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CHARLOTTE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: HOW TO SET A RENTAL PRICE

August 12, 2014
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.

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July 9, 2017
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.
July 7, 2017
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.
September 2, 2014
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.
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