Kay Properties has recently published a new issue of the “1031 DST Digest,” a magazine written for investors who want to educate themselves on the 1031 exchange process and Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) investment vehicle.
The 96-page glossy magazine dissects present-day investment themes and explores investment strategies for today’s 1031 Exchange and DST real estate investor.
According to Dwight Kay, Founder/CEO of Kay Properties and editor of the magazine, the 1031 DST Digest was designed to help educate investors on the DST 1031 Exchange marketplace, while also answering specific questions his firm’s team of expert representatives hear from investors daily.
“Inside this accessible magazine, readers will find out what makes Delaware Statutory Trust 1031 investments so popular, how to build a defensive DST real estate portfolio, and how DSTs help investors replace debt in a 1031 Exchange. The magazine is offered free of charge as part of our commitment to providing educational resources to 1031 exchange DST investors nationwide. Request your complimentary copy today and in addition to a print version delivered to your doorstep, you’ll also receive instant access to an electronic version of the magazine.” said Kay.
“The intent of the 1031 DST Digest magazine is to help educate existing and potential clients about DST 1031 properties, the potential benefits and risks of DST investments and whether they might be a right fit for investors considering a 1031 exchange,” said Kay.
Specifically, the Kay Properties “1031 DST Digest” will cover topics like :
How 1031 Exchanges into Delaware Statutory Trust Investments Can Unlock More Quality Time for Investors
Why Now Might be a Good Time to Sell the Income Property you Love
What Real Estate and DST Investment Opportunities Should be Considered after the Pandemic recedes?
View the newest issue of the 1031 DST Digest now. About Kay Properties and www.kpi1031.com
Kay Properties is a national Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) investment firm. The www.kpi1031.com platform provides access to the marketplace of DSTs from over 25 different sponsor companies, custom DSTs only available to Kay clients, independent advice on DST sponsor companies, full due diligence and vetting on each DST (typically 20-40 DSTs) and a DST secondary market. Kay Properties team members collectively have over 150 years of real estate experience, are licensed in all 50 states, and have participated in over $30 Billion of DST 1031 investments.
This material does not constitute an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Such offers can be made only by the confidential Private Placement Memorandum (the “Memorandum”). Please read the entire Memorandum paying special attention to the risk section prior investing. IRC Section 1031, IRC Section 1033 and IRC Section 721 are complex tax codes therefore you should consult your tax or legal professional for details regarding your situation. There are material risks associated with investing in real estate securities including illiquidity, vacancies, general market conditions and competition, lack of operating history, interest rate risks, general risks of owning/operating commercial and multifamily properties, financing risks, potential adverse tax consequences, general economic risks, development risks and long hold periods. There is a risk of loss of the entire investment principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Potential cash flow, potential returns and potential appreciation are not guaranteed.
Nothing contained on this website constitutes tax, legal, insurance or investment advice, nor does it constitute a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security or other financial instrument. Securities offered through FNEX Capital , member FINRA, SIPC.
Emotional support animals, rental housing issues and the Fair Housing Act create more questions than just about any other topic we see. Here is some help with the issues and remember this is not legal advice so check with your attorney on specifics.
Emotional support animals can come in all shapes and sizes, making it difficult to know how to properly handle accommodation requests and avoid possible fair-housing complaints. This article will discuss the proper verification process for emotional support animals based on the Fair Housing Act and how to manage some common situations that may arise.
Emotional Support Animals – Proper Verification
How do you handle an applicant who states they have an emotional support animal and presents you with an ESA letter? This can be tricky, as many of these letters can be obtained from the Internet without much of a professional relationship between the resident and the verifier.
To help with these situations, you should have a verification process in place based on the Fair Housing Act that includes the following:
Questions to ask the resident:
Did you contact the verifier for the sole purpose of obtaining an ESA letter?
Have you had more than one or two brief contacts with the verifier for the purpose of providing a verification?
Does the verifier have personal knowledge of your disability and need for an animal?
Has the verifier provided you with medical or mental health services?
Questions to ask the verifier:
Did the resident contact you for the purpose of obtaining a verification?
Other than providing a verification for an assistance animal, do you have an ongoing professional relationship with the resident by providing medical or mental health services beyond providing a verification?
Do you have adequate personal knowledge of the resident to be able to make a diagnosis of a disability? Please note: We are not requesting that you provide the diagnosis.
As you can see, the above questions will establish whether or not the resident has an ongoing relationship with the verifier and meets the criteria of having a disability that requires the aid of the animal.
Breed and Size Restrictions
Can you restrict an ESA (emotional support animal) based on breed or size? The short answer is no. If the need for the animal has been verified, the Fair Housing Act states that accommodations must be made. Your job is to now welcome Muffy the 100-pound Rottweiler, or Wilbur the pot-bellied pig, to the family.
Undisclosed or Multiple Emotional Support Animals
You just received a notification from a maintenance staff member that a resident has multiple animals. Further investigation shows that the pets were not disclosed on their rental application. The resident states that they are all emotional support animals. What now?
Whether it’s one or multiple animals, you need to follow the same verification procedures. The only difference here is that each animal would have to provide a different service. If each animal can be verified, then accommodations need to be made.
In conclusion, we can see that the Fair Housing Act protects the need for emotional support animals under certain circumstances. A verification process along with fair housing training will ensure everyone’s needs and rights are met.
About the author:
In 2005, The Fair Housing Institute was founded as a company with one goal: to provide educational and entertaining fair housing compliance training at an affordable price, all at the click of a button.
What are 7 habits of highly successful property managers? Buildium.com did a webinar to explore 7 ways that property managers can better organize their daily routines while the chaos of property management problems rage around them. Here are the habits courtesy of Buildium.
No. 1 – Make Communication A Core Competency
“Create templates for everything, from emails to new tenants, notifications you send when people are late on rent, or common alerts. These can all be made into templates and used over and over. If you are sending the same information more than three times in a month, you need a template. Software can help you do this,” Lauren Mason, Field Marketing Manager for Buildium.com, said on the webinar.
Deliver information in a consistent way each time.
Send rent reminders that look the same each month.
Send owner statements that look the same and are consistent.
Are you reminding inspectors at regular intervals to do inspections with the same consistent message?
“Figure out ways to communicate with less effort,” she said. “For instance, instead of you compiling owner statements each month, use software that allows owners to login when they choose to see whatever reports they want. For tenants, allow them to submit a maintenance request online from their phone. And give tenants access to updates from the maintenance worker.”
No. 2 – Always be learning. Always be teaching
“When you are managing a property for someone, you are managing something that person considers as a key investment. Property owners want to feel a sense of security and assurance they are trusting their property to someone who knows property management and the local market inside and out. It’s on you to inspire that confidence,” she said.
“Get up to speed and stay current on all things related to property management – local rent rates, your state’s laws and regulations and general trends in the market place.”
Survey of property owners: What value do you expect from property managers?
Gives me peace of mind knowing things are handled – 79%
Fills vacancies faster with better tenants – 75%
Collects rents, fees and handles accounting – 71%
Lifts the burden of planned and unplanned maintenance – 65%
A professional partner with industry expertise and knowledge – 58%
Helps me increase my revenue and profitability – 57%
No. 3 – Create a playbook for growth
On the webinar, 78 percent said they expect to be managing more properties in the future than today, but how to they plan to connect with new property owners? Where are you going to get your owner leads from?
So you need to know where property owners go to look for property managers. Top places
Searching the web – Two things to help yourself show up, with a great website and content, for long-term growth. Or short-term paid marketing search strategy.
“Document your routines to train new employees you may add to your property management team. Create checklists for each of the things you do repeatedly,” Mason said. Automate what you can also such as:
Rental listings and syndication
Applications
Payment reminders and late fee notifications
Reporting for owners
Maintenance updates and recurring task reminders
Successful property managers tips
Do an audit once a month
Put together a checklist for anything you did more than three times a month
Centralize – keep all your documents in one place, preferably in the cloud
“Over time you are essentially building a guide on how to run your business,” she said.
No. 5 – Use technology to stay organized
“Everyone has differing levels of comfort with technology. Having a single platform everyone can access is an advantage.
“Technology is the edge property managers can use to keep up with maintenance issues, finding good tenants and staying organized,” she said on the webinar.
According to a Buildium.com survey, 81% of owners think successful property managers should be using the latest technology.
No. 6 – Be proactive
Two results of live polls during the webinar courtesy of Buildium.
“Inspect, insure and inquire before trouble hits. When you get ahead of things, it reduces problems,” she said.
Get proactive by:
Having a recurring inspection cadence
Require renters insurance
Send out reminders to every tenant five days before rent is due.
Enable recurring payments
Send out surveys
“Catching a leak early saves time and money. Humans need reminders so send out reminders to tenants five days before rent is due. Software can allow you to set up automatic payments. Send out an annual survey to all tenants and owners once a year. Find out why tenants are staying or choosing to leave,” she said.
No. 7 – Successful Property Managers Keep calm and carry on
“Property management is totally chaotic. Owners pay you to deal with their headaches. Chaos and stress can come from not having the right information at the right time,” Mason said.
Tips:
Put information in the cloud
Optimize mobile communication
Have a life
“Try to centralize information in one place where everyone can access anytime from anywhere. If information is in the cloud, it can be accessed by mobile anywhere anytime. Free up your time so you have the ability to do what you love,” she said.
About Buildium.com
Buildium is the property management solution that helps real estate professionals win new business from property owners and community associations seeking services. Backed by expert advice and relentless support, Buildium enables you to outperform across all facets of your business with intuitive software that balances power, simplicity, and ease of use. Buildium services nearly 13,000 customers in 46 countries, totaling over one million residential units under management. In 2015, Buildium acquired All Property Management, a leading online marketing service for property managers, making Buildium the only company to give property managers a way to acquire new customers and increase revenue.
If you’re a landlord, investor, or property manager, chances are that you’ve seen your fair share of software options–and that each of them claims to be the best in its own way.
In a market that offers no shortage of big claims, the first step in choosing the best software for your portfolio is to draw clear parameters around what it means to be “the best” in the first place–and to deduce what each software company means when they claim the title for themselves.
A great rule of thumb to use if you’re not sure about where to start is this: the best software is the kind that strikes a balance between extensiveness and ease of use. The platform you choose should have a full suite of powerful features without sacrificing user experience. After all, having a million super-advanced features is pretty much useless if they’re impossible to find, learn, and use.
DoorLoop property management software is one of the fastest-growing software options in the real estate space. It’s also said to be the highest-rated. Today, we’re taking a closer look at DoorLoop to determine whether its claim of being the “easiest software on the market” actually holds up. Let’s get started.
Subscription Pricing
With 3 subscription packages, DoorLoop offers flexible pricing for portfolios of different sizes. It’s important to note that the software charges by number of units, not number of users, so accounts can have as many user profiles as needed at no additional cost.
Units: Unlimited (note: price goes up when over 20 units)
Unlimited document storage
Includes all of the features in the Pro plan, plus:
Integrations and access to DoorLoop’s API
Free incoming ACH payments
VIP status for Support
Website portal integration
You’re welcome to take a closer look at DoorLoop’s pricing plan here.
Intuitive Interface
Ease of use is one of DoorLoop’s most talked-about features, and that’s for good reason. The company is relatively new, and this modernity shows in the software’s interface. The platform is bright, uncluttered, and very easy to navigate. All of the software’s features are clearly labeled and easy to navigate to from the main dashboard. It also features a Quick Search option, which allows users to access any feature, property, unit, task, or document in seconds.
DoorLoop’s goal is to make support as unnecessary as possible through an intuitive interface and easy-to-adopt features. With that said, the software’s support is another one of its strengths. Support specialists respond to messages within 24 hours, and their live chat response time is a couple of minutes during the company’s business hours.
Oversee All Your Listings
DoorLoop’s goal is to facilitate every aspect of the property management process, which includes listing and advertising properties. The platform integrates with the top listing syndication software online in order to maximize the visibility of users’ listings. These platforms include Apartments.com, Zillow, StreetEasy, Trulia, and more.
Users can collect applications from these syndication sites, or from the listings on their own custom website, directly on DoorLoop. You can also use DoorLoop to manage the applications that you do receive. This means being able to screen tenants in one click in order to filter through the best candidates.
Manage Tenant Applications
You can bring in applications on autopilot with DoorLoop, whether they’re coming in from third-party listing websites or from your own custom website. You’ll be able to see all of these applications in your account’s “Prospects” section. From there, you can move forward with screening, accepting, or rejecting tenants as you see fit.
Rental application templates are built into the software, offering all of the basic must-have information for your tenants to fill out (name, address, employment, salary, etc.). You can also customize your application with all of the questions and fields you’d like to include. You can also charge tenants an application fee to cover screening and administrative fees, plus collect the payments automatically through DoorLoop when you connect your bank account to the software.
Screen Your Tenants
Tenant screening features are offered by DoorLoop through their integration with TransUnion. All tenant screening includes the following:
Criminal background check
Eviction history
Bankruptcy search
Sex offender database search
You can run all of these checks with just one click using the information that your tenant has filled into their application. Tests are $40 each, and you can choose to charge this amount to your tenants via your application fee (depending on your state, you can also charge a higher application fee in order to make a profit).
Manage Leases
DoorLoop allows you to manage your lease agreements from beginning to end. Its lease management features include:
Uploading lease templates of your choice and storing them within the software for repeated use
eSignature requests and management
Document storage
Setting lease terms, including rent fees, recurring charges, automatic interval-based late fees, pet rent, renewals, rent increases, and more.
Get Paid Automatically
With DoorLoop’s RapidRent feature, you can collect rent from tenants automatically. The software’s payment features don’t stop there. They also include:
Automatic payment reminders sent to tenants at intervals of your choosing
Determine the amount, frequency, and triggers for late fees, then automatically apply them to any lease
Track all of your paid, due, and past due payments right from your dashboard
Get notifications about any missed, late, and completed payments.
