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Mobile Leasing: The transition to mobile-based marketing, leasing and resident management in 2017

Mobile Leasing: The transition to mobile-based marketing, leasing and resident management in 2017

The buzz in the property management industry right now about the transition to mobile-based marketing, leasing and resident management, with the expectation that the pervasive tech obsession sweeping America will leave no process unturned.

The reality may be a little closer to the current standard practices of renting an apartment—with a couple of notable exceptions.

Industry insiders tell us that while things are going to change a lot for some high-end apartment communities and their tenants, many of us will still be filling out paper applications. But we may get to pay our rent and submit maintenance requests, online. And while searching for that great new place, expect to be courted with apps and mobile-friendly websites.

Here’s a step-by-step look at the apartment rental process and what’s changing—or, perhaps, staying the same.

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Tenant Screening: A Must for your Property!

Tenant Screening: A Must for your Property!

  • Posted: Oct 12, 2016
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If you want to minimize the risk in your property investment business, you should understand that a key to your success isn’t just buying the right investment property.

it’s finding the right property management–whether that’s you, or someone you hire. And a critical component of property management is finding the right tenant for your real estate investment property, which means tenant screening should be at the top of your priority list. Here are five things you can do to ensure that your tenant screening process helps you identify the best tenants and weed out the bad ones.

 

1. Let applicants know that tenant screening is mandatory.

Just hearing the words “screening process” will make some potentially bad renters self-filter and save you time.

2. Use your tenant screening process consistently.

A systematic and comprehensive screening process that you apply objectively to every applicant will protect you if someone claims you violated the Fair Housing Act. It will also help you to screen out bad renters.

3. Decide what your minimum qualifications will be, and stick to them.

Will you have income requirements so you have some assurance that your tenants can make their rental payments? Will you accept tenants with criminal records? What if they haven’t had any arrests for more than ten years and a steady job? Think about these issues, make a decision, and apply them consistently.

4. Run a credit check.

Credit checks are critical. You can find out applicants’ debt-to-income ratios and whether they pay their bills on time. Learn how to read a credit report. And never accept a credit report that a potential renter brings to you; get them directly from a credit reporting company.

5. Check references.

Always call present and past landlords. A present landlord may give a good reference to get rid of a bad tenant; a past landlord may be more forthcoming. Ask about evictions, complaints from other tenants, pets, major maintenance issues, if rent was paid on time, and if the landlord would rent to the tenant again. Also consider getting and checking employment and personal references.

 

Find Tenant Screening Companies on our Directory>>

 

If you don’t have the time or the desire to do tenant screening, don’t cut corners–consider hiring a property manager to help you. Alternatively, All Property Management has partnered with leading businesses, including TransUnion, to offer services to our clients. TransUnion offers a tenant screening service called MySmartMove that provides credit and criminal records checks, leasing recommendations, and suggested deposit amounts to independent property managers and residential real estate investors.

Have you screened tenants before? What methods did you use? Have you used social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Do you think that’s a good idea?

 

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Tips on Property Management Rental Income, Deductions and Record keeping.

Tips on Property Management Rental Income, Deductions and Record keeping.

If you own rental real estate, you should be aware of your tax responsibilities.

All rental income must be reported on your tax return, and in general the associated expenses can be deducted from your rental income.

If you are a cash basis taxpayer, you report rental income on your return for the year you receive it, regardless of when it was earned. As a cash basis taxpayer you generally deduct your rental expenses in the year you pay them. If you use an accrual method, you generally report income when you earn it, rather than when you receive it and you deduct your expenses when you incur them, rather than when you pay them. Most individuals use the cash method of accounting.

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a “TRIM Notice,” the notice reflects what the property taxes are likely to be on the November property tax bill.

a “TRIM Notice,” the notice reflects what the property taxes are likely to be on the November property tax bill.

Every August, the Office of the Property Appraiser mails a Notice of Proposed Property Taxes to all property owners. Also known as a “TRIM Notice,” the notice reflects what the property taxes are likely to be on the November property tax bill.

