Property Management
Tips for landlords and property management services offered by Condo Alexandria in managing condominiums.
Commercial Giants See Prospects Improving
Commercial real estate is showing signs of renewed life in the form of stronger leasing volume, more property management work, and increased investment sales.
Lauralee Martin, chief operating and financial officer at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), remarks, “Once companies believe there is a bottom, they have confidence to make decisions.”
In the months to come, some firms will consolidate and optimize leased space after cutbacks — ideally in better buildings with lower rents. Other companies will buy or sell buildings.
Revenue at JLL and CB Richard Ellis Group suggests commercial property buyers, sellers, tenants, and owners are starting to make more decisions regarding their space. Revenue climbed 18 percent at the former and 23 percent at the latter during the second quarter compared to a year earlier. In addition, both firms rank high in share price gains within Investor’s Business Daily’s Real Estate Development/Operations group.
CB Richard Chief Executive Brett White concludes, “After the recovery gets going and the economy gets its steam, you move into a long-term expansion.” He adds that expansion is when “every quarter is positive in job growth and GDP.”
Source: Investor’s Business Daily, Marilyn Alva (09/24/10)
Questions To Ask Your Property Manager…
Always be sure to ask your Property Manager, what the ….
- Procedure is to be followed in filing a notice for paying rent.
- Notices are to be delivered to a tenant under the terms of a lease.
- Important legislation is looming on the horizon regarding debt collection.
- Maximum collectable security deposit is under Virginian law
- Rights to be exercised in situations where pets are involved on a property.
- Amenities are made available on the property.
- Updated fair credit reporting roles and requirements are.
- Federal and/or State laws that do govern fair housing.
- Permitted questions are to be asked on application.
- Law is for unclaimed personal property, then enforced on previous tenants.
If these questions aren’t answered in a prompt manner by your Property Manager, better think twice.
To ensure that all your questions are answered, doubts cleared and responsibilities met, where your well being and welfare is a part of our concern; Look for exceptional and up to date expertise from only Condo Alexandria.
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Renting Unsold Property May Be a Good Move
Home owners who can’t or don’t want to sell their homes in today’s market but must move should consider renting out the property.
Obtaining a professional property manager is a good first step. Professional property managers charge 7 percent to 10 percent of the monthly rent in many areas. Two associations whose members manage small residential properties are National Association of Residential Property Managers and Institute of Real Estate Management.
Current rents may not be high enough to cover carrying charges, including mortgage, taxes, and insurance. Nevertheless, renting out the property may still make sense if property values rise in the next few years.
Offering a 12-month lease that converts to month-to-month is a good idea, if the owners are considering selling eventually. Include language in the lease that allows a real estate professional to show the home to potential buyers with 24 hours’ notice to tenants.
Source: Money Magazine, Amanda Gengler (07/28/2010)
Rentals Are a Booming Business
Web sites like Airbnb.com, HomeAway.com, and Craigslist are enjoying a surge of listings from home owners, many of whom admit they are hoping to avoid foreclosure by renting out their properties.
Airbnb.com – its full name is AirBed & Breakfast – is the newest of these sites. Since its founding in 2007, it has grown to encompass rentals in 5,700 cities in 148 countries. The company charges 10 percent to travelers and 3 percent to the home owner.
HomeAway.com charges home owners $300 annually to list a property. It is adding 15,000 new properties each month.
Craigslist is free of charge.
Source: Bloomberg, Scott Hamilton and Anthony Feld (07/20/2010)
Renting Can Be a Good Option for Sellers
Home owners who have been trying to sell their properties for a year or more might consider lease or a rent-to-own option.
A lease option agreement gives the tenant the option to buy at a predetermined price for a rent that is slightly higher than market. In a lease purchase, a buyer commits to buying the property. In exchange, the seller credits a percentage of each payment toward the purchase price.
Either arrangement is likely to attract serious renters who would like to buy the property if they can. In exchange, they’ll take good care of it.
Negotiating these agreements can be tricky, and the owner should always get help from a real estate attorney.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher (06/16/2010)
What Do Property Managers Do?
