An all-important job for any owner or property manager is to fill all rental units. To that end, here are some websites in which you should market your units in the event of a vacancy.

Top Rental Sites

Craigslist.com
This high-traffic site is one of the first places people go to for any number of needs including looking for a place to live. The site features location-based search that significantly increases the odds that you will be reaching your target prospective tenants.

Zillow.com
This has become a leading go-to site for all real estate needs. They claim to have a million more listings than MLS (Multiple Listing Service). After setting up your account, you can quickly create your listing and upload pictures. As an added feature, your listing here can be sent straight to Craigslist for free. The benefit of starting here is that they will prepare a custom code that uploads to Craigslist and makes your listing look professional. (Mobile app available, as well.)

Trulia.com
This is another online listing site that also has a tool that allows posting directly to Craigslist. They also provide visitors with the ability to get inside information on properties and communities that attracts additional prospective renters. (Mobile app available, as well.)

Postlets.com
This site offers a search-optimized website for your property listing with a unique URL. Postlets makes it fast and easy to create a professional-looking classified ad, and then to syndicate the listing on Craigslist, Zillow, Local.com, as well as your Facebook page, Twitter feed and LinkedIn account.

Rent.com
This online site drives additional traffic by offering $100 gifts card to anyone who rents through the site. (Mobile app available, as well.)

ApartmentGuide.com
This site features location-based, comprehensive apartment search functionality. (Mobile app available, as well.)

Realtor.com
Affiliated with the National Association of REALTORS, this site claims to have the most up-to-date and accurate listings online. (Mobile app available, as well.)

Local Newspaper Websites
Just as many people still view print ads when looking for a rental property, many also look to local newspaper websites for the latest listings. A good number of individuals use these sites as their browser’s default “Home Page,” meaning this is the website that automatically appears when they open their browser each time.

Social Media Websites
Don’t forget social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest. It’s the new digital word of mouth.

You can post your listings directly on the above list of sites. Or, if you are using property management software, you likely have the ability to post your vacancies to hundreds of sites on the Internet including most of those listed above with just a couple of clicks of your mouse. Most programs provide professionally designed listings automatically. Prospective tenants can be directed right to your website if they are interested in one of your units.

In addition, for a fee, you can add rental listings to an MLS. There is no agent involved, but you can list here starting at around $100.

Renting empty units is a top priority for you, and there are more ways than ever to get the word out to prospective tenants online. Use as many top rental sites as you can to keep your vacancy rate down.

As a property manager, should you be publishing a blog for each of your properties? Although it might take some of your time, blogging can be good for your business.

There are two potential audiences for your blog. First is your external audience – potential tenants, realtors, etc. Targeting such an audience does several things:

It P0sitions You As An Expert
Posting on issues related to the property rental business gives you positive exposure in the community. Potential tenants will see you as a responsible, professional landlord that is knowledgeable in the areas of property management. That is likely to make them more comfortable renting from you. Displaying your expertise also makes you more visible to property owners, who may seek you out when they have property requiring a property management firm.

It Will Drive More Traffic To Your Website
The more you post and the more people share your post, the higher you’ll show up in search engine results. Again this increased visibility can result in a larger pool of prospective tenants.

You can also tailor a blog for your internal audience – your tenants. Doing this has significant benefits, such as:

• Providing a convenient way to communicate with tenants. You can post whenever you want, and your tenants can read at their convenience.
• Building a sense of community among your tenants. Sharing information about your property, posting upcoming events, and providing news about the surrounding neighborhood helps your tenants bond. It also makes your property a more welcoming place to live and encourages your tenants to stay, thus reducing vacancy rates.
• Providing a personality for your tenants. Your property management firm gains a personality through your blog, rather than just being a name your tenants write on a check each month. Building such a relationship can help should issues arise down the road.