A number of factors can come into play when it comes to determining if the proposed taxes are a fair estimate. For example, failure to recognize the recent slowdown in the real estate market could mean the tax estimate is higher than it should be. To ward against paying more than their fair share of taxes, property owners have the option to petition for an appeal. And condo owners have a unique opportunity where tax appeals are concerned.

Florida law allows condominium association Boards to file a joint petition for property tax appeal to cover all units in the building. In theory, if one unit in the building receives a TRIM Notice with unfairly high property taxes, then chances are the other units did also. Thus, filing a single petition is an efficient way for associations to ensure their owners are not overpaying property taxes. For those unit owners that do not wish to participate, Florida law provides a simple process for opting out of the joint tax appeal.

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Become a Successful Property Manager in Florida

Become a Successful Property Manager in Florida

Property Management Education – Become a Property Manager

As the number of Floridians renting properties continues to increase at record rates, so has the demand for property managers.  Whether you are interested in purchasing your first investment property, or are looking to become a professional property manager, the basics are the same.

The Gold Coast Schools property management course will help you understand the responsibilities, functions, and skills involved in property management.  Included with your course is a detailed workbook that will serve as a practical reference guide covering how to handle everyday situations that you will encounter out in the field.

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Pest Control for Construction Projects

Pest Control for Construction Projects

Whether you’re renovating an older-style building, or constructing entirely new, redesigning your building’s structure can be exciting. However, if the right precautions aren’t taken, new construction can also attract unwanted attention from pests.

To help prevent pest issues during construction and ensure your facility does not become home to pests once construction is complete, our member Scott Cooksey, Owner of Bug Thugs Pest Protection. Pest Control Specialist, explains how you can build pest management into your construction plans.

There are a variety of proactive measures your facility can take before, during and after the construction process to accomplish this, Let us explain:

BEFORE

hire-an-insect-control-service“Before construction even begins, it’s important to get two people on board: your pest management provider and your contractor. An experienced pest management provider can do more than prevent and manage pest infestations that pop up during construction….

“When involved from day one, he/she can also provide feedback on building materials and locations that will be the least attractive to pests, and help you build measures into your construction plan that will lead to a successful pest management program when the doors to your new facility finally open,” He Said.

 

Several tips your pest management professional may provide include:

  • Use non-cellulose building materials to deter termites.
  • Consider applying a preventive termite barrier to the property.
  • Use pest monitors to assess pest populations in the surrounding area.
  • Understanding which pest species will be a threat will help you determine what steps you need to take to deter them.
  • Understand geographic conditions.
  • Selecting a location for your facility near a water source might create additional pest pressures.
  • Sufficiently grade the property to prevent puddles from forming around the foundation.

Remember, moisture attracts pests like mosquitoes and termites. Even though your management team may be the ultimate decision maker, it will be up to your contractor to take the lead on pest management during his/her work.

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The Falcon Group Acquires Maxim Management Group

The Falcon Group Acquires Maxim Management Group

MIAMI–In July 2016, The Falcon Group completed its acquisition of Maxim Management Group, an industry-leading project management and owner’s representation firm in Miami, Florida. The recent acquisition advances The Falcon Group’s mission of providing full-service engineering, architectural and project management solutions to the multi-family residential, commercial and hospitality market sectors.

 

News The Falcon GroupAs part of said acquisition, Max Sadik joins The Falcon Group as a Restoration Specialist. He is an experienced business operator and certified general contractor in the State of Florida. “I am excited to bring my sales and management experience to The Falcon Group,” says Sadik. “And believe there is going to be great synergy between myself, the team and our clients moving forward.”

 

The combination of the two companies will increase the value The Falcon Group delivers to its client base. “We are very excited about our recent business venture, said Principal William Pyznar. “Adding the local project management and general contracting background to our already strong restoration engineering and management team will bring a deeper level of insight and service to our clients in Southeast Florida. We look forward to providing a focus on clear, constant, transparent project communication and value engineering to exceed the expectations of our clients, with long-term durability in mind.” 

