I don’t like firing people. My initial approach is to try to make it work and bring out the full potential of a person. Sometimes, however, I hold on to a person for too long.

I’ve found over the years that if I’m micro-managing someone then I have the wrong person. Micro-managing means you’re telling someone exactly how you want something done rather than just agreeing on the outcome. You’re repeating yourself and constantly following up. In other words, you’re spending way too much time with someone to get stuff done.

Micro-managing turns you from a passive-income investor into a hands-on investors, and it’s not good for you or for your property.

You and your property manager should agree about the feasibility of your business plan (whatever it is) and your property manager should be able to execute that plan without you telling him exactly how to do it. You should be able to review the key metrics and together adjust your strategy as things change.

However, if your property manager is consistently falling short of your agreed-upon goals, you find yourself micro-managing the manager, or asking for the same thing more than once,  it may be time to consider a change.

Here are 5 tell-tale signs that it might be time to fire your property manager:

Sign # 1. Not meeting target goals such as occupancy, collections, and cost control

If you and your manager agree that your vacancy should not exceed 5% per year and you shouldn’t have more than 2% in uncollected rents and the manager’s performance falls short, then may be time for a conversation, unless there are other factors in play that are outside the manager’s control.

Sign # 2: Lack of or Incomplete Reporting

I had a property manager once who gave me owner reports that looked pretty good at the outset, and in truth, I didn’t study them hard enough to make sure they actually did what I wanted them to.

Once we got started, I found myself asking the manager for things like outstanding rent balances by unit or for more explanation of expenses. Because his reporting was not adequate to answer my (what I thought were routine) questions, he had to research these questions and it frustrated him as well as me.

Because this manager was managing primarily smaller buildings, my sense was that his other clients were not as demanding as I was, and that incompatibility became more and more stressful.

Make really sure that the property manager is putting out reports that give you the answers you need without a whole lot of follow-up. If you’re constantly asking for more information because of incomplete or missing reporting, then this is a sign that the relationship could be short-lived.

Sign # 3: Ignorance, Inexperience or Incompetence

This sounds obvious, but many times you can’t tell that your property is ignorant or incompetent until you’re into the relationship for a while.

In the case of my 12-unit, I was dealing with a difficult situation that involved landlord-tenant issues as well as housing code compliance issues. While my property manager appeared to be knowledgeable at the time (at least compared to me), it eventually became obvious that the manager’s inexperience cost me thousands of dollars.

In addition, I listened to bad advice with regards to renting to Section 8 subsidized housing tenants. The property manager was opposed to the idea. I now understand this was because he was inexperienced dealing with section 8 tenants. On the other hand, my new property management company specialized in section 8 tenants, and subsidized housing is the strategy for the part of the city the building is in. It as a major mistake not to rent to section 8 tenants right from the start, a mistake which also cost me thousands of dollars.

Sign # 4: They don’t do what they say they’re going to do

I expect people to do what they say they’re going to do or communicate otherwise. That’s it. No more, no less.

I can’t stand it when someone tells me “I’ll email this or that to you by the end of the day”, and the end of the day comes and goes and I get no other communication. The more this goes on, the more aggravated I get, and the more of a red flag it becomes.

Sign # 5: Lack of Owner Mindset

If you boil down Reasons # 1 through # 4 I could generalize that it’s time to fire your property manager when they don’t display an owner’s mindset. While no one is going to care as much about your asset as you, you want your manager to care about it almost as much. You want that manager to behave as if it’s their own building.

While on the one hand I don’t like my property manager to also own their own apartment buildings (because they’re likely going to compete with you to acquire additional buildings, and that makes it more difficult to involve them upfront as you evaluate opportunities), I do prefer that my property manager also owns their own multi-family buildings. They generally use the same people and systems for your buildings as their own.

I don’t want my property manager just to meet expectations, I want them to continually push the envelope with the property, and with me. I want them out there coming up with new ideas of how to increase income and reduce expenses. I want them to continually improve their own systems and how they do things.

If I don’t see my property manager aggressively and proactively managing the property it raises a red flag for me.

