Tag Archive - Renting

Resource for Real Estate Agents: Weekly Recap

By rentjuiceblog on June 26, 2009 in Agent Tips with Comments Off

real estate resource

Image by acme401 via Flickr

In this series, we recap the articles and resources we’ve been posting on the RentJuice Twitter account since we’ve been tweeting a few times per day with the best tips, posts, and resources we can find on the internet. So without further ado, here’s a recap of the last week:

  • Rents and prices are falling. Good debate going on in the comments at Boston.com about which way to go:
  • Tips on using landlord tenant lease forms:
  • [Tips] “White wall syndrome: Decorating a rental apartment”
  • Tips to turn your rental space from bland to grand:
  • Via @mdimella: How the Boston Globe has no clue about the Boston apartment market

If you like what you see, follow the RentJuice Twitter account – we’re at @RentJuice and would love to continue being the daily resource for real estate agents doing rentals, leasing agents, landlords, and renters. And of course you can always reach us on Twitter, by commenting on this blog, or by sending us an email here.

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White wall syndrome: Decorating a rental apartment

By David Vivero on June 23, 2009 in Renters with Comments Off

Apartment decorating

Flickr by andypad

Following up on a link we shared on our RentJuice Twitter account to an article about remodeling your rental, we’re sharing some more tips about decorating a rental apartment and making it feel like your own place. The rest of this post is written by RentJuice CEO David Vivero:

One of the things that I find most frustrating about renting, especially now that it’s been years since my college dorm days, is how hard it is to properly decorate a rental apartment. I call this issue “white wall syndrome,” which is that feeling that you can never really make a rental apartment your own. Rental apartments just tend to have a poster here and there, and some comfy furniture, but somehow they often stop short of expressing the true personality of the tenant. There are some solutions to empty apartments!

White wall syndrome, to be clear, is the basic idea that you’re handcuffed by your security deposit: you see it shrink with every nail in the wall, every drop of paint, and with every lighting fixture you want to change.

Landlords have good reason for keeping control over your “customization,” since the tenant who follows you will most likely not share your taste and will want a plain white canvas of his/her own.

My best advice and recommended tools are:

  • Know how long you’ll stay. If you’re in a rent-controlled apartment, and it’s big enough to hold you over for a few years, it may just be worth painting and making a few changes. Depending on the wording of your lease, you’re going to have to spend a day or two painting those walls a nice apartment white or putting those old plastic blinds back in the windows, but it will be worth it. If it’s a short term rental or you “just don’t know” if you’ll want to stay longer than your lease requires, give it a few months before you pour your heart into those personal touches.
  • Include your landlord in the discussion. There are often ways to make improvements to the apartment that don’t upset your landlord. For example, it may be possible to paint the apartment neutral colors, like toupe. They may also hate the blinds that are there, and would be willing to share the cost of an upgrade.
  • Use smart new tools for your wall decorations. Here’s a great quote from the article we linked to above: “Worried about nail holes? New wall hooks from companies such as 3M attach using a removable adhesive that won’t damage the walls. Or, vinyl wall stickers, like those from www.wisedecor.com, are another option to add design and color to the walls — and they peel off easily when you move out.”
  • Add small pieces to your apartment. These small decorations – ranging from vases on your living room table to flowers or bowls at your dining table, make a big difference in making your rental feel like home. And the best part is you can easily take these pieces with you if you move to another place.

Bottom line: these tips will go a long way towards getting rid of white wall syndrome – soon, your apartment will feel like an inviting, warm place that is yours. Consider making that small time and monetary investment to really make your rental into a place that feels truly comfortable.

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Have any other suggestions? Have you seen something we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments section below!

Benefits of Renting: Flexibility

By David Vivero on June 11, 2009 in Renters with Comments Off

Renting flexibility

Flickr by midwestnerd

On our @RentJuice Twitter account we tweeted a link to a great post busting some myths about renting. But it got us thinking back to a book some members of our team read called Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida. Specifically, the book subtly makes the case for a major benefit of renting – flexibility. Here’s a great quote:

“The point is, where we live is a central life factor that affects all the others—work, education, and love—follow. It can make or break existing work arrangements and personal relationships. It can open new doors. And regardless of what kind of life we envision for ourselves—whether we aspire to make millions, have a family, or live the way of a bachelor—choosing where to live is a decision we all must make at least once. A good number of us will make it multiple times. The average American moves once every seven years. More than 40 million people relocate each year; 15 million make significant moves of more than 50 or 100 miles.”

If you take those moving statistics at face value, it’s easy to see why renting actually offers a major benefit over buying a home. If you’re trying to stay competitive in the work force, or if you are younger and willing to chase opportunities as they arise, there’s a big cost buying a home: you limit your options and are tied down.

