Kimberly Smith
10 Mistakes Property Owners Make When Writing their Property Listing
When it comes to marketing a rental property, many investors (myself included at one point) believe that a compelling set of numbers trumps any other information you might include in your property listing. While this might be the case once a buyer or potential tenant looks at those numbers, if ...
Buying at Auction, Behind the Scenes
Buying property at auction can be exciting and profitable, but it’s important to understand how the process works. Whether you are bidding online or in person, understanding how to research and prepare for auction and how to bid effectively during an auction will enable you to achieve your real estate ...
Investing in Corporate Housing: Monetizing the 30-Day Stay
Corporate Housing: A solution for corporate employees who need monthly lodging, usually provided through businesses offering fully-furnished private residences for stays of 30 or more days. Pain-Per-Dollar (PPD): The amount of work that each dollar you invest “costs” you on a property. For example, a typical vacation rental has a high PPD ...
Contagious diseases, hazmat, ebola and your real estate responsibility as a landlord
Before you read the rest of this blog, make sure you have the answers to these questions: Have you ever done a hazardous materials cleanup? Do you have a hazmat cleanup company on your vendor list? Does your insurance cover the costs of a hazmat clean? Does your loss-of-rent insurance ...
How to manage tenants who eat and smoke marijuana in your rentals
As most of you know I live and work as a real estate broker in Colorado, and everyone asks about marijuana. Our first course of action, after recreational use was legalized, was to amend our leases to make sure the no-smoking-clause also included a no-smoking marijuana clause. The reality is, ...
How does a corporate rental differ from a vacation rental?
We are continuing our question and answer guide to help real estate agents and their investor clients understand the ins and outs of corporate housing as an investment opportunity for their portfolios. This week we look at corporate rentals vs vacation rentals. Vacation rentals are typically offered for nightly or ...
Who are the prospective tenants and where is the best place to buy a corporate rental?
We are continuing our question and answer guide to help real estate agents and their investor clients understand the ins and outs of corporate housing as an investment opportunity for their portfolios. Corporate housing has been traditionally used by traveling business professionals who are staying in a city for one ...
Can I expect more income from a corporate rental than a traditional rental?
This week Kimberly Smith continues her series on guiding real estate agents who want to help investors buy properties for the purpose of high cash flow vs. fixing and flipping. Corporate housing may be right for investors who are interested in alternative investment opportunities beyond traditional rentals or labor intensive ...
How do landlords manage corporate rentals?
Realtors, many investors will buy investment properties for the purpose of high cash flow vs. fixing and flipping. If cash flow is the preference, a corporate rental may be the investment your client has been searching for; after all, corporate housing is for investors looking to make more money and ...
How agents can help clients buy investment property
If you’re a real estate agent with an established real estate practice, chances are you have or will have a client who wants to buy an investment property. Helping these clients identify the right investment property is now in your hands. You don’t want to mess it up. What are ...
How long did your last tenant stay?
We asked the tenant “length of stay” question in multiple ways to ensure we received accurate data for our annual survey of corporate housing by owners. To better understand the length of stay trends, we asked: “How long did your last tenant stay?” and “On average, how long do your ...
Walk softly and use your credit and background checks wisely
This is an interesting topic as more people have bad credit because they’ve gone through bankruptcy or foreclosure on a previous property. In today’s environment, credit reports must be used to see the bigger picture about a prospective tenant. In looking at a renter who has poor credit, you need ...
Should you consider not having a security deposit?
We have found that offering Accidental Rental Damage Insurance (ARDI) is one of the newest trends in the “by owner” community, and could be something many landlords should consider instead of the traditional security deposit. See our chart below on whether landlords charge a security deposit or not. We started ...
Should you rent to a tenant who uses legal marijuana?
We landlords have a new headache. Legal marijuana. For those of us who lease properties in states like California, Colorado, Washington, Michigan and a growing number of others states, we now have to consider the issue that some form of medical marijuana or recreational marijuana is now legal. On top ...
Why “by owner” makes a difference for investors
An essential difference between the standard serviced corporate housing industry and the “by owner” segment is the size of property that is rented – and more specifically, the number of bedrooms. Properties rented by private owners are generally larger in both overall size and bedroom count than the typical, business-to-business ...
How do landlords find tenants?
Getting a property rented is about having the right property at the right price and being able to connect with the right tenant. There is never one, perfect place to find a renter, and as the economy and business trends change, where you find those right tenants will also change ...
How many landlords take pets and what do they charge?
Many long-term business travelers are arriving at rental properties with pets. Pets can give landlords advantages and this week we look in more depth based on our survey "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." Many renters continue to travel with pets. 43% of survey respondents say they accept pets (down ...
What types of tenants do we get?
This week we look at what kinds of tenants we get as we continue with excerpts from our survey "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." In general, our experience has always been that corporate housing tenants are LPD (“less pain per dollar”) than tenants of vacation rentals. We asked respondents ...
How many landlords handle property management themselves?
This week we look and property management and trends among landlords, plus where most landlords get their leasing forms -- you may be surprised -- and how many actually show property to prospective tenants. This is all from our survey and excerpts from the "By Owner Corporate Housing Annual Report." ...
What rates do landlords charge for corporate housing?
This week we continue looking at excerpts from the research in our “By Owner” Corporate Housing Annual Report" by looking at actual rental rates landords charge. Variances: Changes in Rates. 60% of respondents say they offered the same rental rates in 2013 as they did in 2012. 33% reported they ...
What landlords think about the 2014 outlook for profits
In our survey, 36% of landords predict that 2014 will be better and more profitable than 2013 – similar to responses in 2012. Only 6.3% of respondents believe that 2014 will be less profitable, down from the 10% who had this outlook in 2012. According to respondents, the outlook for ...
What the landlords had to say in our survey
Relevant data equals real estate success. To support the success of Do-It-Yourself landlords who have corporate housing rentals, help them gain insights into industry trends, and better understand how such trends can help shape rental management, CorporateHousingbyOwner.com (CHBO) announces the 5th annual "By Owner" Corporate Housing Report. CHBO is a website dedicated ...
Making Money with Rental Properties- my book is out!
By Kimberly Smith Real estate investment tools are making it easier for individuals to succeed in residential real estate investments and all signs are pointing to 2014 as the start of mainstream acceptance of residential property investments. I has spent the past few years trying to get a real estate ...
Nine items your property manual should provide to tenants
When jumping into the world of real estate property management taking the time to establish systems, procedures and documents will not only make you more money, they will save you time and potential situations that can cost you money. One of the must haves is a property manual that will ...
Three principles to always remember in your real estate investing
Have fun investing in your future, but always remember to respect the fundamentals. The old saying, “kick the tires” is also true in real estate so don’t skip over the basics. Regardless of your real estate experience, there are always important fundamentals that are important for you to remember and ...
