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Our topic today deals with a question I get asked all the time. The one thing investors are always asking is: Where should I buy? There is not necessarily a single answer to that question. A good property manager can show you different areas that are up and coming in the rental market, but more important is your overall investment strategy. We focus on the big picture. Think about your retirement plans. When you invest for retirement, you diversify your funds. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. We approach your real estate investments with the same mindset. At Charlotte Homes and Rentals, where you buy your properties depends on what you want to do and how much you want to invest. We take a look at your whole portfolio before we begin making recommendations or showing you promising investments. We start by finding out how much property you currently own and how much you want to own. Then, we help to leverage your risk. For many of our investors, it’s not a good idea to buy only single family homes that you’ll turn into rentals. If you want to buy just one property, a single family home in south Charlotte might be the right answer. But if you want to diversify, you might want to add to that single family property and buy some multi-family units or condominiums that can be found all over the city. We advise you to spread it out and we show you how to maximize your investments. To help you buy the right properties, we take a look at what you want to achieve. We consider whether you want only short term returns or long term returns as well. We’ll ask you if you plan to hold onto your property indefinitely or if you will likely want to sell it in the next five to 10 years. All of that is taken into consideration when we sit down with you to plan out your real estate investments and determine how your properties will fit into your overall investment strategy. We’ll do this with you regardless of the amount of money you plan to invest and regardless of the types of plans you have for these properties. When you want to invest in residential property, please contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals. We look forward to helping you.

Today we are going to talk about why you should work with us, and we are going to give you five reasons to let Charlotte Homes and Rentals help you with your property. The first thing we want to tell you is that we are truly one stop shopping. We perform property management, we have expertise in real estate and we are also licensed general contractors. So, anything you need to do with your investment property, we can help you. We can help clients buy investment property, we can help you repair it, we can manage it for you while you’re renting it out, and when you’re ready to sell it, we can get it on the sales market for you. Second, we only work for property owners. Everything we do is centered on protecting the owners and their properties. Our leases are designed to focus on protecting our owners. We are going to treat your property as if it was our own. The third reason you should work with Charlotte Homes and Rentals is that our tenant screening is thorough and precise. We do a nationwide criminal background check, we run credit scores and credit reports, we check the sex offender list and we also look at nationwide eviction records. Because we are only working for owners, we have an interest in finding you the best tenants we can. Another good reason to work with us is that we have a full time maintenance staff. Again, we are licensed general contractors, so we know how to handle maintenance and repairs. We can also find you the best prices for your repairs. You can be sure the work is going to be done right and for an affordable price. We only work with vendors who are fully licensed and insured because our goal is to protect you and your property. Finally, our company can provide you with modern technology and old fashioned service. We have all the latest technology and we make it available to our clients. We advertise on the necessary websites and we keep all of our systems and processes up to date. This helps us do everything we need to do efficiently. At the same time, we are never more than a phone call away. Our 5 Reasons to Work with Charlotte Homes and Rentalsold fashioned service means you can reach us anytime you want in any way you want. We are willing to communicate in whatever way works best for you. If you have any questions about property management and why you should work with us, please contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals.

There are a lot of international and overseas investors buying property in the Charlotte market, and they come to a property management company with special needs since they are so far away. We work with a lot of overseas funds and we have good relationships with our investors. We thought we would take some time on today’s blog to explain the process so you know how we have done it at Charlotte Homes and Rentals. We have managed to be very successful with our international investors and those clients who are out of the country have been happy with our work. Being a licensed real estate company is important to these investors, because we can help people from overseas source the properties. We listen to what they are looking for and then we help them find what they want. Most international investors have specific criteria and need properties that will best fit their overall investment portfolios. In addition to helping them find and purchase properties, we are also able to help them fix those properties up. Most of the homes they buy are in various states of construction or repair, and since we are licensed contractors, we can do any work our investors need. We can do something as simple as a paint job or carpet installation, and we can do major rehab work and complete renovations. International investors are happy to work with a company that can do the buying, the managing and the fixing up. Once we’ve helped investors choose a property and get it fixed up, we prepare the home for rent. This requires cleaning, Property Managers Handles Financemarketing and preparing the home for the rental market. When the investor is thousands of miles away, a property manager really needs to be on point. You need to have feet on the ground and you need to give that property a lot of personal attention. Get it on the market, make sure it’s priced correctly and find the best possible tenant. We protect the investments of our overseas clients the same way we protect the homes belonging to our local landlords. International investors can expect detailed accounting from us on a regular basis. We provide spreadsheets and statements with narrative descriptions. We manage a lot of large portfolios and sometimes that requires us to Skype with overseas investors so they are up to speed on everything that’s happening with their properties. We’d be happy to partner with you if you’re an international or overseas investor interested in the Charlotte market. If you have any questions about the services we provide, please contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals.

