Should I charge an application fee?

Several landlords have asked, “Should I charge an application fee?” My answer astonishes some. It is simply YES.

Three reasons why:

1.     Application fees start the filtering process
If an applicant is unwilling to pay an application fee, you may have a difficult time collecting rent.  You are in charge, it is your asset, and you make the rules.
2.     Covers your costs
Screening prospective tenants cost you time and money.  Recover as much money as possible.  If you have to screen 4 tenants to find the right one, it will cost about $100.  Don’t go in the hole $100.  Collect the application fee upfront.
3.     Being consistent on application fees reduces discrimination lawsuits
Charging differing prices and not charging at all on some applicants, opens you up for a lawsuit.  Charge a consistent fee.  Even if you feel sorry for someone. Please don’t misunderstand me.  I am not being cold hearted.  Attorneys look for inconsistencies like this to create a discrimination lawsuit.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me.
Sincerely,
Troy Boldt
Renting Authority
888-674-9181
tboldt@RentingAuthority.com
www.RentingAuthority.com

3 Reasons a Landlord Should Require Tenants to Have Renter's Insurance

Landlords are in business to make a profit and protect their assets, and requiring tenants to have renters insurance helps them achieve that goal. The concern is that if you’re not protected with a policy, they may be financially responsible in part if someone brings legal action against you. It’s not illegal, but it can prevent you from renting an apartment if you choose for whatever reason not to buy a policy. There are a number of reasons why a landlord would require you to buy renter’s insurance. Let’s look at 3:
1. Legal Protection
The landlord’s primary concern is that there will be more than enough money to protect you and them in a lawsuit arising from accidents or injuries of others who visit you in your apartment. For example, if you invite a guest who slips and falls in your apartment and breaks a bone, you could be sued for liability. If you don’t have money to defend yourself in a lawsuit and pay a judgment awarded against you, your guest may include your landlord in the lawsuit to recover damages. They might do that anyway, but your landlord is protected if you own a renter’s insurance policy. This is the main reason why a landlord requires tenants to have renter’s insurance.
2. Avoid Additional Claims on Property Insurance
Another reason why landlords require renter’s insurance is to avoid filing claims on their own insurance. Each claim they file will result in higher premium payments for them, and there may come a point where their insurance company will decide to stop insuring them. If you live in an apartment building with many tenants, there’s a greater chance of this happening. Each tenant has the potential to cause the landlord to file a claim to pay for liability, medical payments or other damages. A landlord views this as a burden, and wants each tenant to take that on themselves.
3. Protection for Other Tenants
It’s also to ensure that the other tenants are protected. If you live in a duplex, or a building with multiple units, each tenant is potentially at risk due to negligence of other tenants. For example, if one tenant floods their apartment by mistake, such as by leaving the tub on while at work without realizing it, it can destroy the belongings of tenants on the bottom floor or even tenants in the adjacent apartment. Those tenants will have to pay to replace any damaged items, such as electronics, and they may not have enough money to pursue you in court. However, if the landlord requires everyone to buy renter’s insurance, then all tenants can sleep at night knowing they can file a claim if necessary.
A landlord who requires renter’s insurance should provide property security for the apartment, such as dead bolts, security cameras if appropriate and the prompt removal of tenants engaging in illegal activity. They should also be held accountable for maintaining the premises

from: www.ohmyapt.com – staff writer

New Enhanced Background Reports

Landlords and property managers like you, rely on fast and effective information.  We are constantly searching for the best information and solutions for you.
In the past weeks, Renting Authority upgraded our background reports.  We now search over 16,000 data bases to give you the most current national background reports available.
You receive in-depth:
-Felony Checks
-Sex Offender List (most with photos)
-State Level Criminal Checks
-County Level Criminal Checks
-Misdemeanor Checks
-National Criminal Checks
-Terrorist Watch List
Our searches match a person based on first and last name and date of birth.  We also search known aliases.
The sex offender search is broader than the other criminal record searches.  You may see names that don’t match or are similar to the person you are looking at.
This is because the algorithm takes the first three letter of the first and last name and matches with any name with those same letter combinations.  IE Jason Hancock can also match Jasmine Hansen.
As an enhanced feature, most sex offenders have a picture attached with their criminal record.
We want you to have as much information as possible when making your decision.  If you ever have questions about the background report, please feel free to call us at 888-674-9181.
Have a great day,
Troy
888-674-9181
tboldt@rentingauthority.com
http://www.rentingauthority.com

