Honest Realestate Agent

Archive for November, 2009

To evict a tenant you first must give them a Notice of Termination.

Tenants who are on a month to month lease can be evicted with a 30 days or 60 days written notice. In some states 60 days is required while in others only 30 days is required. You need to check your locality. The form you use is called either a 30 Day Notice or a 60 Day Notice.

First though, you need to check your local laws for what is an acceptable reason to serve a 30 Day Notice.

Subsidized housing programs often limit what you can evict a tenant for. They usually have forms where you have to list the reason for the eviction.

Some cities have rent controls in place that require “just cause” in order to evict and the landlord’s 30 Day Notice must specifically state the reason for which he is terminating tenancy.

An eviction can never be retaliatory or discriminatory in nature.

Forms very from state to state but there are basically three types of Notice of Termination forms you use, depending on your circumstance, to evict tenants.

Pay Rent Or Quit is a notice given to a tenant who has not paid the rent. This notice instructs the tenant to either pay the rent or pack up and move. Tenants are then given anywhere from 3 days to 30 days to pay the rent depending on your local laws.

Cure or Quit notices: This notice is given to tenants whove violated one of the conditions you listed in your rental contract. It tells your tenant to cure the violation in a limited number of days (determined by state law) and vacate the premises, or be subject to an eviction action.

Notice to Quit or Unconditional Quit notices: These forms are just basically kick out a tenant forms. They tell your tenant to vacate the premise without giving them a chance to fix a violation in the rental agreement, or even to pay. It basically just says GET OUT. Most states discourage the use of these notices unless tenants are conducting illegal activity, have repeatedly violated a significant term or condition of the rental contract, or have severely damaged the premises. Out of all the court cases I’ve seen where a tenant wins a significant judgement against a landlord (don’t worry, it’s very rare), it involved the use of this form. Don’t be lazy and use this form as a kind of “catch all” form.

If your resident chooses not to correct a violation of the rental agreement or to pay you rent, she is not instantly evicted.

You must go through the formal eviction process.

File the correct forms with the court and have the resident properly served with a summons and complaint. The complaint needs to only have unpaid rent on it. You must not put late charges or other fees on it. If you do, it is likely that the court will deny your complaint.

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is right here. Never just put this notice in the mail or slip it under the tenant’s door. You must have an authorized person physically deliver the legal notice to the tenant face to face. Every state has specific rules and procedures as to what exactly constitutes proper legal service, including who can serve notices, the method of delivery, the specific parties who can be legally served, and the amount of time the tenant has to respond to the legal notice. Check with your local attorney for the requirements in your area.

By law, a trial date is set, and your tenant has a certain number of days to file an answer to your summons and complaint.

At this stage, most residents will vacate your rental. The legal summons and complaint tells them you know the law and you know what you are doing. They know that they broke some condition of the rental agreement they signed with you when they moved in.

Often a resident will want to settle with you out of court. That’s fine if you both come to an agreement. Just don’t forget to dismiss your eviction action with the court.

If your tenant doesnt file an answer in a timely manner, the eviction action proceeds to court without the tenant.

This is called an uncontested eviction. The court requires you to prove your case, but the tenant isnt there to respond to or deny your charges. Typically, you can easily prevail in this situation, as long as you have good documentation.

4. If your tenant files an answer and appears at court, each party receives the opportunity to present its evidence before the court makes a ruling.

The court calls this a contested eviction. If you have all your paperwork and proof in order and professionally present yourself and the facts, you generally will win. But if you have acted illegally to evict the tenant you will not.

5. After you win the eviction suit with the court, you then give the court judgment to your local police department.

Your local police will then give the tenant one last notice of a pending lock out. A lock out is when the police physically remove the tenant and his possessions from your rental unit. You need to meet the police at your rental unit and immediately have the locks changed once you get legal possession of your rental unit.

