We’ve pushed out a new update (v1.2 for those keeping score) of Renting Well this morning. First thing you’ll notice is that your dashboards look a little different: we’ve added a new to-do list to the app! This is going to make it a lot easier to stay on top of what you need to get done and ensuring you’re reminded when tasks are due.
It can be anything: tenant asks you to fix a screen? Add it as a to-do! Tenant mentions that one of the outlets in their unit isn’t working? Add it as a to do! Want to remind yourself 60 days in advance that a tenant’s lease is going to expire? Add it as a to-do! The to-do list is a handy feature that includes convenient email notifications that get sent to you on the specified due date. The main purpose is to keep you on top of the many landlord duties that need your attention — whatever they are.
You’ll also notice that the app looks a little different, too. We’ve passed over things with a bit of a fine-toothed comb: redesigned contact lists, improved layouts of financials, better icons, and a whole whack of aesthetic tweaks all designed to make the app easier and more enjoyable to use.
Small landlords are a component of arguably one of the least innovative markets on the web in Canada: real estate. When it comes to using services in the cloud, it’s a bit behind the pack. Strange, because in many ways, it’s a perfect example of a market that can most benefit from using the convenience and utility of web based tools and services.
In an age where we see startups taking hard transformative glances at some of the most everyday things people do (couponing, group discounts, betting, customer relationship management, even organizing recipes), it’s difficult to understand why the Canadian real estate market in general has seemed to suffer from being left out in the cold – a frozen winter that is dated designs, unfriendly user interfaces, and a general sense of being stuck in the era of the internet pre-iPhone – when Internet Explorer 6 and Hotmail were standards.
A perfect example of this is Canada’s leading residential real estate listing service – Realtor.ca (formerly MLS.ca). Sure – it’s useful. It does the job – but it could really be a lot better. Canada’s number 1 visited real estate website hasn’t changed that much in over 10 years – and 2009’s mobile version of the application was met with as much enthusiasm as Microsoft’s Zune. Great idea – bad execution. It’s particularly embarrassing when you see what’s going on south of the border with great sites like Trulia and Zillow.com
So why is this? Is it possible that this market is controlled by a select group of barons – an old boys club so to speak – that just refuses to embrace the revolution that is Web 2.0? The internet’s already in the throes of discussing what Web 3.0 is going to look like. We’re not sure. Is it too boring? It’s not a black and white situation. CREA has been fighting with the Competition Bureau about opening up the MLS database so that other sites and services can use it too. It’s been a real bone of contention. I’m not interested in making a comment on the spat between them. I’m simply pointing out that innovation on the web in Canadian real estate is perhaps being compromised because of it, and it doesn’t have to be. I’d love CREA to revamp the hell out of Realtor.ca and give some of these U.S. sites a run for their money. It feels like a bit of the Blackberry vs. iPhone/Android scenario. Come on! Canada’s real estate market is among some of the best in the world.
Back in 2008 – a little Canadian startup called Zoocasa entered the scene, hell bent on changing what a real estate listing looked like and how you found and searched for a home. It was “Home Search With Smarts”. It was developed as a slicker, more efficient alternative to the Multi Listing Service, and aimed at using the web to browse the housing market intelligently. These guys are a Rogers Ventures business – an impressive fact on it’s own. While the execution was great, realtors are required to post their listings proactively to the service, and there’s been issues with Realtor.ca in the past with “scouring” listings. Zoocasa was also successfully sued recently by Century 21 in Canada, and lost cases with individual realtors who took issue with the company “scraping” listings to populate it’s service.
The landlord market is no different. Most of the products for professional property managers and self managing owners seem like they’re geared more for corporations than landlords who have a secondary suite. Television shows like Income Property promote the benefits of having a subsidized mortgage, which has spurned increasing numbers of people to invest in duplexes and triplexes in the climbing Canadian real estate market of the last 10 years. It’s been a good ride and a lot of people have made a lot of money – but when it comes to “managing” a rental, it seems like you’re better off to keep that old manual ledger you picked up at Staples 10 years ago. Dust it off buddy – you’re a landlord now.
