Why You Should Hire a Property Management Company Before Buying Investment Property

Why You Should Hire a Property Management Company Before Buying Investment Property

Like any business, investment property does not run itself. Even if you are in the same city as your investment property, unless you intend to look after your investment full-time, you really need a property management company in Salt Lake City to handle the myriad details required to protect both you and your investment.

Why You Should Hire a Property Management Company Before Buying Investment Property

Transferring to Another City

One type of investment property comes about when you are transferred to another city, but you don’t want to give up your dream home. One day you will return. Your house becomes a rental property subject to an entire spectrum of laws governing this type of investment. You really need a property management company in Salt Lake City who is required by the state to be a fully licensed real estate agent or broker. If nothing else, the amount of time it takes to go through all the forms and requirements is probably prohibitive for the average individual.

Avoiding Putting Up a “For Rent” Sign in the Front Yard

Are you thinking about putting a “For Rent” sign in the front yard and letting people inquire? The list of objections to that goes on for pages. The major upkeep and repairs to the house are the same as when you lived there. But you had to deal with leaks, broken windows, hail damage, appliance replacement, and the like yourself. The renter will pick up the phone and turn the problems over to you. If you had a rental management company for your house, they would have all the connections to fix problems with less cost than if you did it yourself.

Buying an Investment Property

This is a good reason to start with a good property management professional. As already mentioned, in most states, a property manager is also a licensed real estate agent/broker who can help you find good investment properties, steer away from white elephants, and guide you through all the paperwork required for a real estate purchase. This is where a Salt Lake based property manager comes in handy.

Typical Services of a Salt Lake City Property Management Company

Vacancy Marketing

Vacancy Marketing is where the property management company cares for business advertisement. Investment property that is unoccupied is losing money for the owner. For example, say that one of your properties regularly gets $1,000 per month income. If that property sits vacant for even one month, your annual income from that property has gone from $12,000 to $11,000 (or $916.66 per month). Because a property management service does volume business in the area, they will be able to market your property cheaper and more efficiently than a single individual/owner.

Tenant Evaluation

Tenant Evaluation is another service a quality property manager provides in much greater depth than an average individual is able to do. You want tenants who can pay their lease and have a history of being good renters elsewhere. You want tenants who demonstrate previous care for their rented property. Experts in property management are more likely than average individuals to be able to make good tenant calls.

Property Management Expertise

This expertise includes a number of legal matters such as lease structuring tailored to fit your needs and those of the tenant within the legal requirements in Utah.

Lease Enforcement

Lease Enforcement is a vital contribution of a property management company. Everyone has heard the old phrase, “It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.” Whether the owner of the investment property is in the same city, across the country, or overseas, the property manager is equipped to handle lease enforcement situations where a tenant has failed to honor the terms of the lease.

Obligations of the Owner

Obligations of the owner in investment property include repairs, appliance replacements, and possibly lawn and garden services among other items. Rental property management companies may even have a regular maintenance crew to go around to inspect properties and make small repairs. Barring an in-house crew, the property manager will have several local upkeep services they can depend on to handle your property’s needs. Such things come with the territory of investment property ownership. When it comes to appliance replacement, the property manager will be able to acquire those items quickly and at less cost than an individual would have to pay.

At Advanced Solutions Property Management, our standard of service is built on a foundation that every client who deals with us will be treated with priority at all times. Our services are tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual client, no matter what their needs, and delivered in a professional, ethical, and accountable manner.

Salt Lake Utah Real Estate Investor Resources List

19 Best Real Estate Investor Resources You Should Know

If you’re a real estate investor, or own multiple rental properties in Salt Lake, you know that the right strategies can help you maximize returns and produce consistent income over time.

Salt Lake Utah Real Estate Investor Resources List

Here are 19 of the best websites and resources every real estate investor in the Salt Lake City area should be aware of.

  1. REtipster: A real estate investing information and education website that offers real-world guidance for real estate investors.
  2. Salt Lake Real Estate Investor Association: This is a non-profit real estate investors group, with membership of over 1,000 local real estate professionals, from new investors to veterans.
  3. Realtor.com: There are plenty of helpful guides and blog posts, including “How To Do Real Estate Investment Right“.
  4. Zillow: Wondering how much you could (or should) charge for rent? Check out this helpful calculator.
  5. Trulia: If you’re looking to purchase a rental property in the Salt Lake area, you can start your research here.
  6. Auction.com: Search listings of bank owned, short sale and foreclosure properties.
  7. Utah Real Estate Investors Association: Check out their “Utah Investor Meetup” networking events, designed to bring real estate investors of all levels together for networking opportunities.
  8. RealtyTrac: Their blog has lots of great content around real estate investing.
  9. NeighborhoodScout: Get valuable market data and insights, including demographics, crime, schools and more.
  10. Mashvisor: Find the best neighborhoods, identify vacancy rates, and even find properties for sale.
  11. Advanced Solutions Property Management: This property management company in Salt Lake City helps your investment property have the highest return with the most desirable renters and tenants available.
  12. HousingWire: Daily coverage of news impacting the housing market, including real estate trends and market predictions.
  13. ActiveRain: An online community of REI professionals with Q&A, articles and social networking.
  14. FSBO.com: Search foreclosures, preforeclosures, bankruptcy properties and tax lien listings.
  15. Deal Machine: REI pros can send out direct mail to property owners, and search email addresses, phone numbers and more.
  16. One Rental at a Time: This Youtube channel features regular interviews with successful real estate investors, and includes resources for new and experienced RE investors.
  17. Apartments.com: This website offers real estate investors information on a variety of topics, including property management, state legal regulations, and financing.
  18. BiggerPockets: You can create a free account here to network with other investors, and participate in forums with tips on financing and finding jv partners.
  19. Real Estate Guys Radio Show: Not only are the episodes valuable to listen to, but they have reports, articles and webinars in the resources section of the website.
What Does A Property Management Company In Salt Lake Do