LLC vs Sole Proprietorship

An initial important decision when starting a business is what business structure you should use to operate the business. If you don’t already, start considering owning rental properties your business.
Most small business owners wonder whether the limited liability company (also known as the LLC and sometimes referred to as a limited liability corporation) is necessary or whether a sole proprietorship is sufficient.
Liability Protection Is the Major Difference
When you form an LLC for your business, the law provides you with a layer of protection that protects you, the owner of the business against being personal liable for the debts, obligations and lawsuits of the business.
What this means is that if the business is found liable for an obligation, you will not automatically be personally liable for it merely because you are the owner of the business.
On the other hand, if you operate your business as a sole proprietorship, there is no such layer of protection. You are your business and your business is you.
What this means is that all of your assets (your home, your personal savings and retirement, your car, jewelry and anything you own) are at risk in the event someone sues for business related matters. Keep in mind; landlords are the number one sued industry in America. And property managers make the top ten list.
Likelihood of being sued
So, the main question is . . . given your particular business endeavor as a landlord/real estate investor, what is the likelihood and chance that your business will be subject to obligations and lawsuits?
Before you get into this inquiry for your particular situation, here are some important facts to consider:
1. Given the statistics, your chances of being sued are higher than your chances of being hospitalized in the next year and this likelihood greatly increases as you accumulate more rental properties.
2. Lawsuits are an epidemic in this country and small businesses that generate income are primary targets.
3. If you are sued (even if the case is frivolous and without merit, you will need to defend it which can require personal assets if you are personally sued.
4. Given the low cost to form an LLC and the ease of maintaining a limited liability company, lawyers and accountants universally recommend the use of such a vehicle.
5. If you have any assets at all, it is not worth taking the risk of losing them by starting a new venture without any liability protection.
6. Even if you do not have assets (or equity in your property) and your business is just beginning. . . if your business grows (equity increases) and becomes a valuable asset, it will become a prime target because it is generating money (lawsuits are always about money). Forming an LLC later does not protect you from actions and liability incurred prior to formation.
* * *
Given the above information, the only time anyone would operate as a sole proprietorship business is if the nature of the business does not give rise to any liability potential and you do not have any real assets to lose.
Insurance is another way to protect against liability and should always be used as well. However, insurance policies can have exclusions and limitations, so the smart business owner uses both mechanisms to protect themselves and their business.
So, what can give rise to liability?
Whenever your business interacts with a third party, a chance arises. Common Examples include:
* A criminal act is committed on your property; such as rape or assaults
* Slip and fall of tenant or their guest
*Automobile accident involving you or an immediate family member
* You hire a contractor and there is an accident or business dispute;
* You have an employee and are sued for an employment claim
* There is a car accident in your parking lot or you have a store and someone falls in your store and is hurt.
* You sign a contract and do not read the fine details. Next thing you know, you are being sued for not performing under the contract.
* Your business borrows money and the bank sues to collect
* You enter into an order with a vendor and there is a dispute
Lawsuits are almost always about money. When your business becomes successful, there are so many creative lawyers out there that look for ways to extract money from you.
Without protection, you are an even higher target because they know they can reach not just your business assets but all your personal assets.
Many mistakenly think that an LLC is not necessary until you become successful. Forming an LLC later does not protect you from all business activity incurred prior to the formation.
The costs to Form an LLC are so low and given this liability protection as well as the other advantages of an LLC to a business owner, the use of this entity should be strongly considered.
Other Advantages of an LLC over a Sole Proprietorship
In addition to liability protection, the limited liability company offers several other benefits over a sole proprietorship structure:
1. More Trustworthy and Professional Image
Anyone can call themselves a sole proprietorship business but it takes a filing requirement to set up an LLC to operate a business.
Given the many fraudulent businesses and scams out there, customers prefer to do business with legal entity businesses.
By having a business vehicle such as an LLC, it shows that the business owners engaged in some business planning and were smart about properly starting their business. This results in differentiating your business from the many non-legal entities out there.
This makes it easier to get customers when starting and building your brand.
2. Less Risk of Tax Audit
Sole proprietorship businesses are where most of the small business tax fraud comes from when it comes to taking unlawful deductions. Without any formal filing requirements, many can claim they run a business to try to pay less taxes.
