Will you give more in 2016?

Charitable giving is expected to increase by 4.1 percent this year and 4.3 percent next year, according to researchers at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Those increases would exceed the five-, 10- and 25-year annualized average rates of growth in total giving, and would fall just below the 40-year average growth rate of 4.4 percent.

The main forces driving this growth are: the projected growth in the U.S. stock market, the rise in personal income, the change in demographics, and the increase in net worths for households and nonprofits.   

To find out who is looking to use their wealth to create a social impact and the tools nonprofits are using to engage these donors, click here for a comprehensive overview and a link to the full report. 

And for ideas on how to give to your favorite charities while saving a bundle on income and estate taxes, download a copy of A Donor’s Guide to Planned Giving for just $8.95.  

What tenants want, and how they’ll find it

In many areas of the country demand for rental homes is outpacing supply. But you still need to beat the competition to get the best tenants. So what do today’s tenants want?

A new survey of nearly 120,000 apartment renters offered some answers …

• 94 percent put fast internet service and parking on the top of the list
• 80 percent want swimming pools
• 60 percent prefer to live within walking distance of their jobs 

You can read the full survey here.

If you are an individual landlord with a few rentals, you probably aren’t in a position to add a swimming pool or additional parking. However, the survey did point out something you could easily do …  

The majority of renters (80 percent) visited the apartment community’s or property manager’s web site before they moved in. That should tell you that creating an online presence will give your property a distinct advantage over the landlord who only markets via traditional media, such as classified ads or a sign in the front yard.

It’s not that difficult either ...

You can quickly set up a Facebook page devoted to your rentals. Tumblr and Blogspot are easy to work with, too. Don’t forget Twitter. All of these platforms, and many others, will let you post photos and list the amenities you offer the moment your rental is available. You could include a Google Map of the property, a video of the neighborhood, and much more. And better yet … it’s all free!

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo. 

Landlord disgusted with Section 8 housing

An Omaha landlord tried to help by renting to tenants who get assistance from the Omaha Housing Authority, but those tenants left his property a mess and the government won't help clean it up. Now he’s fed up. (You can read the full story here.) You can’t blame him. However, if he had understood the rules of Section 8 housing, as I point out in What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord, he might not have found himself in this pickle. 

The Housing Choice Vouchers Program (Section 8) is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s primary program to provide housing for Americans who are living in poverty, as well as the elderly and disabled.

People who receive Section 8 vouchers find their own rental housing and use the vouchers they receive from their housing agency to help pay the rent. Basically, the voucher means that the Federal Government will pay a specific amount of the rent directly to the landlord.

Ultimately, it is the voucher holder's decision whether to rent your property. And as the landlord, you would screen the Section 8 voucher holder just as you would any other prospective tenant.

The advantage of renting to these tenants is that HUD guarantees you’ll receive part of the rent. Most Housing Authorities deposit the check directly into your account. And if the tenant can’t pay their portion because of a financial hardship, the government will make up the difference. Still, if the tenant is simply trying to stiff you for their portion of the rent, you’re on your own to collect.

Simply put, just because they are on a government list doesn’t mean they’ll be good tenants. It just means they have Section 8 vouchers.

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo. 

Landlords from Hell

As a landlord, I’ve written and read numerous articles about tenants from hell. You know them … the ones who punch holes in walls, don’t tell you about a leak in the roof, and leave four dead guinea pigs under a heap of dirty diapers when they skip out on the rent.

So for a change, here is a piece profiling what could be true Landlords from Hell. 

Tenant shrugs off shocking bedbug invasion!

Bedbugs have been found in five-star hotels and resorts and their presence is not determined by the cleanliness of the living conditions where they are found. So it shouldn’t surprise you if they pop up in your rental. But this is beyond extreme …  (click here for the full story)

Tenant breaks ankles ... sues landlord

To be a successful landlord you need to run your rentals like a business that has customers. And if you want to keep good, long-term tenants, be proactive. That means inspect regularly, respond quickly, and be creative. 

Here’s an example of what can happen if you don’t … 

How to reduce tenant turnover

A study just published by Property Management Insider showed that in the last quarter of 2015 lease renewal rent for apartments in the U.S. grew 5%, rental retention was 50.4%, and occupancy was 95.8%.