Conclusion

I think it’s short-sighted to fire your property manager for just one of these infractions (though you certainly could). But the more of these signs you see the more likely it may be time for you to re-evaluate your relationship with them.

I can tell you that if you’re frustrated with dealing with your manager, you’re not achieving your business plan, and you’re spending way too much time “managing” the building, it may be time to pull the plug.

And if you do, and you experience a property management company who performs at the highest level, your life will be like night and day. You’ll have more time to enjoy life and possibly look for more units rather than worrying about the ones you already have.

Michael Blank | Company Website | LinkedIn Connect | Michael Blank’s passion is being an entrepreneur and helping others become (better) entrepreneurs. His focus in real estate investing is buying apartment buildings by raising money from private individuals. Michael has been investing in residential and multifamily real estate since 2005 and began syndicating deals in 2010. He is the author of the Syndicated Deal Analyzer and the free eBook “The Secret to Raising Money to Buy Your First Apartment Building”.

2014 YTD Rent Growth Strongest of Recovery

National apartment occupancy reached 95% for the first time in at least six years in May 2014, according to research from Axiometrics, the leader in apartment data and research.

Additionally, effective rent growth for the year to date ending in May was 3.7%, the highest growth since the trough of the recession. With both improving occupancy and rent growth despite increasing unit deliveries, the apartment market is performing at a very high level.

“Axiometrics began tracking apartment data on a monthly basis in April 2008, and this is the first time since then that occupancy has been 95%,” said Stephanie McCleskey, Axiometrics’ Director of Research. “We tracked quarterly before that, and the second quarter of 2001 was the last time the market was at 95% for a quarter. It’s a pleasant surprise because it’s coming at a time when new supply is flooding the market.”

According to Axiometrics’ recently released May 2014 Market Trends Report, May saw a 20 basis-point (bps) increase in occupancy from the 94.8% recorded in April 2014, also the previous monthly high. Occupancy was 94.8% in August and September 2013.

“The national occupancy rate has increased steadily each of the past four months and is higher than the 94.7% recorded in May 2013,” McCleskey added.

Based upon Axiometrics’ identified supply, about 180,000 new units have been delivered throughout the U.S. during the past 12 months, but with high absorption, the impact on effective rent growth and occupancy has been positive.

“One reason occupancy is rising is that not only are people moving into these new units, but they’re also moving into Class B units at a lower price point,” McCleskey said. “Most of the new units are priced competitively with Class A product, so about 80% of existing stock has lower rents than the newcomers, making them attractive to those who can’t afford the highest rents.”

Occupancy is improving in all three asset classes. Class A was 95.2% in May, up 0.2% from April. Class B improved by 0.3% to 95.4%, while Class C occupancy increased 0.2% to 94.2%.

The strong occupancy may also affect the annualized effective rent growth rate, which also continued trending upward; May’s 3.5% growth was the strongest in the 16 months since February 2013.

That rate represented a 10 bps increase from the April 2014 rate of 3.4% and a 19 bps increase from 3.3% in May 2013.

“The year-to-date (YTD) effective rent growth numbers portray an apartment market that may be having its strongest year since the Great Recession ended,” Axiometrics Vice President of Research Jay Denton said. “The May 2014 YTD rate of 3.7% was stronger than the 3.4% for all of 2011 and 2012, which had the next strongest first five months of the recovery. The 2014 YTD rate will have to exceed 4.2% in June to remain the strongest of the recovery years.”

Effective rent growth is on the rise in the top two asset classes. Class A properties — those with the top 20% highest rent — generated 3.5% annualized effective rent growth in May, up from 3.1% in April. Class B continues to have the strongest growth among the asset classes, at 3.9% in May, a 0.1% rise from April and its best since at least December 2012. Class C effective rent growth was 3.1% in May, a 0.5% decrease from the previous month.

“Since most of the new units being delivered are getting absorbed no one should be surprised that rents for Class A properties nationwide are rising,” Denton said. “And Class B is leading the other classes because people who can’t afford the high rents being asked at new properties are moving into these units. And while they might not have all the bells and whistles of the new units, many Class B properties are really a good buy for the price and quality.”

