A Landlords Guide to Upcycling

November 6, 2015 by Amanda Rose Keller Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Investors, Landlords, owner Leave a comment

Upcycling is the art of taking old, unfashionable materials and turning them into something much more chic and contemporary with little to no cost to the owner. Not only this, but upcycling can help keep your property looking modern without having to purchase new furniture every few years. Here’s a quick and handy guide to everything you need to know about upcycling and how it could help save you money while improving the value of your real estate investment.

Furniture:

With furniture, upcycling can be as easy as sanding down some rough edges or applying a new cover to a battered old sofa. But, if you really want to make an impression with prospective tenants, don’t be afraid to get creative. Kitsch art décor can give your property a bohemian vibe while costing you just a few dollars in new materials. Retro patterns and unvarnished wood are great ways to give your property an earthy sixties vibe. Combine this with modern accouterments and you have a property young professionals would die for. The best thing is, providing they’re still in working condition, you can always upcycle your furniture again the next year to keep it up to date.

Fixtures:

If you’re worried that your property may be too old-fashioned for the kind of tenants you want, then upcycling could provide the answer. An old lamp can quickly be turned into something hip with just a little imagination and some easy to acquire materials. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination, taking ideas from the plethora of upcycling blogs on the internet and making them your own. Old fans can become chandeliers, jam jars can become quirky lightbulbs and old advertisement signs can become a piece of contemporary art with just a few simple twists. It may sound like a cliché, but your imagination really is the only limit.

Exterior:

When it comes to upcycling the exterior of your home, there are even more options available. Without needing to worry about your old garden features appearing weather-worn, you can begin to really test your creative skills. Water fountains are surprisingly easy to make from old materials, yet they add character to your garden and ensure an interesting collection of wildlife all year round. Meanwhile, the addition of a garden swing or hammock made from indoor materials will give your property the kind of personal flair that insists prospective tenants take a seat and never leave.

Summary

Upcycling is just one aspect of your property that you have ultimate control over. Don’t be afraid to play around with aspects of your property, but be sure to limit the level of personal touches. Try not to make the unit too orientated to what you like. It’s important that you bear the tenant in mind when setting up your property. As long as your upcycling serves a practical or subtle stylistic purpose, it could go on saving you money tenant after tenant.

How Does Simply Residential Protect Your Rental Properties?

November 3, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Investors, Maintenance, Property Management

Ensuring the safety of what is arguably the largest and most important investment you’ll make in your life is something that we take very seriously at Simply Residential. Here are a few of the services we provide to make sure that your property is protected and being used in a responsible and non-destructive way:

Monthly
Every month we send an email to our tenants to ask them about any maintenance needs. This email includes a list of seasonally appropriate things to check. Since many renters haven’t owned their own home, we take the time to educate them about what they need to look out for and when.

Quarterly
With this optional service, we go to your property once per quarter to change your furnace filter. While we’re there, we do a property walk-through to determine if there are any lease violations on the part of the tenant that need to be addressed.

Annually
This optional service allows us to perform a full assessment of your property and identify any maintenance issues that may come up in the next year. That information allows us to plan out and budget for necessary maintenance needs so you don’t end up having to pay all of the costs at the same time.

Move-in, Move-out
When a tenant moves in, the first thing we do is a walk-though of your property to make thorough notes of its condition, including extensive photographic documentation, with the new tenant. We then collect the tenant’s signature for verification that they were present and agree with our findings. Upon move out, we do the same walk-through to assess for any changes in the condition of your property. This walk-through is fully and extensively documented with photos and covers over 70 points within your property.

24/7/365
No matter what time it is, or the nature of the issue, we have a team of full time, professional maintenance technicians who are available 24/7/365 to our tenants. This allows us to quickly and efficiently rectify any damaging problems and handle emergency needs immediately so they don’t escalate or create more problems in the future. This makes it convenient for tenants to report any problems with the property at any time, which is their responsibility per the signed lease agreement.

Taking care of your property is our first priority. If you’re interested in learning more about our optional annual walk-through and/or quarterly furnace filter change and lease violation check service call us today!

Contact our Maintenance Department: maintenance@simplyres.com or 952-715-6183.

5 Common Property Management Myths, Busted!

October 28, 2015 by Amanda Rose Keller Posted in Property Management Blog

Due to a lack of awareness about what property management companies do and don’t do, the property management industry is ripe with common myths and misconceptions. To help clarify, we’ve come up with a list of common myths and the realities behind them!

Myth #1: You won’t cover your expenses if you have to pay a property manager.
False! We only charge 10% of rents collected and never charge the first month’s rent up front. We make sure our clients’ properties are cash-flowing and if they aren’t we have a wide variety of finance professionals in our network who can help.

Myth #2: Renting out your home makes it harder to sell.
Wrong! Not only does renting your property help you cover the costs of your investment while you’re trying to sell, having a tenant in the unit helps ensure that it’s well maintained and up to the standards of your potential buyers. Plus, at Simply Residential, we partner with the best realtors around, so you can be sure you’re being well represented.

Myth #3: Renters will destroy your property.
That’s not true! In many cases, having a renter helps you keep your rental property in good shape because there’s someone there to notice when things aren’t right.

Myth #4: Involving a third party makes renting out your property more complicated.
False! We say it all the time — we keep property management simple for our clients. The main reason many property owners work with management companies in the first place is to avoid all the complications that go along with self-managing. We handle the day-to-day contact and rent collection, you just have to sit back and collect your earnings.

Myth #5: Not having a contract with your property management company is ideal.
Absolutely not. A legal contract is essential to building trust and holding your property management company legally accountable for their actions or inaction. It adds an extra level of peace of mind to a sometimes stressful situation. Plus, it helps each party clearly outline their expectations and responsibilities in a way that can be easily referenced to clear up any confusion.

Do you have questions about our property management services and what makes us different? Send me an email and let’s chat!

Why Should You Partner With Simply Residential?

October 27, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Partners, Property Management

The real estate industry touches many different professions. To buy a home, a buyer often needs financing and insurance, along with a realtor to help them with the big decision they’re making. Historically, home buyers have had to track down these services independently. At Simply Residential, we’re changing the game.

We strive to provide everything our clients will need to transition from owning their home, to renting it out, to eventually selling it. To do that, we need a large network of partners who can help our clients, and experience added benefits along the way. Here are some of the benefits that we can provide to our partners.

Want to learn more? Visit our partner page, or email us today!

What Can a Homeowner Do About a Problem Tenant?

October 22, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Legal

The more time you spend in property management or rental ownership, the more experience you have with nightmare tenants. We don’t come across them frequently, but they are definitely out there. I’ve noticed an up-tick in conversation about bad renters, and quickly realized that there is a lot of misinformation out there. Let me help set the record straight for you: Legally, what can you do with a problem tenant?

First and foremost, your best bet is to avoid a bad tenant from the start. This means you need to screen. Check the prospective tenant’s criminal and credit background and contact all of their previous landlords directly. Sometimes, there are things that don’t show up on reports that you need to know. The more information you have, the more protected you will be.

Once you’ve found the right tenant, the next step to remaining protected is to have an air-tight lease. When the terms are clearly laid out and signed by both parties, there are fewer loop holes and gray areas. For example, your lease must include a “right of re-entry” or eviction clause in order to evict a tenant for a material breach of a lease, with the exception of statutory violations and not paying rent. This is something that will come in handy if you encounter a problem tenant. Even then, the process is long and convoluted.

Once the lease agreement is signed, it’s important to let your renter know you’re serious about the terms you both agreed to. Be strict with the rules. It may feel counter-intuitive to behave this way, but if you let a lot of little things slide, that opens the door up for bigger problems down the line. You should also charge lease violation and late rent fees consistently to help deter renters from making late payments or bending or breaking the rules.

Even with an extravagant amount of precautions being taken, you could still wind up with a bad renter. If that’s the case, you have a few options. If you have a month-to-month lease, you can give them a written 60-day notice to vacate. This is definitely the easiest option, but could result in 60 more days of non-payment or continued disruption of other tenants or destruction of property. Often, the problem tenant is locked into a 6 month or a year-long lease. If this is the case, your best option is eviction.

The Minnesota Housing Association says the following reasons are acceptable for filing an eviction action in the State of Minnesota. If you’re curious to learn more, you can read all tenant/landlord related legal guidelines in Minnesota Statute 504B. It can be found online at revisor.mn.gov.

1. Failure to pay rent. The tenant may redeem the tenancy at any time before possession of the premises has been delivered to the landlord by paying past due rent, costs of the eviction action, including the court filing fee, and other requirements under the lease.

2. Lease violations. The lease must contain a “right of re-entry” or eviction clause for the landlord to evict a tenant for a material breach of a lease, except for nonpayment of rent and statutory violations. This clause gives the landlord a right to evict the tenant for violating lease provisions like disturbing other residents, causing damage to property, unauthorized persons living on the property, or unauthorized pets. To be clear, this is the most difficult reason for eviction because it requires proof that isn’t always readily available. In the event the tenant sues you, it’s likely they’ll win for this kind of eviction because Minnesota is known to be a tenant friendly state.

3. Illegal activities prohibited by Minnesota Statute (504B). A landlord may evict a tenant, or assign the right to the county or city attorney, if the tenant engages in or permits activities named in the statute, such as:

unlawful controlled substances in the premises or common area
unlawful use or possession of a firearm
stolen property in the premises or common area
prostitution
criminal gang activity

This kind of violation also requires proof to warrant an eviction.

4. Holdover tenant. A holdover tenant is one whose lease has expired or where proper notice to vacate has been given, but the tenant remains in the rental unit without the landlord’s consent.

Eviction is a complicated process, but is unfortunately sometimes the only option available. For this reason, we offer a monthly Eviction Protection Plan to our clients — we handle the whole process and take on the responsibility. If you’re interested in learning more about this optional service, call me at 952-831-5300

Photo credi: Flickr.com

3 Steps to a Rent-Ready Property [Infographic]

October 14, 2015 by Amanda Rose Keller Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Landlords, Maintenance, owner, Pricing Strategy

Thinking about renting out your property? There are a lot of considerations that need to be made before your property will be ready for a new tenant. The most important things to remember are to determine your needs first, to evaluate the condition of your property, and to document everything.

Working with a property management company eliminates almost all of this responsibility for you as the property owner. To find out how we can help you get rent-ready, and stay that way, contact us today!

The Real Estate Counter Balance: Rent or Sell?

October 13, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Investors, Pricing Strategy, Property Management

The real estate industry is something that affects every single person, and for that reason there’s often a plethora of information available from several points of view. While most of this information is provided with the best intentions, it’s often more gossip than fact. Recently there have been quite a few articles claiming that the rental market is exploding right now. Of course, we’re inclined to agree with this statement from a business standpoint, but feel compelled to add a caveat in the interest of full disclosure. While it’s accurate to say that landlords can charge more for rent now than they previously have, these high rents are actually pushing many would-be renters into the buy/sell process.

This phenomenon is what we at Simply Residential call the real estate counter balance. When more people are buying homes, there are fewer renters in the market, and vice versa. This means that it’s advantageous for owners to be strategic and competitive when pricing their rental property in times where the market favors buy/sell. This will get your property more attention from potential renters, and ultimately get it rented faster. The faster a tenant is placed in your property, the sooner you start to see the financial benefits of your rental property.

As a property owner or investor, it’s difficult to know whom to trust in situations like this one. There’s quite a bit of conflicting information out there, and it’s hard to know what to believe. Luckily, owners and investors that work with a quality property management company like Simply Residential Property Management, have a partner to help them sort these things out. After all, that’s our job. Did you know that we perform a rental analysis for every lease agreement renewal? That way we can make sure that our clients are getting the most return on their investment.

The benefit of working with a local property management company is that they also have an intimate knowledge of specific markets. We live and work in the Twin Cities and surrounding communities and are able to understand certain nuances that often help us get properties rented faster.

Do you have questions about the value of your rental property, or are you contemplating what your next steps will be? We’re here for you! Call us today and let’s talk: 952-831-5300.

Ask SRPM: How Do We Find You a Quality Renter for Free?

October 8, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Property Management, Renter placement Leave a comment

Finding a good renter sounds like an easy enough process — you make a list of qualifications, and compare that list to the qualifications of interested potential renters, right? Not exactly. While those steps are certainly a part of the process, there’s a lot more that goes into finding the right renter for your property than what meets the eye.

At Simply Residential Property Management, we offer free renter placement services as part of our management agreement, but we also offer placement services on their own to rental property owners who choose to self manage. Every property management company goes about finding tenants in their own way. Here’s how we do it at SRPM:

1. The first step in renting out your property is marketing — spreading the word that your awesome rental property is available. We aggressively market your property on over 170 websites, and partner with a broad network of realtors and relocation companies to further expand our reach. We do showings 7 days a week, days and evenings, whenever it’s convenient for potential renters to see your property.

2. Once we show your property, tenants begin the application process. We have a strict set of renter criteria that each potential tenant must measure up to before they’re considered for your property.

3. When potential tenants pass our criteria check and fill out a full application, we do full background checks on each person named on the lease, including criminal, credit, income verification and past tenant rental history. We leave no stone unturned when it comes to ensuring we find the best renters possible for your property. We feel so strongly about this part of the process that we guarantee our renters for the first year they’re in your property — if they don’t work out, we’ll find a new one and cover the marketing costs ourselves.

4. If an interested potential renter fits all of our criteria and passes our extensive background checks, we draft a lease agreement that protects your interests as an owner, and theirs as a renter. This lease is a binding contract that ensures that the terms of the rental agreement are honored under penalty of fines, or even eviction if the renter fails to adhere to the rules.

5. Lastly, before the renter moves in, we have a 30-step internal checklist to ensure that every aspect of our processes have been covered for your protection. In addition, we have a 72 point move-in walk-through that we adhere to with the tenant present. We thoroughly check every possible aspect of your home for existing damage prior to their move-in date, and document with photos. Once the inspection is completed, the tenant and our maintenance technician sign the document together, ensuring each party is aware of any existing damage and agrees to the assessments made in the document.

Finding a renter on your own can be tough. Working with a property management company like Simply Residential makes it easier, we take on the heavy lifting and you get the advantage of our broad network of partners, marketing resources, and full time staff working for you. If you’re looking for a renter for an existing rental property, or just have questions about the rest of our processes, contact us today!

Fall Is Here, Are You Ready?

October 6, 2015 by Amanda Rose Keller Posted in Property Management Blog, Simply Residential News Tagged Landlords, Maintenance, Simply Residential Property Management

Is your rental property ready for fall?

As summer comes to an end, Minnesotans begin the process of preparing for the fall and winter seasons. Much of that preparation involves buying new back-to-school clothes, sealing up the windows, and making sure that all hats, coats and other winter gear are up to snuff. With all that preparation, homeowners often overlook the needs of their home due to the changing weather.

For example, while changing leaves are stunning for sight-seeing, they’re an absolute nightmare for your gutters. If you have a rental property, the last thing you’re going to want to do is come home from watching the changing colors to clean dead leaves out of the gutters. Luckily, when you work with Simply Residential Property Management, these things don’t need to be a concern. We offer this service at a nominal charge as part of our maintenance services.

Along with cleaning your gutters, it’s also necessary to blow out your sprinkler system. While it isn’t necessarily a difficult task, it can certainly be a burden to take the time out of your day to do this amidst all of the back to school hubbub. Are you going to want to take a day off of work to take care of this? In our experience, it’s easier and more effective for us to perform this service for our clients. After all, what is your time worth?

Lastly, it’s important to remember to check your furnace before the cold weather sets in. Unlike your air conditioner, you can check your furnace at any time and at any temperature. Don’t get caught off guard and end up with cold and angry tenants! We offer this service to our clients on a yearly basis to ensure they’re always ready for the season. You can have any of these services on their own, or we can do an annual maintenance walk-through to help you get a better understanding of what maintenance issues may come up in the next year. As we say goodbye to summer and usher in a beautiful Minnesota fall, don’t forget to consider the special needs of your rental property.

If you’d like us to take these tasks off of your plate, give us a call: 952-893-9900!

Renter Placement vs. Property Management: What’s the Difference?

September 24, 2015 by Ron Huckabee Posted in Property Management Blog Tagged Landlords, owner, Property Management

Many property management companies, like Simply Residential, offer both property management and renter placement services. For this reason, we often encounter questions about what a homeowner truly needs in order to rent out their home — do they need a property management service, or do they just need someone to help them find a renter? The right solution can often be found by a quick discussion about resources. Essentially, if you plan to use a renter placement service, you’re taking all legal responsibility for that lease agreement upon yourself once the renter has signed it. Property management services are different. For example, at Simply Residential, we don’t charge for renter placement with a management agreement, and we take on all risk and liability from a legal standpoint by actually signing the lease with the tenant.

There are a few more distinguishing factors between renter placement and property management that have helped our clients decide what is best for them. Let’s start with the basics.

What is Renter Placement?

There is more to renter placement than you might anticipate right off the bat. This service should include marketing your property to help get the attention of prospective renters, screening applicants through criminal background and credit checks, and ultimately choosing which renter will be best for your rental property. That is the extent of the scope of a renter placement service.

If you feel confident taking on legal responsibility, even in the event of an eviction, and are able to draft a solid lease, this could be a good option for you. Keep in mind, there are going to be maintenance needs and emergencies that will arise during the time you rent out your home, so be prepared for those situations as well.

What is property management?

Property management services can vary from company to company. When we talk about property management at Simply Residential, we’re referring to the services that we provide to our clients, and they may not be the same as another company’s services. Generally speaking, property management covers the services provided by renter placement and adds on maintenance services, rent collection, lease signing and renewals, and anything else you may request in the management of your property.

Ultimately, the majority of our clients choose to take advantage of our property management services for the peace of mind they allow. It’s good to know that someone has things under control in your rental property, especially when you have other things going on that require your attention. After all, being a landlord is a big job, and nobody likes late-night maintenance emergencies and tracking down tenants for late rent. Those are the kind of details we thrive on at Simply Residential.

If you’re curious to find out what services you need, take our new quiz! Otherwise, give me a call at 952-831-5300 — I’m happy to discuss options and services with you for a more personalized set of information.