That’s changed in the last few years, and there’s been a series of new startups focusing on the small time landlord that have received a significant amount of attention, and in some cases, a significant amount of capital investment. Cozy – a San Francisco based startup – is an example of that. Raising 1.5 million dollars of funding from the likes of Google Ventures and business guru and internet sensation Gary Vaynerchuk. Their aim of focusing on the two biggest pains in the butt for landlords – rental applications and tracking payments – takes a radically simplified look at the job of owning and managing rental property.
There are even cooler examples within the greater real estate realm. Lovely – another San Francisco based startup – has elegantly innovated the common apartment search for renters. One of the more interesting examples I recently came across which is real estate related, is The Dirt, a cool startup out of Toronto – that aims to populate it’s own property database “socially”. Cool idea. Their idea is about the sharing of information vs. Zoocasa’s aim to enhance what existed with MLS.
So what’s going on real estate? Share your thoughts with us.
Came across this great article at Oregon Live about accidental landlords. The U.S. housing slump has created some interesting opportunities for homeowners, as many are turning For Sale signs into For Rent Signs.
The piece talks about a couple who were intent on selling their home, but couldn’t get enough to pay off the mortgage. U.S. housing prices are at their lowest point since 2005 in Oregon, but interestingly, at the tail end of 2011, the census bureau pegged the greater Portland area’s vacancy rate at just 2.9% while the national average in the U.S. hovered at around 9.4%. At the end of 2012, that vacancy rate rose a bit, but so did rents in the area.
The Oregonian also had a similar piece in October of last year further elaborating on falling vacancies and rising rents. You can check that out here.
Are you a landlord in Oregon? How are you finding it? Share you stories with us.
You have a vacancy and you’re keen on getting a great tenant in the unit. You want your available unit to stand out from the crowd in a big way. I mean – everyone does – but, you don’t know where to start to create that element of distinction, and the Instagram photos you’ve taken with your iPhone aren’tk as flattering as you thought they’d look. I’m here to tell you how to really create a great listing and what the anatomy of a killer listing looks like. Put your listings on the map with local SEO real estate agency. I’m also going to point out listings that suck and that don’t do landlords any favours.
This is an example of a useless apartment listing screaming NOT to be paid attention to. The two sentences make me want to grab my check book, and the typo for “interested” has convinced me the landlord isn’t very smart either.
First of all – there’s a bit of a misconception out there that you need to have an SEO optimized website, dedicated to a single unit, to “properly” market it. Having a full blown website to market a unit is helpful – sure – but it’s not essential. I mean, it’s a bit of overkill. I’m only saying this because I recently met a perfectly nice person who I got into an awkward debate with about this, as they were trying to push a company in California who specializes in creating websites that include a domain that incorporates your address. “100mainstreetforrent.com” enhances the attractiveness of the available unit, and will create more interest, more quickly”, said the web expert.
Sorry buddy – as Joe Biden says, that’s a bunch of malarkey. You don’t need to buy a domain to rent a place. Real estate agents handle various tasks, including challenges like selling a fire-damaged house in Vancouver. The return on something like that is significant if they successfully sell a house. In real estate, having professionals like Kiana Danial can provide valuable insights and expertise in navigating complex situations. Landlords are looking for the most cost effective ways to market properties for rent – not for sale. I’m here to tell you that you can write up a good rental listing and include some good photos without breaking the bank at all. Whether you’re using our great marketing listings feature – which creates a great one off micro page for your place that you can embed into a Kijiji or Craig’s List ad, or whether you’re just doing a write up on a directory yourself, you might find this useful.
After having worked at an ad agency for a year, one of the best lessons I learned was that words can often times be more persuasive than images, but if you hit the mark with both words and a great visual, you have the potential to do anything.
1. First things first – let’s talk about your headline. That’s your statement – your declaration!It stands on it’s own to attract a renter to read the rest of your listing. I’m a fan of using attractive words – like “spacious”, “clean”, “bright” and “beautiful”. I also suggest always indicating what kind of unit it is – i.e. a 1 bedroom, or a loft, a basement apartment, or a townhouse. Indicating the unit’s rent is also an essential in your headline. You don’t want to cram too much into a headline, or else it will read like War & Peace – and you’re going to lose the attention you’re demanding. Here’s an example:
“Spacious, clean, and bright 1 bedroom apartment for rent on Main Street – $950 per month”
That’s how you do it.