I recommend you have a property management company or an attorney handle the eviction process. The filing and serving of various forms in the eviction process must be done in a precise way. One mistake can delay the entire action even if your tenant clearly is in the wrong.

You want to use an “eviction collection” law firm that specializes in property management law.

Eviction and collection attorneys will handle everything for you. You just turn the eviction process over to them and they do the rest. They do all the filings with the court, the correct serving of your tenant with the appropriate legal notices, and they even call the police and schedule a date for the lock out to take place. They even have their own collections department where they collect on past due rent and have the power to negatively impact a tenants credit report until he does pay you.

I hope this free advice helps you with dealing with the eviction process of your tenant. Should you require extra property management services and if you are a property owner in Fresno or Madera County in California see property management Fresno CA

If you are running ads that contain these words, you will likely be fined 100,000 dollars or more and lose your rental home.

Now is the time to take action if you think your ads are violating Fair Housing law.

Fair Housing regulations must be followed by all owners. Fair Housing regulations apply to apartments and homes.

Do not post any discriminatory concepts within your ads. Section 804-c of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604-c reads, “…it is unlawful to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published, any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling, that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.”

Whether you run ads on a website, Craigslist, or in printed magazines or classifieds in a newspaper, you must stay away from using discriminatory wording.

Some owners have been fined 12,000 dollars for every discriminatory ad they ran plus damages awarded by the court.

Do not refer to a persons skin color and do not use the words, “white”, “black”, “Hispanic”, “colored home”, and “no Hispanics”. Don’t even try to work race into the advertising of your home.

Religion should never be used in your ads. It is not legal to use words like “Christians only” or “no Jews”.

If you want to advertise the fact that your rental home is in an upscale neighborhood on the North side of town, you would be wise to use a phrase like “desirable neighborhood”. Desirable is subjective and relies on interpretation by the individual as to what their definition of desirable is. It is a matter of taste. Much like crayon colors. It is useless arguing what color is the best because such a topic is subjective.

You should not discriminate against people who have a disability of some kind. It is not legal to use the wording “no wheelchairs” or “handicap people need not apply”. It is legal to mention accessibility features for people with handicaps such as “wheelchair ramp included”. You can also discriminate against certain types of behavior or conduct like saying “no smoking” is legal.

Do not discriminate against children or parents. It is NOT ok to use the phrase “adult building”, “adults only”, or “no children”. In December of 2007, the Southern California Housing Rights Center brought charges against Robert Krug, a Monrovia landlord, alleging that he engaged in housing discrimination by not allowing children into his apartment complex. The suit, filed in March 2007, stated that the center had people pose as renters with families and approached the manager of Krug’s 28-unit apartment building in 2004. They were told the owner didn’t allow children. As part of a settlement reached, a federal court has fined Robert Krug nearly 140,000 dollars for the federal offense.

Familial status should never be used in the advertisements for your rental home. You can not say things like “3 children or less only” or state a preference for couples, singles, or adults.

Fair Housing regulations do not just govern your ads. They also govern how you screen tenants, your rental application, and how you treat your tenant the entire time they stay in your rental home.

I hope you find this article useful for renting your home out and should you find yourself in need of additional help in renting out your home in Fresno, California, visit the first and largest Fresno property management company.

The term real estate investing likely brings a number of things to mind. You might immediately leap to real estate investing being real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans or you may think instead of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also wonder what type of role these things can play in your life as a real estate investor in different types of economy.

There is a lot to learn about real estate investing. The best way to optimize your real estate investing education is to know the basics ahead of time. Whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just improving your abilities as a real estate investor, you need to know some real estate investing basics in order to succeed. You should review these three real estate investing basics to learn things even some experts do not know:

1. Real estate investing education is a true investment that always has a positive yield. In any real estate deal, there will be thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Understanding how to get that wealth will be the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your chances of success when you do a real estate deal. A small investment in education has the ability to yield big results when it is implemented.

