Your Real Estate Insider: March 2009

Many homeowners have found themselves as landlords, courtesy of the current real estate market. I have had tons of questions regarding ways of minimizing your duties as landlord. So below I listed some that has helped me over the years.

1. Paint Touch Up: When you are preparing a home for rental use flat neutral color paint. It is easy to use, and makes it easy to touch up later. Most people want to use custom colors and semi gloss paint, they are impossible to touch up and the more colors to keep track of the more work you have made for yourself. I use a product by Olympic paint called Fast Hide, but most brands will have something similar that also works well.
2. Heat Pump Maintenance: Most heat pumps have filters that need changed every three months. As landlord I schedule myself in every three months to change those filters. While your there you can check to make smoke detectors are working properly, and that the batteries aren't being removed to operate the remote. It also gives you a chance to check out the property to ensure its being taken care of.
3. The Leasing Hassle: Too many people that don't understand real estate have found themselves leasing out property. If you don't have the experience and patience let a professional Agent do your leasing. It will save you money in the long run. You still have the final word about everything concerning your property, but you will not have to worry about advertising, meeting with clients, pulling credit, finding a lease, or breaking any fair housing laws, you can let the agent worry about that.  
4. Eliminate the Small Things: Add a clause in the lease that puts the tenant in charge of small maintenance items, changing light bulbs, plunging the toilets, t/u paint, caulking, etc... The clause could say anything under $25 or $50 dollars. This will help eliminate a lot of phone calls for the minuscule items.
5. Walk Through List: Have your tenants fill out and sign a walk through sheet, showing what the house was like when they moved in, and take pictures. Give the tenant a copy and it should help them remember how they need to leave your house when they are gone.

I hope this can help someone, that is frustrated with having to rent out their home. Let me know if you have any more ideas that have worked for you.

Thanks

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

I have been a member of Active Rain for a few months, and have enjoyed everything about it. I have been blogging on a basic membership but i have just decided to take it up a notch. I am starting a Outside Blog, and this is number one. So wish me luck and if there is anyone out there with advice, please please Help!

I am interested in taking the GRI classes and earning the designation. I understand the training and the 90 hours it will take, I will be starting my first series of classes this year. What i am trying to find out is besides the classroom hours what qualifications do you have to meet to have a GRI designation. I havent been able to find it on the website. Most other designations require classroom hours and a certain amount of closing, experience, etc... If anyone can help me with this information, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

I recently completed the At Home with Diversity course from NAR. I took the online version through Realtor University. I want to be prepared to work with any and all clients so I don't limit who I can work with. I had no idea how much information I would be covering. The course covered traditions of different nationalities across the globe. It covered how to write a business plan to market to different nationalities. The most important part was the laws we need to be aware of to meet Fair Housing criteria. Before the class I assumed that would be the only class I needed on diversity. I was wrong. My eyes were opened to how much I don't know but want to learn. Are you prepared to deal with diversity?

Thanks

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

Last night I completed my first REALTOR University Online Class. I have been contemplating taking some of their classes but have always been a little skeptical. I learn by being hands on, that likes the environment of being in a classroom. My time has become scarce and will be until I don't have to work so hard to pay the bills. I don't want that to be an excuse to avoid continued training. I decided I was going to give it a try, and I was very impressed. I assumed I would watch a video and then answer a few questions at the end. I was wrong. There was a listening portion but it was mixed with reading, clicking, answering questions, contributing to a online forum, etc. It made the learning process very easy. Kudos to REALTOR University!! I will definetly be taking more of their classes soon. Does anyone else have a success story with online training?

Thanks

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

Every real estate agent knows that filling out a mls statement is pretty straight forward. There are lots of things to fill out, some are mandatory and some not mandatory. I have heard agents complain about there only being one photo or no info where it asks for square footage. Personally i can handle those, my pet peeve is when the heating and hot water info is filled in as electric as if it were a default answer. It may not be a big deal for most but there are some clients that specifically want natural gas or propane heating. I would also understand if this were something very technical that is hard to figure out, but if you see a yellow flexible pipe going to the hot water heater or the furnace, that its a dead giveaway, or you could ask the owner but lets not get crazy. So whats your pet peeve?

In my short career in real estate sales, I have met many agents (in my office, in training, networking events, etc...) that know the Importance of Networking, but many don't take advantage of online networking. To the older generations, online networking seems complicated and juvenile, but it can also be a very important tool in building your sphere of influence. Everyone that reads this already knows about Activerain and how much it can help your real estate career, So below I list a few other sites that I think everyone should join. Keep in mind these sites are very user friendly and FREE. I hope that you give them a try.

Social Networking:

Myspace.com- easy sign up, you design a page using free templates, you can add music to your page, find and add friends searching for old friends and colleagues, this is a site you can be very creative with. It has an area to write blogs. You can also link to activerain.

Facebook.com-easy sign up, your main page is your wall, this is where your friends will leave you messages and you can keep up to date on what everyone is up too. This site also has a type of instant messaging that doesn't require a download but enables you to chat with your friends

Twitter.com-Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Linkedin.com-The most Professional of the group, you fill out your information which basically will look like a resume when you are complete. You add connections by searching for colleagues, previous classmates, etc... There are lots of professional groups you can join.

Remember all these sites are free and don't take a lot of time to set up. I hope this helps!

 I currently have a listing that has been on the market about two months. It is priced pretty well for a house that isn't a foreclosure or short sale. I haven't done a price reduction or incentive package because there isn't much wiggle room in the price. I did a little write up placed the info on the MLS, stuck a sign in the front yard, signed it up with Postlets.In two months I have had one showing. I have some print advertising that features the listing coming out starting in April. The Question is what can I do to Revamp a Stale listing?

I would appreciate any feedback, I realize this is a tough market and there may be no answer to my problem, but Activerainers have come through for me in the past. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

I have been through many real estate deals as the buyer or seller. As the client I have received some great gifts from some of the excellent Realtors that I have worked with. I know giving a gift to your clients at closing is completely optional, but I think it's a great idea. When I was the client I loved it.

As a new agent that is coming close to completing my first deal. I am trying to figure out what I want to give to my clients to show my appreciation for their business. In the past, I have been given gift cards to restaurants, hardware stores, etc... And I think they have been excellent gifts. I would like to get some feed back about what other people are giving, and how to gauge the amount of the gift. Should it be the same for every deal or should it be according to price? Any creative ideas? Thanks for any help!

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster