Diane G Real Estate

Now that we have talked a little bit about what you should be doing with your tenants and how you should be meeting them face-to-face whenever possible, let’s move onto the rental application.  This is a piece of paper similar to a resume for the prospective renter and I can promise that if you evaluate it right, you are going to find the ideal tenant.

One of the first things that you need to do once you get the application is call of the past landlords that the tenant has had.  That way, you can make sure that the tenant has a good rental history, as that is what is going to be key whenever you are trying to get someone to rent something that belongs to you.

You always want to make sure that they are going to take care of it and you want to ensure that they are going to respect it.  Next, check their credit – do they pay their bills on time?  These are key things here.

If you are a brand new landlord, I can promise that you are going to have not only a lot of questions but you truly lack the experience that a lot of other landlords might have, therefore you might not know what a good tenant looks like versus a bad one.  Well, that is what we are here for and I can promise that there are a lot of different tenants out there for you to choose from.

Firstly, you always want to make sure that you meet the tenants in person.  You never want to rent to someone that you have not met or at the very least talked to do an extended period of time on the phone.  It is hard to find people to just come in and look at your space, but truly, you want to try to get as many people in as possible to see the place that you are trying to rent.

In the next blog, we will talk about how you can evaluate your rental applications and what the process is to truly find the right tenants for you!

One of the very first things that you want to make sure that you do when you are trying to overcome your fear of cold calling is taking stock of yourself and your skills.  You want to list all of the things that you can do for the person that you are calling, list all of the qualities that make up you, as a person and make you the person the prospect should work with.

Next, you want to make sure that you list all of the benefits of working with you.  You always want to make sure that you keep these lists right by the phone so that way you can tell any prospects them without hesitating at all.

Finally, you want to make sure that you take the first step and pick up the phone – it is the hardest step but once you pick up the phone, you will feel better.

When you're looking for a new home, make sure to get an estimate of your homeowners insurance payments before actually buying the house. Depending on the neighbourhood, the value and the size of the home, you might be getting in over your head!

With the way that the economy is right now, in the real estate business, we are all going to face some sort of fear when it comes to cold calling.  When you are real estate agents, you are in the sales business and while not all sales businesses are about dealing with making call daily, this particular business is.

In the game of real estate, you need to make sure that you are generating brand new business and you are gaining more and more prospects in order to meet your quarterly quota.  Well, you do that by calling on prospects and that can be difficult.

In the next couple blogs, we are going to talk about how you can overcome the fear of cold calling and how you can generate more and more business for yourself.

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Still, where do you start finding successful real estate agents? Actually, one of the best sources you will be able to find is your friends, your family members, your colleagues, your acquaintances: the people you already know, in other words.

Find people who have worked with real estate agents in the area. They will be able to give you a solid recommendation, whether good or bad. Remember, you want an agent who is highly professional, who knows who to be aggressive, who has the killer instincts.

Checking out real estate agencies with good funding can be helpful as well, because they tend to have high standards for the agents who work there.

An agency with published standards is even better, because then you can find out what you are getting into well ahead of time.

When you are in the market (ha ha, forgive the slight pun) for a real estate agent, your best bet is to look for a successful one. Check around the neighborhoods you are interested in, and see which real estate agents seem to have had the most success with selling homes in that area. Typically, there were will two or three agents who are doing a lot of the selling — and closing — in the area.

Another sure sign of a successful real estate agent is the number of houses he or she has listed; the more listings, the better. For that matter, real estate agents who have full page ads also tend to be more successful.

Naturally, you want the most successful real estate agent you can find. For that reason, sorry to say, you may want to stay away from agents who only do the job on a part time basis.

As a tenant, you need to protect yourself. One of the first things to do is familiarize yourself with rental laws in your particular area; be informed about what your rights are as a tenant, what your landlord is responsible for, and your landlord’s rights as well.

While this is often easier said than done, you do not have to be intimidated by your landlord. In essence, he or she is your employee — you pay them. If you are not breaking the clauses in the lease or abusing the property, if you are holding up your end of the agreement between the two of you.

Take pictures of everything wrong with the space when you move in. Check the heat, check the water pressure, check the water temperatures, and keep a written account of every time you talk to your landlord about these things. Always try to talk with a witness present. If you feel your needs are not being met, do not be afraid to call your local codes inspector to have someone come out and take a look.

When you first move into a new apartment or rental home, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Moving in your own things is, of course, one of the most important, but you also have to make note of any repairs the real estate agent or landlord alerted you to when you signed the lease, and you have to begin noting anything else that might be wrong.

Now, I will be completely honest with you. Depending on your personality, it can feel kind of awkward to tell your landlord about things that may not be working — and depending on what kind of landlord you have, the whole process can be either easy or difficult.

Say you are renting an apartment in an actual home, for instance. If you have a problem with hot water or water pressure, your landlord may say hey, sorry, it would be too costly to fix this, you’ll just have to make do.

What do you do in that case? Any tips or suggestions?

Now that we have talked a little bit about how you should leave your house – let’s go ahead and talk about in detail what you should be doing when all of your furniture is out of the house and you are left with an empty shell of a house.  Firstly, you want to make sure that you paint anything that you changed.

Usually, white is a good color as the new tenants will be able to paint over it.  This is just if you painted anything while you were in your apartment – if you didn’t don’t worry about painting.  You always want to make sure that you leave the place spic and span though. 

That includes breaking out the cleaning supplies and vacuuming down the entire place.  This will leave a good impression on your landlord and you will probably get your full security deposit back!

We all move.  Whether you are moving to a brand new house or you are moving into a new apartment, you want to make sure that you leave your old apartment in good shape.  Currently, I am going through a move myself and while I am not exactly moved out yet, I intend to leave the property the way I found it.

That does include some things that you may not want to be doing.  For example, cleaning out everything and making sure that the walls are painted.  This is something that many people forget about, however you always want to make sure that you do not burn any bridges when you move.

In the next blog, we will talk about exactly what you should be cleaning out and what you can leave.