise facilitate the management of property you own or hope to own. The software is equipped with many useful functions to take care of costs, run tasks, oversee labor, and other helpful aspects. Property management, as the name suggests, is meant to deal with the proper management services and scrutiny of various properties. Nonetheless, property management is a particular discipline of defining and achieving targets in matters of properties. At the same time its primary purpose is to optimize the varied utilizations of resources including energy, space, time, people, technology and many others. But for every property management, time constraints play a major part in the whole process.

For every property management, work is conducted under the supervision of an individual property manager. It is the responsibility of the property manager to organize and supervise the work that needs to be done. There is a lot of software on the market that is designed to make a property manager's job easier.

All the property works are primarily planned through the application of software that not only gives the virtual image of the whole property, but also errorless calculations and accounting works, cost factors, management planning and such other works. Although the best property management professionals are hired for the projects, computer software gives the detailed analysis of the plan, including the calculations and statistical implications. There is even web-based software to manage and facilitate the handling of properties.

Property Management Software provides detailed information on Property Management Software, Real Estate Property Management Software, Rental Property Management Software, Property Management Accounting Software and more. Property Management Software is affiliated with Healthcare PM Software.

Property Management Advice for Landlords

Discover what every landlord should know about finding tenants and why picking the best person is not always as easy as it sounds.

The most important decision any landlord makes is deciding who can live in their property. Who will you, as the owner, allow to live in your investment? This decision is so vital to the profitability of any property investment business and affects the business on so many levels that it?s amazing that some landlord don?t have a formalised procedure to protect themselves from making bad decision.

Let?s think about what we?re actually doing when we rent a property. Instead of thinking of the property as a monthly income generator think of it as a pile of cash. Cash you have tied up in the deposit and purchasing costs. Cash you hope to gain a regular income from through renting and more cash that you?ll receive if you sell the property and realise your capital gains. (Assuming house prices have risen since you purchased). If you include in this the value you place on your time spend finding the property, buying and arranging the rental then we have a very serious investment on our hands indeed.

Now, imagine all that money in real, tangible terms, stacked up in a room in the house and then consider we hand over the keys to someone and say, ?See you next year?. Now we can begin to see how important it is to select the right tenant. Of course, I?m being dramatic and we do have legal safe guards but I hope that by considering your investment in terms of hard cash (like a professional investor) then you?ll treat the question of occupancy very seriously.

There?s more to it than just financials. Not only are we trusting the tenant to look after our investment but we?re also investing our free time with them. What do I mean? If we are managing the property ourselves and not using a letting agent then we have made a serious commitment in time to look after that tenant. If you have a tenant who does not appreciate your property or does not treat it with care and respect then you run the risk of losing your evening and weekends in maintenance and management tasks. What about rent collection? An unreliable tenant who does not pay on time creates stress and worry. Legal protection lets us all sleep better at night but the practicalities of recouping money and legal costs are a headache we do not need and one that?s very avoidable.

Once we know how seriously we need to take the task of finding the correct tenant we can start looking for the very best people. In this case ?best? has two simple criteria. 1) They pay on time and in full 2) They look after the property as if it were their own.

I?m going to discuss three tools we can use to help find good tenants. The first is a long and very comprehensive application form. I ask for as much detail as possible from the tenant. I need all their contact details, ID, proof of current address such as telephone or electric bills, previous addresses and, perhaps most importantly, references from their employer, previous landlord (if they?re moving out of home I?ll ask for their parents? contact details) and a character reference from a recognised member of the community such as a Doctor or Teacher. Importantly, I always act on these references. I will check with whomever they have given to make sure the details are correct and they can vouch for the applicant.

Secondly, I ask for a larger deposit than the usual 4 weeks rent. Typically I ask for 6 weeks rent (UK law give the tenant an automatic option to sublet if the deposit is too excessive, say more than 8 weeks rent). Paying more upfront is usually a good sign that they are serious.

Finally, I have to feel comfortable about the people. If I can get along with them when the property is viewed and when we talk on the telephone and if I don?t have any intuitive alarm bells going off then I trust my own judgement.

At this point you might be wondering about a credit check? Yes this is a great tool depending on the affluence of your potential tenants. Some of my properties are let to people on social security benefits, many of whom I?ve had to help set up a bank account even. In these cases a credit check would not be beneficial but for better off tenants it can be a worth while exercise.

Once we know how to approach the subject of finding great tenants we can consider why people make poor letting decisions. In my experience the worst decisions about tenants are made in pressure situations. An empty property is very damaging to the bottom line of a landlord. If a property is unoccupied it?s very tempting to let the first person who comes along have the tenancy. I know, I?ve made the mistake myself (several times I?m reluctant to admit). This situation is exacerbated if you find your property is not in demand. If you only get one phone call from your advert in the local paper then you?re putting pressure on yourself and your business.

Therefore, the best way to make a good decision is to have a lot of people to choose from. Creating a big list of possible tenants comes from good advertising with good descriptions of you property and its selling points, realistic pricing (even undercutting competition in a renter market) and building a solid reputation as a landlord.

Steve Norton is a landlord with 9 years of experience and owns properties in the UK and Australia. With a clear focus on making the landlord's life as easy as possible while maximising profit more of Steve's insider tips on landlording can be found at Property Management Advice for Landlords.