2. You can succeed in real estate investing regardless of the state of the economy. Many people think (wrongly) that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy booms. In fact a bad economy is not a bad economy for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. You might also find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Real estate investing may also turn the tide for a poor economy. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. Knowing how to do these deals can create wealth for you and save others from major financial difficulties.

3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can succeed in the real estate investing arena no matter how much money you are working with. Many types of deals enable you to use other people’s money to do them. If you look like a good investment a private lender may let you use their money. A person who is a solid investment knows as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. You can create an income in any economy. By using a base of knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you can create success for yourself. Knowing the basics of real estate investing will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

Any person is entitled to receive drugs at a negotiated price regardless of their salary, age or pre-existing conditions. There is a innovative prescription medicine discount card accessible to any person that requests it, and it is free of charge! Access to medical care and rx access is here too.  For too long, patients lacking medical insurance have been paying full retail cost for their medicines however with this novel plan they will now have an advocate on their side. Prescription help is available.

There are numerous companies that have programs to drive down the cost of prescription medication to those persons with no medical insurance policies. This has developed into quite an chance to save health care dollars with cardholders in all 50 states. Typically, these prescription medicine discount cards are accepted at more than 45 ,000 community and countrywide pharmacies.

Numerous non-profit organizations and clinics give out the cards as a method to satisfy a need and help out their neighborhood throughout hard times. The discount cards have been delivered to area United Way agencies, clinics, doctor offices and pharmacies in addition to neighborhood community health centers. These cards are not presciption insurance, but they can drive down the cost of your prescription medicine by up to 10  % or more. The person merely presents their card to the pharmacy as a consequence they are sure that they will shell out either the discounted fee or the pharmacy’s retail fee, whichever is less.

There are people that are saving $10 -$40  on a prescription as a consequence that is cash they can spend to get groceries, pay rent or pay the power bill. Patients are in addition able to get the drugs they desperately need. The cards are available at no cost to everybody and there is no limit on how often they can be used.

An added approach that a variety of organizations are capable to assist uninsured persons is through Prescription Assistance Programs. These programs are operated by all prescription drug company and every one is a little unusual. If a person qualifies though, they will get their medicines at no charge. To meet the criteria the person needs to be without medical insurance and the family income can’t surpass selected guidelines.

There is a monstrous want for prescription medicine aid at this moment, in particular in view of the fact that a lot of patients continue to lose their jobs. A lot of citizens need assistance currently more than ever.

It is likely that you think of a number of things when you hear the words real estate investing. You likely leap to real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, and then you may expand to thinking of short sales, bulk reo investing or virtual real estate investing. You likely also are wondering how these things factor into real estate investors’ roles in the current economy.

There is a lot of information out there on real estate investing. Getting the most out of real estate investing education involves being familiar with basic RE info. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. You should review these three real estate investing basics to learn things even some experts do not know:

1. Real estate investing education always yields positive. You can create thousands of dollars in potential wealth with each real estate deal. Understanding how to get that wealth will be the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Small investments yield big results when you invest in learning and then implement what you learn.

2. Any economy allows for success in real estate investing. Many people are under the misconception that success is possible in real estate only when the economy is good. Actually a poor economy is not a bad economy for real estate investors. You will likely find properties that you can buy at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Real estate investing often is what turns the tide for poor economies. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You will not need lots of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make real estate investing a success regardless of how much money you have. There are lots of deals that you can use other people’s money to do. If you look like a good investment a private lender may let you use their money. The best way to be a good investment is to know as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you show private lenders that you are a good investment if they do not know about real estate investing themselves.

You can generate lots of wealth by real estate investing. You will have the ability to create income in any economy. Using a knowledge base of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you will be able to make success for yourself. Knowing some real estate investing basics and applying them will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

The recession in the U.S. economy has resulted in more foreclosures than experienced by any other generation of Americans. But challenge always gives rise to opportunity, and opportunistic real estate investors are rising to the challenge.

This new opportunity – known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ – is so huge it’s captured attention from wealthy investors and private investment funds alike.

