Stampede Blog

One software: flexiblity for all properties.

noreply@blogger.com (Property Stampede) — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:57:00 +0000

Many software’s, including most Property Management Software’s do not offer the flexibility to manage multiple types of properties all in the same place. Here at Property Stampede, we are proud to tell you that we can handle almost any type of property that you can manage. Everything from an extra home that you own, to property managers who manage multiple properties to apartment managers who manage apartment complexes with multiple units, Property Stampede offers the tools for you to manage whatever properties that you have.

When we are designing a piece of software for Property Stampede, we always create the most amount of flexibility possible. We take into consideration multiple scenarios, different living situations, and the extensive list of possible payment combinations. With Property Stampede, it is possible to have as many tenants as needed on one lease, and multiple units on one lease. Have one commercial lease for ten buildings, or have three college students in one apartment on separate leases? Property Stampede handles either no problem.

Investment Community: It is easy to manage single family homes with Property Stampede with every tool you need to efficiently and effectively handle your investment properties. Everything from marketing tools to fill your vacancy to full accounting and invoicing to handle your financials, and everything all in one place with online access to have the information you need available to you at any time.

Property Manager: With flexibility such as allowing multiple leases on one property, or having the ability to have one lease for multiple properties, Property Stampede is above the rest with the flexibility and tools available to manage your tenants and owners. Give your owners access at any time with updated owner statements, and details about their properties with a login to a free owners portal. Save time from not doing owner statements, and sending checks. Send them their money using bank to bank transfer at low costs, saving on the stamp and envelope.

Apartment Manager: As a manager of an apartment complex, it is important to have the information you need at the time you need it. Who owes what, and for how much was it? Are there outstanding funds from last month? Can I fill my vacancies faster and maintain a higher occupancy rate? With Property Stampede, you have all of the tools to have that information at the ready, and offer your tenants access to login and view details and to save the phone calls. Also, with the most advanced marketing feeds for instant marketing to the most powerful sites online, Property Stampede is the most powerful tool for your property!

At every level of managing properties, Property Stampede offers you the flexibility and tools you need to effectively run your business, and save you enough time that you may the opportunity to manage even more properties. Check out the most powerful property management software available… PropertyStampede.com!

Are you ready to join the Stampede?

I have an investment home, now what?

noreply@blogger.com (Property Stampede) — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:26:00 +0000

Even in today's economy, it is always a great investment to have a second home for income. These investment properties can prove to be very beneficial when it comes to paying your mortgage, or just for extra cash. It is no secret that those who do this well, usually end up replacing their day job and have a lot of fun doing it.

But it is also not a secret that having an extra house or multiple investment properties can also prove to be a good amount of work. When you start to manage your own properties you will soon start to ask: How do I invoice my tenants? What options do I have to accept payments? How do I find my tenants, and how do I know if they are good tenants? Once I do find my tenants, how do I handle my financials?

Well, those can all be complex questions, and relevant questions to ask when looking to invest in properties. That is why we created the most comprehensive online software for managing properties available. Property Stampede is your complete source for everything you need to manage your properties.

With Property Stampede, managing properties is easier to do. We provide you with the best tools available to most efficiently manage your properties. With Property Stampede, you can easily market your vacant property using the best online advertising options such as Rentals.com, Rentmarketer.com, and free HTML generators for Craigslist.org. From your leads you can check criminal backgrounds (optional), credit checks (optional), and much more options available from Paylease.com to pick out the best tenants. All of this happening all in one place...Propertystampede.com.

Once you fill your vacancy, you can easily invoice your tenants every month so that they know when and how much is due for rent. Accept their payments online with a free portal for the tenants to log into to find their information, and allow them payment options for their convenience.

All of this while the tenant invoices and your invoice are all updated instantly, and in real time, accessible for anywhere with internet access. Manage all of your documents, leases, tenant info and other contact info all in one place... PropertyStampede.com. Also have every transaction automatically updated with a double entry accounting system that always runs in the back end, so that you never have to enter in an accounting ledger again, and still have your end of year tax report, and your financial report available at all times.

