Stampede Blog

Should You Consider a "No Swingers Club" Clause in Your Lease Agreements?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Last Thursday the Seattle Times reported of a couple who operated a swingers club out of a rental in Des Moines. They promoted the club thru the HardwoodCabin.com which is no longer running. There was some social coverage of the incident at SeaTacBlog and 360Digest.

Which leads me to the question, should real estate managers consider a clause preventing this type of activity in their rentals?

Judgment's Can Kill

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:39:00 +0000

As you buy real estate for investment, be fore warned that you will most likely be taken to court at some point. Something to think about is the final judgment of the case. Even if you expect to lose a judgment will show up on your credit report and can hinder or flat out kill any pending and future real estate transactions. You may have had your checkbook with you and satisfied the judgment that day, it can still impair your credit rating.

This is when using a legal entity to operate your investments can benefit you, because your personal credit will not be impaired when a judge rules against you. Be certain to perform due diligence and consult an attorney in your town / state before creating your company.

A New Name In Real Estate

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:58:00 +0000

There is a new name in real estate, unfortunately at the moment it is not our real estate management software, at least not yet. Rather it is FrontDoor.com from HGTV. I stumbled across this new site through of my Google Feed runs.

It is a mesh of useful content for home buyers and sellers as well as a real estate listing service. As far as the listing service, it is similar in concept to Trulia.com's. There search interface is simple, yet slightly cluttered. One aspect of the interface that I did appreciate was the segragation of the map and list style views. You can pick which style view you want from the tabs near the top of the page.

The service is still in beta but has grown quickly. I wish them the best of luck.

Review: The Part-Time Real Estate Investor: How to Generate Huge Profits While Keeping Your Day Job

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:27:00 +0000

I recently went cover to cover of this intriguing and informational book by Dan W. Blacharski. Unlike Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad, this book is much more of a hands on guide of what tools and resources are available for a real estate investor. Blacharski provides you with real world advice on how to begin a real estate company while maintaining your day job, starting with setting a place within your home where you can fill out forms and documents that is free from distractions.

He clearly shoots down any get rich quick scheme's, explaining how many of them work and how in the real world very rarely are they successful. He focuses on details that have proven odds of success. He encourages people with poor credit and little cash to learn what is necesary and jump into the game, because if they wait till they have more cash or their credit is better they may never buy their first piece of real estate.

From reading the book, it appears that Blacharski's investment of choice is to purchase a fixer upper, rehab it, and then sell it on land contract and collect interest income on the purchase. He focuses on rehab's in working class neighborhoods, often where there are many potential buyers with poor credit and he can help them purchase their first home thru seller financing. He enjoys the lasiez faire approach to real estate investing, where once the home goes into land contract, he does not have any maintenance except bookkeeping. This allows him to roam free with his wife to Bangkok annually.

Conclusion
All in all, this was a great book to read for someone interesting in taking the dive into real estate. It provides quite a bit of key advice and recommendations when it comes to starting out on your first investment. It uses good use of detail and provides excellent case studies / stories of real world investors experiences. This is not a book that is mass produced and promoted thru every media outlet possible like the Rich Dad series, this is a book that sits on the shelf queitly awaiting to unleash a wealth of knowledge onto its next reader. I recommend you purchase and read this book if you are a novice to amateur investor.

One thing that Blacharski recommended was that if you are not a home owner, become one first before you begin to purchase investment real estate. My wife and I are following his advice and closing on our first home in the coming weeks. Not long after we plan to purchase our first investment property.

14 Rules to Follow When Renting Pet Friendly Units -- Part 2 of 2

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:43:00 +0000

This article is part two of a two part post, Part 1 can viewed here. This article was written by our guest author Don Conrad. To learn more about Don, please visit his Guest Author Bio.

Tenant agrees to obtain a liability insurance policy with $________ coverage to cover injury or damages caused by pet. Tenant agrees to list owner as “additional insured”. Animals as pets are wonderful. They provide us with comfort, protection and companionship. They help give a purpose for our existence. The reason they are able to do that is because they have their own personalities. Unfortunately, just like humans, animals have personality flaws and if one of those flaws causes the pet to bite someone, you could find yourself in a lawsuit. The form specifies that tenants with pets must obtain liability insurance to cover such problems. You should have your name listed on this policy. One way to handle liability insurance is to charge the tenant for the policy and you set it up with your agent. This way, you know it gets done.

