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10 Reasons to Hire a Property Manager

10 Reasons to Hire a Property Manager

10 Reasons to Hire a Property Manager

If you’ve owned income property for any length of time, you know that managing a rental can be financially rewarding. At the same time, you’ve also likely discovered that property management requires a large commitment of time and effort.

While it may make sense to take the do-it-yourself approach if you’re a handy person, live close to your property, and don’t mind devoting several hours per month to the task, in many cases this just isn’t practical—especially if you hope to expand your business. With this in mind, here are some critical tasks a property manager can help you with:

Setting the right rental rates: While looking through the classifieds to see what other landlords are charging for similar properties is a fine way to ballpark your rent price, a good property management company will conduct a thorough market study in order to set a rental price for your property, ensuring that you achieve the perfect balance between maximizing monthly income and maintaining a low vacancy rate.

Collecting and depositing monthly rent payments on time: If you’ve ever worked in a billing department, you know that securing payment from clients can be difficult, not to mention awkward. Property management companies have efficient, tried-and-true systems in place to effectively collect rent and maintain on-time payments. You’ll find this particularly important if you have a limited number of properties, and collecting payments on time is crucial to maintaining your cash flow.

Marketing and advertising your property: Through long experience, a property manager will know exactly where to market your property and how to craft compelling advertising materials—a significant advantage when it comes to filling your properties quickly and avoiding long vacancies.

Finding the right tenants: Experienced property managers are experts at finding good tenants, and will take care of all the details, including the securing all criminal background and security checks, running credit reports, verifying employment, and collecting previous landlord references.

Managing tenants: In addition to finding good tenants, a property management company will manage all aspects of the tenant-landlord relationship. The property manager will handle both routine and emergency maintenance, take care of routine inspections, and manage any situations where conflict resolution is required.

Managing vendor relationships: Property management companies have relationships with maintenance workers, tradesmen, contractors, suppliers, and vendors that it’s almost impossible for an independent landlord to duplicate. Not only will your property manager get you the best work for the best price, they’ll oversee any necessary maintenance projects.

Ensuring that you’re in compliance with housing regulations and property laws: There is a multitude of applicable laws and regulations to abide by when renting and maintaining your rental property. These include local, state and federal regulations, as well as fair housing regulations (such as the ADA). A property manager can help you avoid lawsuits by keeping your property up-to-date and in compliance with these regulations.

Enabling you to invest in geographically distant properties: If you manage your own properties, you’re pretty much limited to investment opportunities within a tight radius of your own home. By hiring a property manager, you can take advantage of investment deals in any location you wish.

Maximizing the profitability of your time: By having a property manager take care of the day-to-day aspects of running your income property, your free to spend your time identifying further investment opportunities or otherwise furthering your career.

Maximizing the profitability of your money: Most property managers charge a percentage of your property’s monthly rental rate in exchange for their services. The rate typically runs anywhere from 6-10%, which is generally less than the money you save by hiring a professional to take care of your property.

New Listing-272 CALABAY PARC BOULEVARD DAVENPORT FL

New Listing-272 CALABAY PARC BOULEVARD DAVENPORT FL

272 CALABAY PARC BOULEVARD, DAVENPORT, FL

Just Listed

$ Click for current price
5 BEDROOMS | 4 full baths BATHROOMS | 2835 SqFt

You can find this spacious 5 bedroom 4 bathroom pool home in the quiet community of Calabay Parc located just off ofHighway 27. Current owners have used it primarily as a second home so it is being sold fully furnished and would makea great family home, vacation home or snowbird retreat. The grand entrance to the home leads into the separate diningand living area, both with lots of natural light. The fully equipped kitchen offers a breakfast bar, separate breakfast nookand a closet pantry for extra storage. The master bedroom has a large en-suite with dual sinks, tub and separate showerand also has direct access to the pool deck. A second bedroom and house bathroom complete the downstairsaccommodation. Upstairs you will find a second master bedroom with an en-suite along with two additional bedroomsand a house bathroom – the loft area is currently used as a games room but could easily be turned into a second livingarea or home office. The family room provides direct access via sliding glass doors to the covered pool deck – largeenough for outdoor dining and the private inground pool area benefits from no immediate rear neighbors. Great locationWithin a short distance to Hwy 192, Champions Gate, Posner Park and I-4 leading to Central Florida’s most famousattractions, shopping Outlets.

