Top 5 Reasons to Reject a Tenant

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Admin

Of course, there are many reasons to reject a rental applicant, whether it’s because they smoke,  have too many cars for the property, or a noisy pet… the list goes on and on.

But there are some applicants with flaws that are so fundamental that a landlord can’t afford to rent to them — literally.

Here are the top ones to avoid:

1. Violent crimes. Involvement in a violent crime puts other tenants and neighbors at risk, and increases the landlord’s chances of getting sued for negligence. Once word gets out that someone who could be dangerous is living nearby, the whole neighborhood will be up in arms about it, and other tenants may leave.

2. A prior eviction. An eviction speaks volumes about a tenant. The fact that they broke the rules is bad enough. But not owning up to it, and making a landlord fork out the money and time needed to file an eviction and force the tenant out is even worse.

The exception would be an applicant who can show that the eviction was not their fault — like in the case of a tenant who paid rent to a landlord in foreclosure, and was auto-evicted by the bank. The applicant in this instance should have court records that can prove their point.

3. Sketchy application. When you see a lot of blank spaces on the app, chances are high this applicant is hiding something they don’t want you to know. Maybe they are hoping you won’t notice.

They didn’t waste any time filling out the application, so don’t waste any time in rejecting them.

4. Can’t produce a landlord reference. An applicant who asks you not to talk to the current landlord is a high risk. This is someone who may be breaking their current lease, or trying to get a new place before the eviction goes on record. If they are doing that to their current landlord, there’s no reason to believe they won’t do the same thing to you.

5. No verifiable source of income. In Colorado alone, 26 marijuana grow operations have been uncovered in the course of only a few months. Many of those were in rental properties, in very nice neighborhoods, and run by tenants who had children in the house.  These properties suffer significant damage, become vacant crime-scenes, and may be treated as environmental hazards, requiring an expensive, government-supervised cleaning.

There is no way of knowing which rental applicant is a criminal, but looking at source of income can tip you off. Applicants who are self-employed or cash-only business owners need to be scrutinized.

Article from the (AAOA) American Apartment Owners Association

Commercial or Residential Property Managers?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Admin

If you’ve recently acquired a commercial investment or if you manage your own investments and would like to turn the daily operations off to someone else, do you choose residential or commercial property management? Both have their share of pros and cons.

You’ll want to optimize the ROI, and you work to achieve and sustain full occupancy at all of your properties. But as owners we can’t always be on-site on a regular basis. So professional property management is incredibly important to us as profitable business owners.

Some large metropolitan regions have professional real estate management organizations made up of many large departments, collectively delivering leasing and property management services for retail, office, shopping center, land and for the industrial property sectors.

Professional property managers will know the best way to increase your profits by reducing vacancies and acquiring tenants. The superior commercial property managers are going to have an in depth background of employing creative solutions to complex real estate property issues.

As a whole professional property management is an industry, which practices the objectives of leasing, inspection, tenant retention, fiscal management and so on. Your professional property managers are trained to deal with the strategic planning connected with operating a residential or commercial property in an effort to boost or maintain the value of the real estate investment.

Along with satisfying these obligations, property managers should also fully grasp and comply with relevant laws, for example the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Federal Fair Housing Amendment Act, and community fair housing laws. Expect to pay property managers that are managing significant complexes approximately $75,000 per year.

You’ll need good professional property managers or property management companies for a professionally operated commercial property, not a residential property manager. While both professionals will be highly competent, the commercial manager will maintain a different skill set.

The skill set needed for your commercial investment. As such commercial property management will vary significantly from the management of residential properties. Consequently commercial property management will also require a different kind of analysis than residential management.

Even though many property managers still use Excel spreadsheets or even a pencil and paper to manage their investments, there are actually far better resources readily available. By permitting landlords or rental property professionals to automate and monitor the leasing process from start to finish, commercial property management software will take most of the headaches out of property leasing. Features consist of: tenant screening, move-in, rent/utility payments, maintenance, vacancy planning, move-out, and make-ready.

In summation commercial property management consists of managing the day-to-day operations and leasing of real estate properties such as apartment communities, office, retail, commercial and industrial spaces. Contract facility managers could be retained to deal with an entire complex or merely a single portion of a large operation.

Professional commercial property managers pay rigorous focus to two critical facets, making for a wise investment property: preserving the all important safety and structural integrity/quality of the complex, and improving profits for you the owner. There really is no choice, you need professional commercial management for your investment.