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If you don’t hire someone to field these inquiries, you’ll have to do it yourself.

If you don’t hire someone to field these inquiries, you’ll have to do it yourself.

Vacation Management managers can be found on SFPMA.com

Vacation listing websites help you book renters but they can take up to 30 percent in commissions. While this may seem high, remember that each booking can involve dozens of inquiries for each renter. If you don’t hire someone to field these inquiries, you’ll have to do it yourself.

You probably don’t want to rely on a listing website alone for your marketing. If you do, you may be costing yourself a lot of rented nights each year. Here are some relevant facts from the Vacation Rental Property Marketing Blog about vacation rental owners’ marketing expenses:

Vacation rental owners spent an average of $1,150 per year marketing their properties in 2011.

Half of all vacation rental owners only use listing sites to market their properties. This group experiences annual average occupancy rates of 54 percent.
Vacation rental owners who combine listing sites with their own websites bump their occupancy rates up to 76 percent, on average.
94 percent of all vacation rental owners believe they could be doing more to promote their properties.

Let us help by listing your Vacation Rental Company with us: 

SFPMA has a Directory used by Thousands of Clients looking for the management services you provide.

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E-Mails and E-Mail Addresses

E-Mails and E-Mail Addresses

Who is entitled to the e-mail addresses of your association’s members? Are e-mails sent between board members part of an association’s official records? What about e-mails sent by a board member to the manager?

 

Only the e-mail addresses of unit owners who have either consented to receive notice by e-mail or have consented in writing to the disclosure of their e-mail addresses are subject to review during an official record inspection. Section 718.111(12), Florida Statutes, provides, with regard to unit owner e-mail addresses, that “[t]he association shall also maintain the electronic mailing addresses… of unit owners consenting to receive notice by electronic transmission. The electronic mailing addresses… are not accessible to unit owners if consent to receive notice by electronic transmission is not provided in accordance with [this subsection].” This topic was discussed in Cohen v. Harbour House (Bal Harbour) Condominium Association, Inc., Arb. Case No. 2012-02-3139 (Summary Final Order / Lang / June 29, 2012).

 

In the Cohen case, a unit owner requested a list of all of the e-mail addresses of the members, however did not receive such a list. The unit owner alleged that she was improperly denied the e-mail addresses. However, it was discovered that the association did not have consent from any members to use their e-mail for the purposes of receiving official notices nor did the association have written consent to disclose the protected information from any member. Therefore, the arbitrator held that “[b]ecause, under the statute, no unit owner has submitted his or her email address for notice requirements or consented in writing to disclosure of his or her email address, the [a]ssociation did not improperly deny access by [the unit owner] to its list of email addresses.”

 

In today’s instant world, e-mail allows us to express our thoughts at anytime, anywhere. It is so convenient that it is unavoidable for board members to use it to discuss association business. As the official records of condominium, homeowner and cooperative associations are subject to inspection with limited exception, the question often asked is whether e-mails, including e-mails between board members and between one or more board members and the association’s manager, constitute part of the association’s official records that are subject to inspection by the members.

 

Several categories of records, while still constituting a part of the official records, are not subject to a member’s inspection request. For example, attorney-client privileged correspondence, medical records, information obtained by an association in connection with the approval of the lease, sale or other transfer of a unit and social security numbers, just to name a few, are not subject to a member’s inspection request but still constitute a part of the association’s official records.

 

On March 6 2002, the then Chief Assistant General Counsel of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (“DBPR”) issued an opinion which provided that “[c]ondominium owners do have the right to inspect e-mail correspondences between the board of directors and the property manager as long as the correspondence is related to the operation of the association and does not fall within the… statutorily protected exceptions… [The DBPR does not have] regulations expressly requiring archiving e-mails, but… if the e-mail correspondence relates to the operation of the association property, it is required to be maintained by the association, whether on paper or electronically, under chapter 718, Florida Statutes.”

