When you’re trying to make your offer as attractive as possible, skipping the inspection may seem like a good idea. Here’s why it’s not. If you’re buying a home in a competitive market and your offers keep getting beat out, you may be tempted to resort to desperate measures. In addition to offering more than…

Have a hangup about renting? Don’t buy into these misconceptions. Renting a home can often get a bad rap. It’s true that some aspects of being a renter are less than glamorous. The quirks of renting can range from 1980s burgundy carpet to a neighbor who loves to practice the trombone every evening for three…

Renters sometimes have a similar reaction when something goes wrong in their rental unit — whether or not the issue was their fault. The idea of telling your landlord about accidentally clogging the kitchen sink might sound dreadful, but certain things are important to be transparent about. You adopted a pet Maybe you didn’t have…

Both a rental agreement and a lease provide a documented contract between the landlord and the renter, which outlines the expectations and responsibilities of each party. However, different circumstances warrant different documentation. Here are a couple of differences that you should know between a lease and a rental agreement. Lease When a landlord and a…

There are plenty of perks to being a renter; you don’t have to pay property tax, the maintenance of the property and dwelling are not your responsibility, if something breaks or isn’t working the way that you would like you just call for help. It’s a pretty good set-up, right? Yes, until you remember the…

Every now and then, we meet a home owner who wants to do his or her own maintenance on the unit or has a neighbor who is handy and wants him to do the work. Oftentimes, even if the landlord can handle the rental property repair job themselves, does not mean they should. How much…

We get asked all sorts of questions during management interviews. But, one of the most common questions that homeowners ask us is if we would be willing to use their current service provider for the maintenance needed around the property. For instance, many homeowners have been using the same pool guy for years or they…

This might seem like a simple question but often times the amount of money to be gained by raising the rent isn’t worth the actual costs in doing so.  Let’s consider the following scenario. The market rent for the property is $1300.  The tenant is currently paying $1250.  The tenant has a lease that will…

Finding a place to rent can be extremely stressful. Not only is there the concern about how much you can afford and how big the place needs to be but, there is also the concern about where to look and who to trust. Unfortunately, that stress is not unfounded and there are have been plenty…

While the general guideline for budgeting rent expenses has always been no more than 30% of your monthly income – the demand for rentals is driving the prices up and recent data reports that renters should plan to pay much more than that. This is especially true in popular cities where even finding a rental…