January 2011 Blog Posts (18)

One of the great benefits of the reality television craze is that distance education no longer has to cost any more than the price of your monthly cable television subscription. Of course this certainly does not apply to all sectors of reality television, but when it comes to house-flipping and home improvement shows on channels such as A&E, HGTV, and TLC  it certainly is possible to mix entertainment and education. Here are a few of our favorite TV shows that offer up some great…

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30-year fixed-rate mortgage: A…

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Property management companies, landlords or property managers – try responding promptly to address the tenant’s requests. In some extreme cases, the tenant may be entitled to withhold rent and your property management company could be held accountable for personal injuries as well.

 …

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Choosing the right property management software can be a difficult process.  Whether you are a property management company looking for a solution to manage your portfolio, or a board member of a HOA or Condo Association, you want to be sure you choose the software that can work for you.



You can find countless software solutions to manage you property on the Internet.  How do you make the choice?  Which one is right for you?  Below are 5 things to look for when evaluating property… Continue

It’s a well documented fact that Americans take less vacation time than business professionals in any other culture. According to a disturbing analysis in a May 2007 Businessweek article, “Americans take even less vacation than the Japanese, the people who gave rise to karoshi—the phenomenon of being worked to death.” While it’s certainly admirable to be a hard worker, there’s also…

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Mortgage Bankers Association for the week of 01/12/2010



Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) increased 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 47.5 percent compared with the previous week



Refinance Index: increased 4.9 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.7 percent from one week…

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30-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.71 percent with an average 0.8 point for the week ending January 13, 2011, down from last week when it averaged 4.77 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.06 percent.



The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.08 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.13 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.45 percent…

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Property Managers or Landlords and Tenants should perform a joint inspection of the rental property or rental unit before the tenant moves in. The objective of the inspection is to



a. identify and document the condition of the property

b. check the conditions of the appliances, security systems, heating, air conditioning systems

c. identify common areas

d. identify service areas such as trash, recycling,  newspaper delivery, mail box, club house and pool

e. provide…

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704610904576031883869635632.html

Craigslist is an EXCELLENT tool for listing rentals, in fact, it's so excellent I've heard more propery managers say they get more leads from craigslist than from any other source.  Managing my own rentals, I can say the very same thing.  Craigslist is an excellent medium to get the word out about your vacancy.

The solution I want to address today is not to redress how great…

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Mortgage Bankers Association for the week of 01/12/2010



Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) increased 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 47.5 percent compared with the previous week



Refinance Index: increased 4.9 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.7 percent from one…

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30-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.77 percent with an average 0.8 point for the week ending January 6, 2011, down from last week when it averaged 4.86 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.09 percent.



The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.13 percent with an average 0.8 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.20 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.50 percent.



Five-year… Continue

Throughout the course of my college and young professional years, I moved quite a bit — to new student housing, then back home for the summer, then to a new city for a new job. Throughout the course of these events roommates were shuffled and I encountered several different subletting scenarios, each of which was handled differently. For sake of better understanding a tenant’s reasons for subletting, I thought I would share a couple of the different scenarios that I…

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There are plenty of ways to get something done. But there is always a way to make faster progress. And that way is the critical path.

You are probably thinking about bottle necks right now but that isn’t quite the same thing. A bottle neck is the one spot that can hold up the whole process. Every thing relies on this one thing being ready or available.

A critical path is more about the order the tasks are done in and the time each task takes to complete.  Understanding…

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30-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.86 percent with an average 0.8 point for the week ending December 30, 2010, up from last week when it averaged 4.81 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.14 percent.



The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 4.20 percent with an average 0.8 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.15 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.54…

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Mortgage Bankers Association for the week of 01/5/2010



Market Composite Index: (loan application volume) d ecreased 3.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the prior week. For the week ending December 31, 2010, this index increased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.



Refinance Index: decreased 7.2 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3.1 percent from one week… Continue

If you add a few extra minutes to your tenant screening process it can save you a lot of time, money and headache for years to follow. 

Are you a busy property management company with multiple property managers or a busy landlord managing multiple properties?  Why not setup a Pass or Fail grade for the rest of the property managers in your…

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Chances are you put a lot of effort into finding just the right tenant to entrust with your unit: you run a credit and criminal background check, you

verify employment, you speak with applicants’ past landlords, and

perhaps you even require an additional personal reference or two. In

short, you do everything within your power to make sure that your unit

is rented to the most reliable, responsible tenant possible. Performing

this due diligence protects your property,…

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