Renttropolis Online Property Management

By Aleksandra Todorova Published: August 15, 2005

THINKING OF BECOMING A LANDLORD? Join the club. As the real estate market cools, an increasing number of homeowners are deciding to hold on to their old properties and rent them out until the market recovers.

The appeal is clear. What could be easier than collecting rent and using it to pay off your mortgage, all the while enjoying some serious tax benefits and property appreciation?

But while renting out a property has its perks, there are also many legal and logistical hurdles. “You can put your stock certificate in your drawer and there’s pretty much nothing you can do to make it grow or increase the rate at which it grows,” says Janet Portman, an attorney and co-author of the book “Every Landlord’s Legal Guide.” “But if you buy real estate, whether it’s going to end up being a good decision is substantially up to you. There’s a lot of work involved in being a landlord, and if you don’t do it right, you can end up losing money.”

Here’s a quick run-down of what every landlord needs to know.

1. Run Your Property Like a Business
You may already have a nine-to-five job. But if you’re planning on becoming a landlord, expect your hours to jump to 24-7. Here are the steps that all new landlords should take.

Know the Rules
Getting your business off the ground will involve some paperwork. Some states require that you get a business license for your property in order to rent it out, says Melissa Prandi, author of “The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property” and owner of Prandi Property Management. She recommends that first-time landlords consult with a real estate attorney and a certified public accountant (CPA) before getting started. A CPA can help you figure out how much rent you should charge in order to make your business profitable, while an attorney can be priceless as you learn the intricacies of the fair housing laws. (More on these later.)

Second, says Prandi, take care of the “technicalities” of running your business: Open a bank account for the property and run all bills and rental income through that account. This will simplify your paperwork come tax time. Small extras like business cards will let your tenants know that you’re an accessible and reliable landlord.

Find Reliable Tenants
Finding tenants should be the most time-consuming part of your business. “Where landlords get into trouble, especially new ones, is that they rent to friends, relatives or people who they feel would be good tenants,” says Bill Moore, founder of Landlord.com, a professional organization for landlords and real estate managers.

Instead, think of finding a tenant as hiring them into the family business: Check their references (speak with their previous landlords), pull their credit report and consider running a background check. The National Tenant Network and Registry SafeRent sell credit reports from the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion), as well as more in-depth tenant reports including an eviction judgment check, a criminal report, and verification of employment and landlord references. Prices range from $13.95 (per tenant) for a credit report or $9 for a separate evictions report to $34.95 for a full package.

Be Tough
Toni Midea, an engineer in Cleveland who owned and managed 10 rental properties with his wife for more than 10 years before he quit the business, learned the hard way that being a sympathetic landlord doesn’t work. (He wrote about some of his most frustrating experiences in his book “A Fool’s Guide to Landlording.”) He writes: “If you’re a tough person, very strong-willed and willing to evict people, you’ll be fine,” he says. “If you’re compassionate and buy into [your tenants'] stories…they read that as a weakness. You have to be very business-oriented and not listen to people’s sob stories. The bottom line is, ‘you have to pay your rent, and that’s your job, and my job is to collect it, and there are no in-betweens.’”

Get Handy
Landlording is dirty work. You’ll have to get used to Sunday-morning (or worse) calls from tenants complaining of broken pipes, clogged bathtubs, exposed electric wires and other common maintenance problems.

And yet, deciding not to maintain your property can be a costly mistake. If the unit becomes unfit for living, Portman explains, a tenant has the right to stop paying rent.

But you should also be aware of your rights as a landlord. “Normal wear and tear is something you have to pay for,” Portman says. “But you shouldn’t have to pay for deliberate or extremely negligent damage.” (If the toilet clogged because the tenants flushed a diaper, for example, it’s their responsibility.) For more details, check out NOLO’s “Every Landlord’s Legal Guide.”

2. Be Profit-Realistic
Robert Griswold, owner of Griswold Real Estate Management and author of “Real Estate Investing for Dummies,” recommends that landlords project receiving 11 months of rental income per year rather than a full 12 months, factoring in a likely loss of income from vacancy or delinquent rent. Couple that with repair expenses, and — worst-case scenario — you might come out with a loss (meaning your expenses and mortgage payments exceed what you collected in rent) at the end of the year.