 

In Humphrey v. Carriage Park Condominium Association, Inc., Arb. Case No. 2008-04-0230 (Final Order / Campbell / March 30, 2009), an arbitrator of the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes held that “…e-mails… existing… on the personal computers of individual directors… are not official records of the association… Even if directors communicate among themselves by e-mail strings or chains, about the operation of the association, the status of the electronic communication on their personal computer would not change. Similarly, an e-mail to an individual director or to all directors as a group, addressed only to their personal computers, is not written communication to the association.” The arbitrator reasoned that “this must be so because there is no obligation to turn on [the] personal computer with any regularity, or to open and read emails before deleting them.”

 

Simply stated, if one was to rely on the guidance cited herein, e-mails solely between board members, even a board majority, are not part of the official records, e-mails between the board and the manager are part of the official records and unit owner e-mail addresses are only subject to inspection where a unit owner has either consented to receive notice by e-mail or has consented in writing to the disclosure of his/her e-mail address. That having been said, it is in my opinion that e-mail communications that involve a board majority are still subject to the board meeting notice requirements already required by Chapter 718, Florida Statutes, more commonly known as the “Condominium Act.”

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Truant Board Members

Truant Board Members

Truant Board members
By: Mitch Drimmer, CAM

 

giving paperwork to new board members Most students by law they are required to either attend school or prove that they are being properly home schooled. In a very similar parallel the law in Florida requires that board members of HOAs and Condos attest in writing that they have read the governing documents of their community associations or attend a two hour board certification class. Both students and board members must either prove that they have gone to school or done their reading. The parallel ends here because when it comes to students that are either home schooled or go to accredited schools the government has standards. When it comes to board members in Florida there are no standards, and most certainly two hours of board certification or merely reading governing documents without requiring comprehension is a requirement without any measure of competency.

 

 

Without exaggeration there are billions of dollars of real estate assets that are in the hands of boards of directors. People’s homes, investments, security and lives are put into the stewardship of volunteer boards. It’s a democratic process but it does not guarantee the ability of those who are elected to govern your community association, and that is where the trouble begins.
Many associations hire community association managers who are required to take at least 20 hours of continuing education classes every two years and although it is a system that is wanting it does require that managers have a modicum of knowledge. Some management companies also have excellent in house educational programs and that is also very helpful. Having trained professionals manage communities may gong a long way, but only if they are allowed to practice their craft.
All too often it is the case that boards of directors do not understand what is required of them, and more times than not community association managers are too timid to stand up to a board of directors for fear of being dismissed and losing their jobs when the boards are out of order and need proper direction. It will never come to pass that the attitudes of board members will change and they will forever misunderstand that their job is to set policy, assume fiduciary responsibility, and insure that the managers they hire are doing a proper job. It is not their place to manage and run their community association albeit it is their right. There will always be boards of directors who over reach and interfere with licensed managers or take associations “self-managed.” So how do we address this quandary?

 

Volunteer boards of directors must do more than just volunteer one hour a month to sit at a meeting, they should assume to take the same CEU courses that are offered to managers. It is very fortunate that in Florida these Community Association Management CEU courses are given often, in many locations, and often for no cost. There are also many good community association schools that provide educational opportunities and any association who budgets and spends money will see a great benefit in return. A month does not pass by when a trade event is not presented in any given area in Florida without a complete curriculum of courses being offered for managers that board members are welcome to attend. From September through December dozens of these courses are offered at no charge to managers and board members by various organizations, trade event providers, and industry specialists. Educational opportunities also abound throughout the year but the season is more towards the end of the year.
There are no truant officers for board members and if they want to govern their associations properly they must realize that two hours of a board certification class is not near what they need. Without this education they are going to put their associations in harm’s way and eventually create costs and problems that could have been avoided. Classes and seminars for board members can easily be found in your area with a simple search on your home computer. I urge board members to take the time to come to class and get the education that they need to govern their own associations better.

