Tag Archive for: investment property

How to Spot and Avoid Craigslist And Classifieds Scams

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There are nefarious and shady things that can happen when you advertise your rental property online. Of course there are really only two ways to advertise these days; with a sign in front of your property or online. Obviously, advertising online is going to give you a larger return on your investment.

Here is what’s happening: third parties are taking your ad and changing it so the contact info is their contact info, asking tenants to pay them a deposit and then promising send keys to the property in the mail. You and I would probably not fall for something like that, but a lot of people are in fact taking that bait. It costs you a prospective tenant because you aren’t the one getting the deposit.

The best way to avoid these scams is by putting watermarks on your photos. That way, a third party or a scam artist cannot take your photos and use them for their own advertising. At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we have a watermark with our website splashed across the middle of our photos. It’s not so dark that you can’t see the picture, but it will deter anyone from stealing our photos and using our properties to lure people into sending them money.

There is not much else you can do to avoid these scams. It’s important to know that they are out there and to protect yourself against these scams that are allowing dishonest people to collect deposits from people who think they are renting your property.

If you have any questions about these scams, or need help in protecting yourself and your property, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we will do whatever we can to help you out.

Who Should Pay for Utilities in My Rental Home?

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Determining who pays for utilities in your Salt Lake City rental home is something you need to decide at the beginning of the relationship you have with your tenant. It’s a contractual issue and something that must be included in your lease. There are a couple of different ways to think about who should pay for utilities.

If you talk to city or conservation groups, they will tell you that 100 percent of the utilities should be charged to the tenant exclusively. That is because they will use less of a resource if they have to pay for that resource. You can include utility payments in the rental payment, or keep the utilities out of the rent and make it a separate charge the tenants pay.

At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we recommend keeping utilities out of the rent. You don’t want to combine them because you don’t want to give tenants a reason to think that your rent is inflated. Here’s an example: if a potential tenant is driving down the street and he looks at two units that are similar and one includes utilities but the other one doesn’t, he’ll look at the one that does not include utilities first. The unit that includes utilities might actually be a better deal, but the tenant isn’t going to read the fine print. The tenant is looking only at the base rental price.

We recommend that you have a base rental price for the unit that you advertise. The tenant can then compare that to other rents. Then, have the utility charges included later. In our leases, we require the tenant to pay for all utilities. You can have a utility fee if you’d rather, but however you workout the utility payments, make sure there is a base rental price from which you are working. The utilities should always be added later.

If you have any questions about how to handle the utilities in your rental home, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’ll do what we can to help you out.

Dealing with Abandonment in Your Rental Property

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Abandonment occurs when your tenants abruptly leave the property, usually because they are not paying rent. There are two different types of abandonment, and in today’s blog we are going to explain them and tell you how to handle each type of abandonment.

1 Day Abandonment

When the tenant leaves without making a rent payment and takes all their stuff with them, it’s a 1 day abandonment and it’s easy to manage. You will show up at the property after one day and enter with your key, as your lease should stipulate is acceptable. Before going in, call out that the owner is checking for occupancy. When you get no response and you’re able to see that the place is empty, you’ll know the tenant has abandoned the home. Rent might be past due, but at least your tenant is gone. You can immediately take possession of the property, clean it up and turn it around. You’ll move on quickly.

15 Day Abandonment

When a tenant is late with rent, you post a 3 Day Notice to Pay or Quit. After those days pass, you go over to the property to check out occupancy because the tenants have not paid and they have not contacted you. You want to see if they are still there before you continue with your legal action. After knocking and getting no response, you can enter with your key and stick your head in the door to see if anyone is there. When there are no visible signs that the tenant has been in the property recently, but their stuff is still there, you’ll have to do a 15 Day Abandonment. Look for signs that they are not living there anymore. There might be rotting food in the fridge. After 15 days, you need to go to the property and post an Abandoned Premise form on the door. This gives the tenants 24 hours to get their stuff that’s still in there. When the 24 hours pass and the belongings are still there, you can move it out. You’ll have to store it for the number of days required by Utah law, but you will have an empty property and you can take possession.