For the same reasons noted above in #1, the IRS understands that having a legal entity is one factor which differentiates legitimate businesses from the rest.
Of course, this is not all you need to do to reduce audit risk. You should also keep good records and accounting practices and file your taxes on time.
3. Better Structure for Raising Capital
A sole proprietorship is set up for a single owner. What this means is that if your business ever got to the stage where you want to expand and need to take in equity capital for the expansion, your sole proprietorship structure will not be acceptable to most investors.
Even if you find an investor that will work with a sole proprietorship, the costs to structure the investment will be exorbitant and the legal papers complex.
If you form an LLC and have an LLC, there is the concept of ownership interests in the legal entity. This creates an automatic and widely accepted structure for investors.
You may think that you can just convert or form an LLC at a later date if needed for this. The longer a business waits to convert, the more complex the transition will be. This can scare off your investors if the lead time and complexity is too high.
An LLC gives you a simple structure to operate from on day one but provides flexibility to evolve and change as your business grows.
4. Some Customers/Vendors Require Legal Entities
There is a strong movement today of business customers and vendors having policies requiring that they only do business with legal entities such as an LLC.
This is because the liability of doing business with individuals is too high.
A customer who wants to retain your personal services does not want to take the risk that the IRS will view you as an employee and not an independent contractor as this gives rise to liability for the customer.
5. Business Continuity
A sole proprietorship is not designed to automatically continue if something happens to the business owner.
By definition, a sole proprietor business is an extension of the single owner and so if the owner were to die or become incapacitated, the same thing happens with the business.
This is a huge nightmare for the heirs of the successful business owner. In contrast, an LLC is an entity separate and apart from the owner or owners. Accordingly, the business retains its life and characteristics despite what happens to owners.
Call today and schedule a no cost, no obligation assessment regarding your asset protection needs.
888-674-9181
Costs and Process to Form an LLC
The advantages of an LLC over a sole proprietorship are quite numerous.
The only concern would be whether the costs to form an LLC are prohibitive or the effort to maintain it is difficult.
Good news here as well: The legislatures of most states want to encourage small business and so they specifically enacted LLC laws to make it easy for small business owners to take advantage of all the LLC benefits.
It is true that an LLC requires some fees and paperwork. Just think of these resources as an insurance policy to protect a lot more.
It is really important that you form an LLC properly to ensure liability protection and other benefits. We take the guess work out of setting up an LLC properly. 1,000s of people have used us to create LLCs.
After formation, most states charge a minimal annual fee and/or the filing of a simple report each year to renew the registration. Some do not charge anything or require any additional filings.
Single Member Taxation is Same as Sole Proprietorship But With More Options
Many business owners have this mistaken fear that if they form an LLC for their business, the taxation will be too complex.
If you are a single owner and you set up an LLC for your business where you remain the single owner, the Internal Revenue Service treats your business as if it were a sole proprietorship. There is absolutely no difference in tax treatment for federal income tax purposes. . . however, you get all the state benefits of an LLC such as liability protection.
If you run a sole proprietorship business, you are limited to one taxation structure- sole proprietorship taxation. However, if you run your business through a single member LLC, your business has the option of being taxed pursuant to sole proprietorship taxation, C corporation taxation or S corporation taxation.
In summary, there is no tax difference to use an LLC for the single owner, but you get even more. If in your specific business situation, it may be more tax advantageous to use a corporation tax structure, you can do this with an LLC (not with a sole proprietorship). If this is a potential for you, contact your accountant to understand the differences.
Converting to an LLC from a Sole Proprietor at Beginning of Year Makes It a Little Easier
Start the New Year by Adding Personal Liability Protection
If you have been looking into converting your sole proprietorship to an LLC (limited Liability Company), there is no better time to do this than the end of the year or the very beginning of the next year.
This is because it makes the accounting must easier. You will not need to maintain accounting for two different businesses over one year. This also simplifies the tax reporting because you can have all your Scheduled business items on one schedule for the tax year.
In most states, you may be able to file and have an effective date of January 1st of the next year which is the best option because you will have your legal entity and more importantly liability protection in place starting with a beginning of year date.
It is always a good idea to start an LLC as soon as possible if you are running a sole proprietor business but if your decision is also coming up around the start of a new year, this is an even bigger reason to move forward.

