Sunday, December 16, 2007

Chickens are coming home to ROOST!!! and they don’t have the rent

Since late April, I have been sending brochures (3-panel printed on my laser printer) to homeowners who can’t sell their homes * overpriced, poorly presented in listing photos (don’t get me started) * the properties are PRIMO from a rental prospect * 4BR, garage, basement…The flyer has a reprint of the the article entitled * REAL ESTATE * Rent Now * Sell Later * Local housing market stalled? Consider becoming a temporary landlord. By Pat Mertz Esswein *From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, February 2007.
 

I’ve done 15 property presentations from these flyers and gotten 10 new properties to manage for 12 to 18 months…of the 200+ flyers I have mailed out, I’ve tracked which ones ended up listing their home for rent with their listing Realtor or attempted to rent and manage themselves.


Over the last week, I’ve gotten 2 calls from property owners * one who rented themselves and one who rented through their listing Realtor * both of whom have tenants who have not paid rent and the owners are now out of the area…I asked the first homeowner why their REALTOR is not assisting him and he said the Realtor does not know what to do * DUAH!?! and he can’t afford to keep the home since he has a second home to pay for now. The second owner did not screen the Craigslist tenant he was lucky to find on his first property posting AND allowed occupancy without a deposit….JEEZE!!! I’m going to go back and see if these properties were overpriced to begin with when originally listed for sale.


In both instances, the wives had kept my brochure and urged their husbands to call me when their rent did not arrive with the Xmas cards….one owner I will assist and deal with the wife and the one with no documentation on their tenant I will refer to my local attorney with permission to use my name to get their phone call returned.

Posted by Wallace S. Gibson CPM at 14:04:37 | Permalink | No Comments »

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A GOOD picture is worth more than a 1,000 words

I am amazed and amused at the quality of photographs still being posted on Realtor and MLS websites….It is one thing to show a poorly staged furnished home and another thing to not see the GREAT shot that is available by using your imagination.

Realtors who photograph the interior of the clients’ homes that are furnished need to allow time to “stage’ the individual rooms…the dish rag hanging on the stove handle does not indicate a “homey setting”…..placing items under the counter, in the cabinets or outside the shot can take mere seconds and allow the viewer to actually view the property rather than kibitz on the owners’ poor housekeeping.

Taking exterior photos when the grass is a week overdue for cutting or after the leaves have been removed are easy to comprehend when you view the resulting photos so why not ask the client to arrange for these events so that GREAT photos can be obtained.

I am marketing a home for Jan 2008 occupancy and I did not have a good exterior photo.  The exterior was repainted 2 years ago in the spring/summer and there is a large tree in the front yard….to take the VERY BEST photo, I waited until the leaves were off the tree in the front yard, then had them removed by a yard service and then took the exterior photo of the front on a bright sunny day…the result is awesome.

Yes, I have a good camera.  It is 3 years old and was expensive when purchased.  Yes, I take a lot of pictures - for marketing, documenting move-in and move-outs of residents as well to document repairs and maintenance.  I always have a camera with a charged battery in my car and one in reserve in my office.  As I drive by my properties, I document items that need attention by the residents and for my maintenance-to-do list.

In the past, while I had a camera in my car, it had film that had to be taken to be developed and then the photos had to be scanned as JPEG images to be used in listings or as documentation.  Storing photos were also a problem.

With digital cameras, photos are kept on a 2GB jump/travel drive and photos that are no longer needed are archived onto CD for storage. 

At the inception of my property management career, I never dreamed I would become a property photo journalist, interior decorator or set designor.

Posted by Wallace S. Gibson CPM at 02:01:50 | Permalink | No Comments »

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Still RENTING at this time of year….

Usually at this time of year, I’ll all out of available rental properties and no  prospects are calling.  This year is different and I have changed my MO.

Since there are unsold homes being put on the rental market daily, many property owners are giving them to their listing Realtors who are posting them in the rental section of the local MLS system.  Since September, I have not been posting in this listing pool which is only getting BIGGER.

Instead, I have been posting listings on my website (http://VAHomes4Rent.com) and posting a daily listing on the Charlottesville Rental Housing section of Craigslist.  Our CL ad is created in POSTLET which allows more photos and better coordination of information and the service is free for a 60 day listing.  In the property description of the POSTLET, I have my website listed with a hot link.

Since we get numerous property referrals from area Realtors, our renting success is being appreciated.  For those property owners who have chosen to list their unsold property through Gibson Management Group, Ltd., our Craigslist ad - posted early each day - is catching incoming rental applicants EARLIER and directing them to our website.  Even our CL ads for properties available in early 2008 are generating interest as there will be new incoming rental residents moving into the area for UVa Medical Center, NGIC and the JAG school. 

Craigslist, which originally started in the San Francisco Bay Area, is known world wide and is more often than not the FIRST place incoming residents will search for a new rental home.  Since they are not looking to purchase housing, they are bypassing local Realtors and the local MLS rental section and “doing it themselves”. 

This new process takes a little more effort with creating the POSTLET/CL listing and posting listings in rotation  early each day - however the payoff is getting our clients’ units rented.


Posted by Wallace S. Gibson CPM at 22:06:59 | Permalink | No Comments »