McCleskey adds,”With this month’s increase, Class A has fully recovered from a pronounced dip in which the rate of effective rent growth dropped from 3.5% in June 2013 to 2.1% in February 2014.”

Also, landlords are getting a higher percentage of asking rent. Concession values were at a post-recession low for the second straight month, decreasing slightly to 0.8% in May 2014 from 1.0% in April. Despite the drop, concessions are still equivalent to four days’ free rent on a 12-month lease.

Among individual markets:
The Odessa, TX, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a natural-gas-boom area, had the strongest annualized effective rent growth in the nation for the third straight month: 13.24%.

Washington, D.C., has ended its time swimming in the red. Effective rent growth of 0.3% marked the first time since June 2013 that rent growth was in positive territory in this MSA.

While the San Francisco Bay Area continues to be one of the hottest regions in the nation, the Oakland MSA is the strongest one in that region. Its 10.0% annualized effective rent growth is the sixth strongest in the nation, one place ahead of No. 7 San Jose, which has 8.7% effective rent growth.

Large markets above the national rate of 3.51% include:
Houston at 26th (5.35%)
Phoenix at 28th (4.82%)
Austin at 29th (4.78%)
Los Angeles at 42nd (4.04%)

Performing below the national rate are:
Dallas at 54th (3.36%)
Boston at 83rd (1.97%)
Chicago at 89th (1.67%)
New York at 90th (1.62%)
Philadelphia at 92nd (1.58%)
Washington at 110th (0.25%)

Though Axiometrics tracks more than 400 markets, the 121 largest are used for rankings.

Axiometrics improves property and portfolio performance for apartment investments. Confident investment decisions begin with reliable, timely information. No one has more accurate, detailed, and up-to-date research on the apartment and student housing markets. Learn more at www.axiometrics.com or by calling 214-953-2242.

It should come as no surprise that rental rate complaints are more prevalent than any other issue for apartment residents. Multifamily research firm, J Turner Research surveys show that property managers hear rate complaints three times more often than disturbance reports and rental rate issues are two times more likely to perturb tenants than loose pets and their owners who don’t deploy good pet-waste management habits.

Property managers who make on-site customer service a priority will position their properties to potentially gain more favorable online reviews and develop stronger community reputations.

Keep an Open Door Policy. While complaints about rental rates will probably always be among the top issues for tenants, how you respond makes a difference. Upgrading amenities, building relationships with renters and creating a higher perception of value often helps overcome rate objections.

Encouraging Community Support. Motivating non-compliant pet owners to pick up after their pets and obey leash laws is challenging at times. Writing a letter to community residents to explain the health hazards for two and four-legged residents often nudges owners to be more proactive. Keep it to the point, non-confrontational and sympathetic.

Responsive Maintenance Service. Quality and response time directly impact tenant satisfaction. To overcome poor performance that triggers complaints, train maintenance staff and department managers to communicate effectively with tenants. Early acknowledgement of a problem bolsters confidence. Encourage team members to upgrade their skills with company-sponsored workshops and vocational training. Finally, furnish the necessary tools to get the job done right – first time, every time. If necessary, replace off-site vendors with reputable service providers.

Engaged and Interested Staff. The quickest way to lose tenant confidence is with poorly organized, non-communicative staff members. Work with your technology partners to develop a training program that streamlines your daily workflow. Make sure all leasing agents and property team members understand the importance of not only what they say, but how they say it.

Perfectly Groomed and Well-maintained Common Areas. Residents are proud to invite family and friends to visit when your grounds are kept in tip-top condition.

As part of a thesis project, researcher Lisa Scarboro studied the relationship between tenant expectations, perceptions and mobility rates. Scarboro reported results of one survey that showed 100% of respondents admitted visual quality in property ads influenced their decisions. If a photographic image is that important to home selection – just imagine how critical it is to provide residents with outdoor spaces and common areas that increase perceived value.