The basis of the Bulk REO business is foreclosures, so let’s analyze the foreclosure process now.

Understanding the notion of Bulk REO’s requires understanding of the foreclosure process.

As a home owner misses a payment or two, the lender sends the predictable barage of threatening letters and warnings. The lender directs the subsequent timing of the actual foreclosure proceedings. The ‘pre-foreclosure’ time starts with filing of foreclosure paperwork and concludes at public auction.

The defaulted property is ultimately auctioned, thus completing the foreclosure process. If there are no buyers at the foreclosure auction, the lender regains title to the property. The property then receives the designation of being an ‘REO’ or the more formal name, ‘Real Estate Owned’.

REO properties are usually listed for sale with local real estate agents. Yet with increasing frequency, REO properties are being sold for pennies or dimes on the dollar. However, the purchase of a ‘package’ (or group) or REO properties is the trade-off for receiving such great prices.

There is huge profit potential in these REO packages for qualified real estate investors. Bulk REO Investors are most successful when they have a well-established source of funding for their REO packages. Some sources of funding for these transactions are: personal funds, hard money lenders, commercial lenders and non-conventional sources such as private investors and hedge funds. Additionally, one man is becoming very well known in the field of bulk REO investing, and his name is Sal Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.

A number of things likely come to mind when you think of real estate investing. You might immediately leap to real estate investing being real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans or you may think instead of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also wonder what type of role these things can play in your life as a real estate investor in different types of economy.

There is a great deal to know about real estate investing. The best way to optimize your real estate investing education is to know the basics ahead of time. No matter whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just enhancing your knowledge as a real estate investor, knowing some real estate investing basics will help you succeed. Check out these three real estate investing tenets that many experts do not fully know:

1. Real estate investing education is a true investment that always has a positive yield. You can create thousands of dollars in potential wealth with each real estate deal. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. When you know about real estate your odds of success increase with each real estate deal. Implementation of your small educational investments yields big results.

2. You have the ability to succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Often people think that you can only be a success in real estate when the economy is good. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. In addition, you can find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Real estate investing often is what turns the tide for poor economies. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. You will be able to save yourself and others from serious financial difficulties if you know how to do these deals.

3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can make real estate investing a success regardless of how much money you have. There are lots of deals that you can use other people’s money to do. If you look like a good investment a private lender may let you use their money. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

You can generate lots of wealth by real estate investing. You can create an income in any economy. By using a base of knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you can create success for yourself. Real estate investing basic knowledge will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

Landscaping is an important factor in selling your home in Oakleaf Plantation Jacksonville Florida

The Real Estate Market is not in the best shape it has been and as the tax incentive ends the market is likely to slow even more.  With this in mind, you must make your home the one that catches the eye of buyers.  When selling a home, your landscape can make the difference in you hearing the word SOLD.

When you are selling your home in Oakleaf Plantation Jacksonville you want to focus on your landscape.  Landscaping is usually performed by professionals that have the knowledge and experience to transform an area in order to give it a desired look. Professionals that are involved in landscaping will rely on gardening though there is more to it than just gardening as it also means installing walls as well as different features and in addition it also means constructing buildings and even taking into account an entire area. Furthermore, people that become professionally competent to do landscaping do so for different reasons including to beautify an area and to also make the area more functional.

Landscape Lighting

A dark lawn looks sinister especially during the night. The right landscape lighting could bring life into your lawn at night and make your home look more beautiful. Many times buyers will visit your home at different time of day before they decide if they are going to purchase.  No, you do not have to spend several hundred dollars just to put some landscape lighting into your lawn. Some types of landscape lightings do not really cost so much. In fact, if you spend enough time hunting for cheap outdoor lighting, you can find something that won’t cost you more than a hundred dollars!