If you decided to produce a blog for your tenants, here are some tips:

• Keep it simple, clear, and short
• Make it fun, engaging, and informative.
• Be aware of any language differences among your tenants – consider getting it translated, if appropriate.
• Seek feedback. If there are issues, this is a good forum for your tenants to let you know about them. You’re better off knowing about any issues sooner rather than later.
• Make it informative so people will want to read, engage, and share.
• Remember, complex issues should still be discussed face-to-face and are probably not appropriate for your blog.

With today’s easy-to-use software, blogging is relatively easy. It may take a few minutes of your time, but you’ll find the benefits are worth it.

Download the full-size infographic here.

Here are some ideas on how to manage landscaping investments for your rental property.

Long Term Planning
One of the best ways to keep your property looking good while minimizing costs is to map out a long term landscaping plan. Using your property budgeting software, set aside a fixed amount every year devoted to landscaping upkeep. Landscapes look good when first installed but living things change over time and need continuing care. Aging and environmental conditions affect the landscaping, so addressing these things with smaller annual investments on an ongoing basis helps avoid costly major renovations later.

Trees
Trees are one of the most valuable assets of your landscaping. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, but they can also help you control costs. Trees on the east and west facing surfaces of your building will help reduce indoor temperatures in the summer. In northern climates, falling leaves allow the sun to warm the buildings and reduce heating costs in fall and winter. However, arbor care is critical to keeping trees viable. Cross branching, disease prevention, thinning and fertilizing are all required to keep your trees in perfect health. Proactive arbor care prevents costly major tree maintenance issues down the line.

Alternative Ground Cover
Vast sweeping swaths of green lawn can be impressive. They are also expensive to maintain because of weekly labor, watering systems, water demand, and fertilizers. You don’t have to eliminate your lawn completely, but consider cutting it back and replacing parts of it with native drought resistant plantings and other ground covers. Gravel, mulch, bark or wood chips can be attractive and will also save on maintenance costs. Such alternatives help maintain soil moisture and keep down weeds, as well.

Color Alternatives
The radiant colors that come from annual flowers are dramatic, but there are other ways to achieve similar results at reduced costs. Incorporating a mix of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and ornamental trees can provide the color you need without the extra maintenance expense.

First impressions matter, so you should never neglect your landscaping. With a well thought out plan, you can achieve an appealing landscaping design without breaking the budget.

Here are a few highlights of the nice things Rick had to say about AppFolio:

“The reason we did come over to AppFolio, is because we felt that we could get a better product at a lesser price.”

“The personnel that work at AppFolio, we’ve had nothing but a great experience with them, from the initial sales people and the people who help implement and do the conversion…everyone has been excellent.”

“I like to make work my priority, but I like my time to spend with my family, so I’d always been able to separate the two…with AppFolio I’ve been able to incorporate both things together.”

“If I need to look something up, AppFolio is available to me…at home, on my laptop or on my phone. Everyday, wherever I’m at, I’m able to login and see my net income. I then get excited to log back in and see who more has paid and check the delinquencies to see the balances going down and check the applications that have come in.”

“It just seems like I have the ability to see so much more on a minute-by-minute bases…everyone thinks it’s the best! And we can continue to grow and continue to get more properties and do more because we have this helping us to do it. I feel like with AppFolio, it’s just something that I can be a partner with for years to come.”

Here are the most common reasons to consider refinancing rental property and things to consider in each case.

The Property Is Underwater
If you owe more on the property than it’s worth, you won’t qualify for a conventional mortgage. You might be able to get a loan through a special program such as Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), a federal government program set up to help property owners in this situation. If Freddie Mac owns your loan, you should contact a HARP lender for more information.

You Want A Lower Monthly Payment
Unless your current rate is two points higher than the current rate, simply refinancing won’t accomplish the goal of lowering your monthly payment. Lenders have determined that rental properties are riskier investments, so mortgages are generally 1.5 to 2 points higher than the widely advertised rates. Those lower rates go to residential borrowers with excellent credit who are putting 20% down and are planning to live in the property.