It’s important to know that users will be charged a one-time $49 fee to set up their online payment account. Though this fee is not refundable if you are approved to process payments, it will not be charged for any denied merchant accounts.
Tenants are the ones who pay any processing fees for credit cards and debit cards (2.95% of the amount being paid), and ACH payments ($1.99 flat fee). Account holders don’t have to worry about paying any fees themselves.
Click here to learn more about getting paid through DoorLoop.
Tenant Communication
DoorLoop’s secure tenant portal makes it easy to send announcements to tenants individually or to all of your tenants at once. You can also share documents, send payment reminders, and receive maintenance requests from your tenants in seconds.
The tenant portal is protected by 256-bit security encryption, which is the same level of security used by banks and the military. This means you can rest assured that all of your messages and sensitive files are fully protected.
Messages, documents, and requests can also be shared with owners and investors through a similar portal. Additionally, DoorLoop accounts can be created for owners so that they can be sent any tasks, payments, or updates directly.
Maintenance Management
One of DoorLoop’s most popular set of features is its maintenance management suite. Users can receive maintenance requests from tenants directly through the tenant portal. Once that has been received, work orders can be created.
Work orders include all of the relevant information needed about the task at hand, the vendor associated with the task, the urgency of the task, and the task’s due date. You can create DoorLoop accounts for all of your vendors and send them the work order request in one click. You can also track every step of the work order’s progress until it is completed. When completed, you can pay vendors directly through the software in order to make sure your working relationship remains both positive and productive.
Full Accounting Suite
If you already use QuickBooks Online, you don’t have to worry about a learning curve you don’t want. DoorLoop integrates directly with QuickBooks Online, which eliminates double data entry and makes it easy to stay on top of your transactions.
With that said, DoorLoop also has its own built-in suite of accounting features that do everything QuickBooks can do (and more). Accounting features include:
Customizable chart of accounts
Advanced reports, including 60 built-in templates
Bank account reconciliation
Export data in one click
Mobile App
DoorLoop has a mobile app available at no additional cost, and it has the same functionality as the desktop version of the software. This allows users to stay on top of everything, whether they’re in-office or across the world.
It’s easy to see why DoorLoop is the highest-rated software in the world. With that said, the only way to tell whether it’s the right choice for your business is to see it at work for yourself. You can sign up for a demo of DoorLoop and get 50% off your first two months on the software by clicking here.
Guaranteed rent companies like OneApp and Nomad accept the financial responsibility of applicants by providing upfront costs such as the rent deposit and first month’s rent and guarantees renters will pay each month.
By Paul Bergeron
An insufficient credit score is the No. 1 reason why apartment operators deny prospective residents’ applications. It doesn’t have to be that way, says Tyrone Poole, founder of a new industry application and payment tool, OneApp.
OneApp serves as a co-signer for its qualified applicants, which apartment operators say is often the single thing that would enable them to accept applicants whose credit scores don’t meet the minimum standard set by the communities.
OneApp, representing more than 1,000 apartment communities and supported by more than 100 property management companies nationwide, accepts the financial responsibility of these applicants by providing the proper upfront costs such as the rent deposit and first month’s rent. It guarantees these renters will pay their rent each month.
The OneApp Guarantee costs the property management company and screening companies nothing.
Driving Revenue, Occupancy with Proven Results
Karen McLane, director of RangeWater, has been using OneApp in her portfolio for over a year.
“It has been great for when you have that borderline applicant or the denial that has great income but is more of a credit risk,” McLane says. “My owners love the program. Additionally, it is very easy to use – you just refer your applicant to OneApp and they take it from there. And, there is no cost to the property – the fees are paid by the applicant and they’re not excessive so as to lose the applicant.”
Joyce Prince, regional manager of BM Residential, says that in less than a year, OneApp Guarantee added $4 million of annual revenue to BM Residential’s bottom line.
“It helped us to fill over 350 vacancies with guaranteed residents, increasing our overall occupancy by three percent to five percent with only a handful of defaults. The few defaults we have had were paid out very promptly within a few days. I would recommend any multifamily company to use this unique, risk-free product.”
Credit a ‘Terrible’ Measurement of Risk
Poole says that 96 percent of OneApp participants are employed, only four percent of its users have been evicted, and a total of 13 percent of leases end in debt—lower than the national average.
“Credit is the No. 1 reason for their denial, but it’s a terrible measurement of risk,” Poole says. “Not having credit doesn’t automatically mean you are at risk.”
Poole says that although credit maybe the No. 1 reason for denial, it’s not the top reason for America’s housing crisis.
“The real problem is risk,” he said. “To be more specific, it’s the strategy housing providers use to mitigate risk. In an effort to maximize success, housing providers first identify, then deny access to housing to America’s most vulnerable families.
