5 Steps to Finding Good Tenants
Finding good tenants can be difficult. It’s time-consuming and finding new prospects is stressful. Maybe you have no idea what steps to take in order to find the best occupants for your property. We will go over the key steps landlords should take to achieve the happiest tenants and a low-stress living situation for everyone involved. Even in areas with high property demands, that is no guarantee you will have an easy time finding the ideal resident.
Here are our top 5 tips:
- Utilize renter applications: Having a good quality rental application is a great way to jumpstart your search. This allows you to gather relevant details about potential renters in a way that is straightforward and honest – people are willingly providing details that would enable you to perform background checks and weed out renters that are not compatible with your building. What you include can be tailored to your requirements.
- Know where to Advertise: Online listings are the most common today, but it helps to narrow down your audience. If you are looking for a target demographic, finding your renters through connections or networking may be the way to go. This can work exceptionally well if your building is suitable for seniors, with or without pets, students, etc. Knowing your target audience goes a long way so advertising through fliers at local businesses, event centers, or places of employment is a good strategy.
- Complete a background check: We mentioned how rental applications help you obtain relevant information about prospective tenants, but the process of completing a quality background check is just as important. This will help to “weed out” applicants that are incompatible with your building or rental property, such as a history of property destruction or poor credit. Knowing where to complete your background check is essential. Not all information is easy to access but knowing where to find it goes a long way. We recommend focusing on criminal history and credit reports as a general rule, be sure to use a respectable background report service.
- Maintain a good presentation: Promoting your property as high-end, luxurious, and well-kept will attract tenants who align with your vision. You want tenants who will respect the property and take pride in their living space, so keeping a visual emphasis in your listings will attract like-minded people.
- Prioritize customer service: Good tenants are more likely to receive rental offers from other landlords, so communication is crucial. If you wait too long to respond to applications or call people back, it’s more likely that they will select another property that suits their needs first.
For more tips, continue reading our blog to learn about all things property management!
Staging For Success: Get Poised to Sell Your Home
Staging For Success: Get Poised to Sell Your Home
There are a few basic rules in life and one that can be carried into almost any situation is the old saying, “if you fail to plan, plan to fail”. No one likes to fail, but failing to plan could be a sure way to not see success. This is especially true in real estate when it comes to placing your home up for sale. Preparing your home for new buyers requires a lot of planning, thought, and attention to detail. One way that gets your home ready for a quick sale is with home staging.
What is Home Staging
You see it every time you turn on HGTV or some other house-flipping show. Home staging has quickly become recognized as a necessity to highlight your home for its maximum potential. A norm for almost any home at any price point, home staging can set the stage for a quick real-estate sale. Overall, the goal is to help prospective home buyers emotionally connect with a property that hopefully leads to an offer to buy.
Who Hires Home Stagers?
Staging may seem like an additional hassle and expense, but the investment can really pay off in the end and possibly lead to an above-asking price offer for your home. Overall, anyone selling or buying property may benefit from home staging. Homeowners selling single-family homes, condos, and townhouses make up the greatest percentage of those hiring home stagers. Even property developers selling new construction, and real estate agents and property managers also are in the mix. While home staging was created primarily to benefit the seller, seeing prospective properties staged and organized also can be advantageous to buyers because it can cut down on their search time.
Benefits of Home Staging
Most people have trouble visualizing a space’s potential. Whether it’s figuring out how to place furniture in an empty room or trying to ignore clutter or decor that’s clearly not their style. Realizing that the majority of home buyers can’t easily look past what’s in front of them to appreciate a room’s potential, it’s easy to see that home staging could be beneficial to the home selling process. Staging helps buyers see what might get lost in an otherwise cluttered or unorganized home. As reported by the National Association of Realtors, 44% of buyers’ agents say that home staging can increase the dollar value offered. And 83% say that staging a home makes it easier for potential buyers to visualize the property as their dream home! And less time on the market means less taxes, less mortgage payments, and less time you have to keep the house staged.
Does it Matter Which Rooms Are Staged?
While every room in the house could benefit from home staging, that might not be in your budget. So if you must choose a room, or rooms, it would be best to focus on the higher priority rooms including kitchen, living room then master bedroom followed by the guest bathroom. And don’t overlook those empty nooks or spaces, they could easily be turned into a small desk/office space to handle all of the daily mail clutter.
You can certainly attempt to stage your home on your own. It will save some money, but it is much harder to stage your own home and will likely take a lot of time out of your already busy schedule. Something key to remember is that when you’re selling your home, it is not about you anymore. It’s about the buyers and making your home as appealing as possible to attract the right buyer in the least amount of time. It’s important that your home reflects all of its potential so the future home-buyer can see your home as move-in-ready.
