Linda Liberatore
Institutional Class-Action Lawsuits Spell Trouble for Individual Landlords
Recently, industrial single-family home companies are getting some very bad press and facing some pretty nasty class-action accusations. For example, Invitation Homes, a Blackstone vehicle that began buying distressed single-family properties and rehabbing them for rent in 2012, faces a potential class-action suit in California that claims the company’s late ...
Every Real Estate Investor’s Guide to Digital Assistants
Whether you are a landlord or prefer some other real estate wealth-generation strategy, you know real estate investors never stop moving. Between lead generation, acquisition, rehab, and project management, you probably are on the go most of the day – especially if you also are still working another job full- ...
5 Strategic Videos that Will Revolutionize Your Real Estate Marketing
The same YouTube that hosts those crazy (and strangely addictive) cat videos can also be quite effective in promoting your real estate business. YouTube is a perfect platform for scaling your business brand along with adding a user-friendly team resource. Furthermore, many of the most effective YouTube strategies in use ...
The Online Paperwork Evolution, Simplified at Last
Legal document preparation, legal research, and document review grow more sophisticated daily due to the rising abundance of data. In the last two years, the amount of legal data available has tripled, and with it, the volume of search and translation tools has risen as well. That growth includes the ...
The Future is Now for Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate
From Hollywood to Wall Street, the term artificial intelligence (AI) is an agenda item. Everyone wants at least one peek into how AI will impact their business or industry. It probably comes as no surprise, then, that the giant data company Salesforce is been dedicated to the advancement of AI, ...
How to Effectively Communicate with Tenants
Our world today is a 24/7, instant-access world. We bank online, depositing checks using digital pictures. We reach out to family and friends, communicating instantaneously via email, social media, and text without regard to time of day or geographic location. This high-speed world includes everyone, including the residents of your ...
| 16 pages | 2,152 words | 10 minute read | Excerpt What You’ll Learn about efficient property management and landlord operations: How to integrate technology solutions that cut task times in half The importance of selecting the automated tasks that work best for your business work flow How to ...
Net Neutrality: What it Means for Real Estate Investors
On December 14, the FCC voted to kill Net Neutrality, now what? Linda Liberatore of Secure Pay One answers a few questions about net neutrality, what it is and how it could impact real estate investors. For those of you who had not realized this ruling happened, let's take a ...
Take a moment to consider the following questions: Are you spending all your time chasing down “slow pay” tenants rather than expanding your real estate portfolio and refining your investing strategies? Do you find the idea of turning over control of your real estate investments completely, i.e. “going turnkey,” just ...
Effective Networking at Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) Meetings
Attending a networking event can induce dread, anxiety, and the cold sweats, but don’t be tempted to skip that local real estate investor association (REIA) meeting! The reality is that business and real estate investing require you to build a team. The fastest way to build an effective one is ...
Commercial Investors vs. Zombie Malls
In the mid-1990s, malls were being constructed at a rate of 140 new shopping centers per year. In 2001, however, disturbing trends began to emerge. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that underperforming and vacant malls were becoming increasingly common. In 2007, for the first time in 50 years, there was not ...
3 Keys to Back-to-Back Tenant Turnover
Savvy landlords know the keys of a back-to-back move-in/move-out process: 365 days of uninterrupted revenue. With 2017 occupancy rates predicted to be 94.6 percent, landlords nationwide are trying to maximize payout and minimize lost time and revenue by moving old tenants out and new ones in as quickly as possible ...
3 Lease & Regulation Tips to Discuss with Your Legal Team
Often times new real estate investors purchase buy and hold properties without truly understanding the importance of having a good lease and regulation handbook. While attending many networking meetings I hear people say they downloaded a lease they found online or at a local big box store. Most of these ...
Owning rental properties is always an adventure if you choose to manage those properties personally. While no two days will ever be quite the same, there are some basic processes that you can implement to make the landlording experience a little smoother on a day-to-day basis. Here are three insider ...
3 Real Estate Images Social Media Users Can’t Resist
According to Socialnomics, 93 percent of buying decisions are influenced by the purchaser’s social media use. That is incredible! That means for every tenant who decides to check out one of your rental properties, nearly all of them were somehow influenced by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or some other social ...
3 Social Media Tips for Landlords to Increase Visibility
When most landlords get started in real estate investing, they learn quickly that their new career will require multiple skill sets. If you are like most of my clients, you still spend a great deal of time offline looking at potential deals for new properties, scanning the Multiple Listing Service ...
3 Tips for Using Virtual Assistants to Market Your Rentals
You may be the expert when it comes to your personal rental property portfolio, but that does not mean that you need to personally micromanage every aspect of the marketing campaign to fill those rentals. While many DIY landlords automatically discount the idea of using virtual assistants (VA) to help ...
Putting People First in Housing
Although no one knows for sure what changes the new presidential administration will bring to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA)’s current CEO has opted not to wait around for direction as the new inhabitants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue find their feet ...
Why Bicyclists Pay Higher Rents
DIY landlords looking to compete with the latest trends should consider implementing amenities for the bicyclist community. Understanding the changing cycles of the urban communities can play a strong role in your marketing and appeal to new residents. These past few years we have seen more bicycle amenity trends popping ...
Remember: “It’s Only a Zestimate!”
Real estate investors have always had a love-hate relationship with Zillow, which has firmly ensconced itself as a force in the housing data industry thanks to millions of listings with hundreds of details about each property in the system. In what is perhaps its greatest strength, Zillow excels at posting ...
Hack Simultaneously Transforms Investors to Homeowners and Landlords
National statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate home ownership rates at 63.7 percent as of April 2017 and rental vacancy rates at seven percent for the same time period. National trends indicate rentals will remain a strong market for the next 10 years. Whether you’re a millennial who has ...
Marathon Runners Similar to REIs
This past week my daughter completed her third marathon. Not a big accomplishment to most runners but her third marathon was the Boston Marathon. A runner you ask? No, I’d say a fairly new interest to her considering her first marathon was December of 2015. She did complete the Chicago ...
I Have to Pay for That? Mandatory Residential Inspections
Different municipalities have different rules for code compliance. Some areas generally require inspections for properties occupied by tenants using rent-subsidy vouchers. Other areas generally require inspections if a code violation is reported or suspected. Other areas practice systematic inspections of all multiple-unit residential housing. These new municipality inspections can pose ...
Aim for Fairness, Not Kindness with Tenants
Your tenant calls to inform you that they were fired from their job. They promise they are looking for work, and as soon as they get a new job they will make up payments on their past due rent. That seems reasonable, right? Everyone has set backs and you understand ...
Landlords: Social Media is on Your Side
Advertising vacant units or paying a leasing agent to assist you has increasingly become more expensive. Many landlords have been able to save money by utilizing social media to advertise their vacant spaces. Some social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, can serve as a great resource for ...