“This is not because housing providers hate poor people, or racism, or any of the other narratives being spoken. It’s basic economics. A housing provider’s success is directly proportional to the level of vulnerability of their residents. The more rent burden they face from residents who can’t miss a single day of work or are one parking ticket away from being unable to pay rent; or from residents who left property-adamage balances with previous landlords and have not proven they quite know how to care for a rental property, the less likely they are to reach their projected goals.
“If they take on too much risk, they can lose their assets altogether. No one is disputing a housing provider’s right to mitigate risk – it’s a fundamental and key necessity of being a housing provider – but America’s current strategy isn’t working. It’s full of unintended consequences such as gentrification, poverty, crime increase, trauma, etc. We can do better.”
“We want to pay our landlord clients market rent, guaranteed, and charge them a fee equivalent to how risky it is for us to do that every month. So they’re never worried about vacancy costs. They’re never worried about a delinquent tenant,” said P.J. O’Neill founder of Nomad, which started in Denver. He said their research shows the Phoenix metro market is a good market for their expansion. O’Neil is a founder and a veteran operator of Opendoor.com, which buys homes from individual sellers.
Why the 600 Minimum Credit Score?
Poole has asked many operators why 600 is their minimum acceptable credit score, and he said they have no real answer for it. He wonders if it’s one of those “this is always how we’ve done it” situations.
“When derogatory information is found on a renter’s background check, it can be really difficult to tell if those circumstances are still present in the applicant’s life. The easy thing to do is to deny, but OneApp offers landlords an alternative.”
He said operators inherently believe that their policies ‘keep out the bad ones’ and that their criteria are sound.
“Then we show them our data and it reflects the opposite,” he said. “Once operators understand that these aren’t bad people, it all goes smoothly.”
OneApp covers the risk these applicants might present for the entirety of their leases. If the applicant is successful in fulfilling their lease terms, they are able to renew the lease with the owner directly.
“Owners sometimes set their financial-acceptance requirements based on one case that didn’t go well,” Poole says. “We know that, in general, working off of assumptions doesn’t help anyone.”
How It Works
OneApp helps families across the United States gain access to housing by acting as a co-signer. Income, credit, eviction history, debt to income or lack of rental history are the most common approval barriers for renters. At most property management companies, these barriers can be overcome by a co-signer.
OneApp Guarantee receives approximately 1,000 applications each month for its service. Unfortunately, only about 25 percent of those applicants are able to participate, usually due to their inability to afford the upfront costs. However, Knock is having a national industry campaign to raise $200,000 to help cover these costs, giving more rent-paying residents the chance to move into an apartment.
The program is working so well that in 2021, OneApp successfully overturned about 2,500 denials. This year, it hopes to overturn 10,000.
Knock Calling on the Industry for Support
Knock + OneApp are working together to not only break down barriers to access housing but keep people in housing.
Financial contributions from Knock and the multifamily community allow OneApp Guarantee to offer their very first payment plan option allowing renters to make smaller payments over a series of months until they cover the cost of the OneApp Guarantee fee.
If the renter defaults on their payments, instead of putting their lease at risk, our community-raised funds will cover the difference. If the renters are able to make their monthly payments, OneApp can add more renters to this program.
Knock has raised $30,000 internally between Knock donations and employee contributions and plans to continue to contribute.
“We know as a community we can aim much higher so we stretched our goal to helping 10,000 families gain access to housing this year,” Knock Co-Founder and CEO, Demetri Themelis, says.
“To achieve this, we need $200,000 total in the fund to support payment plans for that many renters. We can’t raise that much alone, so we are asking for your help in fundraising and spreading awareness about this important cause. Donations are collected through its partnership with the United Way.”
OneApp is being integrated with leading property management software platforms to show that they have been approved through the One App guarantee. Of its participants, 75 percent are black; 62 percent are female; and 50 percent have a family. By using the OneApp Guarantee, qualified residents can get started with just $80 because of a partnership it has with Knock, which raised funds to cover most of the costs through charitable donations.
About the author
Paul Bergeron has been reporting on the apartment industry since 2002 and served 20 years as editor-in-chief for the National Apartment Association’s UNITS magazine. He currently is editor of his LinkedIn media platform, Thought Leadership Today, and can be reached at [email protected].
We are finally back live and in-person at events after several years of missing seeing our friends and associates. We were live on Wednesday, April 20, at the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association EdCon 2022 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.
By Terry Hokenson
The top photo is the Rodda Paint booth at EdCon Wednesday morning. Dawn and the Rodda team excited to get back to in person events.
Edcon conference is the largest to date after a 3-year hiatus with 1,000 plus attendees expected.
Tricia Johnson with wmfha getting all attendees and exhibitors during the opening speech at the edcon Registration is open and the masses are filing into the 2022 edconEdCon begins Wednesday morning.
