Take a look at the refinance rates now!
During the past few weeks, I have been doing some research on refinancing my home as mortgage rates have dropped sharply. Our current mortgage is a 30 year fixed at 6.25%. I also make an extra payment to principal each month and we have about 25 years left on the mortgage. Rates are looking so good, I am hoping to drop down to a 15 year mortgage at under 5% and end up with slightly lower overall payments. That way we will pay off our mortage 10 years earlier, save lots of money on interest and keep a little extra each month.
Everywhere I look it says you have to do your research and ask around to find the lowest rates. Several friends have given me some good information, but if anyone knows of a good place to find low refinance rates, please let me know! If I find any good references, I will update this post.
I think it is a good idea to always look for ways to make your investments more profitable. Now is a good time to see if you can save some money on your mortgage payments.
Where do your rental leads come from?
I am very excited that this week I sold a rental property my family owned for about 15 years. I know, I know. Why sell a house in a down market like this? Well, we negotiated the deal a long time ago for a premium price and the buyer was finally ready to complete the deal.
The real story here is that on the day before the closing, we got a call from a renter who wanted to rent the house for the next year. We gave the phone number of the renter to the buyer as a little gift (worth about $2,500!). Oh, where did that red hot lead come from? RentalsOnline.com of course.
Does the Super Bowl have an impact on the rental market?
I wonder if the Super Bowl has an impact on the rental markets like it does on the financial markets. As a huge Giants fan, I will be routing for the NFC to win this year. If they win, I predict the real estate market will turn around and rental rates will start rising again! What do you think?
Rentals.com new vacation site
My wife and I are planning a trip to Disney World. Last year we stayed in a private home off site and wanted to do that again. I did a few quick searches for home rentals in Orlando and took a look at the listings on Rentals.com.
When I clicked on the link for vacation rentals, I was a bit surprised to see that it brought me to their vacation rentals beta page. The page has a new logo, different URL structure and the search works a bit different. To me it looks like they are setting this up for a separate vacation rental site.
It will be interesting to see what approach they take with this. Trying to establish another site might be tough considering how many new rental sites have popped up lately.
Rents going lower in 29 markets
The Wall Street Journal reported that rents in 29 US markets have dropped as more unsold houses and condos have hit the rental market during the 4th quarter of 2007. If this trend continues and it looks like it will, landlords had better be prepared to get their rentals advertised early and in lots of places to make sure they find tenants. Even one month of lost rent would cost more than paying for an ad on a handful of quality rental listing sites that would attract renters.
Resolutions for 2008
2008 is finally here and I wanted to prepare a few resolutions for the new year. This post is really for me to follow, but you may want to see what direction I would like to take this blog this year.
- There is a lot of information I want to provide to help landlords and property managers rent their properties. This year, expect to see a lot more posts.
- There are so many blogs, forums and web sites that discuss similar topics and I want to participate in more of them and hopefully get a few other bloggers to visit here.
- While I do like this Word Press theme, the black color is a bit depressing. I want the blog to be more lively, so expect a new look in the near future.
- I would like to get more participation so some of my posts will be geared toward getting some good comments.
- It seems all my posts go into one or two categories. So I will be revisiting the categories so they are more useful in finding information fast.
- Adding more reference type information will help make this a good resource for landlords to come back regularly. I will be adding some helpful things throughout the year.
- Building excitement will not be very easy considering the topic, but I want people to be eager to come back often. So look for some more spirited entries throughout the year.
- One thing clearly missing is photos. I have a new digital camera phone that takes excellent pictures and I will definitely be sharing.
- There are many common landlord questions that I will try to answer.
- Finally, there are a few ideas for our home rental site that will be previewed here. Stay tuned!
Home rentals on Rent.com
I have noticed with increased frequency that Rent.com is changing their site to accommodate home rentals and not just apartment communities. The site is now showing up in some results for home rental searches and they appear to have changed some link titles from other sites.
It seems a bit surprising that they would enter this market using their existing site instead of starting a new site like Apartments.com did with RentalHomesPlus.com. Or, buying out a site that is already established.
The markets for both apartment and home rentals are very competative and adding a new segment now may dilute their apartment community rankings in the search engines. Also, from a landord or property manager perspective, where can they expect to see their house or condo listed? Behind all of the apartment community listings?
Does MyNewPlace.com see something special?
I was doing some research the other day and put our company name (OffCampusNetwork.com) in the search box on Google. To my surprise, I found that MyNewPlace.com comes up as a sponsored link. I guess they feel that if we don’t have an apartment in a particular area, they may have one that a renter would like. When I tested this for a few of our competitor sites, I noticed that none of them had a sponsored link.
Should we be flattered that they have recognized us in this way?
A day in the life of a landlord
I came across this interesting article today on Yahoo about what it can be like to be a landlord. Originally from Motley Fool, the article gives a good taste of what is involved with managing a rental property. Many of the topics they have included are covered in this blog, but one point I want to highlight for anyone who reads the article is the importance of GETTING HELP.
The real financial benefits of owning rental property come from steady income and capital appreciation. Trying to save a few dollars by doing everything yourself will likely lead you to frustration and bad decision making. Figure out what you do well and enjoy doing (painting, cleaning …). Then round up a list of professionals that can help with the rest (plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning). When possible, set up a maintenance plan so equipment stays in top working condition. Let your tenants know who to contact when certain types of repairs are needed.
In the long run, you will get much more out of your investment.
Do rental sites with a BBB logo offer a better sense of security?
A few months ago, our rental listing site, Off Campus Network joined the BBB online program. We wanted to let landlords and property managers know that when they list an apartment or house for rent on our site, they are dealing with a creditable organization that will protect their privacy and address any concerns they may have.
Yesterday, I was looking at a few of the other online rental listing sites and was surprised to see many of them are not members. This does not give a rental owner a lot of confidence that they have someone to go if an issue arises. We have seen so many rental sites come and go over the years. Perhaps they were just not able to build a level of trust with rental property managers to get them to list their properties.
The next time you go to list a rental online, check what assurances exist that your personal information is safe.
- How long has the company been in business?
- Do they offer a phone number and address on their contact page?
- Is your credit card information secure?
- What is the privacy policy?
- Can you update or cancel your listing at any time?
All of these things are very important. The BBB logo is also a very good sign.
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