Midea experienced this firsthand. “There were years when we had $20,000 to $30,000 in losses, just from fixing up damage that was done to the property and going through the eviction process,” he says. “And that was all work being done while I had a regular job, so I had to take days off work.”

3. Know the Law
Housing laws are like nesting dolls, Portman explains. First, there are federal housing laws that apply to everybody. On top of these, each state applies its own housing laws that are at least as protective and often more protective of tenants than federal law. And some cities have laws that are more protective than state laws. It’s imperative you know the laws that apply to your region. Here are some of the most common pitfalls landlords encounter:
Discrimination
Make sure you have legal reasons to reject an applicant, or you risk getting sued for discrimination. For example, you can’t reject an applicant solely on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, national origin, family status, gender, disability or handicap. You are allowed to refuse renting to tenants with pets or applicants who have previous bankruptcy filings, insufficient income, or lack positive references from previous landlords.

Steering
Steering is encouraging a potential tenant to take one apartment over another. Landlords — sometimes entirely innocently — end up breaking this law and get slammed for it, says Portman. “A landlord who says to a single mother with a teenage daughter, ‘You should take the upstairs unit or the unit in the back’: that’s called steering and it’s illegal,” she says. “The landlord may have had the best of intentions, but under federal and state law, he has to allow the tenant to choose the unit they want among those that are available.”

Security deposits
The most common type of case handled in small claims court is a landlord-tenant dispute over a security deposit, says Portman. And if the court proves that you have misused the deposit, you might end up paying punitive damages that are two or three times the amount of the deposit.

Some things to keep in mind: Certain states limit the amount of the deposit you can collect or require you to hold it in a separate account that accrues interest. Generally, landlords can use the deposit for unpaid rent and repairs that are beyond normal wear and tear, but there may be additional state-specific limitations. Many states require the landlord to provide an itemized statement of how the deposit has been used. In California, you even have to provide copies of the receipts.

4. Insuring the Property
Whether you rent out a single-family home to one tenant or an entire building with dozens of apartments, you need separate homeowners insurance for your rental properties. And be ready to reach deeply into your pockets.

“Whenever you’re renting to a lot of people, you’re going to be paying more money because you’re exposing that home to more risk,” says Loretta Worters, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. If you’re renting out a single-family home or a portion of your own home, you could do with a special rider to your existing homeowners policy, but you’ll need a separate policy for larger properties.

Worters’ advice: In today’s litigious climate, make sure you have enough liability coverage. “If your tenant’s dog bites your neighbor’s child, they’re most likely to go after the tenant,” she says. “But if there’s some negligence on your part — let’s say the fence wasn’t high enough — they may go after you.”

5. Get Professional Help
Property-management companies basically do the grunt work for you. They market the property, maintain it, screen tenants, collect rent, pay the bills, prepare financial statements for you and keep up with the fair housing laws. All that, of course, comes at a price: Management company fees range from 6% to 10% of the rental income, according to Prandi.

But in certain situations, a property manager can be a lifesaver. If you’re an absentee landlord (meaning you live far from the rental property), for example, you may need a management company to run your business. You might also be better off with professional help if you aren’t especially handy or if you find that being a landlord is taking you away from your job or personal life.

“The best clients I’ve ever had are the landlords who tried to manage [the property] themselves and failed,” says Prandi.

To find a reputable property manager, go to the National Association of Residential Property Managers and use their Property Manager search tool.

Original Article from Smart Money

Reading the classifieds can be like reading in a foreign language. Don’t panic. We’ve decoded some of the abbreviations to get you started:a/c = air conditioning; ba/bth = bathroom; br = bedroom; c/o w/d = coin-operated washer and dryer; dr = dining room; dw = dishwasher; eik = eat-in kitchen (it’s big enough for a table); fp = fireplace; hw fl = hardwood floors; incl ht/hw = rent includes heat and hot water; ldry = laundry, lr = living room; off st pkg = off-street parking (parking lot or driveway); stu = studio (no bedrooms); w&d hkup = washer and dryer hookups; wic = walk-in closet; w/w = wall to wall carpeting.

Nearly two-thirds of renters don’t have any protection for their belongings in case of theft, fire or other disaster. Unless you have enough money saved to replace everything you own — clothes, furniture, computer, entertainment system, microwave, etc. — renters’ insurance is definitely worth the cost. Besides, some landlords may require renter’s insurance before you move in. No matter how pathetic your entry-level salary, you probably can scrape enough together to buy a policy. Expect to pay $150 to $250 a year, or $12 to $21 a month. You may pay more or less depending on your neighborhood and level of coverage. You can get quotes from several companies online, but check with your auto insurer first to see if you can get a discount for having more than one policy with the company.

The question that everyone that manages Associations eventually asks is who has the best software for managing my properties and handling my accounting needs. The simple answer is that no one has a complete solution that would make everyone happy. There are many factors that create this situation and this article puts together many of these items to help the reader get more out of their quest of finding a solution for them.

First and foremost is how does one find a property management solution at all. The most common method of finding a software solution is by word of mouth followed by trade journals and organizations. One of the easiest ways these days is to look on the Internet by using one of the popular search engines or go to industry related sites and view what they have on-line. All of these have their good points by putting you in contact with software providers but all of these have a number of flaws that you should be aware of once you use one of these channels.

Word of mouth

Word of mouth usually results in finding out what someone you know in the industry is using. The problem with word of mouth is that most people know what they use, have adapted themselves to use the product and use the product despite its shortcomings. Basically, word of mouth gives you results that are flawed because you are hearing about a solution that someone else knows about but that’s the only solution they know about and have no knowledge about other solutions. The reliance of word of mouth is really only hearing about one, maybe two solutions that the person giving the advice knows about and thus is very limited about the world as a whole no matter how good their intentions may be. The best you may get out of a word of mouth recommendation is the flaws of a particular software solution.

In many cases, word of mouth comes in the form from another vendor such as your bank. Many banks have aligned themselves to particular vendors and push them because those software providers push the bank services. Be especially aware of vendors recommending vendors because there is usually an economic incentive to do so.

Trade journals

Trade journals usually have advertisements and sometimes listing of software providers. This usually gives you a listing in which you can go through, call the software providers and get information directly from the software companies. The problem with trade journals, although usually unbiased in their approach, is that they are displaying companies that are willing to pay to be in their journal and thus there is an economic incentive for that trade journal to get that company out to the public. I’ve seen situations where companies are so good that they don’t need to advertise so they don’t. Keep in mind that trade journals are only interested in what companies pay them to advertise and that on the surface it may appear unbiased, there is always doubt that any one trade journal is not completely unbiased. Ask yourself, if I gave you $50,000 in advertising dollars this year, what would be willing to do for me. I think the answer is obvious.

Trade organizations

Trade organizations are another source to contact vendors, and much like trade journals, they do provide contact to software providers. But again, similar to trade journals, the vendors you typically see are vendors that have paid to get in and be seen. Trade shows do allow you to make personal contact with vendors but this is typically a marketing view and not a working view, which we will discuss later.

Internet searches

On-line searches give you quick access to a number of property management software providers. In this age, any software provider worth any looksee should have a presence on-line. The problem with Internet searches is that some will come up in one search engine and not another. Furthermore, it may be that the best companies are buried so deep in the search results and it takes considerable time to research every item found. The problem can be summed up as infoglut. At the time this article is being written, I went to the most popular search engine, put in “property management software” and came up with 33 entries. I then went to the second most popular search engine and found 1118 entries. So you can see it varies a lot. Out of the entries listed, only a small percentage in both searches dealt with Association management; i.e. most were real estate related. If I put in “accounting software”, things get really scary.

Web pages are marketing brochures on-line. What you see portrayed is a very positive view from a very biased source. Cut through the hype and see if there is any indication that the company you are viewing on-line has the things you need to make your task of managing and accounting easier.

How does one find a property management software solution? Use all of the methods above keeping in mind the flaws of each one and the fact that you must be dedicated to several hours of research to come up with software companies that you might think will help you in your quest.

I have a list of companies I want to consider, now what?

Now you have several companies in mind and I emphasize several companies. Please have a minimum of two companies to look at and the more the merrier. Why more than one? Because the more you talk about your particular situation with many different people, the more insight you get into how the solutions vary and possibly the fact that there may be more than one solution to your problems.