Tenant agrees to find new homes for pet’s offspring within 8 weeks of birth. Pets sometimes have babies, so include a clause that requires the tenants to find a new home(s) for offspring within eight weeks of birth. This will help ensure they are not a new permanent occupant in the rental.

Tenant agrees not to leave pet unattended for unreasonable periods of time. Also specify that the tenant agrees not to leave pet unattended for an unreasonable length of time. This rule will vary with each pet. “Unreasonable length of time” could mean three hours for an old dog with a weak bladder, or two weeks for a well-fed snake. When you get to this rule with your tenant, you need to explain the rule with something along these lines: “Unreasonable length of time can greatly vary from species of pet to the pet’s training and personality. What we mean by this term is that the length of time a pet should be left alone is the amount of time a pet can handle without needing their waste facility cleaned up, their food replenished, or where they get bored and begin to do damage.” This cannot guarantee that tenants will abide by this rule, but it will let the tenant know where you stand on pets who are left alone.

Pet identification tags are to be worn at all times. This regulation is more for the tenant than you. This rule will ensure that should a pet escape, they have a better chance of being returned to the rightful owner.

Tenant agrees to furnish owner/manager with picture of said pet. Ask that the tenant furnish you with a picture of their pets. Having a picture of the pet will go a long way in a lawsuit. This will also help to ensure that you do in fact have a collie in your rental if they say they have a collie. I recommend you take a picture of the pet yourself and when you take the picture, try to get the owner’s face in the frame as well. This will go a long way should you ever need the tenant’s picture for future reference.

Tenant agrees that this addendum is for that specific pet described above and there are no pet substitutions, including “pet sitting” or harboring of any other pets. Any unlisted animals are to be removed at tenant’s expense. Make sure the tenant agrees that this addendum is for that specific pet described above and there are no pet substitutions, including pet-sitting or harboring of any other pets including guests’ pets. Any unlisted animals are to be removed at tenant’s expense. This regulation reaffirms that the described pet is the only pet allowed under this addendum.

Tenant agrees to pay for any loss, expenses or damage caused by said pet. Non-payment of such damage will be listed as additional rent. Specify that the tenant aggress to pay for any loss, expenses, or damage caused by said pet. Nonpayment of such damage will be listed as additional rent. This rule lets the tenant know they are financially responsible for any expense their pet costs you and how damages will be listed.

Tenant agrees to the owner/manager’s right to revoke permission to keep said pet should tenant break this addendum. Breaking of addendum shall be grounds for termination of rental agreement. Finally, the last rule on the form spells out to tenants what could happen if they break this agreement. Simply put, they could lose their pet or their right to rent from you.

As I said, these 14 rules are the rules I'm currently using for all tenants who have pets. Though the last 15 years I've accumulated these rules through a variety of sources and I have added, adjusted, or amended these rules as needed. I have suggested that you do the same. Use these rules as the basis to help you establish rules that work for you, or if you would like to use a copy of my rules, feel free to go to my website at www.findthatqualitytenant.com, hit the “forms” link, and print out a copy for yourself.

14 Rules to Follow When Renting Pet Friendly Units -- Part 1 of 2

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:51:00 +0000

This article was written by our guest author Don Conrad. To learn more about Don, please visit his Guest Author Bio.

The issue of pets has been a complicated one for landlords for centuries. I'm sure it dates back to the caveman days when one tenant’s T. Rex knocked down the stagnates of its owners’ rented cave. Still, many landlords feel under the right circumstances, it can be worthwhile to rent to pet owners. The problem is, oftentimes these landlords don't have set rules for the pet owners to help keep their pets under control.

I have been renting to pet owners successfully for years now. I have found that one of the secrets to do success is to have good rules and regulations for the owners to abide by for their pets. Over the years, I have developed an established set of rules that I expect my pet owners to abide by when they rent from me. These rules come from a variety of sources and have been altered and revised over the years as needed. I am offering these rules to you with the suggestion that you use the ones you feel you need and alter or revise the other is as you see fit.
Below is the first half of those set rules with a brief explanation following each rule.

Tenants agree to adhere to local ordinances, including licensing, leash laws, ID tags, health requirements, and mandated vaccinations. Of course, here you are requiring the local ordinances to help you police the health and safety of your tenant’s pets. I strongly recommend if you don’t know your community pet ordinances, you get yourself a copy. I would keep it in the file for that particular unit so it can be conveniently found when you need it.