Safety, Security, and Confidence. Adequate safety and security features are a must for improving customer service. Scheduling routine property inspections throughout the year to look for breaches in perimeter fencing, repair broken locks or gate latches, and replace non-working light bulbs is one way to improve tenant confidence. Tenants also look for functioning security systems and remote cameras, especially in parking areas.

Management Sets the Benchmarks. Overall customer service failure is resident complaint that signals the property needs an attitude adjustment – from the top down. While you can’t satisfy every customer, disgruntled residetns should be the oddity, not the norm.

If residents frequently voice concerns about team members’ behavior that reflects a general lack of interest, problems resolving maintenance and billing issues quickly or accessing online payment portals… chances are your property needs to take a new at your customer service policies.

Appfolio | Company Website | LinkedIn Connect | AppFolio, Inc. develops Property Management Software that helps businesses improve their workflow so they save time and make more money.  Appfolio submits articles & blogs including topics of Resident Retention, Improved Owner Communication, Time Management, and more.

Prospective renters place higher importance on online apartment reviews than they do referrals from friends and family, according to a new report.

Kingsley Associates’ just released the results of the first-ever multifamily study on ratings and reviews entitled Highly Recommended: The Influence and Impact of Online Ratings & Reviews to Apartment Searchers, which shows that 70% percent of prospective renters researched community ratings and reviews before selecting their current apartment home.

Interestingly, respondents ranked online ratings and reviews as a more important factor in the apartment search process than referrals from friends and family.

Renters still ranked location and price as top factors, followed by property tour and website at the top of the apartment search checklist. However, the data underscores the growing importance of community ratings and reviews.

“Times are changing. As in so many other areas of consumer behavior, a vast majority of prospective renters are turning to online sources for information and opinions,” says David Smith, chief operating officer at Kingsley Associates, who presented the findings.”Renters are starting to rely more heavily on people who live at a community compared with recommendations from friends and family. The information apartment searchers want is immediately available on the Internet and prospective residents are even more influenced when the reviewer is a confirmed resident.”

Historically, apartment owners and operators have placed a significant amount of time, money and other resources into word-of-mouth referral programs to generate more leads and leases. Data gathered from more than 29,900 current renters indicate a significant shift among the use and consumption of certified ratings and reviews to influence rental housing decisions. The trend underscores an opportunity for multifamily portfolios to leverage ratings and reviews as a key performance indicator to identify and convert new prospective resident leads.

The study also found that 53.1 percent of respondents said they were either less likely or much less likely to trust an anonymous review over a certified review. Just under 40 percent (39.6 percent) said they would trust them the same and a mere 7 percent said they were more likely or much more likely to trust anonymous reviews.

“This groundbreaking study, the first of its kind in our industry, confirms that the majority of prospective renters want authentic ratings and reviews that they can trust,” says Scott Asher, vice president of marketing and operations for RentPath, Apartment Guide’s parent company. “Apartment Guide requires all of its ratings and reviews to be certified before going live, ensuring prospective residents are reading real feedback from actual residents who live or have lived at the community.”

At the same time, the vast majority of respondents, 69.5 percent, said in the survey that it is easy, moderately easy or very easy to spot a fake review. That might explain the 40 percent of respondents who said they trust anonymous reviews as much as certified reviews.

“While rolling out Certified Resident Ratings and Reviews for several large apartment portfolios, such as Gables Residential, Drucker & Falk Real Estate, J.C. Hart Company, and Guardian Real Estate Services, it became clear how many fake reviews exist on the Internet which can directly and negatively impact an apartment searcher’s perception of a community,” Asher says. “Requiring certified ratings and reviews enables communities to better manage their online reputation by eliminating anonymous or fake reviews on our platform.”

It’s becoming more common place in today’s litigious world for tenants to fight an eviction filing.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, there are more tenant advocates offering low cost legal services to tenants who say they’ve been wronged, and more tenant attorneys willing to take on what they see as the stereotypical slumlord.

Also, rentals in many cities are getting harder and harder to find. The tenant who is facing eviction is also facing a daunting task in trying to find another place to live.

