Property Management Maven

Schools are out for the summer and altough gas prices are now at $4/gal locally, people are moving into the area in DROVES!!

Additionally, many residents who are fortunate enough to actually sell their local homes are electing to rent for a year on the off chance the local sales market continues to remain fairly stagnant and they can trade up or down and create more home equity in their new purchase.

The segwaying of new hires for NGIC will start this summer as current staff are rotated out and new staff is brought in for replacement slots and new positions and brought down from the DC area.

Some areas such as Crozet/Old Trail remain slow to attract new rental residents, while areas like Forest Lakes/Hollymead as well as Redfields continue to draw new rental residents and medium price homes in Lake Monticello are selling and larger area rental homes are renting.

Remote properties down Rt.20 South and out 250 West are the least desirable because of distance to town/gas costs, and lack of internet access.  Many of these areas are not serviced by our local cable company and Embarq has not made high-speed available to land line phone users.  The price of installing a HughesNet dish is costly for a rental home and properties where owners have not already installed this equipment are at a disadvantage.

Larger rural homes with high-speed/DSL access are at a PREMIUM and rent quickly as many residents desire to work from home when possible and not spend time or money on commuting to work/town.

All in all, rental property owners who market properly, price their rent within the market and do not put too many restrictions on tenant applicants will enjoy the benefits of this BRISK RENTAL MARKET.

Surprisingly, I started getting several calls over the Easter holiday from prospects who wanted to know if I would LOWER the rent.  They did not know the rent the property was listed at, they just had a figure in their mind or a budget rent that was clearly below the market rent for properties in our area.

After the 3rd or 4th such call, I started asking the caller why I should even consider lowering the rent when I had not reviewed their application, run their credit report or heard their offer….such as a longer term lease; 6 months rent in advance, etc.  They were shocked that I would want to “check them out” BEFORE I AGREED TO NEGOTIATE A LOWER RENT - why wouldn’t I just lower the rent for a voice on the phone?

Maybe it is the constant media attention to the nationwide real estate slow down, the pundits advising “now is the time to buy” or the make an offer/any offer mentality; the REALITY is  there are FEWER good rental homes for a LARGER pool of rental tenants this year.
 
….there are area apartment/multi-unit residents who want to move out on their own and lease a single family home;
….there are MORE people moving into the area with UVA Medical Center, the expansion of NGIC, UVa grads schools as well as new-hires to new businesses in the area - Lowe’s at Zion X Roads, construction/expansion of the UVa Med Center;
….more people are choosing to RENT rather than BUY….in past years, the rule of thumb was if you would be in the area for 2 to 3 years, it made financial sense to purchase a home * in the current market, these people are electing to rent so that they are not stuck with a home to sell when they have to leave the area; and,
….we still have people moving into the area who want to rent for a year  BEFORE they decide where they want to buy or if they want to buy or build their own home.

Add to this, the fact that many investor owners have sold their older, single family investment homes over the last few years and gotten out of the rental/landlord business.  This has removed many homes around the university and urban ring from the rental pool so that even with property owners who have tried to sell homes and have now placed their homes on the rental market, the number of well maintained homes in DESIRABLE areas (south and north of town) will not provide enough inventory for the anticipated demand.

The economics of being a landlord can often be contrary to the current real estate market……Central Virginia landlords have the best of both worlds……