Tenants agree to keep pet under control at all times, including unnecessary noise, aggressive disturbance or annoyance to others. This includes day and nighttime. Tenants agree to remedy any complaint from owner or manager immediately. Here, you’re allowing the ability for you to police the tenant’s pet if they cause any kind of neighborhood problems. These problems include barking day and night, running through neighbors’ yards, knocking over trash cans, or things of that nature. Failure of the pet owner to respond to your complaints could cost them the pet or use of the rental unit

Tenants agree to keep pet restrained or fenced when outside the dwelling. This rule is self-explanatory although some locales have fence requirements that might pertain to certain breeds of dogs.

Tenant agrees to clean up pet waste and dispose of it properly and quickly, both inside and outside the dwelling. You will notice two important words in the rule and those words are “properly” and “quickly.” “Properly” does not include piling it behind the alley where the sun can cook it or kids can play in it. This is not safe or sanitary. In fact, since children get tetanus from animal feces, you could possibly be setting yourself up for a lawsuit if you know but allow improper pet waste removal to happen anyway.

“Quickly” means what it says. One does not wait until the litter box is overflowing or the back yard has more landmines that a war zone. Animal waste needs to be cleaned up in a common sense, timely manner. It should be removed according to the ordinances established in your community.

Tenant agrees not to leave food outside dwelling that could attract other animals. In addition to keeping a food dish on the back porch for Rover, some pet owners throw their pets leftovers, which are heading for the trash bin. Generally, this is acceptable, but the problem arises when these food items are uneaten and left overnight. Stray dogs, cats, and other unwanted visitors tend to find these food sources. Actually, it is the other unwanted visitors that cause the big headaches, especially if the other visitor is a raccoon. Once a raccoon begins to hang out at your rental, you will understand this rule. Following this regulation also helps to keep away rats, mice and pesky rodents.

Tenant agrees to pay additional security deposit of $________ and/or monthly rent of $ ________ for keeping said pet on the premises. Additional security deposit may only be used after tenant has vacated premises and may be applied to repair of damages, carpet cleaning/replacement, spraying or cleaning of rental or delinquent rent. Unused deposit shall be returned to tenant within _____ days of tenant vacating premises.
The form goes on to explain that the additional security deposit required may only be used after tenant has vacated premises and may be applied to repair or damages, carpet cleaning/replacement, spraying or cleaning of rental, or delinquent rent. Unused deposit shall be refunded to tenant within a certain number of days (be sure to specify) of tenant vacating premises. This is where you fill in the amount you are collecting for extra security deposit, monthly rent, or both. You will notice that tenant cannot get the extra security deposit back until they have vacated the premises. This helps give you extra money when you need it most: when they have moved out and all damages are apparent. Most states have laws on how long you can hold a security deposit. Ask your lawyer what the maximum limit is and put that time limit in the appropriate spot.

Come back for part two as it will be posted one week from today on Wednesday the 23rd.

Guest Author Bio: Don Conrad

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Don Conrad was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he resides today with his wife and two young children. Don graduated from high school in 1980 and worked a myriad of jobs including restaurant management, laborer, home construction, teaching karate and bartending. It was 1994 when he went out on a limb and bought his first four unit apartment complex. He quit his full time job in 2000 and has been buying, fixing up and renting out homes ever since. Don has been very successful at finding quality tenants to place in those homes using his 5 step screening process, and decided to share his simple system in the tenant selection process with his first book entitled “How to Find That Quality Tenant”.

Don has been interviewed by numerous radio shows in the Chicago land area and by Income for Life’s Rob Minton. Recently, he was a speaker at the Mr. Landlord conference in Las Vegas.

Through his website, www.findthatqualitytenant.com, Don offers many free resources for landlords and real estate investors, so that others can reap the rewards of renting to quality tenants.

Zillow Adds School Data

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:19:00 +0000

Zillow recently announced that it is including school data into the local pages for each city. Now you can easilly look up student to teacher ratios, schools contact information and test scores while researching a prospective property.

I think this is a nice addition to an already outstanding web application.