“As the most mobile people in human history, we are fortunate to have an incredibly diverse menu of places—in our own countries and around the world—from which to choose. That’s important because each of us has different needs and preferences. Luckily, places differ as much as we do…

It’s not just that places’ personalities are different. What we need from a place also shifts with each stage of our life. When we’re young, just out of school and single, many of us want a place that’s stimulating, offering lots of jobs and opportunities for career advancement, great nightlife, and a vibrant “mating market” filled with single people to meet and date. When we get a bit older, and certainly when we marry and have children, our priorities change. We want a place that offers good schools, safe streets, and better lives for our families. And when the children go off to college and leave the house, our needs and interests change yet again.

At each of these turning points, and at many others along the way, a growing number of us have the opportunity to choose a place that truly fits our needs.”

Renting lets you move closer to jobs both within your current city or within a new location. Add in that you avoid many of the hassles of ownership, and it’s easy to see why in today’s world renting instead of owning is becoming a more popular and acceptable option – and not just when you’re younger.

It’s not just about jobs either. If you rent, you typically are not tied down to any place more than 6-12 months, depending on your lease. And even then, you can usually get out of your lease for a fee.

Additionally, the flexibility of renting lets you try out new locations within your city and all over the world. Not only do you avoid having to do major repairs on your home or apartment, but you also can “change the scenery” as long as you’re okay with moving.

Bottom line: The flexibility offered by renting is increasingly important for jobs, relations, pleasure, and more. The benefits of owning a home are eroding while the benefits of renting are becoming more pronounced and important in the world we live in today.

How Great Agents Close More Listings

By David Vivero on April 15, 2009 in Agent Tips with Comments Off

great agents communicate

Image by Victor 1558 via Flickr

The other day we wrote a post about how important it is that landlords and renters approach the rental process like a detective. And the post subtly pointed out something that should be the focus of its own post: great agents close more listings because of their ability to communicate.

How do the best agents communicate? By tailoring their best ideas to their audience: renters and landlords. Let’s contrast hypothetical Agent A (a smart, driven agent) with hypothetical Agent B (one of the best agents, a great communicator). Here’s how Agent A would communicate the lesson from our last post:

“Due to asymetric information in the rental process, landlords and renters alike must conduct due diligence to ensure that both sides of the transaction culminate a fair and reasonable result.”

Sure, no agent usually takes it that far, but Agent A in our example has a particularly bad case of business-speak. And it usually puts off both renters and landlords because they cannot relate to the agent. The agent in this example is not doing a good job of customer service, because the focus should be on creating a rapport with the customer.

Let’s look at Agent B talking to a renter or landlord:

“You’ve got to be like a detective. As we move through the rental process, it’s important to dig in and find out about the other person to be safe and avoid any unnecessary risks.”

That’s more like it! Notice how in this second example the agent does a much better job of relating to the customer. The agent builds a connection by using the word “we” and also uses the example of a detective to paint a clear image in the mind of the customer.

Agent B is a better agent in part because of the ability to communicate well with customers. It’s an often overlooked ability that the best agents work at in their goal to always provide the best customer service. Yet it’s this communication ability that the best agents spend so much time honing to allow them to close more listings and ultimately help them be the best in the business.

Have you spent time working on your communication skills? How do you improve your ability to communicate? Some related blogs that we read could help you continue improving your communication skills – check out the MindTools Communication Skills page for an assortment of articles and don’t miss the slideo:ology blog for help articulating ideas and presenting to clients.

First Time Renter? Here are Some Great Renting Tips

By David Vivero on April 14, 2009 in Renters with Comments Off

renting tips

Image by Ivy Dawned via Flickr

The other day we came across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle that focused on tips for new renters. Most of these tips are also a great reminder for people who have rented before and are looking at new homes or apartments to rent. And reading the article made us realize that if you’re a renter or a landlord, you have to put your detective hat on and really do your homework on the people with which you’ll potentially be signing a lease. In the article we spotted some strong tips like this one focused on inspecting common areas of a rental property:

“If the hallways and elevators are dirty or the grounds overgrown, there’s a risk the landlord will also take a long time to make any repairs.

Ask some of the residents about the landlord or property manager. You might get details you wouldn’t hear otherwise, like odors from the restaurant next door or the upstairs neighbor’s dog that barks all day when the owner is away.”

And here’s another important tip we liked focused on checking a landlord’s financial situation:

“If you’re renting from an individual, you can check out his or her financial situation by sifting through district court records for any foreclosure actions, judgments or bankruptcy filings. You can also contact your local Better Business Bureau to see if there have been any complaints filed against the landlord.”

The two quotes highlighted here are some of the softer tips that renters often overlook. And yet it’s a great reminder of how incredibly important it is to approach the rental process like a detective – both for a prospective renter and for a landlord who needs to do their complete due diligence on a renter before they sign a lease.

How Landlords Can Respond to Falling Rents

By David Vivero on April 12, 2009 in Agent Tips with Comments Off

Respond to falling rent

Image by hotelcasavelas2 via Flickr

Earlier this week, we put up this tweet linking to a BusinessWeek article focused on falling rents nationwide. The article focused on the various creative methods that landlords are utilizing to find new tenants and keep existing tenants.