We have lots of tips and tricks that we can help you with when it comes to preparing homes for the real estate market. Even if you plan to rent your home, home staging is ideal to attract the right tenants to your property. Tradewind Properties is here to help you in selling your home and with home staging.
Insights on Owning Rental Property During the Pandemic
Insights on Owning Rental Property During the Pandemic
The pandemic has certainly impacted all areas of our lives. What has remained relatively strong amidst the uncertainty has been the housing market. Mortgage interest rates are at record lows. Inventory of homes for sale remains low, resulting in sellers routinely receiving multiple offers on homes quickly after listing.
The rental market has been a different beast altogether. Mortgage protections are not available to landlords in the same way they are to homeowners. Many rental property owners have tried to get creative with their property management style in order to stay afloat while also working with tenants impacted by the pandemic.
Given the unknowns of the months ahead of us, these factors will be worth keeping a close eye on in the coming months if you own a rental property:
- Changes in government protections for renters. Whether its payroll protections, rent subsidies or a local eviction moratorium, many renters have been supported through the recent hard times when it comes to their monthly financial obligations. While this attempt at stability has been good for many renters, some of these protections may be coming to an end soon, and many renters will face the struggles of disproportionate cost burden in the COVID-19 economy. With all the movement in local and temporary regulations due to the pandemic, it can save a lot of headaches to seek the help of a property management company, so you know you’re a compliant landlord while focusing on your own day-to-day priorities.
- Changes in the labor market, and its effect on renters. Job growth is one of the key factors of rental market health in any city. Today’s rental market has been served a major blow by the pandemic, leaving the unemployment rate at record highs. While protections for renters have temporarily provided relief for those who have lost their jobs or have been furloughed by their companies, landlords have absorbed the impact. Additionally, while homeowners have experienced some relief around their mortgage obligations, those same measures have not applied to commercial property owners.
While protections are short for landlords and rental property owners, it doesn’t hurt to take advantage of resources that have your interests at heart during the pandemic uncertainty. The professional property managers at Tradewinds Properties can relieve a great deal of the stress of managing rental property through the pandemic.
Tradewind Properties is here to help you take the headache out of managing your rental property. As a Tradewind client, your most difficult task is checking your monthly statement. Contact us!
Upgrade or Ugly? What Landlords Should Allow Renters to Change in the Property, and When to Say No
As a landlord, you have two major concerns: keeping your rental property occupied, and keeping it in good shape so it appeals to tenants. Tradewind Properties takes care of the first concern for you, so let’s focus on the second.
Each tenant will have ways to make your rental property feel like home to them, as they should. But as the landlord, what changes should you allow and when should you say no?
To put it simply, think about which changes will be either reversible when current renters move out, or a clear upgrade that will improve the value of the property.
For example, changes that will make tenants happy, but are reversible, could include:
- Changing the blinds.
- Swapping out light-switch covers.
- Painting the walls. This one can be a triumph or a disaster. It is best to either approve any colors the tenants are suggesting, or arrange a fee for the walls to be painted back to original upon them moving out.
- Replacing shower heads, specialty light bulbs, or other easy swaps.
- Light fixtures, although it is recommended that a licensed electrician be hired for this job.
- Custom built-ins for the closets.
- Any baby-proofing.
Generally-speaking, most major upgrades should come out of your wallet, as the owner of the property. But small changes to the rental can be the tenants’ choosing (and on their dime), and will help give them a say in how their living space feels. Assuming they gain your permission and that the upgrades improve the value of the property, consider giving a thumbs up to these:
- Replacing drawer pulls and other hardware.
- Deep cleaning the carpets, power spraying the deck, or other major cleaning endeavors.
- Painting walls or cabinets (see above).
- Installing shelving in the garage, mud room, laundry room, etc.
- Upgrading the kitchen sink to include a retractable kitchen faucet, an in-sink soap dispenser, or adding a garbage disposal.
- Bringing in their own appliances that they will leave behind (assuming they’re a step above what you currently have).
- Bathroom upgrades like towel rods, towel hooks, or a medicine cabinet.
- Installing ceiling fans (again, with the help of a professional).
- Planting herbs, bulbs or flowers in garden.
When to Say No
Sometimes what seems like a fabulous idea to some is either too permanent, too hazardous, or too ugly to allow in your rental property.
- Cut-outs for an A/C unit.
- Fire pits or other fire hazards.
- Waterbeds.
- Basketball hoops installed on the exterior. Chances are good the next tenants might not be as keen on a game of hoops.
- Anything that diminishes the functionality or character of a place, such as painting over original brick, closing off a fireplace, or adding an awning which only keeps light from getting in the windows, etc.
- Changing the locks or security system. Unless you mutually agree to change the locks, and the landlord takes the lead, this is obviously a big no-no.