Pre-Foreclosures: Should They be Listed Publicly?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:28:00 +0000

When Trulia originally announced that they partnered with RealtyTrac to provide listings of foreclosures, I was intrigued. That is, until I began to use Trulia with the listings included.

RealtyTrac is a web application that provides real estate foreclosure listings. The problem is, that their listings (or the majority of them) are pre-foreclosure listings. Meaning that they are not for sale! When a property is in pre-foreclosure, the current owner may have just received notice that they are being foreclosed upon, they still have time to pay what they owe or negotiate with the lender to escape foreclosure.

For the experienced investor, this is their territory. They use a system like RealtyTrac to identify homeowners that cannot bail themselves out, contact them and negotiate a pre-foreclosure sale. Here is the catch, I said experienced investor... The majority (probably 95-99%) of people shopping for homes are not experienced investors.

RealtyTrac further complicates the issue by displaying not a sales price, but an amount at which the current owner owes the lender. Which in some instances could be less than $100,000 on a home that is valued over $1 million. Creating an illusion for "Average Joe" to purchase beach front property in Miami Beach, FL for $85,000.

To make matters worse, the listings displayed on Trulia and Yahoo Real Estate do not even display the exact address of the property in "Foreclosure". RealtyTrac displays the street name or the closest intersection, in order to get the full details, you have to subscribe to their website for $50 per month.

In my personal opinion, this was a blunder on Trulia's part. What they are sacrificing by partnering with a firm like RealtyTrac is confusing the average home buyer, which makes up roughly 95% of the market. When a consumer is confused, they are more likely to reflect upon their experience using their services as negative.

Property Stampede Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Our programmers are at it again. And this time it is to make your life a little easier as a property manager.

Did you ever get that call at 3am saying the sink was dripping in 36c? I mean come on, it is important to conserve the water and their sleep, but sometimes your sleep is a little more important. That is why we added the newest addition to the tenant section called the “Service Requests” section.

Since our online property management application is open and awake 24/7, your tenant has the ability to log on and record a new service request; even at 3am. The tenant goes on, tells you what is wrong or what the question is, and it logs all the info that they give you. The second that they submit it, you get notified via email with time, date, location, problem or question, priority level and their emotional state. Then you have the ability to post a response and keep them up to date as to what is happening. You once again see what is coming before you have to confront it. Just a little way of bringing you back in the driver’s seat.

This is just one of the new features and modifications that we have been working on this week. And as always, we are using the input that our beta testers have provided us to prioritize what aspects of the application need improvement. Please keep them coming, and remember that if you are a beta tester you can give us your input by submitting a case under the "Support/Case Tracking" tab from your Home / Dashboard.

If you are not yet a Beta tester and would like to become one, sign up for an invitation to the best property management software (At least we think so…)

Are you ready to join the Stampede?

Popular Sciences City of the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:27:00 +0000

I recently stumbled upon Popular Science's vision of City's of the Future and was in awe. It was one of the most impressive presentations of a futuristic city that I have seen in quite some time. I knew immediately that certain parts of the system showed intense promise and other parts could never come to be reality.

Probably the most efficient version of a car, the "Pod Car", is designed to be the shopping cart for transportation. Ultimately, you hop in a pod car, travel to your destination and exit. As pod cars pull in, they squish together saving space. When someone decides to leave, they enter the first pod car in the line and drive away. I can never see this becoming reality quite simply because our society is incapable of sharing. Here in Buffalo we have one of the poorest mass transit systems and it is because their is not much demand. No one is willing to give up the freedom of having their own automobile. Think about when you go to a grocery store, grab a cart that has trash in it... you put it back and grab another. Could you just pick a different pod within the line? This type of system is extremely intuitive, yet I can never see it in use.

Many other aspects of the future city offer large potential, for example pressure generators under sidewalks, that convert the weight of your step into electricity. Better yet, the wind turbines on the sides of highways that spin from the wind generated by passing cars and push this energy back into the grid.

One of the more clever ideas that I saw in this city was a pivoting Tide Generator. This generator had a set of blades that were spun by the passing tide. As the tide flew into the beach, the generator would face towards the body of water, as the tide changed directions the generator would rotate itself 180 degrees and continue to feed energy from this natural occurrence.

Overall, this is a city that I could definitely see myself living in some day. My only question is where is the first city going to be built, and how do I invest. Can you imagine the price of a condo in this city?