And, of course, there are those tenants who have learned how to survive in the “system” and live for free by delaying their pending evictions.

So what can landlords do to fight back?

Debunk the “Victim” Myth

Tenants who don’t have a good reason to fight an eviction may try to play the victim for the judge — and probably for their attorney as well. They’ll use any ammunition available, like having kids in local schools, a recent layoff from the factory, health problems — the list goes on and on — to try to get sympathy, and buy more time.

It’s sad when someone is facing hardship. But, there’s no reason why a private landlord should be asked to subsidize a tenant who can’t pay rent, for whatever reason.

The victim myth is also perpetuated by tagging the landlord as a monster — someone who has harassed the tenants or acted unprofessionally.

Make sure you have documentation detailing the communications with the tenant so you can debunk the victim myth. You’ll have to be proactive, and prove that you are not treating this tenant any differently than you would any other tenant under the same circumstances.

Property Upkeep

Another common way to delay an eviction is to argue that the property was not habitable. The tenant is angling to offset past due rent and discredit the landlord.

It’s extremely important to your bottom line to keep the property in good condition. Be prepared to show what the condition was at the time of the move-in. This is when a move- in checklist, signed by the tenant, can betray the tenant’s story. If all those conditions, like rats and bare electric wires, weren’t noted at that time, then it looks like the only deteriorated after the tenant moved in.

“But I Paid Rent”

“I paid cash,” is a common defense a desperate tenant will tell a judge. Landlords who don’t provide rent receipts for cash payments are most susceptible. Tenants in an eviction can get delusional about what they owe. Yes, the tenant left a rent check — but that was to cover the month prior! Maybe it was partial payment. Or, perhaps it was the fifth time in sixth months they paid late. Tenants may argue that you had a verbal deal to delay payment.

The tenant can try to warp the truth about what they’ve paid, but if you have a solid policy for tracking rent payments, a judge likely will take your word for it.

You Need Help!

Eviction rules can be tricky. Unfortunately, a tenant’s attorney will be watching for mistakes, like miscalculating the rules for serving the tenant notice. If you haven’t been through the eviction process before (kudos to you!) you may want to consider hiring an eviction attorney who can walk you through the process safely. The alternative — refiling a flawed case — is more expensive.

Documentation is key, and running your rental business like a professional will increase the odds that you can sail through an eviction and make your rental property profitable once more.

American Apartment Owners Association | Company Website |At the American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA), our mission is to serve the interests of landlords, real estate brokers, property managers, real estate owners and apartment building owners nationally.  Visit www.AAOA.com for more information about membership details!

If you haven’t already automated your rental application process, you may be wasting incredible amounts of administrative time throughout the tenant finding process. Automating your applications is important for a variety of reasons and can usually be done with very little effort. AppFolio has introduced an entirely mobile-friendly lease flow that helps property managers handle the leasing process from advertising the vacancy all the way through signing the lease.  Here are 5 benefits to going mobile with your lease flow:

1. Increasing overall occupancy levels.

Automating your applications process means that it’s far more likely that applications will actually be turned in. When confronted with lengthy forms that need to be filled out manually, faxed and waited on, a prospective tenant might decide to think things through again or wait until later. An automated applications process is far less likely to discourage. Moreover, automated applications can be taken in at any time of the day and automated applications are open to a larger variety of people — such as those that are not currently within the area.

2. Ensuring that standards are kept.

By integrating your applications process with your other procedures, you’ll be able to ensure that nothing is missed. Automated applications will be able to tell whether information has been left out or if certain things such as current addresses are invalid. An application that is fully integrated into your property management solution can also submit information for background and credit checks at the same time.

3. Lowering overall costs.

An automated application process ensures that you have the lowest costs possible. With automated applications, you don’t need to spend lengthy administrative time on your applications. Furthermore, you’ll get more applications in for each vacancy — and this means additional application fees to offset the administrative costs that you do have and that you increase the likelihood of finding the perfect one.

4. Green and sustainable processes.

Automated processes are completely green and sustainable because they do not require physical media such as paper. If you’re running a paperless office, you may want to switch to an entirely paperless mode of resident interaction. Not only could you automate your application processes, but you could send contracts and other forms for verified e-signatures rather than sending them physically.