Some landlords are offering financial incentives such as 1-2 months of free rent, waiving security deposits, and offering free goodies such as gym memberships. The thinking behind these concessions is that giving up a small piece on the front end makes more sense than losing tenants for good or having empty apartments for an extended period of time.

But the most creative solution we saw were these “layoff-proof” leases:

About three weeks ago, Cleveland’s Goldberg Cos., which owns 9,000 units in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, started offering “layoff-proof” leases, which guarantee tenants up to two months of free rent if they provide proof they were laid off. If the tenant is unable to find another job after the two months, they can break the lease with no penalty.

The company hopes to attract tenants who are living with parents or sharing apartments with multiple tenants.

“What’s keeping people from renting is fear,” says Eric Bell, a senior vice-president at Goldberg. “We wanted to give people a cushion or a safety net, so they know they’ll have some time to get back on their feet.”

But how can landlords respond to falling rents with non-financial measures?

One solution, if you manage an apartment complex or building, is to foster a better sense of community. Organizing holiday dinners, monthly events, and other perks end up building good will with tenants and at some level lower the chances of a tenant moving out. If you’re able to create a community that renters feel that they belong to, you’re going to have a much better chance of keeping your tenants and avoiding problems such as higher vacancy rates. Doing this is a low risk proposition that has a potentially high payoff.

And if you’re the landlord of a single property, such as a home or apartment unit, you can also use some non-financial measures to ensure your tenants will stay in your place. One solution is checking in on your tenants from time to time to make sure that they’re doing well and that there are no problems with the property. It’s amazing how a simple phone call or email strengthens the connection between landlords and tenants, which again lowers the likelihood of a tenant moving out when their lease is up.

Bottom line: while there are many financial actions that landlords and apartment managers can take to ensure tenants don’t leave (and thus vacancy rates don’t creep up) there are also some creative non-financial solutions, such as organizing community events and checking in with tenants, that will also lower the likelihood of tenants leaving when their lease is finished.

Renting in the perfect neighborhood

By David Vivero on September 14, 2008 in Renters with Comments Off

perfect neighborhood

Image by edenpictures via Flickr

One of the most important aspects of choosing your next rental apartment is the characteristics of the neighborhood you’ll adopt. Sure, the apartment itself is essential, but keep these tips in mind when you’re picking what areas of a city are right for you.

  • Demographics of the residents. Are they retired people? College students? Families with kids? Do you see a lot of people walking dogs? Spend a day getting a sense for the people who will soon be your neighbors. A great online resource for this is Yahoo Real Estate’s Neighborhood Profile. Here’s the results for my old neighborhood in San Francisco, for example.
  • Availability of parking. You may not drive, but you may buy a car in the next few years. Better yet, guests who visit will need a place to put their car while visiting. It also can be quite frustrating when you’re moving in/moving out, and you’ll need some place to put a van or truck. Go visit the area at night (when residents are parked) and during the mid-day (when business traffic is usually parked). Rush hour times, when meters are just being turned on or off, is usually an odd time to assess parking. We’re also excited for the launch of SpotScout, which promises to be an online marketplace for parking spots. (Go pre-register there to be posted on their launch.)
  • Nearby amenities. Make sure there’s some convenient way to get to a grocery store, a gas station (if necessary), a laundromat, a coffee shop, a drycleaner, and some go-to restaurants for a quick bite. You’ll always regret living in an apartment where you can’t get at least the basics on a daily basis. For this, simple searches using your address on Citysearch, Yelp.com, or even Google Local will do.
  • Public transportation. Have to get to work or to a friend’s place? Don’t forget how important it is to make those trips seem convenient. Unless you’re working from home, you’ll truly value the ability to get to and from with ease. The best part is: find this information is really easy. Google has created Google Transit to help with planning trips using public transportation, including schedules and transfers. Give it a whirl using your prospective apartment address and another useful address (like work or a friend’s house).
  • Crime activity. Another great indicator about your neighborhood is the level of crime activity. It’s incredibly important to live in an area you trust to be safe in your daily life and welcoming to guests. Try using some of the visually pleasing search tools available on Everyblock, which is a service that streams local activity from public databases around your area. The only limitation is that it’s only available in a few major metro areas in the US. If your city isn’t there, you can try searching against your local police department database.
  • Major construction and noise. Understand any current or upcoming major construction in the area you’re searching. Often times, residents will move into an apartment not knowing that the building across the street is scheduled to be demolished and they’re faced with months or years worth of an awful view or (worse!) the sounds of drills and cranes early in the morning. Along these same lines, make sure your apartment or house isn’t directly near a highway or commuter railway system, as these can cause tons of noise or a vibration of the entire unit. It’s best to ask your broker, landlord or other residents in the area about this; EveryBlock also provides a stream of important building permits issued for your area, and these give insight into upcoming construction work.

There are several other things to think about — including the balance of commercial and residential property in the area, or how long other residents have lived in the area — but in general the list here should get you started. If you have other ideas, we welcome them as comments below!