Learn
Choose your own multifamily career development adventure! With over 25 60-minute sessions throughout the day, you can plan a focused track or pick and choose to fit your needs. The sessions cover topics in leasing, management, and leadership, maintenance, soft skills, technology, industry trends, and more.
Apartment advantage team assisting attendees with their staffing needs.
Connect
Meet up with your colleagues, visit the tradeshow floor between sessions, and make new connections! Cheer on your team during Maintenance Mania! and plan to attend the after-party for even more networking at EdCon 2022.
American Floor and Blind at EdCon 22. Come by and see us! Celebrating our 60th anniversary!
Grow
The conference kicks off with industry inspiration and leaves plenty of time for you to absorb and take in all the information you gain. Offering flexibility, lots of options, and even some celebration, EdCon featuring Maintenance Mania! is the best industry trade show and conference of the year!
Pacific Lamp already busy helping future customers at their booth
Maintenance Mania® is a national program offered by NAA and presenting sponsor HD Supply, in which maintenance technicians compete against each other in various skill-based games.
About the author:
Terry Hokenson is Vice President of Sales At Rental Housing Journal. He attended the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association Education Conference on Wednesday, April 20.
A strong support system for your tenants can translate to a more profitable rental property. Here at RentalRiff, we believe in providing a great experience for tenants. To us, rental properties are not a commodity; they are someone’s home. Our focus on the tenant experience and how we’ve structured our service may be our biggest differentiator.
There are many benefits to creating a fantastic tenant experience. Aside from the human elements (and we think these are the most important), there is tremendous value to be captured as a landlord and rental property owner.
As we’ve discussed in other blog posts, there are certain things you can control as a landlord and certain things you can’t. Tenants moving to a new city is out of your control, as is a tenant purchasing a home of their own. Tenants moving out because of poor maintenance support or a general lack of communication is definitely in your control. If you can optimize the elements of your rental business that are within your control, you will be better off for it.
Here are some of the main benefits to creating a great customer experience:
No. 1 – Higher tenant-retention rates
This one’s a bit of a no-brainer.
If your tenants like renting from you and feel supported they are more likely to renew their lease, plain and simple. J Turner Research did a large study on residents recently and found that 35 percent of tenants that felt unsupported and underserved moved out. With vacancy rates in the Seattle area currently sitting around 7.5 percent, this can mean thousands of dollars lost.
No. 2 – Better treatment of your property
Not only are unsupported tenants more likely to move out, they’re also more likely to treat the property poorly.
Security deposits exist for a reason, but tenants will treat the property better if they don’t feel neglected by their landlord. Obviously, this means less wear and tear on the property and fewer large, avoidable repairs needed down the road.
No. 3 – Tenants are more accepting of higher rents
Increasing rents at a steady clip is an important part of running a successful rental property business.
Another important element is retaining good tenants. When you’ve created a strong support system for your tenants you can both increase rents and retain good tenants. Again, this goes back to controlling what you can control, but if the tenants feel taken care of they are more likely to accept the higher rent and stick with your property.
No. 4 – Higher likelihood of collecting rent on time
There are many property management tools out there that automate the rent-collection process (we definitely recommend using these tools) but, again, happy tenants are more inclined to make their rent on time. Tenants will want to stay and be more proactive in keeping up their side of the bargain.
There are many important components that go into running a successful rental property, and maintenance and tenant support are just two of those. They can be major pain points for landlords, and it’s easy for the property-level needs of your tenants to slip through the cracks. If you can optimize your processes and create a positive environment for your tenants, in the long run, you’ll have more success as a rental owner.
Happy landlording!
About the author:
Phil Schaller is an experienced landlord and the founder/CEO of RentalRiff – an alternative service to traditional property management that provides ongoing oversight and upkeep of rental properties, while serving as the main point of contact for tenants. If you are interested in learning more about RentalRiff’s rental property maintenance service you can reach him at 541-600-3200. Maintenance and repair costs are included and property specialists are licensed/insured. Phil is a Pacific Northwest native, father of two, and fly-fishing addict.
Fair Housing Advertising is essential to business but here is how to avoid common mistakes that can lead to violations for your rental housing business.
Advertising is an essential part of day-to-day business for the housing industry. But is your advertising fair-housing compliant? How can you avoid common mistakes that lead to violations? In this article, we will discuss the do’s and don’ts when it comes to fair housing and advertising.
Different Types of Media
There are many forms of advertising media available today. The law says you can’t “make, print, or publish. . . any notice, statement, or advertisement . . . that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on a person’s race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.” So as you can see, the law is very broad and covers a range of media like flyers, brochures, deeds, signs, banners, posters, billboards, and even pictures in your office.
The law also covers what we say about a property, whether over the phone or in person. Expressing an illegal preference or limitation to one of your fellow agents, brokers, employees, prospective sellers, renters, or any other person in connection with the sale or rental of your property is illegal.