Another way to get a lower payment is to refinance with a longer term. The longer the loan, the lower the monthly payments. However, the interest rate will be higher in that case. That means you’ll have more cash available each month, but you will pay more over the term of the loan. If you plan on selling before the mortgage term, it still could be a good deal for you.

You might also be able to lower your payment with an adjustable rate mortgage, where initial payments are low. One option is a  “5/1 Agreement” with a fixed rate for 5 years, and then a switch to a variable rate from that point onwards.

You Want To Take Cash Out For Other Purposes
You’ll be able to take cash out for non-rental property purposes only if you’ve built up equity in the property. Most lenders require 20%-30% equity (value of the property minus what you owe on it) before they will issue a new mortgage.

To determine your equity, you’ll have to pay for an official appraisal. Again, if you’re thinking of selling before the mortgage is paid off, then go for the longest term possible. That will maximize the amount of cash you’ll get out of the transaction. If you’re unable to refinance, you might be able to get a home equity loan, which could provide you with access to additional cash. Another point to keep in mind is that lenders generally won’t allow someone to have more than four mortgages on rental properties.

Regardless of your reason for refinancing, the deal you ultimately get will depend on the equity in the property, your credit score, the amount of cash you’re able to put in, and your overall debt to income ratio.

Finally, shop around. Each lender has its own set of criteria for granting loans. If your numbers are in line, there is a lender out there who will work with you.

Think Long-Term
Look at owning and managing rental properties with a long-term view. You will rarely increase the value of your rental property investment over the short term. Increased wealth comes from growth in equity that typically occurs over time.

Ensuring long-term appreciation should be your first consideration when deciding which property to buy. Location, location, location may be an overused term, but it still holds true. You can change virtually everything about the property except its location. Be wary of buying a property in a high vacancy location or in areas that are declining economically or aesthetically.

Although you can improve many aspects of the property, you may want to stay away from houses that require comprehensive repairs. You can get these “fixer-uppers” for a discounted price, but the money you save often won’t cover the cash required to make the property presentable.

The Here And Now
While building wealth over time is your primary goal with rental property investing, you also need to make sure that in the short term your property is cash flow positive.

That starts with negotiating the best possible financing deal. You’ll get the best package if you have good credit and are able to put 20-25% down. You’re also more likely to be approved for a mortgage if you plan on making one of the units of the property your primary residence.

Living in your investment property initially is wise for other reasons as well. Rental property management involves handling issues on a regular basis and you might be able to resolve some of those by learning about your property while living in it. You can then make whatever upgrades or repairs are needed so that when you move out, the property becomes much easier to manage.

The key to ensuring positive cash flow is to know and control your costs. Before making an investment you need to calculate the operating expenses of the property including taxes, insurance, homeowner association fees, landscaping, maintenance and property management fees. If you are going to manage the property yourself, you can reduce your costs by using integrated property management software.

There are risks and rewards involved in rental property investing, but if you do your homework you have a good chance of being successful.

Overall, complaints in 2012 were up 5% from the prior year – 28,518 complaints in 2012 compared to the 27,092 in 2011. The report includes complaints investigated by private non-profit fair housing organizations, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Justice, and state and local government agencies such as state civil rights commissions. HUD believes that this represents less than one percent of the estimated four million instances of housing discrimination against people currently protected by the Fair Housing Act. The agency says people do not report housing discrimination because they do not know where to go, they feel nothing will be done, or they are afraid of retaliation.

In the report, the NFHA calls for the Act, which was originally passed in 1968, to be updated to “outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income and marital status.” The report shows that complaints rose significantly in these areas. Those managing rental properties should be aware of the upward trends in these complaints.

The NHFA noted that the Fair Housing Act does not address individuals in those classes, leaving them at the mercy of state laws. Many states have not outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation (29 states), gender identity (34 states), source of income (38 states) and marital status (28 states). As a result, complaints have risen in those areas with particular growth in cases involving marital status (up 63%), sexual orientation (up 43%), and legal sources of income (up 38%). A 2011 survey of 6,450 in the transgender category found that 19% were denied a home or apartment according to the NFHA.