 

Just Sold-204 BallyShannon Davenport Florida

Just Sold-204 BallyShannon Davenport Florida

204 BALLYSHANNON DRIVE, DAVENPORT, FL

Just Sold

$ Click for current price
4 BEDROOMS | 3 full baths BATHROOMS | 1974 SqFt

Located in the desirable Hampton Lakes community this fully furnished, turn-key home has been tastefully renovated by the current owners. Outside you will find a new roof, new exterior paint, a rescreened pool enclosure, resurfaced pool, new pool heaternew salt water system, new variable speed pool motor – inside new cabinets, new sinks, new solid surface counter tops, new toilets, ………ask for the complete list !! You will fall in love with this move in ready pool home as soon as you walk through the front door. A bright and airy open floor plan offers formal living and dining rooms towards the front. An updated kitchen with stainless steel appliance sits at the heart of the home a breakfast nook and family room (currently set up as a games room) can be found at the rear. The master bedroom with en-suite features two separate closets and dual sinks and also provides access to bedroom 4 which is currently being used as an office. Two further good-sized bedrooms and two more full bathrooms complete the accommodation. Venture outside through the sliding patio doors into your own private Oasis. With no rear neighbors and a privacy fence on either side this south facing pool deck has plenty of space to work, play, entertain or just relax in the hot tub. Easy access to I4, Hwy 192, Posner Park, shops, restaurants and all the Central Florida attractions this home is an absolute must see.

 

Sold-848 KILDRUMMY DRIVE

Sold-848 KILDRUMMY DRIVE

848 KILDRUMMY DRIVE, DAVENPORT, FL

Just Sold

$ Click for current price
4 BEDROOMS | 3 full baths BATHROOMS | 1998 SqFt

Located in the popular gated community Sanctuary at West Haven this four bedroom three bathrooms pool home is close to the golf courses at Champions Gate and Reunion, has easy access to I4 and is just minutes away from shopping at Posner Park. Beautifully maintained by the current owner this move in ready home also has professional management in place if you decide to keep it as a successful vacation rental or stress free moving if you are lucky enough to make it your primary residence. Formal living and dining situated to the front of the home, fully equipped kitchen with breakfast bar in the center and a breakfast area with family room offering tempting views outside to the heated in ground pool and spa. Two master bedrooms benefit from their own ensuite bathrooms and the themed bedrooms three and four share a house bathroom. Outside the covered lanai provides a great place to eat and relax while the pool and spa with no immediate rear neighbors offers a private oasis to enjoy the Florida sunshine. Minutes from I4 and all the Central Florida attractions. No CDD.

 

Bardell Real Estate Loves Reviews

Bardell Real Estate Loves Reviews

Ready to make a Move?

We are  experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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What’s affecting the value of my home?

What’s affecting the value of my home?

What’s affecting the value of my home?

If you’re hoping to sell your home, knowing your property’s value is essential for pricing it right to make buyers bite. Or, maybe you don’t want to sell your home right now, but are just curious what your house is worth—and whether your real estate investment has risen in value (which would merit some much-deserved back-patting).

In either case, having an accurate grasp of your home’s estimated market value can come in handy. And there are a variety of ways to do that, many of which are free and easily within reach online. Here’s how to find that magic number, and why having an accurate estimate matters whether you want to sell your home or own it for the long haul.

How to find home value estimates online

One easy starting point with a home valuation is to enter your address into an online home value estimator, which will, within seconds, present you with a free estimate of what your home is worth, based on data such as its square footage and recent home sales in the area. For example, realtor.com’s home value estimator provides valuations from three different independent providers to ensure you have as much information as possible from a variety of sources.

 

When it comes to real estate clichés, “Location, location, location” has all other contenders (including “Not a drive-by!”; “Cash is king!”; “Is that your checkbook or are you just glad to see me?”; and “Worst house, best street”) beat by a mile. Not only has it been in use since at least 1926 (according to the New York Times), but it’s utterly and inarguably true.

More than any other single factor, when you buy a home in a good location, it’s usually a solid long-term investment. And being the unabashed optimists we are here at realtor.com®, we focus most on the factors that help maximize your home’s value. But hey, life—and real estate—isn’t always rainbows and unicorns. So this week we decided to take a look at the downers: those things that actually keep you from getting top dollar from your home.

The list itself probably won’t surprise you, but the numbers just might. Who would have thought that it’s a worse investment (by far!) to buy in a bad school district than near a strip club or a homeless shelter? Beyond strippers, that is.

So how’d we do it? We looked at home prices and appreciation rates in U.S. ZIP codes where a specific drag-me-down facility such as a power plant is present. For each facility, we calculated the drag, or a “location discount,” by comparing the median home price of the ZIP codes with that facility with the median price for all homes in the same county. We limited our scope to the 100 largest metropolitan areas, since rural communities have lower home prices and slower appreciation.