Our topic on today’s blog is pet policies. This is a subject property owners and landlords always want to talk about. They’re not sure what they should do about pets; whether or not to allow them, what kind of pets to allow and how to handle tenants who have dogs and cats. What you need to realize is that most tenants have pets. Roughly 75 percent of the people who are looking at your property will have a pet, and those people are going to want to keep their pets when they move. You don’t want to have a strict no-pets policy when you’re renting out your home, because you will lose a very large pool of potential renters. At Charlotte Homes and Rentals, we recommend that you make pets conditional. We think you can strike the right balance when you find out what kind of pet the tenant has, and you make sure the animal is a good fit for the property. For example, if you’re renting out a condo and your tenant wants to move in with a puppy that is going to grow to be a 100-pound Rottweiler, it’s probably not a pet you want to allow. However, a seven pound Yorkie that is seven years old will probably be okay. When we make the decision to conditionally allow pets, we always find out what kind of animal the tenant has. Then, we discuss this with the property owner and make sure it’s okay. Once we get the go-ahead, we always charge a pet fee. It’s Cha Pet Policyimportant to understand the difference between a pet fee and a deposit. The pet fee doesn’t count towards any damage the animal may do to the property. It’s simply a fee that the tenant pays in order to bring the pet onto the property. We ask it to be paid along with the first month’s rent, and we pass that fee onto the owner. If the pet causes any damage to the property, we keep part of the security deposit to pay for that damage. At the time that we consider pets, we also look at the entire application. The credit is important and the landlord references are especially important. Find out if there are pet damages in the tenant’s history. We also generally do not allow puppies and kittens because they don’t have a track record yet and we don’t know how they’ll behave. A five-year-old animal, on the other hand, can demonstrate a good record of reliable behavior. Let us help you with pets and your property. If you have any questions, please contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals.

One of the biggest assets you’ll have is your home, and today we are talking about what we can do as property managers to help you protect your property and your investment. We start by screening all tenants thoroughly. The last thing you want is a tenant who might damage your property or not pay rent. Our excellent screening process also ensures that you’re not getting a renter who just left a property in terrible condition. We look at each applicant’s past and we screen deeply. In addition to following an extensive screening process, a good property manager will ensure your lease is strong and protective of your property. At Charlotte Homes and Rentals, all of our leases are weighted to protect the homeowner. We see ourselves as working for the homeowner and landlord, not the tenant. When we start working with a particular property, we start with a thorough inspection of it. Your property manager should inspect your home and get a good idea of how it looks and functions. You’ll want to make sure there are no open issues that might cause damage or concern. Check for any leaks in the water heater or on the roof, for example. Your property manager can tell you how it looks and point out any particular areas of concern that need to be taken care of before you get a tenant in there. We always insist on full security deposits. We don’t allow any tenants to move into your property with only half the deposit paid anyone to move in with half the deposit paid. The full security deposit is required before the keys are handed over. It’s really your only protection as a landlord if you have to move towards evicting the tenant. Having that security deposit available to pay for back rent or to take care of repairs that the property needs is essential. Never allow your tenants to move into the house without providing a full security deposit. During the course of the tenancy, it’s important to ensure the lease is enforced. Having a tight lease with clear and consistent terms will help protect your property and your interests. Check out our other blog on how to enforce your lease if you need extra help. Stick to the guidelines laid out in that lease and don’t stray from it.

Pricing your rental property is one of the big pieces of the puzzle for owners. People are always asking us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals what their properties will rent for. Because it’s such a popular subject, we thought we’d talk today about how to set a rental price. It’s important to start with good data. Before you can set a rental price on your own property, you have to know what other properties are renting for. Take a look at your local area and analyze the rental prices for similar homes. Be as specific as you Set a rental pricecan. Look at the neighborhood your house is in and find out what those neighboring properties just like yours are bringing in for rents. The goal is to establish a list of comparable rentals. This is similar to what your real estate agent does when you are selling a home. You want to make sure you’re listing it at market value. It’s the same thing with rentals. You don’t want to overprice your rental property or it will be vacant for too long. You don’t want to underprice it either, or you won’t get a good return on your investment. Good comparables are important. The condition of your property is just as important as the market comparables. The way your home looks will have an impact on how much rent you can get. Make sure your property is clean and that everything inside and out functions properly. Treat the home like you are selling it, and you’ll get a good rental price. The marketing timeframe also has a lot to do with your rental price. The time of year that you place your rental property on the market will have something to say about how quickly you rent it and how much you can rent it for. You might get a little more money and it might rent a little faster in March or April than it would in November or December. The fall and winter are slower times for rentals, as compared to the spring. During the least active months we typically need to be more aggressive with pricing. Sometimes, it makes sense to keep your price lower. For example, if you have a home sitting at $1,000 per month and it’s vacant for two months, you are going to lose money. If you had put that property on the market for $950 a month instead and it rented right away, you’d make more money overall. Vacancy is the most expensive thing for property owners. Price it correctly and keep it in good condition so you can avoid those vacancies. If you have any questions about how to price your rental property, please contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals, and we’d be glad to talk to you.

