Property Management Provides Peace of Mind

 While real estate can be a lucrative investment, managing tenants, repairs, and related issues can be challenging. This is especially true for owners who live in another location or have full-time jobs beyond their real estate investments. For these individuals, hiring the right property management company can provide much-needed peace of mind. Here are questions to ask when interviewing a potential property manager.

1. How long have you been in business?

Not only is a lengthy record in the industry often indicative of a trustworthy business, but it also means a manager has likely dealt with most problems that tend to crop up with rentals. Experience with a range of issues, including legal, accounting, emergency response, and maintenance expertise, is essential.

2. Are you licensed by the appropriate state and industry authorities?

In most states, licensed managers must take an approved property management course and passed a state licensing exam. A licensed property manager in charge, or PMIC, is allowed to manage other managers and run his or her own business. He or she is knowledgeable about state regulations for handling rental income, security deposits, and other financial matters.

In addition to licensure, certification can indicate more extensive industry knowledge. These credentials are granted by trade organizations, including the Institute of Real Estate Management, National Apartment Association, National Association of Residential Property Managers, and the Community Associations Institute.

3. Can you provide referrals from past clients?

A property manager should be able to provide contact information for current or past clients that have agreed to speak on his or her behalf. Potential clients should check out the addresses of which the business is in control to ensure that they are being run properly. By the same token, relying on referrals from trusted contacts is a good way to vet a short list of potential companies.

4. What fees do you charge?

While there can be a wide range of industry fees, the standard costs include a management fee ranging from 4 to 12 percent of the monthly rent, depending on the location and condition of the real estate, whether there is more than one holding, how many units in each, and what types of services are required. Some companies charge a monthly vacancy fee when the home is uninhabited, while others require the full fee regardless of whether there's a current tenant. A set-up fee for a new client can be up to $300. Also, those relying on a management company to find tenants can expect to pay 25% to 100% of the first month's rent (usually around 50 percent).

5. How often do they inspect?

The answer to this question is a key to ensuring that a real estate investment is protected. While a property management firm should inspect anytime there is tenant turnover, regular inspections should still be done when there's a long-term tenant. Intervals can vary, but units or homes should be inspected at least once a year, as well as an external inspection every quarter to notice any potential developing issues.

Grieving Real Estate Taxes

 Different municipalities, in various parts of the country, use a number of different methods, of determining real estate taxes, Some of these have very simple systems, and even those usually have a number of flaws. Others, like in New York City, there is less burden on real estate taxes, because most of the fees and taxes, are derived from income, etc. Here, in Nassau County, just east of New York City, there is a somewhat complicated system in place, where those who don't try to grieve their assessed values (and thus their tax), are often punished by that very system. This article will discuss localities, where homeowners have the ability, to grieve these rates, etc. Basically, there are only 3 options available: 1) Do nothing; 2) Do it yourself; and, 3) Hire a qualified company to represent you.

1. Do nothing: When you receive your annual assessed value, which has been determined by assessors, hired by the municipality, you decide to do nothing. While one might do this because of either laziness, ignorance, a misled - belief in the system/ fairness, etc, the result is often getting punished, because many others will dispute their assessment, and often receive some sort of reduction. Remember, grieving these, has no substantive penalty, if denied!

2. Do it yourself: The procedure is not a complicated one, and it is certainly possible to do this oneself. However, that may also be said for preparing one's income tax, etc, and most people benefit from using the services of professionals, who specialize in this procedure. The advantage of doing it yourself is, if you win, you will receive the entire savings, while if you hire someone, you'll pay a fee. The disadvantages of going the solo route include: unfamiliarity with the nuances of the form; inability to use the most relevant Comparables, and/ or appearing by oneself, if it ends up going to a hearing.

3. Hire a qualified company: This is the route I have taken every year. Could I have done this myself, and saved paying them, if they win the reduction for me? Probably, but also understand, this company receives nothing unless they get me a savings, and then they receive a percentage of what they've saved. I look at this as found money, and I have to do nothing other than hire them, risk - free. I favor this route because it has been a successful course of action, for me!

Regardless of which way makes you feel comfortable, I urge you to seriously consider either proceed using the second or third route, and don't leave your money on the table, by failing to grieve, while many others do. When you go to sell your home, taking no action, might hurt you, because your house will probably show significantly higher real estate taxes, than your neighbors.

Property Management Made Simple

 A fast, simple and effective way for landlords to manage their property portfolio with minimum hassle.