5. You can hook them in immediately.

As a professional, you undoubtedly know that it is always easiest to close a deal right away. If you delay at all in closing a deal with an interested party, you could potentially give them time to reconsider. Having an online and accessible application form can enable you to go through the process right away, thereby getting a new tenant and a happy owner. When showing your properties, you may want to keep a computer around for this reason.

Automating your application process is an exceptional way to reduce administrative overhead and thereby increase your profit margins. With an automated application process, you can ensure that nothing is missed, collect application fees and get your units filled faster than ever.

Appfolio | Company Website | LinkedIn Connect | AppFolio, Inc. develops Property Management Software that helps businesses improve their workflow so they save time and make more money.  Appfolio submits articles & blogs including topics of Resident Retention, Improved Owner Communication, Time Management, and more.

Tenants all over the world have been cashing in with the temporary rental service Airbnb, a young upstart that is generating revenue in the billions, with its CEO on his way to becoming one of country’s youngest billionaires.

Landlords,however are not so enthusiastic.

Many landlords don’t allow subletting, period. They’re afraid of what sort of unknown, unscreened guests their tenants are hosting through the Airbnb site. These sublets are mostly without the landlord’s knowledge.

Not only landlords are affected. Neighboring tenants file complaints in droves because they find out some stranger — who isn’t really vested in their community — has been riding the elevator with them.

While the site has been hit with spotty reports of identity thefts or damage, the biggest hurdle Airbnb faces today is pushback from city officials, some of whom are defending fees and taxes earned from the hotel industry.

New York is the prime example. The state’s Attorney General has minced no words in what has been a public campaign to push Airbnb out of town. Officials have estimated that about half of all the NYC listings are illegal, violating a state law which prohibits subletting apartments for less than 29 days. The AG has subpoenaed Airbnb records, and now has names of offending tenants, and apparent third-party brokers, who could face prosecution and fines.

But this still does not stop some tenants from trying, and landlords have found they have to fight back. Earlier this month, there was a report of a landlord suing a rent-stabilized tenant for cashing in on her “investment”. According to a statement from the landlord’s attorney, the tenant was running a “hotel”, charging $250 per night, turning her $1,463.79 a month rental into a $4,500 per month Airbnb hot spot. The landlord is asking the court to award him the $3,000 per month “unjust enrichment” that the tenant earned, while the landlord was still on the hook for repairs and upkeep.

Problems with Airbnb are not new: robberies, brothels, noise complaints. There has always been security issues that landlords know come with unscreened tenants.  But, while Airbnb makes money for tenants across the world, it is causing headaches for the real property owners. Has this billion dollar baby met its match? Not likely.

While pending lawsuits may force changes in procedures, it’s just too good of a deal for tenants to pass up — they can run a rental business without any of the risks the real landlord takes.

A landlord’s best safeguard is to regulate the tenant through the lease agreement.  Does your current lease allow temporary sublets?

Perhaps every landlord should visit the Airbnb site, with its 600,000 some listings, just to make sure their apartment complex hasn’t been turned into a tenant-run hostel.

American Apartment Owners Association | Company Website |At the American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA), our mission is to serve the interests of landlords, real estate brokers, property managers, real estate owners and apartment building owners nationally.  Visit www.AAOA.com for more information about membership details!

I came up with the following rules of successful real estate investing over my many years of successes and failures. These are the same rules I follow today and share with our clients at Norada Real Estate Investments.

1. Educate Yourself

Knowledge is the new currency. Without it you are doomed to follow other people’s advice without knowing if it’s good or bad. Knowledge will also help take you from being a “good” investor to becoming a great investor, and that knowledge will help provide a passive stream of income for you or your family.

2. Set Investment Goals

A goal is different from a wish; you may wish to be rich, but that doesn’t mean you’ve ever taken steps to make your wish come true.

Setting clear and specific investment goals becomes your road map and action plan to becoming financially independent. You are statistically far more likely to achieve financial independence by writing down specific and detailed goals than not doing anything at all.

