Tag Archives: home for rent
5 Tips for Handling a Deposition
Given the complexity of real estate transactions, there’s always a chance that something could go wrong—and that you will have to answer questions under oath about a deal you were involved with. The deposition could stem from an error you made or something you neglected to do, or the attorney might just want to interview you because of your involvement with the transaction. In any event, knowing how to handle yourself is critical.
Here are five tips to help you deal with a deposition.
Don’t say more than you have to.
Attorneys like it when someone says more than they need to during a deposition, because the extra information might prove useful if a case goes to trial, notes Robert A. Sayas, an attorney with Sayas, Schmuki, Rondini & Plum S.C. in Wauwatosa, Wisc. That’s why it’s better to speak as concisely as possible if you have to answer questions during a legal proceeding—and to not provide information unless you’re asked for it directly, he says. If “yes” or “no” will do, that’s all you have to say, Sayas says. “Answer the question asked of you. No more. No less.”
Ask for clarification.
Always be sure you understand what you’re being asked before answering when you’re speaking during a deposition, says Marc W. Brown, an attorney with Goldberg Segalla in Buffalo, N.Y. “It’s OK to say you don’t understand a question and ask for it to be rephrased,” Brown says. “You never know when your testimony could come up and be used against you.”
Don’t guess or speculate.
The last thing you want to do during a deposition is say something that is inaccurate or false, Brown says, so if you aren’t sure of the answer to a question or don’t remember a particular detail, say so. “If you answer, it looks like you understand,” he says. “and if it turns out that [something you say] is not 100 percent correct, the other side will amplify it to the tenth degree before a jury.”
Keep your feelings to yourself.
If it looks like you’re prone to letting your emotions get the better of you, the attorney questioning you could take note and attempt to rattle you during a trial, says Sayas. “Angry witnesses can be less credible to a jury and are less effective because they have a hard time staying on point,” so it’s essential to keep your cool during a deposition, he says.
Don’t bring documents you’d rather not share.
It may seem reasonable to have documents at hand during a deposition, but keep in mind that the other side could ask to see that material—and you might be compelled to comply with their request, says Brown. You could also be forced to turn over documents you say you used to refresh your memory, even if you don’t have them with you, he adds. Your best course of action is to only bring along or discuss documents that you wouldn’t mind sharing, Brown advises
Credit to Sam Silverstein
As a writer-producer for the National Association of REALTORS® based in Washington, Sam Silverstein develops articles and videos for NAR’s members and others interested in its activities, statistics and research.
5 Wall Decorations for Renters
A Continuing Shortfall of Homes
We can only get to an ideal market with an uptick in new construction.
The first half of the year looked strong, with home sales and prices rising moderately on top of the gains experienced in 2015. Though prices will continue to rise, sales in the second half face more challenges. That’s because too few homes are available to keep up with demand. Total inventory on a year-over-year basis fell 6 percent in July, the 16th consecutive monthly decline. The supply level hit 4.7 months. In contrast, when home prices were falling several years ago, the supply hovered between 10 and 12 months.
The most recent housing crisis was the result of a collapse in demand, which led to depressed home prices and rising foreclosures. The next housing “crisis” will be due to a collapse in supply.
As employment strengthens, more households would like to buy, but there aren’t enough homes for sale. Home prices are rising at a higher rate than incomes are growing. While income has ticked up a percentage point or two, home prices have been growing by 5 or 6 percent a year. That in turn is creating an affordability crisis. Somewhat paradoxically, the home ownership rate—at 63.5 percent of households—is at a 50-year low even though mortgage rates, at about 3.5 percent, are also at their lowest level over the same time period.
Looking ahead, new-home sales will rise in the second half of the year as builders boost construction. We expect between 700,000 and 800,000 single-family starts in the year ahead. That’s a marked improvement from just a few years ago, when housing starts were a fraction of the historical norm. Still, we need about 1.5 million starts annually because of the country’s expanding population. In the meantime, affordability issues will likely hurt existing-home sales. That’s even more likely to be the case if interest rates start edging up. Only when supply reaches closer to six months—our definition of a balanced market—will we see the best of all worlds: rising new-home sales, rising existing-home sales, rising home prices, and a rising home ownership rate.