For us individual landlords who buy and manage our own properties, what’s going on at a local level is more important than the big-picture presented in that report. After all, one street can make all the difference between buying a cash cow and a dead horse. 

Still, it is an encouraging trend.

So what can you do to boost your tenant retention and occupancy rates?

Run your rentals like a business that has customers. And if you want to keep good, long-term tenants, be proactive. That means inspect regularly, respond quickly, and be creative. Look at how to improve things while they’re still there. Reward early payments, offer extra services like direct deposit, or tenant insurance. Even a gift certificate to a local pizza joint can go a long way.

New paint, replacing a nasty-looking washer and dryer, or even a security system if they pay the monthly monitoring fees could be a good gesture when it comes time to renew a lease with an increase in rent.

Would you like more ideas on buying and managing rental properties? Pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo.

Could this have saved a boy's life?

Last month, a fire in a Massachusetts rental home claimed the life of a 4-year old boy. Safety officials had recently inspected other homes owned by the same landlord. Missing smoke detectors and lack of exits were among the problems discovered.

The fire marshal’s office hasn’t said if missing or defective smoke detectors played a role in the boy’s death. Their investigation is ongoing. You can read the full story here.

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this tragedy …

The first is to make sure your rental home is up to code. And the code in your area might be stricter for rental homes than it is for owner-occupied homes.

Second, inspect your rentals monthly. I tell tenants that I need to change the A/C filter each month. While you are there with your stepladder, check the smoke alarms. In some jurisdictions, it is the landlord’s responsibility to install and maintain them. I also suggest you add in the lease, and the tenant handbook, that tenants must tell you if the alarm goes off.

And for some odd reason, tenants like to remove the batteries. I don’t know whether they use the batteries in one of their electronic doodads, or the alarm goes off while they’re cooking. If you find that this is an ongoing problem with a tenant, tell him in writing to stop disabling the alarm. You sure don’t want your property destroyed, or someone’s life lost, in a fire that could have been contained if an alarm had gone off. 

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo. 

Are you negotiating with the honest-to-goodness decision maker?

Not long after the last real estate bust here in South Florida, I found a FSBO home in an area I was targeting. The owner was a widow who had made the decision to sell her house and move north to be closer to family. The rents in her neighborhood did not justify the asking price. And she refused my offer. I left my number and asked her to contact me if she ever reconsidered.  

A month later, she called and asked me to stop by. We went back and forth until we arrived at a price we both could live with.

I had my attorney draw up an agreement and got the financing ball rolling. With the agreement and a deposit in hand, I went back to the seller.

When I arrived at her home, her son was there. At the last moment he had flown in from New York. He said my price was not acceptable and even his mother’s original asking price was too low. I tried to reason with him, but he was of the mindset that prices would skyrocket once again and I would double my money in no time.

With that, I walked away empty handed.   

Indeed, a waste of my time, my attorney’s time, and my mortgage broker’s time. But there was a lesson learned in that if a similar situation arises, I will ask: “Are you the decision maker on this? Is there anyone else who should be involved?”

Would you like more ideas on buying and managing rental properties? Pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo.

Will your next job as a landlord be with Homeland Security?

As landlords, we wear many hats: Marketer, psychologist, accountant, handyman, and much more. Now I see the possibility that another role might be heading our way …

Take a look at what’s required of landlords across the Pond …

The UK recently updated its Landlords’ guide to checking immigration documents. The guide is intended to help landlords conduct necessary document checks to establish whether a person has the right to rent in accordance with the Immigration Act 2014.

The 21-page guide goes on to list what landlords may consider acceptable documents. They include:   

• a passport showing the holder is a British citizen
• a birth certificate issued in the UK
• a current immigration status document issued by the Home Office indicating the holder may stay in the UK for a time-limited period

And if the landlord believes the document was altered or used by someone fraudulently, it should be reported to authorities. The Guide provides detailed samples of what a few of the documents should actually look like.

Landlords must copy every document they’ve checked. By doing that, they will be able to provide evidence that they’ve complied with the law if it is discovered that someone was living in the rental home who did not have a right to be in the UK.

On top of that, landlords may have to re-check time-limited documents the following year.  