What Does a Professional Property Management Company In Salt Lake Do?

Many property owners do not know what a property management company does, which can leave them wondering if they need to hire one. In this article, I’ll be going over all of the services a professional property management company in Salt Lake provides and how it benefits you as a landlord.

What Does A Property Management Company In Salt Lake Do

Rental property owners who do not wish to have the hands-on job of managing their own properties hire property managers or property management companies to oversee their properties for them. Property management companies will charge on average around eight to twelve percent of the property’s monthly income. Some management companies charge a flat rate and that usually will depend on the size, location and value of the property.

A property owner can opt to hire an individual to manage a property for them, however any background checks or bonding would have to be done by the owner themselves to ensure the individual would be trustworthy when dealing with such a large investment. Rental property managers usually make an annual salary of around 30K to 80K.

There are many reasons a rental property owner might want to hire a third party to manage their property. If there are multiple properties to deal with or the owner lives far away from the rental properties, third party management is basically a necessity. Some owners do not have the time or simply do not want to manage their own properties.

Property management companies eliminate the need to hire employees such as managers and maintenance staff and groundskeepers. If the property is part of the affordable housing program or some other type of subsidization, a property management company is very helpful with filing paperwork and making sure all requirements for eligibility are met.

Property management companies handle the day to day management of rental assets and face to face interactions with tenants. Some of the things a property management company or property manager are responsible for are:

  • Property managers collect monthly rent, issue receipts, and maintain records of the payments.They can deal with defaulting tenants that are behind in rent. Some property managers will even go to court in place of the owner during eviction proceedings. 
  • Property managers can manage maintenance requests, issue maintenance orders, contact and hire contractors and otherwise address maintenance problems.
  • Property managers can market a property to limit vacancies. They can also perform open houses and home shows and screen potential tenants. Property management companies also take care of move in and move out procedures, including the documentation of the condition of the property as well as the signing of leases. 
  • Property managers will act as record keepers, keeping detailed records of everything pertaining to the property. They will maintain copies of all leases, move-in and move-out reports, monthly rental payment ledgers, and maintenance and contractor costs and contracts.

Effective property management companies and property managers are worth their cost, in a lot of cases, many times over. They take the headaches out of property ownership and allow owning rental properties to be truly passive income. For home owners associations, property management companies alleviate a lot of issues that arise from conflict of interest and generally decrease disagreements and drama. 

You should consider hiring a property management company or property manager if you want someone to mitigate liabilities, shorten periods of vacancy, recruit quality tenants, better manage maintenance and get you better reviews.

Best Tips For Handling Maintenance Requests Quickly & Efficiently In Your Rental Property

Best Tips For Handling Maintenance Requests Quickly & Efficiently In Your Rental Property

Wondering how the best property management companies in Salt Lake City handle those maintenance requests that come in? Read more to learn about our process here at Advanced Solutions!

The process starts with the tenant making a request. When this happens, we are notified immediately and the owner is also notified. The property owner does not need to do anything, but we like to make sure they understand a request has been made. On our end, it’s very important that we take action on those requests. You want to make sure your tenant has an easy and effective way of reporting these requests to you. You want to know immediately when a faucet is leaking so that does not lead to a bigger problem for you and your property.

Once the request comes in, an owner needs to decide if the maintenance request makes sense. If a tenant asks for a new roof and fresh paint for the whole house, that’s probably not reasonable. However, if the request is that a leaky toilet be fixed or notification that there is water under the sink or a problem in the basement, these are reasonable and it is important to get these things taken care of quickly. You don’t want your asset to deteriorate over time because of leaky pipes or standing water in the basement.

We always move quickly to take care of reasonable maintenance requests. Nine times out of 10, the requests are in fact reasonable. Once you have approved a work order for something your tenant needs, make sure you have a qualified technician go and take a look and do the repairs. We have multiple vendors who we work with on a regular basis. They do enough work for us that we get a volume discount which keeps costs low for our property owners. As a landlord, you need to have someone you can rely on who will fix the problem expertly and efficiently, and bill you correctly. You want someone you can trust to do the work and you want to pay a fair price for it.

Once the repairs are done, we submit the work order to the owner of the property. We want everyone on the same page and aware of what was done and how the problem was taken care of.