Today we are talking about that ugly word that no landlord likes to think about: evictions. In the unlikely event that you have to participate in evictions, you want to understand how the process should be handled and what you are supposed to do in that scenario. The first thing we like to talk about on the subject of evictions is how to prevent them. You can reduce the change that you will have to evict someone by really paying attention to your tenant screening. At the very beginning of the process, you can start out by attracting and keeping a good tenant. When you screen your tenants deeply and really check them out, you’ll be in good shape. You don’t want to rent your property to someone who has a history of evictions, because chances are good that there will be problems for you with that type of tenant in your home. Make sure your background check includes a look at eviction records. Another good way to avoid problems with eviction is to make sure you have a legal and enforceable lease. When I do have to go to the courthouse in Charlotte to manage an eviction, I often see a lot of landlords who come to court with a lease that’s not legal. The judge will not enforce a lease that isn’t complaint with state law. Have a legal lease drawn up so you can enforce it. Then, you have to be proactive with that lease. Our leases are specific. We say that rent is due on the first, late on sixth, and then we file for eviction if we have not yet received rent by the 11th. We do not stray from these standards. You cannot get a month or two behind before you start the process. Enforce your lease and show your tenants that you mean business. It’s the best way to protect your property and it ensures the tenants pay on time. Finally, be detailed in how you prepare to go to court. Make sure you have all your t’s crossed and your I’s dotted. Be ready in court. The court will not automatically rule on your side just because the tenant has not been paying rent. In order to get the ruling you want, you have to do everything by the book.

Our blog topic today is how a property manager can help landlords to reduce vacancy. Vacancy and turnover are your biggest expenses when renting out a home. You want to reduce your turnover rate and your vacancies as much as possible. The best way to get your home rented out quickly is to have the property ready for the rental market immediately. When you put a house up for rent, you want to be able to start showing it immediately. You also want the property to show at its best, so make sure it’s looking great to potential tenants. A home that sits vacant on the market for 60 days is not going to make you money. The longer it sits vacant, the longer people will continue to pass it by, especially if it’s not in good condition. Make sure it’s clean and presentable. Your property has to look good on the inside and the outside. Give people a reason to stop and check it out. That will help you reduce your vacancy quite a bit. Pricing is also important in avoiding and reducing vacancy. It’s important not to overprice your property because people will just pass it by and choose something else. You also want to avoid underpricing your property, because you won’t get a very good return on your investment. A local property manager can take a look at your property and analyze the current rental market to help you come up with an attractive price that will get you a great tenant. Finally, we recommend that you try to get a longer lease. Instead of the one year lease, talk to potential tenants and ask if they would consider a two or three year lease. This will help keep your turnover costs low. When you have a good tenant in place, who pays the rent on time and takes good care of the property, you want to keep that tenant for as long as possible. Don’t let someone go when they are doing a good job. Your turnover costs will only eat up your return. There will be utilities to pay, cleaning fees, marketing and the stress of finding a new tenant. Plus, during that vacancy you aren’t collecting any rent at all.

It’s important that you trust your property management company to make good decisions about your property and the people who rent it. What if you lose trust in the work your property managers are doing on your behalf? That might be a fear of many property owners, so today, we are pointing out some signs that your property management company may be up to no good. First, make sure the company is licensed. When you hire a property management company, you want to work with a business that keeps its license up to date and active. If the property management company is not licensed, they might not be following the letter of the law. That can mean they are up to no good, and you don’t want to be associated with them. Make sure you only work with licensed property management companies. Your property management company is definitely up to no good if you aren’t getting paid. We have heard owners complain that they haven’t received a check or any form of payment from their property managers in a month or two. This is completely unacceptable. If you are making calls and sending emails and you’re not hearing back, it’s not a good sign. Your property management company should be sending you a check and a statement every month. If you aren’t getting your rents paid to you, there is a serious issue. It’s also a problem if a statement does not accompany the payment. That statement should outline any details and transactions pertaining to your property, and you should be able to see all activity. You know your property management company is up to no good if you get repeated charges for the same repair. Many years ago, I owned a rental property and I had a property manager overseeing it. I kept getting charged for the same toilet over and over at the same property. It turned out the tenant was flushing hair extensions down the toilet. My property management company should have been a little more responsive to this problem, and should have made those toilet repairs a tenant charge. This experience is one reason I got into the property management business. You want a company that is looking out for your interests. You should be working with a licensed property management company that pays you every month and provides statements. If you have any questions, or you’re concerned about the work you’re receiving from your current property management company, contact us at Charlotte Homes and Rentals, and we’d be happy to help you.