Common Excuses for Being Late and Not Having an LLC

You have probably never used any of these excuses for being late, have you?
It’s always one crisis after another
Your watch must be fast.
I wasn’t late. I just failed to be on time.
I’m working on the next big thing.
I’m very busy at the moment.
I am certain if you don’t have an LLC set up, you are not using any of these excuses either.
I have a CPA
I have an attorney
I can do it myself
I have insurance
I really don’t have any assets
We’re all human and make excuses from time to time. Today my friend, is the day to stop making excuses and get your LLC set up NOW.
Call Renting Authority and schedule a no cost, no obligation assessment regarding your asset protection needs.
888-674-9181
Benefits of a Limit Liability Company (LLC)
-Extinguish the claimants’ economic incentive to sue
-Utilize the LLC to provide a level of asset anonymity guaranteed and protected by state law
-Make yourself disappear from information databases and unable to be located
-Insulate your assets from each other so they are not lost in lawsuits
-Increase bargaining power with creditors
-Make collections on judgments difficult
-Minimize the financial, emotional, and time consuming risks of lawsuits
Call today and schedule a no cost, no obligation assessment regarding your asset protection needs.
888-674-9181

Linsurance, LLC or Both?

You definitely, need insurance on your rental property. Don’t go without it. But is insurance alone enough? NO!
Your insurance covers your property, but it does not mean that a lawsuit is limited to only the insured property. Sue happy attorneys can and will attach your personal property, accounts and additional assets.
A sue happy attorney will look at all your assets and attach whatever is of value to the lawsuit. Are you willing to risk it all?
Setting up an LLC is like having an additional insurance policy. It’s very inexpensive. I will cost you about $125 per month for the first year and then about an additional $10 to $20 per month the following year.
Benefits of a Limit Liability Company (LLC)
1 Reduce the incentive of getting sued in the first place
2 If you are sued, make sure your personal and business assets are protected
3 Extinguish the claimants’ economic incentive to sue
4 Utilize the LLC to provide a level of asset anonymity guaranteed and protected by state law
5 Make yourself disappear from information databases and unable to be located
6 Insulate your assets from each other so they are not lost in lawsuits
7 Increase bargaining power with creditors
8 Make collection on judgments difficult
9 Minimize the financial, emotional, and time consuming risks of lawsuits
Don’t wait until you are in the midst of a lawsuit. Call today and schedule a no cost, no obligation assessment regarding your asset protection needs.
888-674-9181
Troy Boldt
(888) 674-9181
tboldt@rentingauthority.com
http://www.RentingAuthority.com

You Might Not Need Asset Protection If...

