Maintenance emergency repairs can be tricky and disruptive over the holidays. Tenants often have an increased desire to get any issues quickly addressed, yet, at the same time, it’s difficult for Landlords to schedule and complete maintenance. The best way to address this tension is to be proactive and create Read more…
All sectors of the economy have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdowns and slowdowns it’s caused. The real estate industry has not been immune from these impacts, but interestingly it has recovered more quickly than other sectors and done well over the last year. After a slow-down Read more…
A Step-by-Step Pricing Process It can be tempting to price your rental aspirationally – coming up with a profit that you’d like to make and pricing it based on that. Unfortunately, the process for how to price your rental property is more complicated and needs to factor in many specifics Read more…
Often tenants will ask for an improvement or landlords will decide to make some improvements between tenants, the Costs of Rental Improvements must always be factored. Doing so has a number of benefits, including improving the rentability of a property, increasing the property’s value, reducing maintenance costs, and helping to Read more…
One of the best moves you can make as a landlord is keeping detailed records of your expenses to reduce the tax liability on rent income. Of course, depreciation is a significant expense. Even before a property exceeds the 27.5 year depreciation period, you want to use all the expenses Read more…
While criminal background checks have long been a part of the tenant screening process for landlords, recent legislation in some parts of the country has banned inquiries into potential tenant’s criminal backgrounds. These provisions are aimed at helping ex-convicts find housing after a criminal conviction, a key component of successful Read more…
When screening potential tenants, it’s important for landlords to know all relevant housing laws so that they don’t unknowingly violate federal, state, or local laws or rental discrimination. As a baseline, all landlords should be familiar with federal housing laws. However, because some states and cities have additional laws that Read more…
When moving into a new rental property, there are many logistics for tenants to consider. Amidst the many tasks and responsibilities, it can be easy to overlook some of the key processes that tenants should be prioritizing during move-in. To help you avoid that common problem, here is a tenant Read more…
This winter, as the novel coronavirus began to take hold of the country, many states, cities, and counties acted quickly to minimize the impact of the crisis on tenants, including placing moratoriums on evictions, holds on shutting off utilities due to nonpayment and prohibiting late rent fees. The federal government Read more…
COVID-19 has presented some surprising situations that you’ve likely not seen as a landlord before, including some tenants refusing access to their units for property maintenance. Out of concerns over risking infection or exposure, and in compliance with social distancing or shelter-in-place, it’s completely understandable that tenants would be concerned. Read more…