The fair housing trends report goes on to say that disability complaints remain the highest for several reasons. “Many apartment owners make direct comments refusing to make reasonable accommodations or modifications for people with disabilities so discrimination is easier to detect,” the report states. The report says an example of a “reasonable accommodation” would be providing a handicapped parking spot with a curb cut for a resident in a wheelchair.

The report shows that of the 9,017 cases handled by HUD and Fair Housing Assistance Program, 1,223 (13.5%) were administratively closed and 4,101 (45.4%) were decided with no cause found. Conciliation, settlement, or withdrawal after resolution was the ruling in 3,346 (37.1%) of cases.

To ensure that prospective residents are always being treated fairly and to avoid the high legal costs of defending housing discrimination claims, property managers should be cautious in their pre-rental resident screening.

― Mitch Albom, For One More Day

When you’re running a business, wasting time means wasting money. For many property managers, daily mundane tasks can translate into big cost drivers. For example, if it takes five minutes to retrieve and replace a paper file and if an employee works with ten paper files each day, that’s five weeks of time just walking files around the office. At an average cost of $20 per hour, that’s $4,300 in wasted time.

Many owners and managers have trimmed that waste by using real estate property management tools. Those that are using such software and solutions have a huge advantage over those that aren’t.

According to a survey of property managers by Software Advice, almost two thirds of companies that grew their business used real estate property management tools. Those that did managed an average of 102 units per employee. Those that didn’t managed only 61 units per employee. That’s a 70% increase in efficiency for those using such software, enabling such firms to grow faster using fewer resources.

The cost savings and efficiencies gained through the use of such tools include:

• Websites with integrated vacancies that automatically connect to Craigslist and other online sites
• Easy and remote access to tenant data
• Elimination of resource draining data entry
• Easily produced reports without having to rely on accounting personnel to create them
• Ability to track online leads
• Ability to collect rents and interact with tenants electronically

If you use cloud-based property management tools, other benefits include:

• No need for costly servers and hardware infrastructure – all you need is your computer and access to the internet
• Software is upgraded automatically
• No hardware/software compatibility concerns
• Reliable, secure offsite storage
• Accessibility through multiple types of devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) anywhere you have an internet connection

Growing your business while controlling costs is always a challenge. However by using these kinds of property management tools, you can make it much easier.

• Denver, CO (May 17)
• Arlington, TX (May 21)
• Hackensack, NJ (May 21)

Join us for a fun, casual, and complimentary lunch. At our meetups, we’ll cover AppFolio best practices, and you’ll also be able to network with your property management peers. We’d love to see you there.

Here are some other exciting trade shows and conferences coming up in May, as well, that you might want to check out:

NARPM Central Regional Conference
The National Association of Residential Property Managers will be holding their Central Regional Conference on May 23-24 at the Hilton Chicago in Chicago, IL. There will be opportunities for networking, education, workshops, and guest speakers. The conference will feature courses in Risk Management, Habitability Standards and Maintenance, and Ethics. There will also be a session on the Leadership Tool Box and a Vendor Reception. More information.

GreenPearl’s Multifamily Events
Over 400 multifamily investors, owners, developers, financiers, and other industry leaders will be in attendance at the Marcus and Millichap Multifamily Forum on May 31^st at the Kellogg Conference Center in Washington, D.C. The forum will be focusing on the growing development of multifamily properties in the Mid-Atlantic region. There will be special emphasis on trends in rents and operations, government effects on the real estate market as well as discussions on value-add redevelopment and other high-yield investment opportunities. Former Washington D.C. mayor Tony Williams, now the Chief Executive Officer of Federal City Council, will be the keynote speaker. More information.

For a complete list of upcoming events, check out our Events Calendar.