This is how we handle maintenance for our property owners and tenants. If you’re looking for a SLC based property management company, check us out! We’d love to see how we can help manage your rental property.

Buying The Right Investment Rental Property In Salt Lake- What You Should Know First

Buying The Right Investment Rental Property In Salt Lake: What You Should Know First

If you’re looking to buy a rental property, there are several things to consider before you make a purchase. Here are five tips that will help you make the right decision!

Buying The Right Investment Rental Property In Salt Lake- What You Should Know First

1. Find a property that won’t lose value

One of the biggest advantages of rental properties is that they can be a good way to diversify your investment portfolio. If you find a property that won’t lose value, then you should be able to rent it at a relatively low cost and still make money on it.

Rental properties can also help boost your credit score by providing stable income and showing that you can manage multiple streams of income at once. This is important because many lenders look favorably upon people with strong credit scores when evaluating loan applications; therefore, purchasing a rental property could also help build wealth over time!

2. Find a location with the right amenities

Find a location with the right amenities. You can’t afford to buy a rental property in an area without any schools, parks or other amenities. A property without such things will be difficult to rent out and may not sell for its full value when you want to sell it later on.

Make sure there are plenty of shopping centers and restaurants nearby. Tenants who like to go out on weekends need places where they can do that easily, so look for neighborhoods where there’s easy access to grocery stores, restaurants and cafes as well as entertainment venues (such as movie theaters).

3. Decide what type of space you want to rent out

Decide what type of space you want to rent out. The first step is deciding whether you want to rent out a single-family home, a condo, or some other type of property. This will help determine how much the property is worth and how much it will cost you in terms of maintenance costs and repairs as well as the amount of time and effort necessary for finding tenants who will pay their rent on time every month.

4. Factor in all costs when determining the rent you can charge

When determining the rent you can charge, factor in all costs. These should include:

  • Repair and maintenance costs
  • Insurance rates
  • Utility costs (electricity and water)
  • Property taxes (property tax is often factored into a monthly payment rather than paid annually)
  • Advertising and marketing expenses, if any are necessary for attracting tenants.

If you will be hiring a property management company in Salt Lake to manage your rental property, factor in these fees as well.

5. Do your research before making a purchase

Do your research before making a purchase. Before buying rental property, you need to know what the market is like and how much it’s going to cost you. Get all of your ducks in a row:

Research the rental market in the area. You should know what other properties are renting for and at what price point they’re being rented out at. This is critical because it will help guide your decision on how much rent you could ask for and whether or not it’s worth buying property in this area.

Research the property itself. Look into any potential issues with the property that might impact its resale value—such as repairs needed or anything else that would affect its ability as a rental unit or investment opportunity—and make sure those problems are taken care of before making an offer on this particular piece of real estate.

The more you know about rental properties, the more likely it is that your experience will be successful

Buying a rental property is an excellent way to build wealth, diversify your portfolio and start building equity in real estate. But it can be tricky to figure out how to make the best purchase decisions. Here are five tips that will help you make the right choices with your rental property investments:

  • Understand what type of investor you are
  • Make sure you have enough money to cover all of your expenses
  • Calculate how much rent you can charge
  • Do not take on too much risk or debt

 

Buying a rental property is a great way to build wealth and passive income, but it’s not all about the bottom line. You must also be willing to invest in yourself by doing your research and understanding the market. The more you know about rental properties, the more likely it is that your experience will be successful.

Utah Rental Property Accounting Bookkeeping Tips

Rental Property Accounting & Bookkeeping: What Investment Property Owners In Utah Should Know

In Utah, the finances involved in a rental property and the recording of money in and money out have to be handled in a specific way.

It is very important that landlords follow the procedures in place.

A professional property manager in Utah should be able to understand these procedures, so when you begin talking to people you might hire to manage your property, one of the questions you ask should be about how the money associated with your rental property is going to be handled.

At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we collect rent on a monthly basis and deposit those rents into an operating trust account managed by us.

All of the money going into that account is either directly deposited by the tenants using ACH, or by a check that is written out to the company (never an individual) and deposited.

All of the money your property earns goes into this operating account.

The tenant security deposit must be held in a non-interest bearing account that is regulated by the state of Utah.

Any time we receive a security deposit from a tenant, we put the money into the trust account and we leave it there.

You have to remember that deposit is the tenant’s money.

It’s not the owner’s money and it isn’t our money.

It must be safeguarded in that non-interest bearing account, and then upon departure if everything is in good shape, the tenants will get that money back.

Pretty much all of the money coming in on a regular basis is rent.

Any expenses are paid from the same operating account.

So, if you have a property management and maintenance issues on the property that needs to be paid for or someone cuts the lawn and sends a bill or management fees need to be paid, those charges are made and deducted from the rental receipts.

Owner draws are usually sent out by the 15th of each month.

Each property manager has a timeframe.

We collect rent by the 5th of the month, process that rent and then the money is in our owners’ accounts by the 15th.

Most important is the financial statements you will receive from your property management company.

We will provide detailed financial statements of accounting down to the last cent.

You will be able to see all of the money that came in, all of the money that went out and where you stand financially with your property.

This helps you to manage that financial asset from the correct level.