Property Stampede Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:42:00 +0000

As usual, we are continuing to work to improve and expand our application. We are using the input that our beta testers have provided us to prioritize what aspects of the application need improvement. Please keep them coming, and remember that if you are a beta tester you can give us your input by submitting a case under the "Support/Case Tracking" tab from your Home / Dashboard. This allows you to create and track cases. If you are not yet a Beta tester and would like to become one, signup for an invitation to the best property management software (At least we think so…)

Some of the new and exciting changes that we have made in the past couple of days:

For Tenants:

A cleaner, newer face to the homepage when you sign into the tenant section.
Major programming changes that improve the ease and functionality of the portal. This makes it easier for tenants to navigate and use the application.
A new lease page for tenants to view and manage their lease(s).
Also soon look for new up-and-coming features on the Maintenance tracking page.
Tenants are not yet allowed to make payments while in Beta mode, but soon will be able to using Paypal, Google checkout, credit card, and their checking account.

For Property Managers:

A fun new feature was added this week which allows for your new Tenant(s) to receive a Welcome/Invitation email. This email is generated when you add a tenant to a lease with an email address. From the email, tenants can navigate to PropertyStampede.com so they can link with their landlord and manage their lease(s). When the tenant arrives to the site, they will be asked if they currently have a property stampede account or if they need to create one. Once the tenant logs in or signs up, the tenant can then manage his or her account.
There have also been some interface changes to the interface to improve ease of use. The property management software will alert the user when they view the leases page if they have no units. The alert will notify the user that they cannot add a lease until they add a unit and will provide them with a link to the add unit page. This alert enhancement has been also implemented for the units page if they have no properties and the tenants page if they have no leases.

These are just some of the new features and modifications that we have been working on this week. The more feedback we get from you, the more we will continue to improve the application. To become a Beta tester please visit our invitation request form, or visit our online property management application for more information

Are you ready to join the Stampede?

Tips for Taking Photos of Vacant Units

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:53:00 +0000

Truliablog.com recently posted some great tips to getting the most of your real estate photos. Although their post was originally intended for people selling real estate, I think it holds about the same tune for people attempting to rent real estate.

In summary, they recommended the following:

Take pictures from many angles (i.e. take shots from within rooms, not just from the hall looking in, be creative and use the best shots). Make sure to take pictures of the things that make your property or unit unique (i.e. a great view of the ocean from the rear deck).
Add extra emotion to your photos by taking them at sunrise and sunset. (i.e. taking a photo of the sunset over the ocean from that condo's terrace)
Get the car out of the photo... or any other distractions that are irrelevant to a prospective tenant (i.e. a car parked in the driveway or garage, family photos of the current tenant, and so on...)
Have the right equipment... Do not waste your time with a camera that requires you to drive to Walgreen's. Also, do not waste your time with an outdated or extremely inexpensive digital camera that will provide pictures that are a poor resolution or look pixelated. They referenced Realtor.org's Digital Camera Buyer's Guide.

Win a $50 Gas Card!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:15:00 +0000

During these hard economic times, all of us here at Property Stampede know how hard it is to keep gas in your car. So we want to help one of our beta testers by giving them a $50 Gas Card!

How this is going to work is simple really. We want all of our beta testers to use our website and take notes on things that you think would improve Property Stampede. Once you have your notes, click on the 'Home' tab, then 'Support / Case Tracking'. From here you can submit a case, this being a new feature we released about a week ago.

Enter for a title, '$50 Gas Card'. Select a priority of 'normal' and case type as 'Feature Request'. In the case description field, write us what you think is the #1 thing we can add, change, or remove from the site to make Property Stampede the best online property management application on the planet!

DON'T FORGET THE RULES!

All entries must be entered by the 4th of July! New beta testers are welcome to participate, so if you are not a beta tester, go to our online property management software and signup. There is no limit on the number of entries a user may submit. There will be a minimum of One Winner and Property Stampede LLC reserves the right to determine which entry they feel was the winning entry. Lastly, the winning user can not be a employee of Property Stampede LLC.

Sincerely,

Christopher Mancini
Director of Business Development

Property Stampede Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:06:00 +0000

I realize it has seemed quiet as of late and I apologize for the time since we have made a post. We have been extremely busy fixing issues, adding functionality, and supporting the software.