Credit to Lawrence Yun
Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research at the National Association of REALTORS®
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Don’t Stress Out Over Messy Tenants
What’s the best way to handle messy tenants – or should you?
Think back to the last time you rented a car. Before returning it, did you deodorize the floor mats, Windex the windows, give it a fresh paint job, and refill all the fluids?
No! And you probably complained about having to top off the gas tank.
Rental car companies don’t bat an eyelash when customers return vehicles in poor shape. They just clean them up, buff out the scratches, rent them out again, and get back to making money.
You, as a landlord, should have this very same mentality. It’s simply unrealistic to expect tenants to polish the countertops after every meal, wax the floors like Cinderella every night, and take immaculate care of every blade of grass in the yard.
I used to lose sleep over sloppy tenants.
I used to lose sleep over this. It would break my heart to see my properties in less-than-ideal condition, and I’d stress out about all the repairs and cleaning I’d need to do after the tenants moved out.
But eventually, I realized that cleaning up after sloppy tenants is just a fact of life for landlords. You can certainly withhold part or all of the deposit for damages, but in the grand scheme of things, if you’re playing your cards right, whatever money it costs is nothing compared with the amount you’re making off rent, appreciation, and tax savings. My life changed when I took my mind off tenant damage and instead focused on getting rich.
My life changed when I took my mind off tenant damage and instead focused on getting rich.
1. Focus on Big-picture Finances
If you find your blood boiling every time you inspect a recently vacated property, change your thinking.
Remember that, ultimately, your tenants are making you rich. For the entire time they rent from you, they’re paying your mortgage, covering your taxes, paying down your principal, and providing you with positive cash flow as your house appreciates. In return, they get a roof over their heads — one you can’t expect them to obsessively clean and maintain.
More often than not, tenants will take decent care of your property; at least, good enough for them to enjoy living in it. But don’t be shocked if, after they move out, your carpet is a little dirty, the walls could use a coat of paint, and the yard needs to be edged. Compared with how much cash your tenants gave you in rent as your home appreciated, fixing that stuff is a small drop in the bucket. At net, you’re still way ahead.
Worst-case scenario, if anything’s horribly expensive, you can always withhold your tenants’ deposits and make them pay for the necessary repairs.
2. Remove the Emotional Attachment
You might be renting out the home you grew up in, but this means nothing to your tenants. They are focused on making their own memories there.
I recommend staying away from the area as much as possible. Don’t drive by the house to reminisce about old times. You’re only going to feel bad when you see the landscaping isn’t how you want it and perhaps how tacky the lawn flamingos in the front yard are.
If you’re friends with the neighbors, do not listen to their gossip. Anything they tell you won’t be helpful. If the tenants are too quiet, they must be creepy and up to no good. If they’re too loud, they must be throwing parties.
3. Take Matters Out of Your Hands
I began my landlording career as a big proponent of the DIY approach. I was constantly running around like a madman from property to property, attempting to save money and address maintenance requests myself.
This didn’t last long, though. The final straw was when it took me three trips to Home Depot and about $500 to install a simple shelf in one of my homes — when I could have paid my contractor $100 to do it correctly on the first try. From that day on, I knew that adding “handyman” to my résumé wasn’t worth the fuss, and I started hiring pros.
Whether it’s repairs throughout the year or a deep cleanse after tenants move out, hire someone else to do the dirty work. Go out to dinner with your family instead.
Since learning to love sloppy tenants, my life as a landlord has become infinitely less stressful. Spills on the carpet and nicks on the walls aren’t the end of the world; they’re a part of life.
Take a deep breath, change your mentality, and be grateful that your sloppy tenants make you tens of thousands in appreciation, mortgage pay down, tax savings, and rental income each year.