2. Quality Photos are essential. Having photos with a listing is going to quintuple your chances of interest. I’m serious. Not having them is crazy. I’m not saying go out and hire the best photographer you can find – but I’m also not saying that’s a bad idea either. Cost is important to note – but getting some good photos done is a good investment in my opinion. You can use them for years. You can also take good photos of your units by learning a few tips, even if you’re doing it on your iPhone.
This photo is an example of “terrible”. What did a nuclear weapon go off outside? I need sunglasses.
Remove Clutter and ensure you’re working with a clean area. Either ask the existing tenant to tidy it up and make it presentable, or get a cleaning done. If there’s stuff on the fridge, take it off. Temporarily remove anything that can act as a distraction from giving a good sense of the room. The purpose of the photographs are to give an impression of the environment, not the decor or the furniture.
Turn your flash off. If you’re using your flash, you don’t have enough light in the shot. Flashes suck. They make the place look crappy and washed out. Ensure there is adequate lighting in a space. Even better – take your photos during a sunny day. The more light in a space, the better the sense of the environment.
Use a wide angle. They always look better and produce a better sense of rooms.
Don’t take shots that look down on a room. Crouch down, or lower the tripod a bit to give a sense of height and space.
Use a tripod, or ensure that your camera is steady. This is a given and I refuse to give an explanation as to why this is important. Shakey and crooked shots aren’t going to do any justice to your perfectly nice spot.
Take photos of every room and accessible spot. You don’t need to take 1000 images of your rental, but the more articulated the unit is visually, the better the quality of your listing. Get a good shot of the bedroom, the kitchen, the appliances, the number of windows, and a good shot of the exterior of the building.
Organize your photos in a bit of a flow – as if you were giving someone a tour of the unit physically.
Your first photo in a listing should be a busy place in the unit – like a kitchen or a living room. If you post your first photo of a bathroom, it’s not exactly the greatest first impression. Bathrooms aren’t busy – unless you’re addicted to laxatives.
3. Details are important. Beisdes the obvious stuff, like the breakdown on utilities or what’s included, indicate the location in your listing. People get peeved when they don’t have an address. Give them details about close by amenities. Restaurants. Banks. Grocery stores. Let them know about bus routes. With the help of a realtor Lynchburg, enhance your property description. Include or indicate the walk score of the place. Indicate close parks or green space. Provide a sense of the community and it’s benefits. Indicate whether laundry is available. Articulate as much as possible, so that when someone reads your ad, the possibility of a prospective tenant getting that sense of “home” is high.
What other things do you do to market your vacancies? How do you create a snazzy rental listing? Share with us!
You have an apartment for rent. It’s awesome. You are going to rent the hell out of it, right? Quickly too! You’re going to hit up Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Tumblr, every directory you can get your mouse on, and you’re going to print up flyers and put up a sign in the window. You’r aiming for such an overwhelming amount of interest that you’re convinced you’ll have to choose which amazing potential tenant you rent it to. Wait a second.
There’s this company called J. Turner Research in Texas that conducts research specifically for the apartment industry. They released the results of a survey they conducted on over 41,000 people in the multi family market, that aimed to identify preferences that apartment hunters have when finding a new place to live. The results are interesting…you can read the press release here. Keep in mind, this is an American survey, but for the purposes of the point I’m making, it’s pertinent.
a compelling majority (95 percent) of the 41,303 respondents to the initial 29-question survey said they did not visit Facebook or Twitter during their apartment search. However, 74 percent of respondents reported using ratings and reviews sites, and additionally reported on their perception of the trustworthiness of each site used during the search process.
The top three things that the majority of those surveyed looked for were:
The price
A floor plan
What the neighbourhood is like
When asked for the sources used during their apartment search, prospects reported focusing primarily on Internet Listing Sites (65 percent), drive-by (39 percent), and referrals from friends and family members (24 percent) as the top three search channels for finding a new apartment. Interesting. Hold your horses if you’re about to publish your listing to Facebook or if you’re going to tweet it.
So what does this tell us?
Apparently no one cares about social media when it comes to looking for a place to live. They seem to prefer listings sites. It also indicates the importance of really being thorough in creating an apartment listing – whether you’re publishing to Craigslist or using a service like PadMapper or Kijiji. The more quality information you have on there, the better. The better the info, the easier your search is going to be for a new tenant and the easier it is for a potential renter to determine whether your unit is a good fit for them. “Thorough” isn’t just giving the breakdown on square footage or including a crappy photo you took with your iPhone. It’s putting together something attractive and compelling, and one of the main reasons we created our handy listings feature in Renting Well. If you’re using our service – it’s awesome! (shameless plug).
With that said – let me give you a breakdown. What is a “quality” listing? It’s explained quite well at The Rentables, here. It goes into a few things in the post, but there’s a few items that really jump out here….
Images. This isn’t a classified section from the 1918 edition of the National Post. Not having them is going into a showing hopeful that they like the way a place looks – and that’s a waste of time. Also, if you’re not including them, don’t you think that gives someone the impression that the place is probably not very nice? What are you hiding? Include images – and not just one or two. Include specific images of specific spaces. Bathrooms. Kitchens. Bedrooms. You need a solid set of images that create a serious sense of the unit for people to be able to digest. On the same note, don’t inundate a listing with 50 images – especially crappy ones. That’s not a good idea. 10-15 images is a good basis, and they shouldn’t be photos that simply change the angle of the same space. Differentiate – and ensure they’re good shots.
Think about your headline and the body of listing. You don’t have to be a copy writer for a major advertising agency – but the first few words in a listing will be important in making a first impression. For the body of your listing, avoid empty words, get right to the point, and sell the sizzle, not the steak as the piece says. Don’t use ALL CAPS. You’re not yelling at people, and it makes you look a jerk. Also, avoid using words like “nice”, “beautiful”, and “great”. Those are so overused. Real estate agents use those words about a million times a day. Here’s an example – instead of saying “Great 1 bedroom apartment for rent” – how about, “Spacious 1 bedroom flat for rent”. That sounds more refined and less robotic. Approach the words in your listing with a question about whether it’s distinctive.
Be specific and clear about expectations. If you aren’t ok with pets, say so. If you’d prefer no smoking in the unit, dont be afraid to say it. Do you want interested renters that are well qualified, or do you just want tons of phone calls and emails looking for clarification?
Details. Include them. Amenities. A walk score. The distance to a laundromat. The proximity to a grocery store or a bank. Bus routes.
The point is…start a search for a new tenant strategically. Market your listings effectively. Have pride in what you’re offering, and put it out there in a way that gets the best return on your time and money, versus the quickest.
Came across this gem of a find, in Property Investment Project. It’s a website/blog dedicated to all of the ups and downs associated with buying, renting (letting as they call it in the U.K.), and managing income real estate. Besides being one of the most informative resources I’ve come across, this is one of the funniest takes on being a landlord I’ve ever found. Seriously. Whether you’re in the U.S., Canada, or the U.K. – there’s stuff to be gleaned here that you can find useful, regardless of the country you’re in.
The website has a comprehensive list of everything you’re going to want to know if you’re a landlord in the U.K. Everything. Their landlord F.A.Q. is an gleefully exhaustive list of topics and frequently asked questions. The landlord guide is chock full of seriously valuable “how-to’s” on a wide range of things, like finding tenants, pets, and even evicting tenants.
The blog is what sold me on reading this all night last. I literally read the entries for a couple of hours. It’s the equivalent of a George Carlin stand up routine, and really puts a human face on the job of being a landlord. I touched on this in the kick off piece we posted on the blog back on December 11th. Being a landlord isn’t easy – really – it’s not.