Currently I have a list of changes that we have released to production to share with you:

We have simplified the signup and login process
Made changes to the homepage to improve navigation
Improved some back end code to increase performance
Implemented some new back end interfaces to improve our ability to provide efficient and effective support to you, our end users
Released our Case Support System allowing end users to easilly submit a problem, feature request or question
You can now add a tenant from within the tenants screen
We have created the ability to manage vendors from within the accounting component
We have enhanced the CRM functionality by allowing end users to manage businesses and assign contacts to a business from within the organize component
You can now clone a property or unit, allowing for an end user to quickly enter in multiple properties and units that are similar
Fixed miscellaneous bugs and issues

What you can expect in upcoming releases:

We are still working on project and task management to be added to the organize component
Tenant Portal: Very soon we will release the tenant portal. When you add a tenant with an email address, that tenant will receive an email allowing them to login and access their account information. They will then be able to make / schedule payments, view their lease, and place service requests.
Rent Roll Report

I will have more information in the near future. If you have not signed up for the beta, you can do so by logging on to our property management application.

Christopher Mancini
Director of Business Development

Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:37:00 +0000

So here we are exactly two weeks into the private beta and we have had a few issues but all is well. We have made some major improvements to the homepage of the tool, making it simpler for new users to create an account, as well as login. We have released some minor changes throughout the site as a whole and made modifications to the sites publicly accessible pages.

We are actively developing and have slated to release the project and task management components as well as our first round of marketing components and reporting components. If you have not signed up to participate in the beta, you can do so now by visiting our online property management application.

Property Stampede Releases to Private Beta!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Well it is now the 15th, and we know that a lot of you are thinking... Did they do it? Well we are proud to announce that we released the first version of our Beta. Countless late nights and very understanding wives allowed this to happen.

So what do we have? Currently you are able to sign up as a beta tester and try our software for free. Please note that this is a private release, so you have to request a pass code by going to our online property management application, which we will email you as we offer more invitations. This allows you to enter that code and create an account and start using the beta software right away for free!

With the pass code, you have complete access for at least 120 days to our online property management application. You can add your units, including residential, commercial and industrial units, add amenities to both properties and the units, create both draft and active leases, make notes on the leases and the units, add your tenants, receive payments, and have access to complete integrated accounting software.

All this plus realtime charts such as occupancy rate, cash flow and account balance, displayed right on your dashboard so you can easily view your company's key statistics.

Please note that this is our first beta, and there will be much more to come! Your feedback is the key to turning Property Stampede into a truly great product.

Are you ready to join the stampede?

Book Review: The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property by Melissa Prandi

noreply@blogger.com (Kewen) — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:07:00 +0000

“The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property”

by Melissa Prandi, M.P.M.

WOW. I was excited about this book right from the start. I mean the author is a Master Property Manager (M.P.M.) with over 22 years of experience and a past national president of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). The cover even boasts “For When You Want More Than the Official Line”, I’m hooked, tell me more!

This book is great for newbies who are either looking to get into the rental property management business or for small time rental property managers looking to either grow their business or just to get more organized with their business. It’s filled with tons of great general information about managing rental property. It has a bit of everything from deciding whether or not to get into rental property management to finding tenants, problems with tenants, maintenance and upgrades, and even investing and growing your property portfolio. For those who get scared off by the amount of work involved in being a rental property manager, or just don’t know if it’s the right choice for them, there is a chapter dedicated to finding and hiring a rental property management company. This section is conveniently located at the end of the book. Coincidence?

Throughout the book there are highlighted sections or tidbits of information listed as bright ideas, watch out, money savers, and even quotes and experiences from other rental property managers. These sections each have their own little icons which correspond to the type of information provided. Who said this book isn’t fully illustrated?

Also at the end of this book are its appendices. Many rental property management books have various forms and important information (the kind you want to refer back to) scatted throughout the book in its corresponding chapters with only an index to guide you. What was that page again? This book does not have that problem. It has a section for each set of information available for quick reference. It has a great resource directory of websites, a list of other books that they recommend, and a section of important documents. This book does not however have a ton of document examples, but it definitely gives you a place to start.

Overall as an unofficial guide this book hits its mark.