Credit to the Guest Author – Mike Kalis
An entrepreneur at heart, CEO Mike Kalis leads the team at Marketplace Homes, a Detroit-based brokerage that specializes in new construction sales and property management. Marketplace has sold more than $1.5 billion in new construction homes, gained a controlling interest in more than 2,000 single-family properties, and been a four-time Inc. 5000 list awardee.
newstarrealty.com
TOP 10 DIY Repairs
Honesty, Respect, Ethics & Integrity
4 Considerations When Choosing Locks for Your Rental Properties
Locks are a property’s first line of defense. Before the alarm goes off, there is a small piece of metal keeping someone from breaking in.
But for a rental property, locks are so much more. They are a landlord’s or property manager’s way of assigning and revoking access. If someone moves out, they should not be able to get back into the property.
When a new tenant arrives, they should have complete access to their new home. That requires having old keys returned, rekeying, and having new keys made — and that is if the lock does not break.
With so many things to consider, how do you go about choosing the right lock?
1. Frequency of Use
A big concern with the frequency of a lock’s use is the amount of wear that the metal gets. These devices work from metal sliding past metal. As a result, the more the lock is used, the faster it wears out and needs servicing. On a property with many renters, you may want to consider getting a commercial-grade mortise lock. These devices stand up to a higher frequency of handle and key turns, and the components are easy to replace and repair if anything in the lock brakes.
2. Rekeying
There is a need to rekey the locks with every turnover in renters. Certain locks, such as any Kwikset SmartKey cylinder, are easy to rekey. These locks are made for deadbolts, handles, and knobs. The ease of rekeying allows you to change the key that works with these locks quickly and without calling a locksmith. The problem with items such as the SmartKey or the U-Change lock is that there is often a compromise in the security of the lock.
The U-Change Lock has a bypass that allows anyone to reset the lock to any key blank they can fit in the keyway. With security products, convenience often comes at the expense of safety.
3. Key control
A big issue with renting is that key control goes out the window. When you cannot control the key, you may need a lock change instead of simply rekeying. Once you give someone a key, it is your best guess what they do with it. Even a key with an impressioned “DO NOT DUPLICATE” message does little to protect the key from being copied at the local hardware store.
Many key duplicators are self-service machines, meaning that no one will see your message. And even if they did, many service techs at big box stores don’t care.
The answer to this dilemma is a lock with a patented key. These locks cannot have a key made without the registered lock owner approaching a locksmith or another register key distributor of the company. No one will be making keys without you if you make this investment. (Though industrious criminals could buy patent breaker keys and hand file them, this is not a concern for most landlords.)
4. Security
Having a lock that provides the property some security is essential. What is up to you is how much you care about said security. The base level of security is a lock on the front door. From there you add locks.
The next step is investing in locks that are harder to overwhelm. You want something with some level of anti-drill protection and with bump-key resistance. You may install an anti-drill plate to stand up to drills. They spin freely so that a drill bit cannot get a bite on the metal. They may also have a hardened steel pin that deflects a standard drill bit.
For bump-key resistance, you want security pins. Be wary of Kwikset and Schlage products that make this proclamation, as both have had products that claimed to be bump-proof, which was shown to be false.
For protection against forced entry from kicks and battering rams, focus more on the door and doorjamb than on the lock.
Top Brands
All of these companies have different lock models with different capabilities. Each lock is going to have different strengths and weaknesses which may not always line up with the brand’s overall track record. These are my favorite lock companies, in order:
- ASSA-Abloy
- Evva
- Medeco
- RR Brink
- Mul-T-Lock
- Corbin Russwin
- Yale
- Baldwin
- Schlage
- Kwikset
Now that you know what to look for in a lock, all you need to decide is what matters most to you. This does not have to be anything as heartless as saying that security does not matter. All you have to do is weigh the risks.
- Is there a crime problem in your area?
- Does the crime often include burglary, property theft, breaking and entering, etc.?
There are more ways to improve your security than just your locks. When it comes from threats that a rental property faces, the best place for security to start is often with key control.
Credit to the Guest Author – Ralph Goodman
Ralph Goodman is a professional writer and the resident expert on locksmith topics such as and security over at the Lock Blog. The Lock Blog is a great resource to learn about keys, locks and safety. They offer tips, advice and how-to’s for consumers, locksmiths, and security professionals.
