difficult to correct—in con- trast to say, information in a credit report. Be sure to keep this in mind if you decide to check into an applicant’s profile online. MEET POTENTIAL APPLICANTS IN PERSON Finally, it’s important to always meet potential applicants in person—before handing them the keys to your rental. To save time, it’s a good idea to meet in person and show the property at the end of the tenant screening process. This will prevent you from wasting your time by showing the house to applicants who wouldn’t even qualify in the first place. CONSIDER HIRING AN EXPERIENCED PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY Many landlords opt to hire a professional and experi- enced property man- agement company to handle tenant sourcing and
18-month Tenant Warranty™ on the tenants that we place. This means that should your renter default for any reason, we will provide additional tenant placement services for free. Checking with your property manager to see what type of screening guarantee it offers will give you an idea at how confident the company is in its screening process. If you choose to source and screen your applicants on your own, it’s important to ensure that your tenant screening procedures are in compliance with the law. Consider consulting with an attorney who specializes in landlord-tenant law and working with them to create a screening procedure and rental application that com- ply with fair housing laws. While these screening procedures may seem com- plex, the fact is that they can actually save you a world of time, money and hassle down the road. By taking the time to thoroughly and properly screen applicants at the start, and documenting your procedures in writing, you can weed out potentially problem ten- ants who could easily derail your investment strategy and end up eating into your profits. There are tenants out there who will pay the rent on time and treat your property right; you just have to find them. With a solid tenant screening procedure, you can have com- plete control over who you al- low into your rental—increas- ing your chances of sourcing
excellent tenants and getting yourself off to a great start with your SFR investment. •
coded up the ability to add a WordPress blog to your site with the push of a button. So now, you have a site that loads super fast, is easily customizable and looks great with an attached WordPress blog that is there for what it does best. We didn’t lock you into the limitations of you decide to look into a site designed solely around WordPress. These can load slower and usually don’t allow you to in- stall your own plugins. These are huge limitations that were deal killers for us when we created Lead Propeller. • PREFERRED EQUITY SEEMS HERE TO STAY Notwithstanding the post- 2008 retrenchment, the past few decades in particular have witnessed a boom in the creation of structures for capital that is junior to the mortgage debt but senior to the owner/developer equity. This need actually increased post-2008 as traditional mortgage lenders tightened up their underwriting stan- dards, leaving sponsoring real estate companies scrambling for available capital. Investors participating in crowdfunding sites like RealtyShares now have the opportunity to pro- vide liquidity and additional capital to sponsoring real es- tate companies needing to fill WordPress. Please also be careful if > Continued from :: PG 72 Closing the Gap
the “financing gap” between the senior mortgage debt and the owner’s equity. •
of adjustments in the deposit provisions, increased deposits or adjustments in the price in order to keep the transac- tion from being terminated. Provisions can be built into the agreement that allow for extensions in either a general form or as to specific possible areas of delay. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES: The views and attitudes of the Planning Commission and other agencies’ responsibili- ties may dramatically affect the viability of a proposed project and its cost and time to complete. For example, certain projects may be desired by the local government and result in the availability of permit, fee or tax deferments, waivers or rebates. Other situations may be extremely negative and cre- ate obstacles and costs. These factors may include such things as whether the community wants this type of project (ask Walmart), building standards,
the view of the community toward outsiders, the time and cost to obtain permits, building and environmental standards, traffic abatement requirements, parking requirements, noise abatement requirements, etc. Simply using an out-of-locale architect or contractor versus a local consultant may, in the wrong locale, create significant and costly impediments to a project’s viability. These con- cerns must be explored by the buyer contemplating a project in a new locale. POTENTIAL SOURCES OF FINANCING: In areas under rehabilitation or needing more hotels or other types of businesses, tax abatement or favorable devel- opment agreements or govern- ment financial support may be available. The other extreme may also exist where financing is either extremely limited or very expensive for the project under consideration. •
> Continued from :: PG 39 AMatter of Timing This truly is one of the greatest times to build wealth—if you understand market cycles and the best strategies for today. Make sure you have access to the infor- mation you need to succeed. We have just updated our website at www.RealWealthNet- work.com to provide even more access to the data you need to succeed. You can join for free and receive weekly economic updates, free webinars on the best markets today, and access to property managers and the best turnkey income property providers in those markets. • > Continued from :: PG 80 Securing Quality Renters Tenant background checks usually cost between $20 and $50, depending on how many items you screen. You can request that potential appli- cants pay an application fee that will cover the cost of the background and credit checks. In some states, though, there may be a limit on the amount that you can charge. TIP TAKE CARE WHEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SCREEN AN APPLICANT While you may be tempted to take a look at the poten- tial tenant’s Facebook page, avoid relying solely on online information when screening applicants. The information that you discover may be protected by discrimination statutes or privacy laws. Additionally, certain incor- rect information in a person’s online presence may be more
> Continued from :: PG 37 Success by Design different link or button than intended. Google even has a tool for testing this for a site. Go to www.google.com/webmas- ters/tools/mobile-friendly/ Another quick way to test mobile responsiveness is to open your desktop browser and load a website. Then click the edge of your browser and adjust the width of the win- dow to make it smaller and see how the website adjusts. WORDPRESS OR NOT WORDPRESS Some people recommend WordPress for your web- site. The reason why it’s sometimes recommended is because of the ease of adding content. That’s what it was built for: blogging. You can go in and write up new posts and publish them. It’s very good at that. What it’s not the best for is creating easily customizable websites that look great and load fast. We had considered Word- Press for LeadPropeller web- sites, but quickly dismissed it because of this limitation. We wanted our sites to be easily customizable (we built a custom editor for this) that allowed us to provide lots of different templates that can be tailored to everyone’s in- dividual tastes. For the ability to easily add content to your site through blog posts, we
> Continued from :: PG 74 On the Record
THE PROBLEM
TENANT: Rents may be current and at market and problems may still exist as to tenants threatening
rent strikes,
demanding unreasonable repairs and improvements or filing grievances with governmental agencies, the Better Business Bureau, etc. Often this does not become apparent until after closing. DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES IN THE COMMUNITY: Long-termdemo- graphics can have a drastic effect on property values and rents. ECONOMIC TRENDS: Planned em- ployment, retail, construction, traffic, parking and a host of other future concerns can also have a dramatic impact on rents and market value. FLEXIBILITY IN TIME: Often a buyer or seller is trapped as the closing date nears, by such things as a delay in financing, a cloud on title, a permit or license issue or a delay in re- pairs being completed. These unforeseen events often can be resolved by a Post-Closing Agreement where the closing occurs and title is transferred with rights as to the open item reserved. However, just as often, these time issues lead to intense negotiations
ADVERTISER INDEX
Affinity Loss Prevention Services
98 98
American Association of Private Lenders American Real Estate Investments
3 2
screening. Not only does this help save time, it can also help to ensure that you secure quality renters. A reputa-
Asons
D.A.W.G.s
77 45 17 15 16 85 11 85 98 73
The Entrust Group
Equistream
Gorilla Capital
IRA Services Trust Company Norada Real Estate Investments Platinum Investment Property Group
ble property management company will know what questions to ask, in order to adequately screen tenants, as well as which questions not to ask, to avoid potentially damaging perceptions of discrimination. At Renters Warehouse, we provide a free six- to
100
Real Property Management
REIGuard RentFax
SGF Contracting
Think Realty
6, 25 & 99
US Probate Leads
98
94 | think realty magazine january :: february 2017
thinkrealty . com / mag | 95
Made with FlippingBook Online document