Home Improvement – Real Estate

cmrpropertymanagement.com – Your property doesn’t sell? Do you own real estate that doesn’t make you money? Stop bleeding and let us help you! • Can’t sell your property? Rent it! • Don’t want to wait until the market improves to sell your home? Lease it with Option to Purchase! • Can’t find tenants for your rental? Let us do the marketing for you! • Don’t have time to manage your real estate investment? Let our professional property managers do it for you! • Can’t deal with problem tenants? We’ll do it for you! Carolinas Metro Realty helping property owners to manage their investments in Charlotte (North Carolina) and surrounding areas, whether it is residential or commercial property, single family home, condominium (condo), duplex, triplex, apartment complex, home for rent, lease or lease with option to purchase. We specialize in managing residential rental properties – homes, condominiums (condos), townhomes (townhouses), apartments, duplexes, triplexes and commercial properties – in the Charlotte region including Lake Wylie, Lake Norman and towns of Mint Hill, Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Tega Cay, Gastonia, Indian Trail, Harrisburg, Mathews, Mooresville, Waxhaw, Weddington, Uptown Charlotte, Huntersville, Pineville, Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Denver, Mooresville, Troutman, Sherrills Ford, Catawba for individual owners, investors and corporations. We serve North Carolina, South Carolina, Mecklenburg, Iredell, Lancaster, Union, Gaston and Catawba counties.

Consider expanding your service offerings to include mortgage services.  Mortgage services are extremely profitable.  Many states only require one or two courses to get licensed, and you may be able to use the loan officer course to get MCE credit for your real estate license.

You probably have a large pool of prospective investors with adjustable rate mortgages who need to refinance their mortgage. Why refer this business, when you can easily provide this service. You already have an established relationship with each owner.  If you own your office, you may even consider subleasing space and partner with a mortgage broker. Our in house mortgage broker pays us rent and refers real estate and property management business to us. This drastically lowers the overhead cost for both companies.

In my last article, I discussed how 2008 will be a great opportunity to purchase rental property from motivated landlords with negative cash flow properties.  As property managers, we can easily achieve instant equity by purchasing property below market and earning a commission at closing. We can increase our return on investment with monthly cash flow, appreciation, principle reduction, and tax savings by depreciating rental property. However, only licensed real estate professionals can use rental property to generate business income.

No other investment can potentially offer a greater return for a property manager than investing in rental property.  Our company provides maintenance, sales, leasing, property management, and mortgage services. We leverage all of our services to generate as much revenue per client as possible.  We offer a one stop shop for all our customers. 

As a licensed real estate broker and loan officer, we generate thousands of dollars each year by assisting tenants living in rental properties I own to purchase homes. We assist tenants in repairing their credit, obtaining a mortgage, representing them as a buyer’s agent, and utilizing our in house maintenance company to help them fix up the property or make any necessary repairs. Not only are tenants happy to utilize our services, but they refer business to us as well.

In our market, there is a huge demand for home buyers who just sold their home and need a place to park while they build a new home. Yet few property managers offer lease terms less than six month, because short term leases are not profitable for the owner. I fill this market demand with properties I personally own and network with Realtors and builders and offer short term leases for their clients and customers. In return, I ask them to refer my company future property management business. We will refer the owner back to the Realtor if they decide to sell the property in the future. This makes the sales transaction go very smoothly, and Realtors are thankful for us providing this service. We have obtained many property management referrals because of this service offering. Even the short term tenants have referred property management business to us.

The more properties you purchase, the more you can leverage your company’s services to generate business income. You will save thousands of dollars in income taxes each year by depreciating each rental property.  Owning rental property can lower your income tax liability to low single digit percentages. Some landlords with a large rental property portfolio pay no income taxes, because their depreciation expense exceeds their taxable income.

I encourage property managers to take advantage of near record low interest rates and purchase as many rental properties as possible. Leverage your rental properties to generate incremental business income.  

In my next article, I will discuss how licensed real estate agents can leverage rental property to generate additional business and tax savings.

While many property managers still use Excel spreadsheets or a pencil and paper to manage their investments, there are much better tools available. The property management software you choose should be flexible, inexpensive and easy to use.

You need a really flexible rental property program because, as a property manager, you never know what tomorrow may bring. You might need to get details about a property or tenant at home, in the office or even out at a property. You might need to have other members of your company get records themselves, from their own computers. Your business might double, and you don’t want a tool that won’t server your needs any more.

The most flexible property management programs are those running over the Internet. Because the records are kept on a Web server, you – or anyone else you authorize – can get to them from any Internet-connected computer. And unlike Windows property management programs, on-line property management software doesn’t limit the number of units (doors) you can manage.

Surprisingly, you don’t give up any security features when using the right on-line property management software. True, the records aren’t on your computer. Instead, they’re maintained on a computer that typically has much better protection than your own. It’ll be kept in a locked room, fire-safe room, with daily backups and multiple storage devices. The best on-line rental property programs also use SSL security so that all of your work is encrypted – and therefore completely off-limits to hackers.

All on-line rental property programs are sold by subscription. Look for one that doesn’t require a long-term commitment or a single annual payment. You want to be able to cancel without any penalties.

Because property management programs can be complex, look for one where support and training are included in the subscription fee. You want a company that looks to maintain a healthy long-term relationship with its customers. This is actually another advantage of on-line tools; they have to keep you satisfied for a long time, not just for the first 30 or 60 days.

Support and training should be offered on your schedule. Make sure your software vendor has extended support hours, especially if your office is on one coast and theirs is on another.

It goes without saying that the best property management software is developed by actual property managers. However, some developers rely on their own very limited experience. For example, they may know all about single-family houses, but have no clue about the special needs of commercial property investing or multifamily units. Make sure the company you choose relies on a wide variety of property managers, landlords and other experts to get product design tips.

In addition, you want your property management software to be responsive to your specific needs. Companies making Windows property management software can never be that responsive to customers, because upgrading the software is such a hassle. Such companies often only release upgrades every year or two, and when they do, their customers have to go through what may be a very messy upgrade process. On the other hand, on-line property management software can be upgraded whenever the company has a new feature that has been fully tested. The next time customers log in, the new features are ready for them to use.

Here are some of the features that you will absolutely want in your property management program.

• A full accounting package. Your program should support whichever accounting method you prefer, cash (simpler) or accrual (more detailed and preferred by most property managers). It should include a number of accounting reports that you can run at any time and for any period. You should be able to calculate late fees and discounts automatically

• Check writing. When you have to write a lot of checks for your business, it’s great to be able to just print them off on your computer. Your software vendor will put you in touch with at least one company that makes the kind of check forms you will need.

One word of caution: to print checks with blank check stock, you will need a laser printer and a special magnetic ink cartridge. The laser printer probably won’t be an issue, but the magnetic ink cartridge may be. A simpler solution is just to order preprinted check forms. These forms will have the basic information such as MICR numbers (the numbers at the bottom of the check, which are always printed in magnetic ink). You’ll still print checks, but just the amount, payee, date and other fields that don’t have to be in magnetic ink.

• Reminders. You should be able to set up reminders for appointments, projects, and other tasks. You should also get automatic reminders for the two things every property manager wants to be aware of: late rent payments and expiring leases.

• Many different data fields to let you store all the information you want, but not that many mandatory data fields. You should be able to use your software for as little or as much work as you like.

• Fast and easy data management. You’ll spend a lot of time entering records and finding what you need in your property management software. You don’t want something that will make it complicated and difficult to handle these tasks. Look for wizards and maybe even a “Quick Start” feature to make loading fast, and fast searching and sorting to let you very easily find what you need.

What if you find a property management program that is great, but not perfect? Many property managers will quit using a program because it doesn’t have the one specific report or calculation they really like. They then have a choice; they can keep on going with Excel or written ledgers, or they can continue on an endless search for the perfect program that simply doesn’t exist.

Instead, why not contact the company you are interested in and see if they can add the feature you want? You might learn that they’re already working on it. If not, they may be happy to add it to keep you satisfied.

Are you a rental property owner who is worn down by your property management jobs? Then read on to find out how to pick your perfect property manager who can help you manage both your tenants and real estate today.

What Can a Property Manager Help You with?

The following are the more crucial property management jobs that a property manager can do for you:

- Find new tenants for your rental property if it is unoccupied and screen any potential tenants by interviewing them and running credit checks.

- Help you maintain your property in habitable condition according to the local health and safety codes. This will include making any property repairs if necessary.

- Collect rent from your tenants and prepare an income statement of your rental property so that you can monitor how well your property is doing financially.

- Attend to any requests and complaints that your tenants may have.

- Handle any problems that are caused by nightmare tenants and evict them if needed.

How do You Pick Your Perfect Property Manager?

The first rule in hiring a property manager is to make sure that he is licensed by your local housing authorities. This is one way of picking someone who has at least gone through some formal basic training to watch over your rental property.

Just like any other employer, you should always interview your property manager before hiring them. During the interview, take the chance to ask him for his past experience and references for the properties that he has managed before. You should also give his past employers a call to ask them for their opinions on his skills as a manager.

Ideally your manager should have at least 3 years of experience in handling property types that are similar to yours. If you have a residential townhouse, his experience in managing commercial shop fronts may not be helpful because the difference in the laws and tenant’s needs.

Some real estate agents manage properties and tenants for their client part time. While their services may be cheaper, I will highly recommend that you choose a professional property manager because running a rental property demands quite a lot of skill and attention.

Should You Hire a Manager for Your Property?

If you own rental properties, you will know that being a landlord can be a full time job. While some landlords actually enjoy dealing with their tenants and property management jobs, others dread every moment of it.

If you enjoy dealing with people or is handy with property repairs, then you may want to try your hand at managing the property yourself first. That way you can see if property management jobs are your cup of tea and you can also save money at the same time.

Being a landlord is something that becomes easier with experience so if you have been managing rental properties for a period of time you can consider just hiring a property manager just to handle certain property management jobs. For example you can choose to handle any property repairs yourself while your manager takes care of the tenants.

On the other hand, some landlords see their rental properties purely as investments and do not want have anything to do with their day to day maintenance. If you are willing to give up about 5 to 10 percent of your monthly rent, then it makes sense for you to hire a property manager.

Hiring a property manager is highly recommended as well if you own rental properties overseas. Just the amount of money and time that you save on air travel will make it worth your while to hire a manager.

Teo Zhenjie has been showing landlords how to manage their tenants and rental properties effectively on Propertydo http://www.propertydo.com/ – To learn more important tips on property management jobs, visit his website today for step-by-step real estate guides, free resources and forms.

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