Have full control your properties and save time so that you may more efficiently manage more properties, and raise your income. Find out the fun others are having in real estate with Propertystampede.com!

Are you ready to join the Stampede?

Pay Lease added Options.

noreply@blogger.com (Property Stampede) — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Property Stampede is now incorporating the best property payment connection available: PayLease.com!

PayLease offers the best in class payment portals that allows your tenants to pay their rent using their credit card or checking account. Paylease also offers many options such as ACH, check conversion, tenant checks, criminal checks, employment verification, evicition records, and much more. You can even transfer funds to your owners with a click of a button.

The best part of it all... Property Stampede customers can now use all of these options right within your Property Stampede login! That is right, you can create an account quickly and easily, and have these options available to you, all with your Property Stampede Property Management Software!

Once again, we continue to strive to bring the best Property Management Software available.

Are you ready to join the Stampede?

Added Functionality

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Lately a very big focus from everyone that we have been working with is the easy of use, and reducing the amount of time it takes to complete day to day tasks. A few of these things included jumping between tabs, and finding similar information in multiple places.

So to come up with a solution to this, one of the biggest additions is our new Global Unit Search which is found at the top of every page. No matter where you are in the site, you can type a unit name or number or the name of one of your tenants and it will bring you directly to the Unit page for that information.

This is a fast and efficient way to find out info and navigate the site without having to jump around to multiple tabs. The next step is that we will organize and prioritize the information on that page so that it is even better suited.

Look for more details to come!

New Owner's Portal!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:15:00 +0000

The newest addition to the collection of features offered by property stampede is our new owners portal!

This portal is designed to reduce the amount of time between the property manager and the owner's. What is allows the property manager to do is associate a specific unit or property to an owner. This allows the owner to create a login into property stampede, and log on to their account and view the details of all the units and properties that they own. They can view the lease details, delinquencies, where it is being marketed if it is vacant and details of the unit without the need to call the property manager for those details.

This is the first step in bridging the process of collecting a tenants rent payment online, processing that payment, having the money flow to the property manager, automattically process in their account, and automatically update their leases, invoice, delinquency report, tenant portal and owners portal. If a tenant makes a payment, the flow of money is shown all the way through, but each person can only see the respected info as necessary of that process.

Making owning and managing properties and units easier than ever.

PropertyStampede.com!

Are you ready to join the stampede?

Property Stampede Update!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:40:00 +0000

Continuing to bring updates and improvements to the software, we have created a brand new lease generation tool to make it easier and add functionality to creating and managing your leases!

The lease generation tool accomplishes multiple things. First, it makes the process of creating leases and selecting dates and the billing day of the month much much easier. Second, it adds a page that shows all of the invoices that will be generated and have the ability to add recurring charges to the invoices in real time, watching which charge will go where and for how much.

There is also another element as well. This one is probably the most important...Prorating lease recurring charges and adding them to the first invoice automatically so you never have to get out the calculator and figure out how much for people to move in half way into the month!

This is just one more feature added, and many more to come. Stop back and see what else we are working on!

Are you ready to join the stampede?

Craigslist AD Generator!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:34:00 +0000

One of the newest additions to Property Stampede! A full ad generator specifically designed to provide fast and effective marketing for your vacant properties while using a very popular source to advertise for Free......Craigslist!

Craigslist is proving to be one of the most popular and most effective ways to reach your targeted market in a fast and free way. With all of the new attention though it is hard to designate your ad from other ads on Craigslist. So we took it a step farther. We incorporated an ad generator right into the marketing component of our software. Since all of the unit and property information is already stored and managed in the software, a full HTML ad is created quickly by pulling your information for your vacant unit and providing an effective and excellent looking page in and instant.