I’ve never asked a prospective tenant if they were here legally. From what I can find, in Florida I’m allowed to as long as I ask all applicants. Landlords in New York City and California are prohibited from asking such questions. However, I do make a copy of their driver’s license or some other photo ID to prove they are who they say they are.

What’s ahead for us landlords when a new President takes office on Jan. 20, 2017?

I’m not going to comment on our nation’s immigration dilemma in this forum. I’ll leave that political minefield to The Donald, Billhillary, and others jockeying for B.O.’s job.

But if The Donald moves into the White House, there won’t be much we’ll have to do since he is going to round up all 12 million illegals (undocumented workers) and send them back from where they came. Then when he lets them back in, they’ll be squeaky clean. Yeap, that should work.

And with Billhillary, have you ever known a Democrat who didn’t like a new law? So my guess is that she’ll pass the buck to us like has been done in the UK.  

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo.

Smiles and handshakes are nice, but it needs to be …

Thanks to the overabundance of lawyers, the days of verbal agreements meaning anything are all but gone. So instructions you give a new tenant on what they should do if they have a problem must be in writing. Otherwise if you end up in court, you could be out of luck.

I suggest putting together a one-inch thick binder — a Tenant Handbook. I say a binder rather than a pile of papers stapled together, because then it is more likely to stay in the open, such as on the kitchen counter with cookbooks. You might want to put the lease in this binder, too.

Among the items you should include: 

What to do if the toilet overflows? Turn off the water at the base of the toilet. Show them how to use a plunger.

What to do if the water supply to the washer springs a leak? Turn it off.

How to turn off the water supply to the house.

What to do if a circuit breaker trips? Breakers trip for a reason. Don’t turn it back on.

You might think that someone with average intelligence would know how to shut off water pouring out from under a kitchen sink. But believe me, some people just don’t. Or just don’t care. And guess who gets stuck paying to clean up the mess.

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo. 

You need to know when to walk away …

In The Gambler, Kenny Rogers sings that “You’ve got to know when to walk away.” He’s referring of course to playing cards. Rental properties can be the same way.  It’s tough to find one at the right price and provides a respectable cash flow. Yet sometimes when one does come along, you still have to walk away. Let me give you an example ...

I saw a “For Sale By Owner” sign in front of a duplex in an area I drove past regularly. So I made the call to see the place. It turned out the owner wanted to sell five duplexes that were on the same street. He refused to consider selling one or two separately. It was all five or nothing.

Five duplexes next to each other was an attractive thought. I was looking to expand my business. And it would make maintenance a snap, especially during the summer when the grass had to be mowed weekly. I called my mortgage broker to make sure I could borrow that much money. Still, buying them all at once was a big financial commitment.

On the outside, not too bad. CBS construction. The roofs didn’t have any missing shingles. Although I figured they would need replacing in a few years. I planned on getting my roofer to give them a good look if this deal went any further.

Inside was another story …

When he opened the door of the first unit, roaches scurried out of our way. Holes were in several walls, and there was a huge water stain on the living room ceiling. The bathtub had a three-inch rust hole towards the top.

The unit had three small bedrooms and one bath, adequate for four people—six at most. But from the piles of clothes, dishes, and baby toys it was obvious many more were calling this home.

I asked him how many people lived there. “As long as they pay me cash each week, I don’t know and I don’t care,” he replied.

The other units were in about the same condition. So I told him I’d get back to him if I had further interest.

Eventually the “For Sale” sign came down. I have no idea if he sold the duplexes. I’m sure the cash flow was good. I never asked. But the concept of facing a bunch of repair work on top of collecting rent from who knows how many people each week wasn’t the deal for me. 

For more ideas on how to build a portfolio of investment properties for an income that lasts a lifetime, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. 

This inexpensive upgrade will boost your rental’s return

When you are prepping a rental property, a fresh coat of paint on the inside is an inexpensive way to give you one up on the competition and justify a higher rent.  

Pick one color and one brand for all rooms and all rentals. It’ll make your life so much easier. That way you buy the same thing every time. No need storing a bunch of different colors and not having the right one when you need it. I use a very light beige latex (water-based). It goes with everything, hides flaws well, and looks warmer than flat white. 

Don’t skimp on quality; you want something that has a decent chance of holding up to kids. I like Behr, but I’m sure there are others that are equally as good. Consumer Reports publishes test results of most manufacturers’ paints and stains.