Your goals can include the number of properties you need to acquire each year, the annual cash-flow they generate, the type of property, and the location of each. You may also want to set parameters on the rates of return required.

3. Never Speculate

Always invest with a long-term perspective in mind. Never speculate on quick short-term gains in appreciation, even in a heated market experiencing double-digit gains. You never know when a market will peak and it’s usually 6 to 9 months after the fact when you find out. Don’t chase after appreciation. Only invest in prudent value plays where the numbers make sense from the beginning.

4. Invest for Cash-Flow

With few rare exceptions, always buy investment property with a positive cash-flow. The higher, the better. Your cash-on-cash return is directly related to the before-tax cash-flow from your property.

Cash-flow is the “glue” that keeps your investment together. Your equity will grow over time (through appreciation and loan amortization), while the cash-flow covers the operating expenses and debt service on your property.

5. Be Market Agnostic

The United States is a very large country made up of hundreds of local real estate markets. Each market moves up and down independently of one another due to many local factors. As such, you should recognize that there are times when it makes sense to invest in a particular market, and times when it does not. Only invest in markets when it makes sense to do so, not because you live there or you bought property there before. There’s an element of timing and you don’t want to buck the trend.

6. Take a Top-Down Approach

Always start by selecting the best markets that align with your investment goals. Most investors start by analyzing properties with little to no regard of its location. This can be a big mistake if you don’t consider the investment in light of the market and neighborhood it’s in.

The best approach is to first choose your city or town based on the health of its housing market and local economy (unemployment, job growth, population growth, etc.). From there you would narrow things down to the best neighborhoods (amenities, schools, crime, renter demand, etc.). Finally, you would look for the best deals within those neighborhoods.

7. Diversify Across Markets

Focus on one market at a time, accumulating from 3 to 5 income properties per market. Once you’ve added those 3 to 5 properties to your portfolio, you would diversify into another prudent market that is geographically different than the previous one. Typically that means focusing on another state.

One of the underlying reasons for diversification within the same asset class (real estate), is to have your assets spread across different economic centers. Every real estate market is “local” and each housing market moves independently from one another. Diversifying across multiple states helps reduce your “risk” should one market decline for any reason (increased unemployment, increased taxes, etc.).

8. Use Professional Property Management

Never manage your own properties unless you run your own management company. Property management is a thankless job that requires a solid understanding of tenant-landlord laws, good marketing skills, and strong people skills to deal with tenant complaints and excuses. Your time is valuable and should be spent on your family, your career, and looking for more property.

9. Maintain Control

Be a direct investor in real estate. Never own real estate through funds, partnerships, or other paper-based investments where you own shares or other securities of an entity you don’t control. You always want to be in control of your real estate investments. Don’t leave it up to corporations or fund managers.

10. Leverage Your Investment Capital

Real estate is the only investment where you can borrow other people’s money (OPM) to purchase and control income-producing property. This allows you to leverage your investment capital into more property than purchasing using “all cash”. Leverage magnifies your overall rate-of-return and accelerates your wealth creation.

As long as you have positive cash-flow and your tenants are paying off your mortgage for you, it would be foolish not to borrow as much as possible to buy more income property.

Marco Santarelli | Company Website | LinkedIn Marco Santarelli is an investor, author and founder of Norada Real Estate Investments — a provider of passive turnkey investment properties in growth markets around the United States.  For investment opportunities please visit www.NoradaRealEstate.com

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States is experiencing an alarming increase in the number of bedbug populations. In addition to being found in private residences, such as apartments and single-family homes, bedbugs are increasingly affecting restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and schools and day care centers.

“Although bedbugs don’t usually require serious medical attention, they can cause a great deal of anxiety and restless nights,” said board-certified dermatologist Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, who maintains a private practice in Plano, Texas and serves as clinical assistant professor of dermatology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “The most common sign of bedbugs is having bite marks on your body, which can sometimes turn into itchy welts.”

