Congress has extended and expanded the homebuyer tax credit. The new credit has a raised income limit of 125,000.
Home Buyer Tax Credit Changes
November 6, 2009New Rental property Listing 308 N 100 E
October 29, 2009go to salt lake city rentals
Property Management Poll
October 28, 2009How to create an additional Month of Income
October 28, 2009By: David Frank
submitted 2009-10-23
As a landlord it can be very difficult to generate extra income off of your investment property. Besides getting the property fully leased at the maximum market rent, there are not very many other ways to increase rent. You are typically limited by the number of months in a year. However, wouldn’t it be great to learn how to create a 13th month in the year. Well we can’t do that, but what we can do is generate nearly an extra months worth of income by following the recommendations below.
Property Management Additional Income Reccomendations:
- Non-refundable portion of security deposit:On all of the properties that I manage I charge a non-refundable portion of the security deposit-typically $100 if the rent is less than $1,000 and $200 if the rent is over $1,000. This is to cover my overhead in filling the vacancy. Because it is a fairly nominal fee, I have never had a problem with the tenants not willing to pay it. Depending on what rents you receive per month we could nearly be a quarter of the way to creating that extra month.
- Late fee’s:You always want to charge late fees. Your mortgage company, your bank and nearly every other institution out there charges them. The reason why is twofold: You want the tenant to have a motivation for paying rent on time and it is also a great way to increase your income for the year. I typically charge a percentage amount when the rent is not received by the 5th. After that, there is a daily fee amount for each day the rent is not paid. If you are a tenant you want to make sure you pay on time as this late fee can be very expensive. If you are a landlord you want to make sure you always charge-no exceptions.
- Application Fee:Many property managers and landlords do not charge an application fee. I highly recommend it. Not only do you weed out the non motivated applicants but you also are able to compensate yourself for the time and money it takes to process the application. My application fee is $25.00 per adult. I feel if the tenant does not have the money to pay the application fee than most likely they won’t have the money to pay the rent and therefore, I do not want to rent to them.
- Pet Deposit/Smoking Deposit:These deposits are critical if you rent to smokers or people who own pets. These items cause excessive wear and tear to the property and as a property owner you have right to be reimbursed for those damages. Personally, I do not allow either on any property I own. Typically, I charge a $200.00 non-refundable for either deposit.
- Tenant Utility Billing:Tenant utility billing is another way to generate some extra money. Unless the rental market is so competitive that you have to subsidize some of the utilities I always recommend that you bill the tenants a proportionate amount for utilities that you pay for.
The ideas above should be followed if you are interested in maximizing your rents and increasing your properties value. If need a Property Manager in Utah Please follow the links on this page. Whether you decide to implement the ideas above is your choice, but as a Salt Lake City Property Manager I would recommend you follow them.
About the Author
David Frank is a seasoned Real Estate Professional in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the President/Broker of Frank & Company, LLC. He specializes in Salt Lake City Property Management, Real Estate Sales, Real Property financing and FHA Refinance Loans.
Article Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2113771
FHA Home Loans Utah
October 28, 2009This article is your official guide if you currently are shopping for an FHA Home Loan in Utah or you desire to learn more about The Benefits, The Costs, and Best Places to find a very competitive rate on your Loan. The FHA mortgage market is the fastest growing mortgage segment currently and for most borrowers the only way that they can qualify to purchase a home or refinance their current home.
Benefits to an FHA Home Loan in Utah:Below we will discuss some of the greatest benefits to using an FHA Home Loan. There are a lot of reasons why a borrower would want to look at the mortgage product over a standard conventional. Due to the fact that there are so many reasons to obtain an FHA loan we will only discuss the benefits that tend to be viewed as the most beneficial.
- High Loan to Value(LTV):FHA loans currently allow the borrower to finance up to 96.5% of the property value. This can be very beneficial if you are looking at purchasing a condo currently due to the fact that many conventional lender’s PMI companies(private mortgage insurance) have lost their appetite for condos. Most PMI companies will not allow for a backend DTI ratio above 45%. What this means is that the majority of first-time homebuyers will not be able to purchase a condo due to the fact that the PMI company will not insure their loan. The way then for the first time home buyer to purchase the condo is to use an FHA loan or to put 20% down. The condo project does need to be FHA approved and if you would like more information feel free to contact me about this
- Lower Credit Scores Accepted:In the current market if you do not want massive loan level price hits for a conventional loan it is important to have a 740+ credit score. This is not the case with an FHA Loan in Utah. Most lenders will accept down to a 620 Fico scores and depending on the scenario you might get an approval with an even lower credit score
- You can Streamline: If FHA rates ever drop you can use an FHA Streamline to drop your rate to the current market rates. They are non credit qualifying loans and are very simple to process.
- Assumable: All FHA loans can be assumed. What this means is that if you have 4.5% FHA loan on your property and in 5 years from now the market average is 10%, your property is worth much more than if it had a conventional note on it due to the fact that the buyer could assume your mortgage.
Costs to an FHA Home Loan in Utah:Taking into account all of the benefits discussed above FHA loans are traditionally more expensive to obtain than a standard conventional loan. We will discuss three elements that affect the overall cost of obtaining an FHA loan.
- Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium: All FHA loans require a Upfront mortgage insurance premium. Currently that is equal to 1.75% of the loan amount. I.E. if you mortgage is $100,000 than the upfront mortgage insurance premium would be equal to $1,750. This premium can either be paid upfront or financed on top of the loan. This premium is refundable if you sell or refinance within the first several years.
- Monthly Mortgage Insurance Premium: All FHA loans require a monthly mortgage insurance premium of .55% currently. This premium is required no matter what the LTV is on the property. You can cancel it out by either paying the mortgage down to 78% LTV of the original principal balance and by having the mortgage for at least 5 years, or if you are already below 78%LTV than you would just need to keep the mortgage for 5 years.
- More Expensive Appraisals: Typically FHA appraisals are $450.00 vs the standard for conventional appraisal of $350.00. This is not to say that you cannot find an appraiser to do one for cheaper, but rather just that there is typically a higher cost to an FHA appraisal.
Best Places to Find an FHA Home Loan in Utah: If you are looking at finding an FHA Home Loan in Utah, there are three primary sources to obtain one.
- An FHA approved bank
- An FHA approved Mortgage Broker
- An FHA approved Credit Union
No matter where you decide to get your FHA Home Loan in Utah, remember that there are both costs and benefits to obtaining one. I recommend that you select an FHA loan officer who is helpful, knowledgable, and honest.
About the Author
David Frank is a seasoned Real Estate & Mortgage Professional. He is the President/Broker of Frank & Company, LLC. He specializes in Property Management in Utah, Real Estate sales and Real Property Financing. He has over 6 years of full time experience. He also specializes in helping his clients get the best FHA Home Loan In Utah
Author Source:http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2127110
How to qualify Tenants Article
October 28, 2009http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Qualify-Tenants&id=3133032
When it comes to Property Management probably one of the most difficult aspects is determining who you are going to rent. Typically, you place the property for rent on a multitude of marketing mediums and after showing several possible tenants one of the prospects will ask to fill out a rental application. This article will discuss the steps that must be taken in order to weigh the possible risks and to help you become an expert at determining who you should rent to and who you should tell to go fly a kite.
The rental application is the first key to performing a quality evaluation of the prospective tenant. If you would like a copy of my rental application simply go to my website and fill out the contact form.
The rental application should be concise enough that the tenant will actually fill it out and also in depth enough to gather all of the information that you will need to perform a thorough screening of the tenant. (It also should contain information that might help you down the road if you have to perform an eviction and need to be able to collect from wages or from funds the tenant may have.) With that being said, what should be included in a rental application? Below you will find key items to have in your rental application:
Social Security Number, Date of Birth,
Current Address, Former Address, Including landlord numbers
Current Employer, Former Employer, Including Work numbers
Bank account #, Current income
Whether the Tenant has ever been evicted
Authorization to verify all the information on the form and also to perform a credit and back ground check.
The next step after the rental application is actually qualifying the tenant. The majority of property managers will tell you that when you have multiple applicants you should work on a first come first serve basis. Meaning, start to qualify the first applicant, typically I begin with employment and landlord first so as to not have to waste money or an application fee should they not pass those requirements. Now that we have determined the method of processing the applicants we will go through what you are looking for.
Employment Verification: Depending on the property manager, they follow different guidelines when it comes to verifying employment and verifying earnings. At a minimum you want to verify that they are currently employed, I personally recommend verifying a current paystub and a w-2 or 1040. This is due to the fact that you want to be able to determine whether they can actually afford the payment. I use a little higher ratio than most managers. I have found that you can go to a 45% housing ratio and have a very good tenant. Taking that into consideration, you have an obligation to not set your future tenants up for failure and if you know they cannot afford the place your best bet is to find a tenant that meets the income requirements.
Landlord Verification: This verification and the credit check are where I typically put the most weight. The previous landlord can be of extreme help or detriment(see later in this section) to determining a lot of factors about your potential tenant. I always recommend contacting two landlords or if they do not have that much history getting a co-signer on the lease. The previous landlord will know whether the tenant paid on time, how much they historically could afford, whether they breech any terms of the agreement and whether they caused any damage. The reason why I stated they could be a detriment is due to the fact that they could be motivated to get the tenant out of their property and are looking at you as an exit.
Credit check: Credit can tell you a lot or a little. It really depends upon the applicants credit history. Some applicants have a very in depth credit history which a lot of the time there is a reason why they are renting and not purchasing. Even if they have bad credit it does not necessarily mean that you should not rent to them. Many of my best tenants actually have had bad credit in their past but, due to the fact that it was only a onetime event or over a year and they have solved the problem, I decided to rent to them. I do not look for a certain credit score i.e 680 + or 600 + I typically look at their debt load and whether they make their payments or not. There are also other factors you want to use the credit report for such as verifying that the tenant is actually who they say they are and also whether the residence database matches the information disclosed in the rental application.
In conclusion it is during the screening process that 99% of all property management issues can be solved. The most difficult part of property management is finding the right tenant and the only way you can do that is through trial and lots of error, or by hiring an experienced property manager. The steps above are only a brief overview of what you should take and what you should look for in a tenant.
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This content is provided by David Frank and may be used or republished only in its entirety with all links included. David Frank works in Property Management Salt Lake City if you want more information clink on this link: Utah Property Management Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_M_Frank |
Utah Property Management
October 28, 2009Welcome to the official Utah Property Manager Blog! This site was setup to discuss anything and everything that has to do with Property Management in Utah. A little bit about this site: this site was created by Frank & Company, LLC. Frank & Company, LLC is a full service brokerage and property management firm. Frank & Company, LLC has been in the property management business now for over 6 years. If you would like to learn more about our company please click on the following links:
