Property Manager Monday

Due to the nature of the arrangement, you’ll most likely be dealing with the management personnel from the property you live at pretty frequently. They’ll be the ones handling your rent, your maintenance requests, and the overall experience living at that property. It’s hard to know whether or not you’ve found yourself a good property manager until you move in, so it’s important to do some research before you get yourself in too deep.

Check reviews online to see what previous residents of that property have to say about the management. The internet can reveal all sorts of things that you wouldn’t find out from visiting the property and speaking to the management. Ask around and see if anyone you know lives at that property and talk to them about their experiences with the management; have they had trouble getting in contact with the property manager? Do maintenance requests take a long time to fulfill? Does the management reach out to residents? Is the community well-equipped? These are all things that you should know before making the decision to move there or not. The management may come off as super nice and helpful, and that may be the case, but you really won’t know how residents are treated until you move in.

If the management at the place you’re interested in runs more than one property, check it out and see what it’s like. Consistency is very important, and you want to find a property manager that is consistent in making residents happy.

property manager

Keep it Clean

As someone renting a home, you’re not liable for all of the same maintenance things that a homeowner is. Because of this, you’re responsible for a different set of things, as stated in your lease. One of the most important things in the lease agreement (aside from rent, duh) is making sure that you take good care of your property and leave it as your landlord first rented it to you. A huge component of making sure that your property is maintained well is by keeping it clean.

Appliances pretty much fall into the group of things that we use regularly, so they should be cleaned regularly. Though it depends on the specific terms of your lease, it’s usually your landlord’s responsibility to make sure that your appliances are working well, and repair or replace them when they’re not. However, your landlord is not responsible for the daily cleaning and daily maintenance of said appliances. Things like microwaves, refrigerators, ovens, etc. are used pretty regularly, so you should be cleaning them often, too. If you don’t clean these things regularly, you’re gonna have a whole lot of cleaning to deal with when you move out. While they probably get more dirty than others, kitchen appliances aren’t the only things you should be cleaning. If you want to make sure that your dryer is functioning right, make sure you regularly remove the lint from it. Not only does this allow it to work properly, but it also helps prevent a fire happening from the buildup.

The Kids Are All Right

kids

For an adult, moving to a new home may not seem like such a huge deal; but for a child, this isn’t always the case. You won’t really be able to enjoy your new home if your kids aren’t happy with the move, so it’s important to make sure that they’re comfortable and happy in your new place.

As far as finding a good area, try to look in neighborhoods that have parks or community centers nearby. Your kids will be excited knowing that they won’t have to spend time locked up at home and that they have a fun place to go that’s close to them, with others their age. It also helps to find a neighborhood where you know a lot of children live because they’ll be able to make friends and adjust to living in a new place. This will also probably help you feel more welcome too since you’ll be able to befriend the parents of your kids’ friends. Everyone wins!

When it comes down to finding the specific home, keep your kids in mind. If it’s within your budget, try finding a home that has a fenced in yard; your kids will be happy that you thought 0f them when picking a home, and they’ll feel better about the moving process. Another great idea is allowing your kids to paint their rooms a different color than what the house came from, or completely change up their rooms from your previous home. This lets them add their own personal touch to the room so that they won’t feel that they’re in a strange new place.

 

The Lease Application

When you’re first starting to look for a new rental home, you’ll most likely be viewing all kinds of properties and talking to tons of different landlords; once you’ve found the right home, you’ll start the process of applying to rent the home. Rental applications are pretty easy to fill out, but that doesn’t mean you should take them lightly!

Basically, rental applications are what landlords require possible tenants to complete to see whether or not the property is a good fit for them. What does this mean for you? As far as the information you’ll have to provide, your possible landlord will need basic information from you, as well as a few more specific things. You’ll have to give your contact information (how else will they tell you that you’re approved?!), information about your current and/or previous place of residence, proof of employment, proof of income, and maybe a recommendation or a personal reference number, among other things. Aside from the proof of employment and proof of income, a lease application isn’t too different from a job application. Your landlord requires those other pieces of information in order to be able to determine whether or not you’ll be able to pay for the property, and whether or not you have a history of being a good (or bad) tenant. As far as the other things that you may be asked on the application, be prepared to disclose the balance of your bank account, and your social security (to perform credit checks). Again, these are required so that your possible landlord can guarantee that you’ll be able to pay your rent.

credit report

 

You Can’t Rush Perfection

If you’re in the market for a new rental home, it’s important to give yourself an adequate amount of time for your search. Before picking the first property you see, spend some time doing some research about the property and look at all of your available options.

Ask current residents what they think! Since they’re currently living there, they know the current state of the community and how management is currently doing things. If you have a friend who lives in the property, ask them what they like and dislike about the property and whether or not they recommend it to you. You’ll probably get a wayyy more honest answer from them than from someone who is trying to get you to sign a lease.

If you don’t have any friends or family who have experience with that property, don’t worry! In this day and age, we have one of the most wonderful research tools available to us: Google. Doing a Google search of the name of a community or property management company you’re consideringresearch signing a lease with can give you crucial information that you wouldn’t otherwise know. Sites like Google Reviews and Yelp have comments and reviews from people that have lived in that place, or dealt with that property management company. You have to consider that if someone took the time to write a review, they probably feel very strongly about what they wrote.  The property management company you’re about to sign a lease with may have horrible reviews because of their lack of care for residents; this is something you wouldn’t know just by talking to someone at the lease office. Don’t rush your search and sign with the first property you see just because it’s a great price, or nicely maintained. Sometimes these things mask the reality of the property and by the time you realize it, it’ll be too late.

 

Should you sublease?

Subleasing is pretty much when you, the initial tenant, rent your property out to another tenant. The new tenant is then required to pay rent and follow the terms of the lease, but you still hold the overall responsibility of the property. A huuuuge part of subleasing is making sure that you find a good lessee. Because the responsibility of the property still falls on you, you want someone who will take care of the property and make sure nothing goes wrong.

So, how do you go about subleasing?

You’ll almost always need to get your landlord’s consent first and make sure that they are fine with having a new tenant in your place. Having someone sublease your property without your landlord knowing will most likely go against the terms of your lease, landing you in deep trouble. Once you’ve gotten the okay from your landlord, a contract can be drawn up to outline the terms of the lease and what your new tenant will be responsible for. Depending on your property manager or landlord, you may be charged a fee to sublease your property.

subleaseConsidering all the properties available for rent everywhere, you may need to negotiate and charge your lessee lower rent than what you originally pay as an incentive to sublease your place. Would you want to be paying the exact same amount to sublease a home as you would to just rent it yourself? Probably not, and neither will your lessee. Though it kinda sucks, the difference is a small price to pay in case where you need to move out of your property.  Subleasing is a great option if you plan on leaving your town for a few months and don’t want to pay rent for an empty apartment. It also works if you need to leave your property but your lease isn’t ending and you can’t terminate it.

 

Rental Wonderland

Finding a rental home may not be the easiest task, but it doesn’t have to be the most difficult, either!

First question: where should you start your search? 

Friends and family! Ask around and see if anyone you know may be renting a home, or may know of someone else renting a home. If you’re renting from someone you know, or a friend of a friend, the lease process can become a bit easier because you’re not dealing with a complete stranger.  Even if your friends and family don’t know of anyone renting a home, they can still keep their eyes open to see if they come across the place that’s perfect for you.

If that didn’t work, what’s next?

rentalThe internet! This is probably the most obvious place to look for a rental home, but you still have to keep some things in mind. If you know the specific area you want to live in, you can look into websites that offer rentals in only certain places. For instance, if you want a rental in Austin, Texas, check out tenant.rentals. Services like this one save you the time of sifting through tons of rentals that are all scattered around. If you haven’t 100% decided where you want to live, that’s okay! There are plenty of websites that serve as huge databases for real estate listings. Check out Zillow, or Apartments.com. They’re trusted sites whose sole purpose is to help you find your next home.

Now, you may have seen the greatest home ever, only to realize it’s for sale and not for rent….but don’t fret! Believe it or not, sale listings can also lead you to your next rental. If a homeowner has a home for sale that’s been on the market for a long time, they may be willing to rent it out until they find a buyer. It’s already probably costing them a lot to keep the house empty and on the market, so renting it out to you will help the both of you.

 

Summer Gardens

Is your garden showing off the season?

Though we tend to associate spring with gardening, it’s important to see that summer is also a great time to make our gardens look good.

Take advantage of summer to add some berries to your day! Since you may not be able to grow berry bushes in the yard of your rental, you can plant dwarf versions in small pots instead. Given the right amount of sunlight and water, you can easily have yourself your own mini berry garden. As an added plus, you can freeze your summer berries to have them all year round!

Summer itropical flowerss also an awesome time to add flowers to your garden, but instead of your typical floral choices…spice it up. Tropical flowers are bright and beautiful, automatically livening up even the dullest gardens. Pick some colors that you like and go well together, maybe oranges and yellow, and make yourself a nice arrangement.

If you hadn’t already done this in spring….add some bird feeders and birdhouses! Once you have some flying friends visit, you’ll soon start to see a nice little habitat forming. With birds in your yard, you’ll also have more squirrels and insects, meaning more bees. Keep in mind that bees are a good addition to any garden because they help pollinate your flowers. Having a bit of variety allows an ecosystem to develop within all the inhabitants and visitors of your garden, making your garden even better.

Who should you lease from?

When you’re considering what kind of property to rent out and make your home, you should also consider who you’re leasing from.

Usually, your options will be a property manager or property management firm, or an individual landlord. Just like everything else, both have their ups and their downs.

Property managers or property management firms 

Property management firms may be more professional and efficient than individual landlords, because of the fact their duty is to take care of the property and make sure it is being run smoothly. But, you also need to consider that property managers may be more strict than regular landlords, since they have a lot of tenants and can’t be allowing people to break rules. Property management firms will most likely have websites set up for you to pay rent, put in maintenance requests, and contact supervisors, so they save you some time as far as going back and forth with your landlord.

Individual landlords

With individual landlords, you need to realize that their job is typically not devoted to running your property, so they may not be as efficient with things the way property management firms are. Buuuut, on the plus side, individual landlords definitely give you more personalized service than companies who are managing a ton of different properties at once. Also, individual landlords are usually more lenient as far as different aspects of the lease agreement, or if you have issues with paying rent. lease