If you want to find bedbugs before your tenants do, Dr. Desai has some recommendations:

1. A sweet, musty odor: If you notice a sweet, musty odor, there may be a heavy bedbug infestation in the room. Bedbugs produce chemicals to help them communicate.

2. Specks of blood on bedding, mattresses, or upholstered furniture, including couches and headboards.

3. Exoskeletons: Bedbugs have an outer shell that they shed and leave behind. There may be shell-like remains on the mattress, mattress pad or beneath couch cushions.

4. Tiny, blackish specks: If you see these on bedding, mattress, or headboard, it could be bedbug excrement.

5. Eggs: After mating, female bedbugs lay white, oval eggs in cracks and crevices. Keep in mind that these will be small, as a bedbug is only about the size of an apple seed.

Bedbug bites are generally harmless, although they are certainly uncomfortable for tenants. In some cases, the bites can get infected. Dr. Desai recommends tenants see a board-certified dermatologist to treat an infection and help relieve the itch.

Meanwhile, you’ll have to get work to ferret out these extremely adaptable little pests before the next tenant complaint — or a full-scale lawsuit.
Headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., the American Academy of Dermatology (Academy), founded in 1938, is the largest, most influential, and most representative of all dermatologic associations, with a membership of more than 17,000 physicians worldwide. For more information, contact the Academy at 1-888-462-DERM (3376) or www.aad.org.

– See more at: http://www.american-apartment-owners-association.org/property-management/latest-news/tell-rental-bed-bugs/#sthash.17pVyS1Z.dpuf

According to a new survey by Homes.com® and ForRent.com®, renting is becoming more attractive to a broader spectrum of consumers, and landlords need to stay in step with new trends.

The number of renters in the U.S. has expanded significantly nationwide since the burst of the housing bubble. As the market continues to swell and demand for both home and apartment rental properties increases, Homes.com® and sister site, ForRent.com®, conducted a survey to gauge the current renter’s mindset.

These leading multifamily and real estate websites found that the majority of today’s renters are single females and there is an even split of millennials and those over the age of 50. While interest has increased in rentals, amongst those surveyed, apartment units remain the most popular choice.

Convenience, location and safety topped the list of priorities over amenities among home and apartment shoppers.

“The vacancy rate nationwide continues to decrease, new construction on apartment units is up and rental rates have increased three percent in the last year,” said Terry Slattery, president of Homes.com and ForRent.com. “This swell in rental demand is directly attributed to the increase in home prices throughout the country and tight lending restrictions, among other factors. Keeping that in mind, renting is becoming more attractive to a broader spectrum of consumers, making it imperative to understand today’s renter and provide customized tools and resources when navigating the market.”

Of the nearly 2,200 consumers that participated in the comprehensive rental insights survey, 80 percent were female, with millennials (ages 18-33) making up 34 percent of respondents. Baby boomers, those ages 50 and over, accounted for 29 percent of survey participants.

Those living alone made up more than 45 percent of respondents with those that are married, living with a domestic partner or sharing space with roommates or children making up 44 percent.

Desire for apartment units outweighs the desire for residential rental properties with 53 percent of all respondents noting a preference to rent traditional apartments.

Among top priorities for choosing a rental location, 51 percent of participants identified proximity to school or work as the most important facet of a potential neighborhood. The second most important priority was safety and accessibility to family.

Homes.com and ForRent.com polled the types of social media outlets most popular among respondents. Results produced an astounding preference for Facebook as 80 percent of contributors ranked the website their most used social platform. Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram captured the attention of 44 percent of consumers while 31 percent prefer Google+.

Digging into what consumers desire most in home amenities, 45 percent of participants expressed limited concern for specific features, 25 percent seek assigned parking and 24 percent require potential rentals to include washer/dryers or laundry units, central cooling and heating, utilities and pool access.

To view the full renter profile insights report, visit bit.ly/RenterProfileInsightsReport. To browse more than 3 million apartments and homes nationwide, visit http://www.Homes.com.

– See more at: http://www.american-apartment-owners-association.org/property-management/latest-news/todays-renters/#sthash.OddXJlJS.dpuf