Crime should be very, very low and overall, what does the neighborhood look like?  This can be very important to any potential buyers.  I know that when I was looking to rent a place, I looked at the neighborhoods to see exactly what they looked like before I rented.

The overall appearance should look good and the types of people should be nice – which is not all that hard to find.

You want to make sure that you choose a place that is around everything and that is overall, a good location.  To be honest, this is a deal breaker for people.  Even if you fix up the house and it looks great, if it is not in a good location, people will not buy it.

In the next blog, we will explore some things to watch out for whenever you are investing in a property!

There is an old saying that you can not get the answer of no unless you try and that is all you are doing, is trying.  Now, if you really want to make an impact on the price of the home, you have to ready to walk away.

This is a huge step.  If you are serious about the sale and the price that you want, you want to make sure that you are ready to walk away from the sale if the home buyers do not cave.

Outdoor lighting is by far one of the best ways to improve the curb appeal of your home and in the next few blogs; we are going to talk about some of the trends in outdoor lighting that seems to be popping up.

Solar lights are certainly something that are popping up everywhere but by far, the color lights and orbs are something that are very popular in the way of outdoor lighting right now.  More in the next blog people!

In this blog, we have talked a lot about real estate and the market itself and we have also given you tips and tricks as a real estate agent as well as a buyer or renter.  With that being said, we are now going to talk about something very, very important … home insurance.

If you are a landlord and you are renting out to someone either a room or even an entire apartment, you might want to ensure that they do have renter’s insurance.  This can actually really harm you if they do not have renter’s insurance.

Recently … as of Sunday actually, I fell down the stairs of my rental home.  Now – I personally do not have renter’s insurance.  If I wanted to, because I am not covered and the landlords are – I can actually sue them because I fell down the stairs.  Now … I am not going to do that because I am fine, but what would happen if you weren’t fine?  More on this in the next blog!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.