Get it in Writing Ask yourself what you do on the first appointment that impresses the rental prospect. If the answer is “I don’t know” or “Not much” you need to remedy the situation: Put it in writing. Every successful business gives new potential customers or clients “written information of value” designed to impress and [...]
The Talent of Showing Property A large part of a real estate agent’s job description is: “Take people out and keep showing them property until they find one they want.” Sales agents know that they need to showing enough property so that the consumer feels comfortable making a decision. In my experience many agents doing rentals don’t [...]
Product Knowledge is Key Sales people in any industry are constantly reminded of the importance of knowing their product. In the real estate business a common axiom is “never show a property that you haven’t seen first”. Sales agents all across the country “caravan” every week and preview the new homes listed in their city [...]
Tracking Performance: Who's Winning? Behavioral scientists have proven that the “act of keeping score” improves performance. Quite simply, rental agents should keep track of what they actually do. Every agent should track basic actions such as the number of new prospects they work, the number of properties they show, their total number of appointments, the [...]
A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business structure that combines some the features of a partnership and a corporation. Over the last decade, LLCs have become the preferred way for groups of real estate investors to structure their businesses. Why have LLCs become so popular today? Here are three reasons . . . They [...]
Looking at properties can be exhausting and frustrating, especially if you are looking for that “perfect” first property to purchase. As one young investor sums it up, “I have now spent day after day riding around in the car of a real estate agent who drives me from home to home, and none of them [...]
Asbestos is a natural mineral. For many years, it was routinely added to bonding materials to create an easily applied paste that could be used for insulation or fire resistance. You are most likely to find it covering the pipes located near steam boilers or hot water furnaces in older buildings. It is now known [...]
If you are planning to invest in a particular country, city or town, investigate whether other developers have plans for the area too. You should be asking questions like these . . . Are there large undeveloped tracts of land in the area that could interest developers later on? Is a big homebuilder planning to [...]
What is the best business structure for a real estate investment company? We’ll be exploring that question in a series of future posts. Today, we’ll investigate one kind of structure . . . a sole proprietorship. Sole proprietorships are the most basic, and least complicated, business structure. When you are a sole proprietor, you are simply doing [...]
Rent to buy agreements can make it easier to sell investment properties – even properties that you have had a difficult time selling in the past. What is rent to buy? It is simply a form of owner financing. You act like a landlord and collect rent from tenants. However, you draw up a rent [...]