When All Seems Lost in Real Estate, Buffalo Makes Top Ten?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:59:00 +0000

I read an article this morning on Buffalo Rising stating that real estate in the Buffalo Metro Area is on the rise. I was slightly skeptical, only because we were one of the cities in the country that did not experience the burst of the bubble because our home prices have not gone up more than 2-4%. But Buffalo Rising states that CNN Money has listed Buffalo/Niagara region as one of the top ten fastest growing real estate markets currently. Also on the list was Rochester and Syracuse, putting 3 upstate and western new york cities on the list.

My theory is that because the Buffalo/Niagara region has been at a steady real estate price growth for years, that we catch the eye of real estate investors. Investors currently do not want to invest in neighborhoods where home prices have fallen or foreclosures are at risk or eminent. They want to invest in areas where risk is low, prices are stable and climbing and neighborhoods are solid. After thinking about it, I am not so skeptical anymore, Buffalo is a great place to invest in real estate. Lets just hope that this does not lead to our own local real estate bubble!

Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:17:00 +0000

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how our progress is going. We are on time for our May 15th release! Our May 15th release is going to be a private beta, so if you have not requested access, please visit our website @ http://www.propertystampede.com before we close signups.

What will be in this release?

Advanced Property Management: You will have the ability to add, edit and delete properties, units, leases and tenants. You will also be able to have thorough accounts of events by utilizing our notes feature, which allows you to document a note on either a property, unit, lease or tenant.

Full Accounting Records: You will be able to setup your chart of accounts to your needs, view general ledger transactions, enter manual transactions, and create manual invoices. All of your leases will automatically generate the appropriate ledger transactions for rent, security deposits and all other charges to a tenant.

Tenant Portal: Your tenants will be invited to create accounts so that they can view rent due, their lease details, and submit service requests.

Document Storage: Our system is designed to allow you to upload images, videos, pdf documents, word documents, excel documents, and more. You can assign these documents to a property, unit, lease or tenant. For example, one of our clients like to have a copy of all of his tenants driver's license. So he can scan it and upload it to either that tenant's record or lease.

Management Dashboard: When you login, you will be greeted with a management dashboard providing you with a quick snapshot of your businesses statistics and health. For example, on this page will be a widget that displays the top 10 tenants that owe you money, another widget that displays your recent income per month and projected income per month, and more.

Now I realize that the above is not the vision I have portrayed to you all as to all of the features and services that our product will offer. That is because we are working in a fashion where we release our product early and update it often. So with that said, I would like to list the features that will be released in the near future.

Alerts System: Soon we will be releasing system alerts that you can custom create to alert you or a staff member of specific events. Our alert system can be configured for many different types of events and can be setup to alert you by popping a message to you the next time you login, by email or by cell phone text message. For example, in the event of a priority 1 service request from a tenant, you could have a text message sent to you and your maintenance staff.

Marketing Components: In the coming weeks you will see the release of our first marketing components. Marketing components to come include:
- a flyer generation tool,
- a classified ad tool (which will help you create listings optimized for sites like craigslist),
- a public company profile that lists current promotions and your properties (this profile will be also search engine optimized for the keywords of your choice),
- our rental listing engine,
- bulk vacancy feeds (some listing engines like citycribs.com offer a user to manage their vacancy ads through what is called a bulk feed, ultimately it is a file that has all of the information about your listings, all you have to do is activate the feed that matches your service provider, then we will give you the link to the feed to provide to the service provider and we will take care of the rest!)

Reporting: It will be reporting heaven, including such reports as your rentroll, balance sheet, profit and loss, bad debt, maintenance reports and more (as a beta tester you will help us determine what reports are most important to you). You will even be able to have reports automatically sent to your email inbox daily, monthly, quarterly or annually!

CRM: Under our "Organize" tab will be an easy to use CRM. Providing you with contacts, tasks, notes, and a calendar.

That is a chunk of the complete vision... One thing that we intend to release but have no timeline for, is the ability to manage and market vacation rentals. So once again, if you have not signed up for our beta, I suggest you do because time is running out and I look forward to seeing you all on the 15th!

Sincerely,
Christopher M Mancini
Co-Founder, Property Stampede LLC

Can Property Stampede Keep You Out of Court?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:06:00 +0000

I think it can! I read Preparing for Court: Landlord/Tenant Disputes on the All Property Management Blog and it discussed how you can avoid going to court when disputes arise. In the article, they say that the key to avoiding court is to maintain good records.