You have no assets
If you don’t own your own home, have any rental properties, you drive an old beater, you have minimal amounts of money in the bank and are living pay check to paycheck, then you have nothing to protect.
You are currently in a lawsuit!
If a lawsuit has already been filed against you, you need a lawyer and not asset protection. After a lawsuit has been filed, it is too late to protect any of your assets. All 50 states have adopted some form of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA). If you transfer your assets to another person without receiving fair value in return during a law suit, it is fraudulent conveyance to impede and hinder the collection of a legal debt. The judge will set aside anything you do and your assets will be available to be seized by your judgment creditors.
All your assets are out of reach
If you hold all of your assets outside of the U.S. and are ready to flee the land of the free and the brave if you are sued, they you don’t need asset protection. If you are willing to live oversees for 20 years or more, then the US court system is powerless against you.
You are not at risk of lawsuits
If you don’t have a profession or own a business, have real estate holdings, drive much, are retired and stay in most of the day, don’t have a spouse, children, own a dog, have a risky hobby. If you have great medical insurance, home insurance and personal liability insurance, then you are at a low risk to being sued.
You have diplomatic immunity
If you are a representative (or a family member of the representative) of a foreign government and you have diplomatic immunity in the U.S., you are exempt from just about all civil and criminal processes. The U.S. legal system cannot take your assets from you in a civil or criminal proceeding.
Don’t wait until you are in the midst of a lawsuit. Call today for a no cost, no obligation assessment regarding your asset protection needs. See if you qualify for a Free LLC compliments of Renting Authority.
888-674-9181
Troy Boldt
(888) 674-9181
tboldt@rentingauthority.com
http//:www.RentingAuthority.com

Bullet Proof Your Assets

You’ve worked hard acquiring your rental properties and your personal wealth. Don’t let sue happy attorneys and tenants get their hand on what you have. It’s not a secret, most lawsuits are about one thing-money.
Lawyers see a pot of gold at the end of this litigation rainbow. Their pot of gold is filled with any asset associated with your name and Social Security Number. How accessible is this information? Thanks to the power of the Internet just about anyone can find out everything you own by performing a simple asset and liability search online. The assets that come up on these reports will include your home, vehicles, investment real estate, bank and brokerage accounts and, well, just about anything else of value that you own. The mere fact that you own these assets makes you a target, regardless of how good a person you are or that you may have done nothing wrong.
QUESTION: IS THERE AN EFFECTIVE LEGAL SOLUTION TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR ASSETS?
Answer: Yes. Properly structured asset protection planning can effectively protect your assets from potential litigation and creditors. An LLC protects assets against unanticipated claims and allows a great degree of flexibility especially with real estate.
Call Renting Authority today and schedule a no cost, no obligation assessment about your situation.
888-674-9181
Benefits of a Limit Liability Company (LLC)
1 Reduce the incentive of getting sued in the first place
2 If you are sued, make sure your personal and business assets are protected
3 Extinguish the claimants’ economic incentive to sue
4 Utilize the LLC to provide a level of asset anonymity guaranteed and protected by state law
5 Make yourself disappear from information databases and unable to be located
6 Insulate your assets from each other so they are not lost in lawsuits
7 Increase bargaining power with creditors
8 Make collection on judgments difficult
9 Minimize the financial, emotional, and time consuming risks of lawsuits
Don’t wait until you are in the midst of a lawsuit. Call Renting Authority today for a no cost, no obligation assessment about your situation. See if you qualify for a free LLC complements of Renting Authority.
888-674-9181
Troy Boldt
(888) 674-9181
tboldt@rentingauthority.com
www.RentingAuthority.com

Landlord Cleans Up Community

Take a few minutes to watch this YouTube video. This landlord is an amazing example of how landlords can clean up their community and create a better environment for everyone. Brent Sobol is a great example of what a determined landlord can accomplish. Follow us on Facebook

7 Costly Landlord Mistakes

Cash Flow Isn't Always Easy

My wife watches all sorts of TV shows with one of her favorites being with Scott McGillvray. He has a great show about cash flowing properties and at the end of each one he shows how much money the person will be pocketing each month and I just have to laugh. That number is always assuming that nothing goes wrong.
Lets look at our own housing situation. How many months have you had nothing go wrong with your house? Just last month we had a broken door, broken door handle, broken garbage disposal and some plumbing problems as a result. Other months it is always something else and we are no different. When you buy a cash flow property you are buying the good and the bad so sure you will have some months when you make money, but you’ll also have months where you lose money. In the end you are banking on the appreciation of the home while having good renters or leasers who take care of the place. It just isn’t as easy as a half hour show makes it out to be.

