We hosted a very informative and thought-provoking webinar today with Trulia and Inman News on 2014 Rental Predictions. Nikesh Parekh, VP of New Ventures at Trulia, presented some compelling stats and data that show the “perfect storm” of factors happening right now that make property management a booming industry with opportunities abound.
Maintenance and repair costs can eat quickly into any landlord’s income, especially first-time landlords that don’t adequately protect themselves. If you’re looking for some ways to reduce your overall maintenance and repair costs, you’ll need to plan things through from the very beginning.
Industry experts published annual predictions for property managers and real estate professionals a few weeks ago. Based on market research and consumer trend indicators, 2014 has potential to be a year of growth and change. Developing response strategies designed to capitalize on research and indicators is one way to get ahead of the competition in 2014.
As an individual property owner who has been managing your properties yourself, you’ve spent hours dedicated to keeping the property attractive and operating smoothly. According to the US Census Bureau, about 50% of all property managers are self-employed. Dealing with the terrible three – tenants, trash and toilets – twenty-four hours a day to keep your property values high can be demanding.
Years later the housing market is still feeling the effects of the crash that almost destroyed America’s real estate industry. Many markets have still not fully recovered and many families are still suffering from the consequences. While much of the discussion about the housing crash has been focused through the lens of the single-family homeowner, multifamily housing investors were affected by the crash in unique ways as well. As the government struggles to build reforms that will prevent another crash from ever occurring again, some are worried multifamily investors may be forgotten.
Interest rates are still at historic lows and property values continue to be depressed. However, recent actions of the Fed and growing seller demand appear to be forcing an increase in both. Those trends might not be reversing any time soon, so now might be the right time to invest in another rental property.
It’s a tired cliché, but it happens to be true. If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. Running your business is difficult. You’re being pulled in many directions and there aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done. Unfortunately, that doesn’t let you off the hook when it comes to planning. You need to have a documented property management business plan if you want to be successful.