The most appropriate thing to do is to contact each company and request information and a demo of their software. Either before contacting the companies (maybe before selecting the companies!) or while you are waiting on the information and/or demo to materialize, list the items you want to know the most. These items should include the basic functions that you would expect to the extreme problems you are faced with. I’ve done many demos of property management software and I am always amazed at what people overlook in demos. They typically want to see the “wow” factors and as a person trying to get their account, that’s exactly what I want them to see and I’ll do my best to steer them into it. Focus on the mundane as well as the “Wows” in the vendors software. The financial statements may be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen but posting a Journal Entry may be hell. Make sure your day to day activity is covered in your viewing.

You should always try to narrow your decision to at least two vendors that you feel will solve your problems and typically no more than four. By this time, to be succinct in your decision process, you should develop a simple decision matrix with weighted values for each item. The weights can be as simple as 1, 2, 3 where 1=Vendor cannot perform this function, 2=Vendor has a solution but not a clean solution or one still under development, and 3=Vendor can do this function satisfactory. However, if you really want to get deep into a decision matrix, you should decide by high level functionality (i.e. Property Management, GL, AR, AP, etc) which items are more important than others and put higher weights on them; i.e. Financial statements may be weighted 1 thru 20 whereas Recurring Journal Entries may be 1 thru 3. A decision matrix is a simple tool to weigh the vendors in an unbiased fashion. Once you have weighted all of the items by vendor, you simply add up the numbers and the vendors with the largest numbers are the ones you want to view and consider. The matrix process should narrow you down to two vendors. If the weights are within ten percent of each other, they should be kept open to consideration.

Now you have a couple of vendors and they are pretty close to one another in comparison, what next?

The next step in selecting a vendor is to look at the technology. I assume you want a solution that will last well into the future, if so, then select a company that is aggressive in pursuing future technologies. What is the future? By far the future is the Internet. I may sound biased here but anyone that has not been dead in the last year can see that everything is going to be on-line (intranet/internet) business solutions. Keep in mind that your software not only must meet your needs but the needs of your homeowners, the board members, the association vendors and suppliers. The internet is the only solution that can solve all of these problems for everyone involved because no matter what type of computer they use, the internet provides a medium for everyone to access the same information. Most of the popular software solutions are all struggling to provide a Microsoft Windows® solution which is fine but Windows is becoming a proprietary product that locks you into one type of hardware solution and one operating system solution. As time goes on, this will become much more self-evident, and as history has shown, proprietary solutions create greater expense and early obsolescence. It’s my opinion that unless a current software solutions provider can show some type of Internet interoperability, they are doomed and you should stay away from them.

I found vendors with good future strategies, now what?

The next step in finding a good vendor is their contract issues and how they are willing to bend on issues that you are not comfortable with. Ask for copies of the contracts they want you to sign. Are these contracts even handed or one sided? If the contract is all pro-vendor (which most are) then ask them to change the contract to be more even handed. Keep in mind that contracts are made to be equal and to protect all parties. Never sign a contract that gives you no outs if the vendor fails to perform what they promised and never hesitate to ask for their promises to be a part of a contract. I once had a multimillion dollar vendor decision to make for one of the top 25 companies in the USA. I choose a less known vendor over a very well known vendor because the well known vendor said, “here’s our contract, sign it and we will not make any changes whatsoever”. The lessor known company was willing to make changes and stand behind their product. The contract the well known company wanted me to sign was all pro them and left me no outs if their promises were no good. In hindsight I made the right decision.

Along with contracts is service and typically a service contract is provided with a software license agreement. Service is very important so be sure you are getting what you need. Even if you get a minimal service contract for support, make sure you have a clause in your contract that says the vendor will be at your beckon call for 30 to 60 days after installation and if possible, after conversion.

Another very important item that is usually a contractual consideration is education. You want to be sure you will get education on how to use the new software. Sometimes this is in the form of person to person training on-site and sometimes it can be self study. No matter what the education is, make sure you raise this up as an issue. It is better to have a span of time for education (i.e. so many hours) than to be dependent on the vendor to tell you what you will need. They should and will guide you (some software is easier to use than others) but be sure you get a chunk of hours that they will give you in case you need them. If you never use them, then that’s fine, you didn’t need them.

The contracts look good, now what?