Shopping For Outdoor Lighting

There a few basic things that you need to remember when you go shopping for landscape lighting. You need to decide what types of lights you want to put on your lawn. If you are an environmentalist and you do not feel comfortable with the idea of using electricity to power up your outdoor lightings, you can always get some of those solar powered landscape lighting. You may need to invest a bit more on these types of lightings in the beginning but since you will not be paying extra amount of money on electricity later on when you start using your solar powered lights, investing a few more dollars on these types of lightings is still a good option. Just think about how much money you will be able to save on electricity if you use solar powered lights on your lawn and garden.

On the other hand, if you are concerned about the reliability of your landscape lightings, buying those solar powered lights may not be practical for you especially if you live in an area where you do not get enough sunlight during certain times of the year. Instead of buying solar powered lights for your lawn, you might as well invest your money on low voltage landscape lighting. The good thing about low voltage outdoor lightings is that they do not cost as much as regular lawn lightings and they do not consume so much energy.

Another thing that you need to consider when shopping for landscape lighting is safety. You need to make sure that your landscape lightings do not unwittingly expose you to fire hazards and accidents. Check the safety instructions of the outdoor lightings before you buy them. If you are not familiar with wirings and outdoor lights installation, you better find a professional who can help you with this task.  All in all you want to make sure your landscape has a look that will capture the attention of buyers.

Some other things to bring to the attention of buyers is the Oakleaf Plantation Tennis

When you think of real estate investing, a number of things may come to mind. You may think of real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. Likely you also wonder how these things will factor into your life as a real estate investor in the current economy.

There is a lot of information out there on real estate investing. Getting the most out of real estate investing education involves being familiar with basic RE info. Whether your target is short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or improving real estate investor abilities, you need to know some real estate investing basics. You should review these three real estate investing basics to learn things even some experts do not know:

1. Real estate investing education always yields positive. Each real estate deal can represent thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Knowing how to get that wealth is the key to success. Knowing more about real estate betters your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Implementation of your small educational investments yields big results.

2. You have the ability to succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. In reality, poor economies are great for real estate investors. You will likely find properties that you can buy at deep discounts. You might also find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can have the tide turned based on real estate investing. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all thrive when the economy is less than thriving. Knowing how to do these deals can create wealth for you and save others from major financial difficulties.

3. You do not need a lot of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make real estate investing a success regardless of how much money you have. Many types of deals enable you to use other people’s money to do them. If you look like a good investment a private lender may let you use their money. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

A good deal of wealth can be generated with real estate investing. You can create income regardless of the economy. You can create success for yourself using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. Real estate investing basic knowledge will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

The term real estate investing likely brings a number of things to mind. You may think of real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, or you might focus on short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing. You may also consider what roles these things play in your life as a real estate investor in different economies.

You can learn a lot about real estate investing. To get the most out of real estate investing education, be familiar with basic information ahead of time. You will get the most out of anything to do with short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate and just improving real estate investor abilities by knowing some real estate investing basics. Review these three real estate investing basics that even some experts don’t yet know:

1. Real estate investing education always yields positive. You can create thousands of dollars in potential wealth with each real estate deal. Getting the wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Implementation of your small educational investments yields big results.

2. You can succeed in real estate investing in any economy. Many people think that you can only succeed in real estate when the economy is booming. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. You can often buy properties at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can turn based on active real estate investing. Short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate all can thrive when the economy is not. You will have the option of saving yourself and possibly others from serious financial difficulties if you know about these types of deals.

3. You will not need lots of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can make a success of real estate investing no matter how much or little money you have. There are many deals that will let you use other people’s money to do them. Private lenders will lend you their money if they think you are a good investment. An investor who is a good investment knows as much as they can when it comes to real estate investing. This will enable you to show people who have money for real estate investing but may not know how to use it that you are a good investment.

Real estate investing is a good way to generate a great deal of wealth. You will be able to create an income no matter what the economy. You can create your own success using your knowledge of short sales, real estate investing, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate. Real estate investing basic knowledge will help you succeed as a real estate investor.