Real Estate News, Views & Schmooze!
Business Sense
Tales of a Property Manager-The Overview…Do You Know Who Your Renter Really Is??
Apr 19th
Do you own investment properties? Apartments, Single Family Homes, Duplexes, Triplexes, etc.? As a Real Estate Investor your #1 goal is to make as much money as possible on rent, keeping your vacancies low as can be along with keeping your expenses in check.
I have known many investors who will accept any person that walks in the door without any sort of background check. Unfortunately for them, that is the one of the biggest mistakes a Real Estate Investor can make. Rental times might be tough, cash-flow can be a trickle and creditors might be calling. Your faced with a very tough decision; “To Rent or Not To Rent”.
Tenant Screening is the most effective way to curb any misjudgments you might make in finding the “right” renter for your property. After personally managing over a 1000 units, i’ve seen and heard every story in the book. In future posts, I plan on telling you some anecdotes of things i’ve done and seen as property manager. Please keep your eyes out for future posts on the subject.
In the meantime, if you don’t or even if you do currently utilize a Tenant Screening Service for your Investment Properties, contact Lee at Rental Research Services, Inc. They are a nationwide company and absolutely the very best in the business. Do you want to protect your investment? Take it from me, it will be the best choice in real estate investment you’ll ever make!
What The Heck Is That “Big Orange Blob” And How Can It Help Me???
Apr 18th
You see that big orange blob to the left?….No, No…. The one on your computer screen and says “Add Us To Your Favorites By Clicking This Orange Blob!” That Orange Blob is the universal symbol of an RSS feed!
For a very good explanation of the basics of RSS, visit wikipedia’s description. This has much more information on the subject than I could ever give you.
Once you understand the basics of RSS, it’s time to find a feed reader. Try Google Reader or My Yahoo for reading feeds. They’re both very easy to use. You can also try one of these:
The feed reader is great tool to help you organize the massive daily bombardment of information thrown at you from the Internet. It gives you the ability to pick and choose what information you want to see and get regular updates of them as well.
So go ahead…
Give in to peer pressure…
Click that Big Orange Blob…
Everyones doing it!
You’ll be thankful you did!
Does Your Office Look Like This???
Apr 12th
If so, I think it’s time to move or expand your office. A smart business owner knows when it’s time to trade up and move somewhere with more breathing room (and I don’t mean just by opening the bathroom door)!
Here are 10 signs that it’s time to move or expand your office:
From allbusiness.com
- People are sitting on top of one another. Face it: your employees need their space, especially if being on the telephone all day is part of their job. Nobody wants to listen to every conversation his or her neighbor makes, which can be very distracting while trying to do other work.
- The break room is “standing room only.” If your on-site lunchroom or break room is always full, employees may start going elsewhere for their breaks, which can mean extended lunch hours. Remember that happy employees are productive employees, so don’t scrimp when it comes to providing them with adequate space in which to recharge.
MLS vs. NON-MLS Listings…What’s the difference?
Apr 11th
You’ve all heard of the MLS or Multiple Listing Service. If not, it’s a database that allows Real Estate Brokers (like Ladin Ventures, LLC) to widely share information about properties with other real estate brokers who may represent potential buyers or wish to cooperate with a seller’s broker in finding a buyer for the property. You must be a member of the National Association of Realtors as well a member of your local board to participate and have access to MLS.
The Minnesota Association of Realtors or MNAR is the main board for Residential Real Estate in Minnesota. The Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors or MNCAR is the main board for Commercial Real Estate. To your benefit, Ladin Ventures, LLC is a member and has access to both MLS systems.
Ok. So what’s the difference between MLS and Non-MLS listings?? The MLS is a great resource for finding properties. However, sellers sometimes choose to market their properties as NON-MLS. They do this for a couple of different reasons.
First, a property owner may not want the wide exposure and attention that the MLS brings. Secondly, typically MLS properties are usually picked through prior to hitting the MLS. Long before a property actually goes on the MLS, many people have already been notified that this property is about to go “main-stream.” That is why NON-MLS or Pre-MLS properties are fantastic finds and where you’ll most likely seek out great properties.
Ladin Ventures specializes in identifying NON-MLS and Pre-MLS properties for its clients both on the Buyer and Seller sides. Over the years, we’ve developed an Exclusive Network of both buyers and sellers who get the “first crack” and “inside information” on hot properties which we utilize prior to mass marketing on the MLS.
Remember…
“It’s All Who You Know!”
Do You Want To Be Rich??
Apr 10th
Read The Real Estate Shmoozer Daily!!
It’s true!!
According to The Luxury Institute, 76 percent of U.S. Internet users earning more than $150,000 read weblogs, up from 57 percent two years ago.
Twenty-four percent are bloggers, up from 18 percent in 2005, the Luxury Institute survey found.
In addition, the Luxury Institute found 31 percent of the wealthy report using an online social networking site. This compares with 16 percent of overall U.S. Web users.
The Luxury Institute’s survey was conducted online in March among 1,000 Web users earning more than $150,000 a year. Its margin of error was slightly more than 3 percentage points.
With that said… “It Definitely Pays To Schmooze!”
Kvetch of the Week…Craiglist.org. I’m fed-up with being flagged!
Apr 5th
So we all know about the wonderful classifieds website Craiglist.org and how its changing the face of classified advertising. If you don’t know about it yet, well I guess it’s time to cancel your subscription to the Boston News-Letter.
As a real estate professional, I try to utilize all possible sources in my guerrilla marketing tactics to promote my services as well as listings. I must say that Craigslist has been very good to me. That was before everyone and their children started using the site.
Craigslist has now become overloaded with spammers and slime-balls. You see, I like to give my advertisements a little flair or chutzpah so they’ll stand out from the thousands of other ads in a specific category. Sounds like a great approach right? Well… in a perfect virtual world yes. But as they say “Give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile”, so do the many unprofessional users of the site. Anyone who uses the site can “Flag” and ultimately delete any posting that they feel is inappropriate. Why is it necessary to give administrative rights to everyone who uses Craigslist? The way I see it is that my competition doesn’t like the attention and uniqueness of my well designed advertisiments.
Here is one of my many ads that have been flagged. …..You be the judge!
Here is what Craigslist says about flagging.
My proposed 11th commandment is the following:
Thou shall not give out flagging power to the common man/women for he/she shall abuse.
Advertising & Marketing…Dare To Be Different!
Mar 28th
I often find that most small to mid-size businesses have a hard time distinguishing themselves on their own when it comes to marketing and advertising their product or service. I believe that you can be either a “goat herder” or “the goat” when it comes to this. Why not try something different. Do something risque. If you want to set yourself apart from the competition just let your imagination flow and I promise you won’t be the main course at your next barbecue.
SL