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 by Ilana Nevins
 As the summer months continue to grow closer, and the weather becomes much hotter, here are some easy energy and money saving tips for landlords and tenants alike to make this summer your coolest yet. Remember these tips, and remind your tenants, to save money and time by keeping their apartments cool:
Stay efficient this summer by utilizing all of these energy-saving tips. Through these simple tips its easy to stay cool, and stay green, this summer.
Check out our Green Pages for information on money saving tips that help the environment. Once there, click on the Green Forum. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org. To subscribe to our blog, click here.
Truthfulness, respect for your property, and a willingness to cooperate are also crucial predictors of how the rental relationship will go. Much of the information you need to know comes from the initial contact with the tenant. Do you know what to look for? Here are some tips: Your Initial Impression Is Usually Correct Sure, that sounds a little “touchy-feely”, but it’s true! Your first impression, or “gut feeling” is usually the most accurate, even though you may not realize why immediately. If you have some reservation, it’s because some subtle message was communicated, some hint of a bad attitude, for example, or some other red flag. Most of the time the first contact is made on the phone. Are the phone manners appropriate for the situation? Do you detect an attitude? Are they overly enthusiastic? Is the person you are meeting with the same person you spoke with on the phone? Is a Car a Clue to Character? We’ve all been taught to look at the prospect’s car – a messy car means a messy apartment, right? Well, not always. Many managers find that a tenant could easily pay too much attention to their car, and not enough to their rental home. What is relevant with a car is not what kind of shape it’s in, but if it jibes with the information provided in the rental application. Is the license number the same as the car they list on the application? Is it from the state they say they are from? Is it brand new? Does the loan show up on the credit report? Showing Up On Time a Sign of Cooperation, Responsibility Whether your prospect is prompt tells you how interested they are in this relationship. Remember you first impression. If you are feeling frustrated that you’ve waited a half hour with no explanation, your “gut” is trying to tell you something. Meet everyone who is going to move in. Watch how they relate to one another. Obviously you can’t analyze the relationships in a short period of time, but you can ask questions to get a sense of whether they’ve lived together successfully before, if they each have a commitment to stay. Speak to each of them about their plans and expectations. Discuss the Prospect’s Motives for Renting Ask questions to glean the prospect’s future plans:
Maybe you will find out they are in the market for a new home, and will rent just until they find it. Maybe they are about to be evicted. On the bright side, maybe they will tell you about a favorite restaurant nearby, and you can give a gift certificate as a lease incentive or anniversary gift. Do a Drive-By Drive by their current property if you want to see how it is kept-and if they live there. Consider going to the tenant’s home to drop off the application or lease. Talk to Someone Who Knows While it is critical to speak with the current landlord, it is just as important to speak to the previous landlord, who does not have an ulterior motive of getting the tenant out of their property. A common fraud is the give false landlord references. Use your detective skills to discover if the number you are calling is the landlord’s, not a friend’s. For example, have them call you back to see how the number registers on caller ID. Check the public records to see if the previous property is registered to that name. While a successful initial interview paves the way for a smooth relationship, it is no substitute for a thorough background check. Click here to review what kinds of tenant screening reports are available. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org. To subscribe to our blog, click here. By Louisa May Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the nation are gearing up for a busy week of home building. But much work has already taken place behind the scenes. Land has been secured, house plans and permits have been obtained by HFH affiliates, and agreements have been made. While the builders work in partnerships with Habitat for Humanity, home buyers agree to provide sweat equity hours outside the build week. In exchange for providing these hours, buyers have an opportunity to purchase a home for little money down and obtain a loan that is interest free. Habitat’s focus is on building, but due to the recent foreclosure crisis, some Habitat affiliates are beginning to offer financial education and training classes for their clients in order to help them avoid the pitfalls of doing business with predatory lenders. Because Habitat buyers obtain their loans at 0% interest, homeowners may be bombarded with calls from such lenders offering refinance packages that come complete with a plethora of hidden penalties and fees. Habitat owners saying yes to these offers could lead to their eventually facing foreclosures. There’s a saying that if you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same result. What does that mean for landlords? If you are weary of running ads and wading through a swamp of phone calls and missed appointments every time you have a vacancy, maybe it’s time to change your tack. Learn a Lesson from the Pro’s The best way to develop a steady flow of prospects, even develop a waitlist, is forming Strategic Alliances. A Strategic Alliance occurs where two businesses that share the same customer attributes (income, buying preferences, etc.), yet do not compete with each other, pair up to market one another’s business for little or no cost. Strategic alliances are everywhere in other industries as well - like the beverage manufacturer who teams up with the snack company to cross-market products. How can a Strategic Alliance help a landlord?
Seven Steps to Forming Strategic Alliances Don’t have a marketing team behind you? That’s okay. It’s easy to form alliances if you follow these Step-by-Step Instructions: The Tables Have Turned: Your Tenants May be Screening You! With foreclosure numbers continuing to hit record spikes, the real estate industry is in flux. Just under twenty percent of foreclosures are rentals. In some areas, that number may be double. Most often, a foreclosure trumps a lease, although some states have stricter requirements on such evictions. Lenders are often not in the landlord business. When the home forecloses, the tenant is cast out so the property can be sold or auctioned vacant. In worse cases, the tenant may have only three days notice to vacate, or suddenly find their power turned off. This phenomenon has morphed into a crisis, with many states taking action to slow the eviction process for the tenants to give them time to find a new home. Congress has recently attempted to require a 90-day notice period for tenants at risk of evictions because of their landlord’s foreclosure.
By Bob Pruss Does a neighborhood nuisance seriously disturb you? Examples might be a barking dog that keeps you and other neighbors awake at night; airplanes flying overhead landing or taking off at a nearby airport; perhaps a smelly sewerworks or factory; maybe a neighbor’s late-night noisy parties; or a neighbor revving up his motorcycle as he departs for work at 5 a.m. These are typical illustrations of public and private nuisances that might affect the enjoyment of your house or condominium. Depending on the severity of the disturbance, you might have a legal remedy to have the nuisance abated.
by Katherine Salant We’ve all heard about the “to die for” kitchen that impresses your friends and relatives. What about the “to die for” garage door? The very idea may make you fall out of your chair laughing, but the offerings of garage door companies have radically changed in the last 10 years, moving from the ho hum to the quite fabulous. (more…)
by Ken Tharp, Iowa Equity Exchange
But they must be wary when one of their clients comes to them asking about a Section 1031 exchange. Banks often believe they are providing a service when they function as a “custodian of the funds” during a Section 1031 exchange, particularly banks where the exchange client has a preexisting relationship. Typically in these transactions the exchanger’s attorney handles the documentation. The problem is that most banks holding funds in an exchange are not actually or legally Qualified Intermediaries. (more…)   Add Super Saver to any membership for only $ 19.95! 
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Credit is not the only factor in screening a tenant.
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