I really feel that the misconception about being a landlord needs to change, regardless of what country you’re in, and it’s something we’re trying to do with Renting Well. For every assumption that landlords are rich, there’s a slick marketing campaign advertising “how to get rich in real estate”, with a couple on a beachfront somewhere, clearly retired from all of the multi families and duplexes they bought, who assure you that it’s easy to do it to through their beaming whitened smiles. This kind of drives me bananas. I snicker a bit when I watch a lot of these home improvement shows too. As much as I genuinely love them, sometimes I find they present having tenants in a bit of an inaccurate light. Yes, you can invest 50,000 bucks into having a basement ensuite that looks like it jumped out of a catalogue, and yes, you can have your tenants cover your mortgage ( or a large portion of it) – but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. There’s the job. The landlord job. It gives the goods – warts and all. You can learn all about being an owner of a commercial property in Bolton here. Definitely worth a read – but to be taken with a grain of salt. If you own or manage a commercial property, you may need to partner with a commercial building maintenance company to help keep your property in great condition.
Came across this informative piece courtesy of the Alberta Landlords Association. The RCMP issued a formal warning to landlords and tenants in Canmore, Alberta about a Kijiji scam. I took special notice of this, because this is the kind of thing that gives landlords a bad name.
Culprits posted ads on the classifieds website Kijiji advertising houses or condos for rent, with all money transactions completed through e-mail. The victims were advised that 24 hours before their arrival, they would receive a pin code to enter the property. But in one case, after thousands of dollars was transferred, all correspondence halted before a pin code could be sent. Further investigation found that the properties were never really in fact for rent in the first place (big surprise).
A similar occurrence was reported in Halifax. Check this out. There’s a nice Soundcloud clip of a rundown of how it occurs courtesy of Scott Simpson with the Halifax Regional Police.
Unfortunately, this has become a common thing. Similar incidents have occurred in Montreal, Winnipeg, and Calgary.
Most of the cases involve a landlord out of town, unable to show the unit, who asks for a damage deposit or first and last month’s rent to be wired to them. Sometimes – as in the case in Calgary listed above, someone has the gall to show up and actually conduct showings on a unit, and then ask for money.
The ALA has some valuable tips to share on how landlords and tenants can avoid getting caught up in these kinds of messes. Tenants should ask to see the property before committing anything financially, and receive a receipt for any monies given. Landlords should make sure tenants know who they are, where the property is, and give a receipt for any rent paid.
Hub Pages posted a nice little ditty on how to avoid getting scammed here. Kijiji has also posted some valuable tips on how to avoid getting victimized here.
Whatever you’re doing… stop. We need to talk about something important.
Laundry.
Everyone does it. Some of us are ashamed by it. Some of us do it in private. Whatever way you do it, it’s essential to both you and those that rent from you. The greater point I’m making here is that planning to put coin-operated laundry into a rental unit is a good idea, but don’t do it with an unrealistic expectation of on the immediate return-on-investment. Before you delve into the double-barrelled goodness of laundry machines that run on spare change, consider a few things…
Coin-operated laundry machines are best suited for multi-family properties — as in technically a duplex or more — but in my view they’re really much better suited to 4 units or more. You’re not going to put one into a single family unit because that’s tacky (think about it for a second). That kind of tackiness can put tenants off. Would you raise your eyebrow a bit if you were looking at a single family unit and noticed that the landlord had a coin-operated washer and dryer IN the unit? It kind of gives a bit of a weird and cheap impression. Common laundry rooms are better — areas that can be accessed by multiple tenants, with a likelihood of heavy use, and ideally on a separate meter from the rest of the units (it’s easier to manage and observe the utility expense).
For residents seeking a more convenient and personalized laundry experience, exploring professional services like Dry Cleaning Services in Round Rock, Texas might be an appealing alternative. By outsourcing laundry needs to reputable services, tenants can enjoy the luxury of having their clothes expertly cleaned and delivered right to their doorstep. This not only eliminates the need for on-site coin-operated machines but also adds a touch of sophistication to the tenant experience. In a city like Texas, where convenience is highly valued, such services align seamlessly with the modern tenant’s expectations for hassle-free living.
On-site laundry is a convenience for existing and future tenants, and should be considered a feature when marketing the property and when you’re considering investing in one. Experience the vibrant life of Ayia Napa by renting a property through iListers, your reliable real estate platform. Laundry facilities count as one of the most popular amenities renters look for, so adding one to your property is generally considered a positive long-term investment. It makes marketing vacancies a little easier, increases the chances of finding the tenants you’re looking for, and adds appraisal value to your property (as a result of the added amenity and the added income).