Assignment of Contract

Usually when people start talking about making money with real estate they go straight to flipping. Flipping is buying and selling a house at a profit. We see lots of different tv shows on the topic and it makes it look so easy. Let’s look at a number of different strategies and see how people can make money with real estate.
Short Term Strategies: Assignment of Contract. Many people have limited options but still want to make money at real estate. One of the more common and easier strategies to employ is to use the assignment of contract. This is where a person gets a property under contract and then turns around and sells that contract to someone else at a profit. This isn’t where people make the most money but it works in situations where investors have little or no money to put down. Here’s an example: You see a home for sale in your area and know that the owner really needs to sell the house. In an Assignment of contract situation you will want to offer a bit lower on the property. If the house is listed at 300k and is worth 300k then you can offer 280 on the house. If you get the home under contract at 280 you are then able to turn around and sell that contract to someone else for a certain fee. For me I was able to make around a thousand dollars a couple times using this strategy.

Buy and Hold Coming to an End Soon

I’ve talked to several people lately about different real estate strategies to use and the one that has been the most popular among smart real estate investors has been the buy and hold. NOT THE FLIP. People flip homes when the market is moving at a pace that allows them to get a house quickly and turn it for a profit. But the investors that are absolutely cleaning up right now are the ones who are buying homes and holding them. Why is that?
First, the interest rates have been low enough for so long that if people have money to put down they can get these low rates on properties. A man I work with in Las Vegas has been buying up plenty of 100k houses and getting them rented while having extremely low payments on those houses. Why is this a good idea? Plainly, even if the interest rates go up in the area he is in a spot where renters will always be able to afford his payment and if the area goes up in value with the economy then he is sure to really increase the equity in each property. It’s a win across the board for him now.
Second, interest rates have started to go back up. When interest rates go back up something interesting will happen that the country isn’t prepared for at the moment. The housing values will have to stay still or even drop. I say this because the average person owns a 3 bed/2 bath house in our country and if they can’t afford an average payment at a 6% interest rate or higher then the market will have to adjust so they can. By getting these homes now at low rates you are setting yourself up for the best long term success because you can afford the payment at the low rate and it isn’t going to adjust on you like it did during the serious downswing we had a couple years ago.
Real estate is a great way to make long term wealth. Each day I deal with great owners of homes or apartments and they really see things for how they are when it comes to our market. I get great advice from them daily and I love to pass it on to you.

I have a rental property, now what?

At Renting Authority, we have so many customers who accidentally have a rental property. What I mean by that is that we have customers who bought a house and couldn’t sell it so they decided to make it a rental. These are average every day people who are building wealth and don’t even know it. Here’s a scenario:
Bob Johnson lives in a basic 3 bedroom/2 bath home when the real estate market is going great. He buys another property when the market is going well and plans on selling his other house after the fact. Well, once he buys the 2nd house he can’t sell the 1st house for whatever reason and you have an accidental real estate investor.
Like I said, we have customers like Bob Johnson by the dozen and they are great people who are doing a great service for our country. See, not everyone has a 20% down payment and can buy a home. Not everyone has perfect credit. These people need good solid places to live and with the interest rates where they are now, these people can rent these homes under affordable circumstances.
One of the most important things someone can do when in this situation is to setup as a business entity first. If you have a rental property you should keep that property separate from everything else you have. When you rent a home you don’t want the liability of that property to effect you personally should something happen and that means to create a basic entity like and LLC and put that property under that umbrella.
Next, when you decide to rent the absolute most important thing about the rental property is who you rent it to. This is a marriage in a sense so it is key that you are comfortable with that person and that the rent is being paid and able to be paid. Let me be very clear, don’t rent a house to your friend if you friend has no job and a history of drug abuse. Unless you want to make 2 mortgage payments every month, be very picky about who you rent to. It is better that the home has a lapse in a renter than getting the wrong one.
Good renters: pay on time, treat the home like their own, have good communication with you about the property. Can fix things themselves if necessary.
Bad renters: Don’t pay on time, break rental/lease agreements, damage the property or don’t care about the property and are high maintenance.
When I say ‘high maintenance’ I’m talking about the renter that is always calling you for something. It might be a squeaky floor board or a light bulb issue. Maybe the water pressure isn’t exactly up to that persons expectations. You don’t want that person.
People ask me how I can tell if I’m getting a good renter and I ask them to always do a solid background check on the renter and then ALWAYS call past landlords. Find out about their history and take the extra 5 minutes to get it done right.