Simply use the generator, fill in the missing info, click create and copy and paste the HTML that is generated directly into your Craigslist account! It is as simple as that to designate your ads from the basic four line, text only ads.

Stand out, be noticed, and do it with style with Property Stampede!

A few pics of what the generator looks like:

Why You Should Accept Credit Cards for Your Real Estate Business

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:31:00 +0000

Like an epic battle, the final outcome on whether to accept credit cards as payment for rent is usually unclear for property managers and investors. Well I have had the time to weigh both sides and feel that accepting credit cards can be a harmless way to help insure that you receive your rent.

One of our clients for our real estate management system chose to accept credit cards for rent in his business. His logic is he would rather have most of his money on time than all of it late or not at all. This particular client even requires a credit card be listed on the tenants lease so that in the event of default, he can charge their card for the outstanding rent. **A pretty clever idea, but please do your due diligence in your state to determine if this is legal.**

This tenant asked us if he could charge a fee for tenants who wish to use their card to pay their rent. My initial response was no. I did some research and found that the real answer is yes and no.

I found that it is against just about every payment processors (VISA, MC, AMEX, Discover, PayPal. & Google Checkout) terms of service for a vendor to charge a surcharge to use their product. BUT it is not a violation of all most all payment processors to charge a convenience fee. A convenience fee is applicable when you conduct business that is normally a cash or check business and you make available to customers an alternative method of paying their bill via credit card. Primarily used to make online or over the phone payments and it cannot be applied to a recurring payment, for instance automatic monthly payments.

Some processors let you apply a percentage based fee, some allow a flat fee. You can thank local government for this fee, because they have been lobbying the credit card agencies for years to implement a fee of this type. For a long time, Discover card was the only one on board, but eventually the other processors realized that it would not hurt there numbers if they allowed this type of fee.

Example of when a convenience fee is legitimate:

A tenant calls you stating that they had a family emergency and they are depleted of funds and there rent will be late. You can tell them that you accept credit cards and they can avoid the $50 late fee by using their credit card to pay the rent and pay a $25 convenience fee. The tenant sees the value in not being late by saving $25, the manager receives the rent on time, plus covers the most if not all the cost of accepting the rent payment as credit card.

Example of when a convenience fee is NOT legitimate:

A tenant calls you and says, hey I got this great card that has an introductory rate of 0% for 4 years. I want to use it to pay my rent every month. Can you just make a copy of my card and charge my rent to my card every month?

If local government is using this fee to help ensure that they receive their tax payments, my thoughts are, real estate investors and managers should be doing the same.

***Side note: In the next few years, do not be surprised if the IRS begins forcing credit card merchant account agencies to file statements of your transactions. The IRS is working hard to fill the void between how much money they collect and the amount of money they think they should be collecting. Just something that I was informed of being on the horizon by my CPA.***

Chris

New Years Resolutions for Property Stampede

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:47:00 +0000

So New Year's has come and 2009 is here and 2008 is old news. 2008 was a critical year for developmental growth of our property management software as a product. 2009 opens its doors with fresh light for Property Stampede LLC to grow as a business. Property Stampede is on a path to success and we have identified a list of goals, resolutions, and challenges that we would like to accomplish for the 2009 calendar year.

Reach 200 happy clients.
Keep a consistent presence on the web threw the use of our blog, twitter, and other social networking websites.
Create a blog that people enjoy reading that is not focused on promoting our company. Reach 1000 subscribers every day.
Hear or see our companies name in a newspaper, on a radio station, and on TV without paying for it.
Have our customers be so delighted with our product and service that we receive 50 new clients through referrals.

From everyone here at Property Stampede, we wish all of you a wonderful New Year!

Property Stampede is on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Recognizing the fact that Facebook is basically tied for first in social networking, we have decided to create a Property Stampede fan page. You can access the page and become one of our fans by doing a search for us from within Facebook.