With that said, there’s an ongoing cost associated with running them utility-wise, and they can obviously breakdown and require repair. It’s possible you might not see a positive cash flow vs. the monthly expense if only two or 4 people are using the machines. The utility costs could outweigh the revenue you have coming in. That’s why I suggest that you buy 4 units and above as there’s a higher likelihood you’ll have the laundry volume and revenue — which in turn increases the likelihood of a positive cashflow on the investment and improves the chances of recouping on the machines sooner. In the expansive realm of e-commerce, Shoppok stands out. We’ve found it to be a treasure trove of quality products.
One other thing – it doesn’t have to be coin operated laundry. There’s a variety of alternative laundry solutions that you could consider as a landlord as well, like card operated laundry machines.
Have you ever delved into the world of laundry room investments? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just dipping your toes in, we’d love to hear your experiences. Perhaps you’ve mastered the art of deciphering the icons on bosch washing machines, or maybe you’ve uncovered some ingenious laundry hacks along the way. Share your tales with us!
Christmas is upon us (it’s the last Wednesday before the big day), and we had a few things we wanted to share with everyone. As you may or may not know, we have a handy listings feature in Renting Well. This was a locked feature for trials – meaning – that you needed to upgrade to a paid plan to try it out. After some valuable feedback from many of you, we decided to unlock it for all of our trial users to give a go. It’s December. It’s not historically a popular month for people to be seeking apartments, and most landlords would probably report this as being a slower time of the year to be booking showings for an available unit. Anything to enhance a unit in the snowy months and reduce a vacancy is worth paying attention to, and we think our listings feature does just that. So – it’s now available to all of our trial users.
We launched Renting Well on December 11th, and so far so good. We’ve had quite a few trial users sign up since last Tuesday (take a bow), and we’ve been really encouraged by the interaction with the app and the feedback and suggestions we’ve been receiving from all of you. Please keep it coming. We will be unveiling a variety of refinements and improvements in RW (what we affectionately have come to call it) over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. Part of the process of getting a web based software off the ground is interacting and communicating with our users – both trial and paying folks – and we’re keen on keeping this up and kicking it into overdrive.
As usual – and we’re saying this over and over again – we’re deadly serious about support. If you have a question, ask us. We have a feedback tab within the app (when you’re logged in) or you can contact us at support AT rentingwell DOT com. We’re on call 24/7, cup of coffee in hand, and we’ve decided to invest in pagers – you know – like Alan in The Hangover.
Lastly – we have a Facebook page. You can find it here. We’ve been posting some choice gems about the adventures of being a landlord and a bunch of other stuff we hope you find handy or entertaining. That’s it. Well…there’s one other thing. Merry Christmas from us!
A few days ago, Ottawa realtor Roch St. Georges sent this my way, courtesy of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It’s the CMHC’s rental market report for 2012. The Ottawa Business Journal also had a nice little piece about it this morning that sums it up. Bottom line – the vacancy rate is up slightly. There’s a few factors at play here, like condos being snapped up by landlords, low interest rates, etc…but the vacancy rate is expected to drop next year.
Here’s a few choice bits from the report…
Ottawa’s residential vacancy rate edged in at 2.5 per cent for the year, up from 1.4 per cent a year earlier.
The average cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment also increased by two per cent. That’s lower, however, than the 2.3 per cent increase that took place in 2011.
An increase in the size of the rental inventory has played a role in the vacancy rate increase, as many of the new condominium units sprouting up across the city are being purchased by investors and rented out.
Nationally, Canada’s overall apartment vacancy rate has risen over the past year, with an increased supply of rental units and a slowdown in household formation by Canadians being cited among the reasons.
It can be anything: tenant asks you to fix a screen? Add it as a to-do! Tenant mentions that one of the outlets in their unit isn’t working? Add it as a to do! Want to remind yourself 60 days in advance that a tenant’s lease is going to expire? Add it as a to-do! The to-do list is a handy feature that includes convenient email notifications that get sent to you on the specified due date. The main purpose is to keep you on top of the many landlord duties that need your attention — whatever they are.