Photos and Decorations
Our rental offices are usually the first thing a prospect sees. We all like to showcase different amenities with eye-catching photos of residents enjoying them. But do your pictures show only people of the same race or perhaps the same age group? This can give the impression that your property only leases to people of a certain age and race, which is considered illegal advertising and is a violation of the Fair Housing Act.
Instead, you should use a variety of both resident images and images that include models so that a variety of both sexes, people who have disabilities, and, when appropriate, children of all ages are represented.
Written Content
The law says you can’t use “words, phrases, symbols or forms of any kind” that would tend to give the impression that your property is available (or not available) to certain types of people.
For example, when advertising a unit for rent, it’s common to see “No Pets” in the ad, which is fine. However, adding statements like “Christian Roommate,” “No Children,” or “No Wheelchairs” is illegal.
Using phrases such as “great view,” “walk-in closets” or “walk to bus stop” is acceptable. However, there are certain buzz words you should still avoid. These are words or phrases that have been associated with discriminatory practices in the past. They include such words as “restricted,” “exclusive,” “limited,” and so forth.
Also, while religious discrimination is illegal, using words like “kosher meals served on the premises,” or including phrases such as “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Easter” in an ad is not considered discriminatory.
A great tip to remember is that HUD will consider your use of certain kinds of advertising words and slogans to be evidence of your compliance with the Fair Housing Act. For example, using HUD’s “Equal Housing Opportunity” or fair housing logo in your ads will be viewed with approval.
Fair Housing Advertising – Final Takeaway
Every company should have a clear understanding of the laws and guidelines that HUD and The Fair Housing Act provide. Along with that, every employee should have access to targeted training to ensure that when it comes to advertising, they are fair-housing compliant.
About the author:
In 2005, The Fair Housing Institute was founded as a company with one goal: to provide educational and entertaining fair-housing compliance training at an affordable price at the click of a button.
Rental housing owners can help improve the financial well-being of residents by reporting residents’ positive rental payments to the major credit bureaus which provides renters with a potent incentive to pay their rent on time and in full.
There can be no downplaying the tremendous responsibility placed upon apartment operators.
In exchange for what is usually a renter’s largest monthly financial obligation, operators are charged with providing quality homes and outstanding customer service. The importance of these tasks is clear.
But today’s property managers have the opportunity to play an even more important role in their renters’ lives. They can be true partners in helping their residents improve their financial well-being. And as you will see, they can do this in multiple ways.
Reporting Positive Rent Payments
A strong, positive credit history is essential to securing car loans, credit cards and mortgages – and to doing so at favorable interest rates.
For many households, rent is the single largest monthly expense. yet despite responsible money habits, apartment residents, unlike homeowners, traditionally have not gotten credit on their credit reports for making their housing payments on time and in full.
Every person deserves the opportunity to reach their full financial potential, and apartment operators can empower their residents to improve their financial wellbeing.
Take for consideration, emerging consumers. More than a third of renters (34 percent) are under the age of 35. This is a pivotal time to start building credit and establishing a strong financial future. But for too many consumers, simple access to fair and affordable credit has long been out of reach.
According to the Credit Builders Alliance (CBA), renters are seven times more likely to be “credit invisible” – meaning they lack enough credit history to generate a credit score – when compared to homeowners. The fact that rent payments typically don’t help build credit history also is particularly harmful to lower-income households and underserved communities.
Renters make up approximately 60 percent of the U.S. households that make less than $25,000 a year, while Black and Hispanic households are twice as likely as white households to rent, CBA says.
Apartment operators can help remedy this situation – and lend their residents a powerful helping hand – by reporting residents’ positive rental payments to the major credit bureaus. Doing this also provides renters with a potent incentive to pay their rent on time and in full. This step becomes a win for everyone.
In CBA’s Power of Rent Reporting pilot, 100 percent of renters who started off with no credit score became scorable at the near prime or prime level. In addition, residents with subprime scores saw their score increase by an average of 32 points.
Due to results like these, the effort to make sure renters’ credit histories benefit when they make their rent payments on time and in full continues to gather momentum. In California, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1157, which became law on July 1, 2021, and requires affordable housing providers of a certain size to implement rent reporting for their residents. Last November, Freddie Mac announced an initiative to encourage multifamily operators to report on-time rental payments to the three major credit bureaus.
Experian is committed to working alongside consumers, partners and industry organizations including the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) to drive financial inclusion through rent payments.
Flexible Payments
Reporting positive rent payments to credit bureaus isn’t the only way rental-housing operators can help their residents financially.