Please note that safety issues, repairs and major upgrades are part of a landlord’s responsibilities. The staff at Tradewind Properties can help you manage all of these, including emergency handyman visits for repairs.
Final Tip:
Keep an open line of communication with your tenants, and be open to suggestions for how they can make your property feel like home. It’s beneficial to both parties if tenants and landlord are satisfied and in agreement.
If you have any questions about becoming a landlord, or renting out your property, Contact Tradewind Properties. We are here to help!
Why Renting Out a Home Can Be Better Than An Apartment
If you’re considering renting out your home, but you’re unsure whether there’s a market for renters, consider these reasons why a home can be an even better fit for potential renters than the usual apartment.
1. Privacy
No shared walls, and no upstairs or downstairs neighbors! Add in the personal space of a yard, garden, patio, or deck, and your tenants suddenly have much more privacy than they would in an apartment.
2. Amenities
The amenities available to apartment dwellers are very different from what a single family home can offer, and often appeal to different types of tenants. Apartments often have great amenities like indoor or outdoor pools, party rooms, exercise rooms, or shuttle buses. But a home competes with these by offering in-house laundry, private garages, and private yards or gardens.
3. Space
From the size of closets, to the garage stall, bedrooms, and outdoor space for children and pets, single family homes generally mean more space. If the budget allows, many tenants will gladly choose a bit more breathing room.
4. Management
Some potential tenants may incorrectly assume that a single family home rental means working directly with the homeowner. Depending on the homeowner, this experience can be less consistent and less responsive than a management company.
Tradewind Properties is the answer to that, as we manage all components of the rental for homeowners, from finding tenants and performing background checks, to collecting rent, to answering maintenance calls if something needs repair.
5. Location
Although the Twin Cities is less bound by this generalization, apartment buildings are often located in more urban areas, and single family homes for rent are often farther away from the city-center. You can certainly find single family homes for rent in quiet areas of Minneapolis, and apartment buildings dot the suburban landscape throughout the Twin Cities. For those looking for a quieter, suburban place to call home, a single family home can be the perfect fit.
6. Personal Styling
A homeowner, and by extension their tenants, have more freedom to make decisions about the property without needing to follow apartment complex guidelines. Whether you’d like to paint, install a satellite dish, or display your collection of garden gnomes, it will be easier to have those conversations if you’re renting out a single family home.
Considering renting out your home or purchasing a rental property?
Our team of realtors will meet with you to determine your goals and get those rent checks coming in!
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Twin Cities Rental Market
Minnesota’s Red-Hot Rental Market
The housing market in twin cities certainly seems to be heading in the right direction. The number of new buyers hitting the market is on the rise. And the corresponding increase in demand, combined with a dwindling supply of inventory, has helped boost the area’s median sales price of single family homes to roughly 6.5% over the last year.
There has also been a spike in the number of new apartment buildings going up around town. In 2014, the metro area saw an increase of nearly 5,000 new units added to the apartment market. The forecast for 2015 predicts that we’ll likely see another 2,000 – 3,000 before it’s all said and done.
Yet despite these two key economic factors, the twin cities rental market remains red hot, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. This may seem contradictory to the previously cited statistics. But the demand for rentals continues to climb. In fact, even with the increase in supply, the overall vacancy rate for the twin cities is right around 5.6%. The apartment sector alone is even more impressive, boasting a ridiculously low rate of roughly 2.5%.
As it is with most economic upturns, job growth is the key cog for fueling the rental demand. The Minnesota market was one of the least affected areas following the nation’s recession of recent years. And a steady job growth rate since then has helped the local economy to bounce back nicely. While the national unemployment rate sits right around 5.5%, Minnesota is sitting pretty with a rate of 3.7% – the lowest it’s been in 13 years.
And as the job growth rate continues to steadily grow, so too does the state’s population. New jobs attract more people, which in turn drives the demand for housing. So as long as these trends keep trending upward, the Minnesota rental market will remain rock solid.
Call the trusted source for Sales, Leasing and Property Management in the twin cities. Please contact Tradewind Properties today for a FREE consultation and home rental or sales analysis.
Home Field Advantage – The Benefits of Rental Properties
As the real estate market recovers in the wake of the recession, there are many new opportunities available for investors with some unique advantages. The demand for rental properties is at a nearly 20 year high, so if you’re considering investing in a rental here are a few added benefits to keep in mind.
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The Millennial Gap: Housing and the Evolving American Dream
Owning your own home used to be a centerpiece of the American dream, but is that still the case? Demographics are changing in the real estate market. The recession has displaced millions of homeowners and scared an entire generation of young buyers out of the market. At least for now.
Homeownership in the U.S. hit a nearly 18-year low in the second quarter of 2013, according to the Department of Commerce. Homeownership rates declined to 65.1 percent, the lowest level since 1995.