Keep in mind the difference between causation and correlation: Does having a cemetery or shooting range in the neighborhood cause home prices to drop? Or are those businesses drawn to the area because of cheap real estate? We don’t have a definite answer, but their presence is generally a sign that a neighborhood is the opposite of up-and-coming. Judge your investment accordingly.

Hospital

The drag: 3.2%

Hospitals are awesome, right? Having a great one within easy access is just about every homeowner’s goal. But easy access is one thing, and being woken up by ambulance sirens—or, god forbid, medical helicopters—at 3 a.m. is quite another. Among homeowners who sold in 2015, those near a hospital generally got 3% less than an average home in the same county would get, based on our sales deed records and hospital location data from data.medical.gov. In the world of real estate price demerits, 3% isn’t a lot, so clearly plenty of people are willing to overlook some noise and chaos in favor of nearby medical care.

Shooting range

The drag: 3.7%

According to most research, it’s not the guns or the people who shoot them that the neighbors of shooting ranges object to most; it’s more the idea of the places and, in some cases, the noise of gunfire, especially outdoor gun ranges. More perceived problems: environmental concerns, including the lead that leaches off spent shells, potentially poisoning soil and water. Last year, a closed gun club in San Francisco triggered $22 million in cleanup fees, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. We used gun range locations from wheretoshoot.org.

Power plant

The drag: 5.3%

There are more than 8,000 power plants across the U.S., according to the Environmental Information Agency. Much as we are grateful for the modern convenience of electricity (thanks, Ben Franklin!), the huge facilities spur more NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) movements than anything this side of waste treatment facilities. The most frequently cited reason: safety concerns. The perceived dangers of living near a power plant vary dramatically depending on type, from the seemingly harmless solar to the dreaded nuclear. In general, having a power plant in the neighborhood is associated with lower property prices.

Funeral home

The drag: 6.5%

Some people believe you get bad spiritual energy from living near a funeral home; some just dislike the traffic caused by service workers and funeral attendees; and others fear that the smoke from a crematorium is toxic. But plenty of folks just find them seriously creepy, an unpleasant constant reminder of our own mortality. Our analysis of property values near funeral homes listed on legacy.com seems to confirm the stigma. Properties near a funeral home see a 6.5% drop in price compared to all homes in the same county.

Cemetery

The drag: 12.3%

Call it superstition, call it irrational fear, but there’s an awful lot of people who find the prospect of living near lots of buried bodies unpleasant or downright terrifying (see: Funeral homes). To be fair, there are some people who seriously dig how quiet the neighbors are, but they’re outnumbered by the haters. To do the research, we used a list of federal and state cemeteries operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and found that the median price of ZIP codes with a cemetery is about 12% lower than neighboring areas.

Homeless shelter

The drag: 12.7%

Homeless shelters can be unloved and unwanted misfits in residential areas. Even though there’s no rule that homeless shelters are usually accompanied by higher rates of crime, shelters do certainly attract motley groups of people, necessitate emergency calls, and require more police in otherwise quiet, safe neighborhoods. Shelter locations, listed on homelessshelterdirectory.org, are often limited to less prime areas in the city where home values are about 13% less.

High concentration of renters

The drag: 13.8%

Does a cluster of rental buildings—or lots of them—lower the property value in a neighborhood? Many homeowners have pondered this. While it’s hard to do an analysis down to every property, we found that ZIP codes with a higher-than-average concentration of renters have lower property values compared to the county they are located in—by 14%. The data are from the American Community Survey.

Strip club

The drag: 14.7%

Catering to adult vices—and often (rightly) associated with loud music and less-than-savory visitors—a “gentlemen’s club” is an unwelcome neighbor on the block. We tracked nearly 2,000 strip joints listed on stripclublist.com and ranked the category high on our “unwanted” list. In one extreme case, the crime-plagued neighborhood of Washington Park in East St. Louis, IL—the ZIP code 62204—has 10 strip clubs.10!How do they all compete? It saw only a handful of homes sold in the past three years, with a median price of $10,000.

Bad school

The drag: 22.2%

While a top-performing school is definitely a plus for your property value, a bad school is a complete, out-and-out disaster. A school where one teacher handles a class of 40 students with a slim graduation rate is usually an indicator of a deprived neighborhood. The median home price of ZIP codes with schools that receive a 1 to 3 rating (out of a possible 10) from GreatSchools.org is only $155,000.

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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