They say to make note of everything in regards to the property and tenant. Keep the notes as long as possible. They also recommend taking photos of the condition of the unit before and after a tenant occupies the property, so that you can back your decision in retaining their security deposit. So how can our online property management application keep you out of court?

Property Stampede allows you to create notes and attach them directly to properties, units, leases and tenants, so if you need to easily document events, problems, and important details that could potentially keep you out of court. Not to mention you have the ability to upload pictures, videos and receipts and attach them to properties, units, leases or tenants. Your tenants also have the ability to view the lease at any time from our web site, so they never have to contact you to view their lease terms.

Ultimately Property Stampede provides property managers and real estate investors with the organizational tools to maintain the proper records that can keep them from having to sit before a judge. I think that is something worth value.

We Have Business Cards and a Logo!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:51:00 +0000

After quite a bit of debate and many revisions, we have finally designed our business cards and our logo. This is really exciting and we are looking forward to any feedback you may have.

Business Card Front

Business Card Back

Logo

What is most important to you in picking a business application?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:12:00 +0000

We at Property Stampede are trying to determine what drives value in a business application. We would like to think that it is our fashionable appearance or our heart warming personalities that creates value for our end users... but we completely understand if you disagree.

The reason we are trying to determine what drives value, is quite simple really, we want to offer the best possible application to our customers as we can. It helps us little if we do not know what makes our customers really excited about our application. Is it a low price, a large feature list, top notch customer service and support? What makes our customers tick?

Can a company provide a large feature list(1), top notch customer service(2), ease of use(3) and high reliability(4) while still offering it at a low price(5)? In comparison, does WalMart offer all of the above? I would venture to say that they have has 1, 4, and 5. Yet they are rated as one of the best in department retail.

Another example is Apple. They definitely do not have 5, ugh... but they are growing and gaining the affection of the younger elitists in our society. Apple has 2 for sure... I was in the store at the genius bar once and a customer came in with an obviously damaged laptop. He even told them that he had slipped on ice and thrown his laptop 10 feet in the air. It still worked but the cd-rom had stopped operating. They replaced the cd-rom for him. Astonishing. I think in total they have 2,3,4, and innovation (I forgot to add that one earlier, we will call it 6).

Is a company silly if they try to go after all of the core aspects of creating value? (There is actually terminology for this stuff, but I do not remember it all...) My personal opinion is that it is impossible for a company to focus on all aspects, and if they do, they never achieve greatness. Our goal is to achieve greatness, if thats the case, then where do we spend our time?

My initial thought was a low price, but I am beginning to rethink that. I think that our product is providing much needed innovation in the terms of property management and searching for property to rent. Our goal is also to provide top notch customer focused customer service. I guess ease of use goes hand in hand with customer focused service and development. We also want to be able to guarantee that our product is reliable and that our customers data is safe. Not to mention an all inclusive feature list, full accounting records, document management, crm functionality and powerful marketing components.

So if the above is our vision for our company and its products, can we still offer it at a low price... or better yet should we? Do we price our software to be competitive or do we price our product based off of perceived value? Do we risk having a smaller user base in exchange for higher profit margins per user?

These are the questions we are currently asking ourselves and would love input on the subject.

Thank you,
Chris

Indentured Blogitude?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:36:00 +0000

I was reading Gigaom and learned about Indentured Blogitude. I never knew that something like this could possibly exist, that our society is so hung up on social networking that they would force bloggers to work in such environments and work to death. Its sad.

See the conditions for yourself:

Angry Renter?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:13:00 +0000

I stumbled across AngryRenter.com, which is a cry for government to let our free economy correct itself out, and to not bail out reckless borrowers and irresponsible lenders. The following is an excerpt from their website:

All we hear these days is whining from reckless home borrowers and their banks.

But did you know that renters are 32 percent of American households? And that homes in foreclosure are less than 2 percent?

So why is Congress rushing to bailout high-flying borrowers and their lenders with our tax dollars?

Unfortunately, renters aren't as good at politics as the small minority of homeowners (and their bankers) who are in trouble. We don't have lobbyists in Washington, DC. We don't get a tax deduction for our rent and we don't get sweetheart government loans.

Quite simply, we are just Angry Renters. And now it is our time to be heard: no government bailouts!

They put up a good argument. If you agree with them, navigate over to their sign and sign the petition. The petition will be available to be signed until it is sent to congress on April 21st, so don't waste time.