Featured Property Manager of The Week - Allied Property Management Group, Inc.

Allied Property Management Group, Inc. - Fort Lauderdale, Florida


In Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, St. Lucie, and Martin Counties, Allied Property Manangement Group, Inc. Rental Management Division offers leasing and management to rental and investment property owners as well as apartment and multi family buildings.

Allied Property Management Group Inc.'s committment to service excellence and industry leading use of technology offers our clients unparrelleled service & value, and has made us a top choice in the markets we serve.

Our Capabilities

• Tenants can pay rent online with an e-check, debit from their bank account and also with a credit card. This feature increases tenant satisfaction and speeds the process of collecting and submitting rent to you
• We provide you a monthly online statement of income and expenses
• We have established relationships with many vendors to help ensure the best pricing and honest work
• We use one of the best, industry specific software packages to run our management database and accounting functions – No QuickBooks!
• We pay you by direct deposit so you get your money faster, no matter where in the world you are
• Tenants can submit maintenance requests online
• Our thorough screening process that also allows tenants to submit their application online
• Ongoing education and certifications

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Landlord and Property Managers must changed with the Times

This economy has been tough on the real estate market to say the least. And many real estate companies have had to change the way they do business, especially when it comes time to finding new clients.


What about the rental management industry? We would think the rental market would be doing well, since so many homeowners are now being forced to become tenants, that the landlords or property management companies phone would be ringing off the hook. New would-be tenants would be flocking to their offices looking for a place to live. Maybe some are getting extra business, but the climate and type of clients are quite different from the pre-economic woes.


In todays environment the prospective tenant has more options than ever could be imagined. The inventory of available rental properties is enormous, lease with option to buy are becoming the norm as well as the desperate landlord that has no choice but to reduced his rental rate to unrealistic levels so as to bring some type of income in or face foreclosure.

Today rental market is a tenants dream scenerio and a landlords nightmare that unfortunately has few winners.

Even though rental rates are at record lows, tenants are still finding it difficult to qualify for a lease for the following reasons:

1- Many new tenants are previous homeowners that have poor credit due to a recent foreclosure which makes it difficult to qualify


2- Many new tenants recently lost a job and can not show steady employment


3- Many new tenants are looking for short term leases due to unstable jobs


4- Many new tenants household incomes have been cut in half making it impossible to qualify

5- Many new tenants can not come up with the required security deposit or other monies to

secure a property

For the Landlord or property manager many new challenges have become apparent:


1- You are competing amongst not only the current pool of rental properties, but now all the homeowners who can not sell so will rent their property instead.


2- It's very difficult to find a qualified tenant and if you do chances are you better give them a offer they can't refuse, cause the next landlord will.


3- You may have to loosen the reigns when it comes time to your screening


4- You may have to loosen the reigns when it comes time to asking for full security deposits upfront

5- You may have to change your per policy and start accepting pets if you didn't before

If you have a property management company helping you to secure a tenant, they should be doing things different. They can not wait in the office for the phone to ring anymore. They must be more aggressive in they advertising, showing properties even if this means after hours, move-in incentives, freebies...you get the picture.

Times are tough and this means making tough decisions. There no winners, but hopefully by making some changes we'll be the one that are still standing after its all said and done.


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Property Management Software - Your Property Manager Shouldn't be Without It

Nowadays to stay competitive and run your property management office like a lean machine, you should consider using some sort of property management software. There are many different products out there but Chris Thorman of Software Advice does a nice job of pointing out some cool features these software programs can offer you to make your life easier as a property manager. Check out his software reviews below.
Reposted by: Property Management Profile

Six Things Property Management Software Makes Easy
Author: Chris Thorman of Software Advice

If you’re like most property managers, your work day is stuck in the 20th century. Rent checks are collected through a metal drop box. Brochures sit idly by outside of your office. Your web site consists of one page with a phone number, e-mail address and a few photos. Enough paperwork is collecting in your office to create a fire hazard.

I want to point out six things that property managers can really master in the 21st century, thanks to the latest property management software systems.

Managing Leads to New Tenants

According to Apartment Internet Marketing, 46% of apartment prospects inquire about a property after normal 9 AM to 5 PM office hours.

How are you currently tracking these? Through e-mail? Scrolling through your Caller ID to check missed calls? Do you even know how effective your current advertising methods are?

Fortunately, many property management software applications will collect and organize your leads from all sources, even after you’re out of the office. Rent Manager is one company that is integrating marketing with it’s property management software.