Some forward-thinking apartment owners and managers also are offering flexible rent-payment schedules to their residents. Rather than requiring residents to make one large payment at the beginning of the month, they’re working with renters to set up payment schedules that are based on the residents’ pay cycles and that allow for multiple, smaller payments over the course of a month. Arrangements like these can help residents avoid expensive late fees and evictions.
Asia Capital Real Estate (ACRE) is an example of an operator that offers flexible rent payments. Last year, the company partnered with Till to offer flexible rent-payment options to residents in nearly 35 apartment communities in the Southeast and Midwest.
Looking ahead, as apartment owners and operators consider the ways they can better serve their residents, they should look for ways to help them improve their financial well-being. Reporting positive rental payment histories and offering other financial amenities can create a competitive advantage over other properties, drive better business results and is simply the right thing to do.
When operators extend a helping hand in this way, everybody wins.
About the Author
Alpa Lally is the vice president of data business for Experian’s core business in North America. She is responsible for product management related to Experian’s core and alternative data assets. Experian incorporates on-time rental payment data reported to Experian RentBureau into Experian credit reports.
Here is a Seattle perspective from a property management expert on what is going on in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest with leasing and who is moving and why.
By Cory Brewer
Our brokerage (Windermere Property Management / Lori Gill & Associates) has about 1,700 homes under management, primarily single-family houses, throughout King & Snohomish Counties. We have a team of five leasing agents that account for about 80 percent of the leases at these properties in any given year, just to set the table for the number of prospective renters that we are engaging with on a regular basis. Factor in the multiple calls, showings, and applications that come in on any given property and that’s a LOT of engagement with the prospective renting public.
So, why are people moving?
What prompts someone to call us about a house that’s for rent in Medina, Magnolia, or Mercer Island? In reviewing the bi-weekly leasing reports that our team has sent in over the past several months, here are some recent trends.
Tech workers coming to the Seattle area is nothing new, but it seems we are on the cusp of an absolute tidal wave of new techie hires flooding our market with housing demand. By the end of 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook) had leased five new buildings in the developing Spring District in Bellevue for a total of over 1.4 million square feet. Not to be outdone, Amazon is reported to eventually host 25,000 jobs in Bellevue. Let’s not forget about Microsoft, Google (more Kirkland campus construction under way as we speak), and any number of other tech companies that call the Seattle area home. The new development and job movement will be coupled with bringing workers back to the office in the wake of COVID-19. I’ve heard anecdotally about the thousands upon thousands of people that have already been hired by these companies who are currently working from home in other parts of the country (or the globe, really) and have not moved here yet. When they do, they’re going to need a place to live. Many of them are very intentional about their decision to rent for their first year in a new city, in order to learn the area before committing to a home purchase. Get ready.
To piggy-back on that thought, we’re also seeing people make a relatively short move from Seattle over to the Eastside in anticipation of their job moving across the lake.
Additionally, a fair number of homeowners are looking for a temporary rental while they remodel their primary residences. New construction is difficult due to the scarcity and price of buildable lots. Housing values have increased significantly over the past few years, allowing homeowners to take advantage of their equity and put it into remodels & renovations. Many of these were planned before the COVID-19 outbreak, which shut down construction businesses to varying degrees, and there is a backlog of projects to get on the schedule. That’s a lot of people looking for a rental before they can send in their contractor.
If you can believe it, we’ve actually got people relocating to the Greater Seattle area in search of more affordable housing! We do have a fairly high cost of housing when compared to most other parts of the county, but California transplants in particular are heading to the Pacific Northwest to take advantage of the relative value.
And finally, a significantly growing trend – particularly in Seattle – has been the number of people looking to find a new rental because the owner of their current rental is selling. I’ve written about this quite a bit over the past couple of years in various publications, and we continue to hear about it from our leasing team every week. It is no doubt a hot seller’s market, but we also know that many rental home owners are selling their Seattle properties due to the evolving legislative environment. It’s an unfortunate situation, and to any household struggling to find another available rental home because the previous one is being sold I say this: You can thank your city council.
With the exception of dense multi-family housing in the downtown Seattle core, all other markets in the Greater Seattle area (according to my NWMLS research) have performed very well these past couple of years – particularly single-family houses, and in just about any neighborhood. As we distance ourselves from the pandemic, all the things that draw people to downtown Seattle will come back as well (jobs, dining, arts, sporting events, etc.). The demand is ever-growing throughout our region, and housing providers continue to offer something that meets a crucial need in our communities. As an industry advocate, RHA continues to support housing providers and showcase them as the assets that they are.
About the author:
Cory Brewer
Cory Brewer is vice president of residential operations for Lori Gill & Associates and Windermere Property Management in Bellevue, WA. He oversees a team of property managers in the greater Seattle area who manage approximately 1,500 rental properties. Brewer can be reached via www.wpmnorthwest.com or [email protected] and 425-623-1330