Being a landlord or a property manager can be an arduous task. There is usually an endless list of jobs that need to be taken care of, whether you're managing a single property or a vast portfolio. There are several landlord property care apps offered by property management groups to help property owners in managing their property and keep everything running smoothly, taking the stress out of daily tasks.

WHY DO I NEED AN APP FOR THIS?

Downloading the app provides a simple and efficient way for you to manage your properties. It's intelligently designed, easy to use features have been developed by the experts in app development to cater for your specific requirements. With its key features you can digitally take control of all tasks with a swipe of your finger.

KEY FEATURES:

• Managing Tenants
• Monthly rental payments
• Utility management
• Rent review
• Property inspection reports
• Annual safety tests
• Lease management
• Print yearly/ monthly taxable finances.

MANAGING TENANTS AND RENT

When it comes to managing rent owed and tenants the app couldn't make it simpler if it tried! You go to the sub section you need, click the icon and straight away you can add new tenants, storing their personal information i.e. phone number and address, as well as their moving date and contract end. As for rent you merely need to select the property in your portfolio, specify the date, rental fee and Estate agents commission and you're sorted. This saves a lot of time and productivity in the long run, meaning you're not chasing any overdue payments or tenant details.

TAX MADE SIMPLE

Everyone knows that trying to keep on top of yearly tax returns can be a nightmare, but this is just another reason why this app is extremely beneficial. It allows you to do your own book-keeping on the move, by logging all of your income and expenses, when and where you necessary, to keep on top of your accounts. In the long run this will be more beneficial for your accountant or even for yourself if you organise your own accounting. Moving forward, this means you can review monthly and yearly reports with the tap of one finger, as well as track your taxes making your End of Year returns report easy to access, and print off for your benefits.

The same format is used when logging Expenses, again these are all kept in one place, and you can easily input property expenses through their individual property details and log important expenses such as Interest only mortgage, Capital Mortgage, Repairs, Insurance, Cleaning, agents involved etc.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

An additional benefit is that you will have a dedicated support team which promises to assist you with any technical and non-technical help that you may require. This gives you reassurance and trust that your portfolio details are in the right hands, and that all information is deemed confidential, to which you will only have access to, and none of which will be shared to other Property Managers.

Reasons for Hiring a Property Manager

 The dreaded phone call comes in that your tenant has a clogged toilet at 8pm at night. What now? So you scurry over to your rental property to determine if you can fix it. You check it out, maybe even try to plunge it. Nothing happens, still a slow drain and a gurgling noise. At this point you have wasted over an hour of your time, time that you should be spending elsewhere.

You shrug your shoulders and tell your tenant you will call a plumber as they will need to snake the drain. Giving your tenant the benefit of the doubt that there are likely roots in the main line which is causing the gurgling. You finally get a hold of a plumber that will be there sometime tomorrow between the hours of 1 and 4 pm... and you need to be there to authorize work. Ugh! Now what?

So you take the afternoon off of work and wait for the 30 minute courtesy call that they are on their way. You get the call! You head over to the rental property and meet the plumber, the tenant says that the slow drain and the gurgling is still happening. The plumber looks for the clean-out, but can't find it and you aren't sure where it is. So the plumber goes to the roof with his snake. 30 minutes later he comes down with a child's small toy that had been flushed down the toilet. OK, not great, but at least it's fixed for a couple of hundred dollars and not tree roots. The plumber goes back inside to test the toilet and comes back out with bad news... still won't flush!

So now the plumber says, do you want me to pull the toilet? That's another charge. You shrug your shoulders and say yes, because what else are you going to do. The plumber takes his snake inside and pulls the toilet. He starts his snake and out comes a headless child's doll covered in toilet paper from about 1 foot down the pipe.

Now the plumber comes back out and says, here is what I found. Since the toilet is off do you want me to camera the drain in the case there are more items down there. Of course you say yes, cause if he puts the toilet back then has to come back to do it that is another charge.

Plumber comes back out and says the camera showed nothing else is in the drain. You sigh and he fills out his paperwork along with charges of around $300-400. He puts in his report the issues and the apparent abuse caused by the tenant. You ask him to put as much detail in the report as possible so that you can charge back to the tenant, and he obliges and says good luck with that.

At this point you are into this little project for over 4 hours of your time, half a day off work spent standing outside of your rental, and a few hundred dollars because your tenant's child decided they didn't want their toys anymore.

And people say Property Management is to expensive.

Granted you still probably would have paid the plumber, but at a discounted rate. The soft costs are your time, energy, paid time off, and the stress of the situation.