The Importance of a Property Inspection

Does anyone know the average price of a property inspection? I called around and in reality the average price of a property inspection is under $500. In reality, is that a lot of money in comparison to purchasing something for hundreds of thousands of dollars?
The most common issue found during an inspection is improper surface grading and drainage. That means that in some homes water drainage runs too close to the foundation. When that happens it can cause obvious damage to the integrity of the home itself. This can be very expensive to fix but is better to fix than to ruin the home altogether. Home inspectors can identify that issue for you that you wouldn’t find without. If you are able to identify the problem prior to purchasing a home it can save you THOUSANDS in repairs.
What about a roof? Same thing applies. For a minimum fee prior to purchasing, your inspector can and should identify any issues with the roofing system that would/could result in a lot of money for repairs.
Obviously you’ve heard of several stories of issues with termites or the structural integrity of a house. An inspector can/should identify any issues along these lines that you’d want to find out PRIOR to purchasing your home. If not you are looking at thousands in repairs that you may not have budgeted but also you can’t live in a home with unresolved structural issues.
One thing that I always suggest is that the heating and cooling systems are really looked at. Both are a major monthly expense that you want working at their peak at all times. By not having those things inspected you may be costing yourself money each day that could’ve been identified and fixed rather inexpensively if caught early enough.
Anyway, if you are looking at a rental property to purchase then make sure you get a quality inspection done. It will save you so much money and headache. Sure you may find that the house is 100% fine, but that piece of mind is great to have.

What Can Renting Authority Do For You?

Phoenix Market Picking up

July 11th, 2013

In September of 2011 the Phoenix market was considered one of the worst in the country. The low point hit when the median price for a house fell to 118k. When the market was at its peak the area got a value of around 266k per home and things were great.
Today an article was posted on the MSN MONEY page about the Phoenix market that I think everyone should read. I’ll post the link here. PHOENIX REAL ESTATE.

Renting Authority Thanks You

When Renting Authority was started we had some great ideas on what we could do to really help people with rental properties. We think that over the years we have really been able to do a lot of those things and much of that success is attributed to the great people that we get to work with every day. In some cases we work with individuals who have one property and in others it is those with thousands of units that need to be taken care of and we always find a way to get those situations taken care and providing a stress free service for lots of amazing people.

So today the blog will be short and sweet. We love what we do and we love to interact with you on so many different levels. We are here to help and provide a needed service to anyone interested. Thank you.
Troy Boldt

Flipping Homes

August 9th, 2013

I love watching shows about flipping houses. People that go in and buy distressed properties, then fix them up and sell them. Problem is that I’ve never seen a show turn out bad for the homeowner and that isn’t always the case. TV can make the process seem easy and quick while they don’t mention some of the issues that come along with it.
1. Holding the property: Some homes just don’t sell right away once they are fixed up and beautiful. In reality, you will be making a payment on that house until it sells and that has to be taken into account. It is important to really study and know the real estate market in your area. If you know how long it will take to sell the home, on average, then just budget amount into your calculations.
2. Unplanned Expenses: Not every home that you are wanting to flip will give you the ability to know of every problem upfront. Meaning some people buy homes sight unseen in hopes that the ‘good location’ will make up for it. Sure, that can be the case sometimes but you are going to have to go into this with a budget and the reality that you will have some expenses that are now 100% your responsibility. These may include termites, water damage, electrical problems, plumbing problems or structural issues. Once you purchase the home you have to take the attitude that you will see the project through or you will just waste even more money on the process.
I owned several properties in Arizona when I was first getting started in real estate. One of the first homes I bought had a swimming pool and I thought that was so great. I didn’t know anything about pools or maintaining pools. Once I bought the home I found out the pool had a major issue with holding the water. Somewhere and somehow the integrity of the pool was compromised and couldn’t really hold water. I learned a valuable(and expensive) lesson that day in that when you are flipping homes you need to really understand what the average homeowner wants and can have, not what you want. The pool ended up costing us thousands of dollars and made that property a loss when we finally sold it.

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