If you have any questions about how to handle abandonment in your rental home, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we’ll be happy to help you.

4 Signs You Should Fire Your Current Property Management Company

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Our topic today is identifying reasons that you might want to consider changing your property manager. Before we get into details, it’s important to understand that it’s not a good idea to change property managers as soon as you have a minor issue. A lot of times, better communication is all that’s needed. If you can figure out the problem you’re having, it makes more sense to stay with your current property manager who knows the house and its history. However, there are certain things that might make you think it’s time for a change.

1. Property Manager Communication Problems

If you call your property manager and you don’t hear back that same day, or it takes them a few days to respond to an email, that’s a problem. You want real time answers and assistance and you don’t want to be left waiting for help. Your property manager should have emergency numbers in case there is something an owner needs right away. Usually, the questions we get are accounting related or pertaining to something that may be going on at the property. However, we believe that those questions also require a prompt response.

2. Property Maintenance Delays

When you have a tenant who keeps putting in a lot of work requests and there is no action on the part of the property manager, that’s another big problem and a good time to re-think your property management company. Most owners don’t talk directly to tenants, but when you have information that a property management company isn’t paying attention to problems, act on it. Those delays will only lead to larger damage and bigger costs down the road.

3. Lack of Transparency

Charges that show up on your account that are unexplained should also be a cause for concern. Property management billing issues should be explained in detail, and if costs are getting tacked on and you’re not sure why, your property manager owes you an explanation. Understanding what you are getting billed for is extremely important.

4. Technology

If your property management company isn’t using modern accounting techniques, you may want to switch companies. Back in the day, it was perfectly acceptable to use the shoe box full of receipts system. However today, everything is done online. At Advanced Solutions Property Management, we have the latest and greatest accounting software and it helps with collecting rent, managing reconciliations and dispersing payments to our owners right away. We can account for every dollar that is spent, and there is never a question about how your money is being handled. If your property management company needs an upgrade, start looking elsewhere.

If you have any questions about property management in Salt Lake City, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management, and we would be happy to share more information.

The Guide To Dealing With Late Rent and Eviction

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Late rent and eviction often go hand in hand. When rent isn’t paid, you will most likely need to enter the eviction phase. One of the most important things I tell owners is that when you are collecting rent, consistency is key. If you are not consistent and your tenants don’t know what to expect from you, you will have issues. Rent at Advanced Solutions Property Management is due on the first of every month. It’s late after the 5th and if we receive nothing, the notice to pay or quit gets posted on the 6th. After that, the tenant has three days to respond and either pay or move out. At the end of the three days, if we have had no response, we will move into the eviction process. This is our process, we follow it every time and it helps us stay consistent.

If a tenant is late, make sure that pay or quit notice gets posted on the door the very next day that you expect but do not have the rent payment. They will hopefully see the notice and realize the importance of paying rent on time. You have to train them to pay when it is due, but you cannot train them if you are not consistent yourself.

When the rent is not paid, you have to go forward with the eviction or let them continue to be late. If you need helping making that decision, here is something to consider: once a tenant has crossed the halfway point of the month and is still late with rent, 80 percent of the time they will not be able to catch up and get current on their rent. There might be a few tenants who manage to come up with the rent and then pay their rent again the following month, but statistically if you let them go, they aren’t going to be able to catch up. This is not the fun part of being a landlord. However, when you are consistent and your process is precise, it gets a little easier.

As soon as payments stop coming in, we make an effort to contact the tenants. However, if we do not hear from them and they don’t contact us, we move forward with the eviction. We will contact the lawyer we keep on retainer for these things and we let the lawyer, who is pretty efficient, handle things from there.

Remember that consistency is the most important thing you can do when collecting rent and avoiding evictions. If you have any questions on this topic, please contact us at Advanced Solutions Property Management.