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Rental real estate provides more tax benefits than almost any other investment.

Rental real estate provides more tax benefits than almost any other investment.

Every year, millions of landlords pay more taxes on their rental income than they have to. Why? Because they fail to take advantage of all the tax deductions available for owners of rental property.

Rental real estate provides more tax benefits than almost any other investment. Often, these benefits make the difference between losing money and earning a profit on a rental property. Here are the top ten tax deductions for owners of small residential rental property.

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1. Interest
Interest is often a landlord’s single biggest deductible expense. Common examples of interest that landlords can deduct include mortgage interest payments on loans used to acquire or improve rental property and interest on credit cards for goods or services used in a rental activity.

 

2. Depreciation
The actual cost of a house, apartment building, or other rental property is not fully deductible in the year in which you pay for it. Instead, landlords get back the cost of real estate through depreciation. This involves deducting a portion of the cost of the property over several years.

 

3. Repairs
The cost of repairs to rental property (provided the repairs are ordinary, necessary, and reasonable in amount) are fully deductible in the year in which they are incurred. Good examples of deductible repairs include repainting, fixing gutters or floors, fixing leaks, plastering, and replacing broken windows.

 

4. Local Travel
Landlords are entitled to a tax deduction whenever they drive anywhere for their rental activity. For example, when you drive to your rental building to deal with a tenant complaint or go to the hardware store to purchase a part for a repair, you can deduct your travel expenses.
If you drive a car, SUV, van, pickup, or panel truck for your rental activity (as most landlords do), you have two options for deducting your vehicle expenses. You can:
deduct your actual expenses (gasoline, upkeep, repairs), or
use the standard mileage rate (56 cents per mile for 2014; 56.5 cents per mile for 2013). To qualify for the standard mileage rate, you must use the standard mileage method the first year you use a car for your business activity. Moreover, you can’t use the standard mileage rate if you have claimed accelerated depreciation deductions in prior years, or have taken a Section 179 deduction for the vehicle.

 

5. Long Distance Travel
If you travel overnight for your rental activity, you can deduct your airfare, hotel bills, meals, and other expenses. If you plan your trip carefully, you can even mix landlord business with pleasure and still take a deduction.
However, IRS auditors closely scrutinize deductions for overnight travel — and many taxpayers get caught claiming these deductions without proper records to back them up. To stay within the law (and avoid unwanted attention from the IRS), you need to properly document your long distance travel expenses.

 

6. Home Office
Provided they meet certain minimal requirements, landlords may deduct their home office expenses from their taxable income. This deduction applies not only to space devoted to office work, but also to a workshop or any other home workspace you use for your rental business. This is true whether you own your home or apartment or are a renter.

 

7. Employees and Independent Contractors
Whenever you hire anyone to perform services for your rental activity, you can deduct their wages as a rental business expense. This is so whether the worker is an employee (for example, a resident manager) or an independent contractor (for example, a repair person).

 

8. Casualty and Theft Losses
If your rental property is damaged or destroyed from a sudden event like a fire or flood, you may be able to obtain a tax deduction for all or part of your loss. These types of losses are called casualty losses. You usually won’t be able to deduct the entire cost of property damaged or destroyed by a casualty. How much you may deduct depends on how much of your property was destroyed and whether the loss was covered by insurance.

 

9. Insurance
You can deduct the premiums you pay for almost any insurance for your rental activity. This includes fire, theft, and flood insurance for rental property, as well as landlord liability insurance. And if you have employees, you can deduct the cost of their health and workers’ compensation insurance.

 

10. Legal and Professional Services
Finally, you can deduct fees that you pay to attorneys, accountants, property management companies, real estate investment advisors, and other professionals. You can deduct these fees as operating expenses as long as the fees are paid for work related to your rental activity.

 

 

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