A modern property management application can:

• Collect call information from prospects inquiring after hours
• Respond automatically via e-mail to internet prospects
• Track e-mail open rates so you can follow up with those who haven’t seen your response
• Broadcast e-mails to the leads you’ve collected but haven’t converted
• Log the source of leads to your web site (Craigslist.org, Apartments.com, etc)
• Track leads from offline sources through the use of specific phone numbers
• Integrate with your online advertising methods (pay-per-click, banners ads, etc.)

In our opinion, this is the wave of the future in property management software. With more and more people every day going to the internet to look for properties, integration of web services with your property management software will be the difference between surviving and thriving.

Connecting with Your Tenants

Don’t be that property manager on ApartmentRatings.com whose tenants claim is never around.

Running your office on one of the leading property management software applications will allow you to:

• Generate e-mail blasts to your tenants and rental owners
• Create community forums to discuss important topics and feedback
  
• Manage online calendars of events and important dates

In short, your property management software becomes your communication hub between you, your tenants and your rental owners. There’s no need to combine three of four different, separate services that don’t talk to each other. Moreover, you’ll be present without having to knock on every door.

Automation of Regular Tasks

If the rent deadline has passed and a tenant has not paid their rent yet, what do you do?

Typically, you either call them on the phone or drop off a notice at their door. That’s too much manual effort. Your property management system should email them an alert or late rent notice immediately. No need for you to type, print, mail or deliver.

Property management software can even ease the pain during one of the most stressful times of the year – tax season. Buildium’s property management software will automatically generate 1099 tax forms for vendors and rental owners and even file them electronically to the IRS. All of this is done from within the software itself.

The advantages of automation are clear: more time to focus on more important tasks (like finding leads), fewer mistakes and an overall higher level of efficiency.

Others tasks that have been automated by property management software are:

• Rent increases
• CAM charges
• Preventative maintenance scheduling
• Lease expiration notices
• Tenant log in to view account details

Many of your automated notices to tenants can be emailed directly from the property management software or even sent to mobile phones.
Advertising with Popular Web Sites

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective tenant. Where are you going to look first for a new apartment or home? More than likely, you’re going to start your search at Craigslist or another website.

Property management software company Appfolio integrates the ability to post listings to Craigslist directly into it’s software, making posting vacancies to the hugely popular web site that much easier.
Appfolio uses the information you’ve already entered and are managing about your properties and ports that information directly to Craigslist. No double entry and no time wasted managing your Craigslist account separately.

And it’s not just about making it easy to post to Craigslist. Appfolio allows you to design a custom template (pictured right) that makes your Craigslist posts stand out among the typical, text-only ads.

Building a Web Site that Integrates with Your Software

If you can count the number of pages on your web site on one hand, chances are it’s not doing much to help keep your occupancy rate high. You need more than a digital business card. What you need is a web site that appeals to prospects, tenants and property owners alike.

A good number of property management software systems out there give you the option to build a slick, fully functional web site that integrates directly with their software.

Property Ware and Rentec Direct are a few of the many property management software suites that give you this build-a-web-site option in addition to their other property management software services. They’ll build a fully customizable web site with all of the features you need.

Advantages of customizable property management web sites include:

• No coding or site maintenance is need on your part
• Installation is quick and painless
• They’ll manage your domain name
• Web site analytics built into the software
• Built in forms increase your lead generation
• All of this is integrated directly with the property management software

Instead of having one company handle your web site design and hosting and another handle your property management software needs, why not have one company do both?

Going Green

Eco-conscious tenants are increasingly concerned with the environmental footprint of their home, even if they are a tenant rather than an owner.

Here’s a list of ways that property management software helps property managers save energy and save paper:

• Storing documents digitally, resulting in fewer lost documents and less paper
• E-mailing renter’s statements at their request instead of printing out paper statements
• Scan renter’s checks and upload them electronically
• Web-based property management eliminates the in-house server, saving energy

Going green isn’t just about saving energy and trees. It also helps you increase your efficiency:

• Digital document storage cuts the time searching for documents dramatically when you can type in a search instead of rummaging through a massive file cabinet
• E-mailing out monthly statement’s is quite a bit quicker than printing, stuffing envelopes and making the rounds on your property dropping off statements
• Imagine eliminating those weekly, sometimes daily, trips to the bank when you can scan and uploading a renter’s check from your desk
• Web-based property management software virtually eliminates IT headaches (and time spent dealing with those headaches) because your software vendor hosts the software on their own servers

If you do take these energy saving measures and advertise them, you’ll attract more customers. And depending on the extent of the “greening” of your properties, you’ll be able to charge more in rent too.

What else does property management software help you do better? What things do you want your property management to take care of that it currently doesn’t?

Featured Property Manager of The Week - PRODIGY INTERNATIONAL REALTY

Prodigy International Realty - Sunny Isles Beach, Florida


Prodigy International Realty provides all services required for the management of your property. We offer a wide array of property management services, which are very beneficial to the international or out of state homeowner who needs someone to take complete care of their investment property or vacation home in Florida.

Because our property management portfolio is boutique style, we can offer our clients the personalized attention that their assets deserve.

Our Specialty is the rental, management and sales of Condominiums, Townhomes and Single Family Homes, serving the needs of property owners and residential tenants in metropolitan Miami-Dade and Broward areas.

If you currently own or intend to purchase residential property for rental in Miami- Dade and Broward counties, consider using our property management service. You will find it both professional and cost-effective; we know how to manage property for optimum performance, while ensuring smooth running tenancies.


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Help for the Rental Property Owner - Is there such a Thing

We all know how difficult it's been in this economy. The real estate market has taken a huge hit with record foreclosures, a failing mortgage industry and homeowners seeing their home equity disappear. Some homeowners are finding some relief by refinancing through one of the loan modification programs available for struggling homeowners. The current administration is heavily focused on keeping homeowners in their homes.

When the real estate market was good, many people were looking to get into home ownership and take advantage of the favorable lender environment. In another corner, many investors were buying up rental properties at record pace to capture the low interest rates, "zero downs", 100% financing and attractive ARM's not normally available for rental properties. And with so many baby boomers on the horizon, many were buying as second homes for their future, but using them as rentals for the short term. Of course, all assuming the market would continue to go up, equities would continue to rise and they'd have retirement funds in abundance.

Unfortunately this did not happen and many of these investors are now holding onto investment properties that have lost much of their value, have mortgages set to re-adjust at higher rates and are now becoming long term landlords.

Many have tried to apply for the same loan modification or refinance programs that are being offer to homeowners in their primary residence, only to find out that most of these programs do not apply to properties in the catagory of "investment properties", especially if the original financing terms were catogorizes as a "second home" and now the property is used as a rental.

Also if a second mortgage is attached to the rental it can almost be impossible to get the second lienholder to subordinate and allow the 1st mortgage to be modified. Nor would it be easy to get the first lienholder to consolidate 1st and 2nd mortgages together as this would most likely cause an upside down mortgage (over 100% financing).

As a result there are not many options for a property investor other than to try and stay afloat and hope their tenant never moves out. Or lose your property to a quick sell (hoping to break even), a short sale or worse foreclosure.

To me it's interesting this administration hasn't given much thought to the needs of property investors, as this group of people are not only helping the economy by offering affordable housing to many that have lost their homes, but also to the fact that these investors create many jobs in the building industry, supply income to the state and city by way of property tax revenues, banks, tradesmen, carpenters, real estate companies and property management companies.



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Featured Property Manager of The Week -

Capitol City Properties, Inc - Washington D.C.

Capitol City Properties, Inc. is a full service property management and Real Estate Brokerage firm. We take pride in the services we provide to our property owners and clients. As property management specialists with unique expertise in managing apartment buildings, condominium associations, strip shopping centers, residential and commercial properties, we provide comprehensive commercial real estate services. Capitol City Properties, Inc. is committed to preserving the value of an investment/rental property while generating income as an agent for its clients. When you engage Capitol City Properties, Inc. to manage and operate your investment property, you are assured to receive top quality professional services and advice.

We build relationships based on trust, proving time and time again, that service reigns as the number one factor in finding a quality real estate company to work for you. We work closely with each client; to make sure that every angle is examined, offering options based on value to your business or your personal investment. Contact us and find out why we emphasize INTEGRITY.

In the Property Management division everything we do is focused on the ultimate goal of maximizing our client’s cash flow and increasing the net value of their investments as if we own it. From marketing to accounting to maintenance issues, we develop a customized business plan for each property. Then, we find the best people to execute it.

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Featured Property Manager of The Week - Fletcher Property Management, Inc.

Fletcher Property Management, Inc. - Little Rock, Arkansas
A leader in the property management industry, Betty received her broker’s license in 1999 and opened Fletcher Property Management, Inc., CRMC^® for business on January 1, 2000. After joining the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM^®) in 1999, she served in varying capacities on both a local and national level. Locally she is the founding president of the Central Arkansas Chapter of NARPM^® where she is still an active member. Her service on the national level includes chairing the Membership Committee, the Editorial committee, 6 years on Board of Directors. She is proud to have utilized the Endless Possibilities of NARPM^® by serving as the 2008 National President.

After completing extensive coursework and industry service work, Betty achieved the elite Master Property Manager (MPM^®) designation in September 2002. Betty is a frequent speaker at local, regional and national property management meetings and conferences as well as having numerous articles published in management specific national publications.

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