By becoming a fan, you have one more way of becoming closer with our family by joining discussions, reading company updates, and showing your support for our efforts.

For fellow real estate professionals, a facebook fan page is definitely one more way you can increase your exposure on the internet and we recommend that you look into setting up your own.

See you on Facebook!

Update: New Features to our Property Management Software

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:17:00 +0000

We have recently released some updates to our property management software, including a new report, the vacancy report.

The Vacancy report can be found under your reports tab next to our detailed Delinquency and Rent Roll reports. This report allows you to view all of your current vacancies, and also all of your future vacancies. This is valuable information when you need to know what units will be vacant at what date for the next 12 months.

Other valuable information for those units include how many days that unit has been vacant and also how many days until it will be occupied. If you decide to look at a unit in more detail from the report, just click on the units name and you will be taken to the unit details page.

Here is a Quick Snapshot of the Reports Tab:

Here is a Quick snapshot of the Vacancy Report:

Update: New Payment settings!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:23:00 +0000

We have added a settings section that allows you to setup and manage your electronic payment options for receiving payments from tenants. This section can be found in the settings tab after you have logged into your Property Stampede management account.

Accepting payments from tenants via PayPal could never be easier, all that is needed is your PayPal ID to be entered into the settings section. Accepting credit card payments can be setup in a similar fashion and you can turn these payment options on and off at any time.

Save your self some trips to the bank and begin accepting electronic payments as they are a convenient, safe and secure methods of accepting payments.

A quick view of the Settings tab:

Update: New Home Page!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:57:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed, and for those of you that use it every day, I am sure that you have, but we have now finished our new HOME PAGE!! We are very excited about it, and we think that our graphic designers did a GREAT job. You can send us feedback if you like under the Contact Us section.

You will notice a couple of new things. First, if you are reading this blog, you will like this one, you can get right to this blog from our new home page. If you click the Blog tab, it will take you right back here to find our what is going on.

Also, one of the biggest things you will notice is the new Demo Section. We are currently giving demos on all of our new features, so if you are curious, be sure to schedule your demo soon!

We will continue to make new changes to the home page and constantly adapt, so be sure to stop back and check it out!

www.Propertystampede.com

Also, we are making updates like crazy, improving the software every day. Check back on this blog soon for a features update on everything that we have been working on!

A quick snapshot:

Property Stampede is LIVE!

noreply@blogger.com (afield) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:49:00 +0000

We are proud to announce that as of today, November 15th, 2008, Property Stampede is now no longer in BETA, and is completely live with our software!

A big thank you to all of our BETA testers who gave us so much input into changes, feature additions and corrections that needed to be made to the software. All of your help is much appreciated, and feel free to continue to give us your input and we will keep the new features coming. We look forward to continuing to work with you.

The structure is complete, and however look forward to a new look and feel to the homepage at Property Stampede. We are currently working with our graphic designers to redesign the look of the homepage making it much more inviting and easier to use.

Also, we will be scheduling web-based demo's all throughout the week. Look for scheduled times, or contact us to set up a custom demo of Property Stampede. These are a completely free, no obligation demonstrations of the capabilities of Property Stampede.

Once again, Thank you to all of you who helping in our six month BETA to get Property Stampede up and running!

It Has Been Some Time

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:50:00 +0000

It has been some time since my last post on Stampede Blog and I apologize. Property Stampede has been feverishly working to get the company and product ready to sell, and that time has finally arrived. As of November 15th, Property Stampede will no longer be a beta product.

During our passed two months of silence we have made quite a few improvements to the software:

Ability to support concurrent leases for a single unit.
Projects, Tasks, and Project Budgets
Ability to support a lease w/option to buy
We have added a rent roll report
Ability to track short sales
Ability for units to have their own address
Ability to record a delayed lease termination.
and more...

Watch in the next few weeks for more updates, more information on our public grand opening and ways you can earn some money by helping us grow our company.

*Note: You will not see another void in posts again.

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?