Property managers can come in the form of a person or a company. Either way, what they do can be simply summarized as: getting paid to oversee a real estate property on behalf of the owner.
The responsibilities of a property manager include (as applicable) dealing with the property’s tenants, facilitating repairs or improvements necessary for homes, assuring overall cleanliness and general maintenance of the property, landscaping, etc. This is, of course, in line with any arrangements the property manager has agreed upon with the owner.
It is possible for a property manager to handle multiple properties and interface with several owners. Services offered may also differ depending on the type of property and what was initially agreed upon with the owner. For example, in the case of vacation homes, which are only periodically occupied, greater security measures may have to be employed by the property manager. The property manager must also be certain that everything is in place and ready whenever the owner comes over for vacation.
There are also cases when the property manager is tasked to handle a commercial property, wherein one of the requirements is to operate the business (if the manager is qualified) as well as managing the property itself.
For a property manager to be effective, he or she must be able to maintain a good relationship not only with the owner of the property but also the tenants. This should be done on top of the core duty of maintaining, beautifying and keeping in order the real estate property.
With the right property manager, owners can rest assured that their properties are in good hands and tenants can enjoy the satisfaction of living in a secure, well-maintained and beautiful home.
Tenant Duties and Landlord Remedies
If you are considering renting an apartment from a landlord or condominium owner or if you are thinking about leasing your property for rent, it is important that you know both the law and the legal instruments that govern landlord tenant relationships in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Leases:
First, consider the lease. A lease is the contract that governs a landlord-tenant relationship. In contrast, covenants within a lease are generally independent of the lease itself, where if one party breaches a covenant, the other party may still recover dam¬ages but cannot terminate the landlord-tenant relationship in its entirety. Although not covered herein, the doctrines of actual and constructive eviction and the implied warranty of habitability are exceptions to this general rule. In addition, many states including Virginia have created a statutory exception to this general rule which does allow, however, a landlord to terminate a lease for any nonpayment of rent. Below is a brief discussion of a tenant’s duty regarding the doctrine of waste and other considerations including ordinary wear and tear as they may or may not be contemplated in any given leasehold agreement.
Tenant’s Duty to Repair and the Doctrine of Waste:
A tenant has a duty not to damage (or commit waste on) a leased premises. There are three rules governing waste in a leasehold context, all of which a Landlord may recover for from the tenant in the form of damages should the tenant breach.
1) Voluntary (affirmative) waste results when the tenant intentionally or negligently damages the premises or exploits minerals on the property.
2) Permissive waste occurs when the tenant fails to take reasonable steps to protect the premises from damage from the elements. The tenant is liable for all ordinary repairs, excluding ordinary wear and tear. If the duty is shifted to the landlord (by lease or statute), the tenant has a duty to report deficiencies promptly, and the tenant can assume liability for such deficiencies if not reported in a timely manner pursuant to the lease agreement.
3) Ameliorative waste occurs when the tenant alters the leased property, thereby increasing its value. Generally, the tenant is liable for the cost of restoration. There is a modern exception to this rule, however, which permits a tenant to make this type of change if he is a long-term tenant and the change reflects changes in the neighborhood.
Finally, remember that in the absence of a specific reference to ordinary wear and tear, most repair covenants frequently exclude ordinary wear and tear whereby a Landlord usually remains obligated for certain structural and casualty destruction repairs except for damages caused by the tenant.
VA Property Managers and Real Estate Agents * Chip Dicks’s to UPDATE VRLTA!!!
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.
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Appeal Your Property Tax Bill
Add a fence for privacy and distinction
Owning a home is an expensive proposition. There’s maintenance, landscaping, utilities, renovations, and, of course, taxes. It’s your civic duty to pay the latter, but it’s also your right not to yield a penny more than your fair share.
It’s possible to trim your property tax bill by appealing the assessed value of your home. But making a case against your real estate assessment, the basis for your property tax bill, requires doing a bit of homework. Initial research can be done online or by phone over two or three days, but the process can stretch out for months if you’re forced to file a formal appeal.
Read your assessment letter
A real estate assessment is conducted periodically by the local government to assign a value to your home for taxation purposes. An assessment isn’t the same as a private appraisal, and the assessed value of your home isn’t necessarily how much you could sell it for today. Real estate assessment letters are mailed to homeowners annually, or perhaps every two to three years, depending where you live.
The letter will include some information about your property, such as lot size or a legal description, as well as the assessed value of your house and land. Additional details—number of bedrooms, for example, or date of construction—can often be found in the property listing on your local government’s website. Your property tax bill will usually be calculated by multiplying your home’s assessed value by the local tax rate, which can vary from town to town.
If you think your home’s assessment is higher than it should be, challenge it immediately. The clock starts ticking as soon as the letter goes out. You generally have less than 30 days to respond, though the time frame varies not just between states, but within each state. Procedures are often outlined on the back of the letter.
Gather evidence
Start by making sure the assessment letter doesn’t contain any mistakes. Is the number of bathrooms accurate? Number of fireplaces? How about the size of the lot? There’s a big difference between “0.3 acres” and “3.0 acres.” If any facts are wrong, then you may have a quick and easy challenge on your hands.
Next, research your home’s value. Ask a real estate agent to find three to five comparable properties—“comps” in real estate jargon—that have sold recently. Alternatively, check a website like Zillow.com to find approximate values of comparable properties. The key is identifying properties that are very similar to your own in terms of size, style, condition, and location. If you’re willing to shell out between $350 and $600, you can hire a private appraiser to do the heavy lifting.
Once you identify comps, check the assessments on those properties. Most local governments maintain public databases. If yours doesn’t, seek help from an agent or ask neighbors to share tax information. If the assessments on your comps are lower, you can argue yours is too high. Even if the assessments are similar, if you can show that the “comparable” properties aren’t truly comparable, you may have a case for relief based on equity. Maybe your neighbor added an addition while you were still struggling to clean up storm damage. In that case, the properties are no longer equitable.
Present your case
Once you’re armed with your research, call your local assessor’s office. Most assessors are willing to discuss your assessment informally by phone. If not, or if you aren’t satisfied with the explanation, request a formal review. Pay attention to deadlines and procedures. There’s probably a form to fill out and specific instructions for supporting evidence. A typical review, which usually doesn’t require you to appear in person, can take anywhere from one to three months. Expect to receive a decision in writing.
If the review is unsuccessful, you can usually appeal the decision to an independent board, with or without the help of a lawyer. You may have to pay a modest filing fee, perhaps $10 to $25. If you end up before an appeals board, your challenge could stretch as long as a year, especially in large jurisdictions that have a high number of appeals. But homeowners do triumph. According to Guy Griscom, Assistant Chief Appraiser of the Harris County (Texas) Central Appraisal District, of the 288,800 protests filed in his Houston-area district in 2008, about 58% received reduced assessments.
How much effort you decide to put into a challenge depends on the stakes. The annual U.S. median property tax paid in 2008 was $1,897, or 0.96% of the median home value of $197,600. Lowering that assessed value by 15% would net savings of about $285. In some parts of New York and Texas, for example, where tax rates can approach 3% of a home’s value, potential savings are greater. Ditto for communities with home prices well above the U.S. median.
There are a few things to keep in mind as you weigh an appeal. The board can only lower your real estate assessment, not the rate at which you’re taxed. There’s also a chance, albeit slight, that your assessment could be raised, thus increasing your property taxes. A reduction in your assessment right before you put your house on the market could hurt the sale price. An easier route to savings might lie in determining if you qualify for property tax exemptions based on age, disability, military service, or other factors.
This article provides general information about tax laws and consequences, but is not intended to be relied upon by readers as tax or legal advice applicable to particular transactions or circumstances. Readers should consult a tax professional for such advice, and are reminded that tax laws may vary by jurisdiction.
Barbara Eisner Bayer has written about mortgages and personal finance for the past 15 years for Motley Fool, the Daily Plan-It, and Nurse Village, and is the former Managing Editor of Mortgageloan.com and Credit-land.com. She has successfully challenged her real estate assessment.