The final step in making a decision is the price. Remember, confidence is the number one reason why a person makes a decision on what products to choose no matter if the price is more than the competitor. Unless the price is way out of line, then don’t let a lesser price make your decision. Remember, you get what you pay for. Try to see why there is a difference in price and like with contracts, never hesitate to ask for a better price. If you use the competition to push the price down, remember that sometimes a vendor will match a price even if they know they can’t provide the proper service for that price. A good vendor would walk away from a sale if they couldn’t meet the price and you know that you have them at their rock bottom price and don’t be afraid to invite them back in at their lowest price.

If you go through all the steps above, you should have a very good and comfortable understanding as to what you are buying. Buying into software is a real commitment. It is very rare if it ever happens that once you have chosen the company you want that you will dump them and go elsewhere. Most, if not all, people stick it out for at least 5 years once they have made the investment to purchase new software. Don’t make it a miserable 5 years.

Now, let me give you the inside scoop. Listed are inside information and dirty tricks that vendors will do to get your business and this should enlighten you as to what you should do to be sure you aren’t being sucked into a wrong decision:

There are so many differences in software from very fragmented solutions to very proprietary cohesive solutions. I have personally seen the internal workings (Source Code) of three very popular solutions and although they all purport to perform the same functions, they do it in dramatically different ways and all are behind the current technology trends.
It’s a very difficult choice to find a software solution these days since no one company seems to have all the answers, and no one does a clean job of support. I know; I’ve dished out the exaggerations many times just to get an account and then found it difficult to live up to the expectations. A vendor usually tries to find out what the customer’s real needs are and cater to those items and hope that everyone will forget the sales pitch.

It’s the “used car salesman” act and unfortunately, everyone does it. So don’t hesitate to really grill the software companies that you want to review and never hesitate to have them show you what they are saying is true and better yet, let you use the product before buying.

Checking out their references is usually a futile attempt since no company is going to give you a reference list that contains customers that will talk bad about them but check them out anyway and really grill their customers. I can tell you that I used to have perspective clients ask us if all of the customers on our reference list were related to us since they gave us such stellar reviews.

Get into great detail on how the conversion from your current system to the new software will take place. This is always a painful task, even with the best of conditions, but this is also a subject that most companies want to avoid. They will tell you that it’s all easy but see what their experience is in the conversion processing and have them give details. Ask to talk (privately) to the programmer that will perform the conversion and grill them. I’ve converted data from many of the companies and there are some real tricks that only experience can provide.

I hate to say this, but make your perspective software company’s lives a living hell and you’ll find out who is the real workers/supporters and who is all talk and sales. The companies that will answer or provide information without hesitation typically will be vendors of worth.

Watch the time it takes for your questions to be answered. Keep a few critical questions for after the demo, call and ask them at different times/days and then see how long it takes to get answers. People with good support structures will respond quickly, people in chaos will take their time.

See if you get answers from different people and beware of situations where the same person answers the questions all the time – this is indicative of a one person show that provides all of the support and this means that you will be dependent on that one person in the future. Ask how many people are on staff and never believe the number you hear, AND then ask the forbidden question: Name them, their job functions, whether they are full time, part time or contract employees, and after you get the list, ask if you can talk to each one individually. No one ever does this and this is the one thing that can tell you more about an organization than any other question. None of the players in the market today have any more than a half dozen people or so on staff. Digging into their internal workings will give a clue to their true characters.

Truly good luck and happy hunting. This is a hard road and should be viewed as such. Those that are looking for a quick, easy fix will get taken to the cleaners and shouldn’t be surprised about it. This is not to say that if you follow all of my advice you won’t blunder, but at least it should give you a relative insight into what you are getting yourself into.

A booming market for buy-to-let and investment property portfolios has created the need for new types of mortgages and investment property loan facilities. Securing finance for buy to let and holiday rental properties classed as an “investment property loan”, has never been easier and many of the main lenders have transformed their lending criteria to support property entrepreneurs.

Historically lenders were reluctant to support property investors unless they had serious investment equity ranging from 25-40% of a given properties value. The latest range of financial offerings, are now more in-line with existing household mortgages where buy to let loans are available for up to 90% of the value of the property. The criteria for lending, depends very much on the anticipated yields for the property and to some degree on solid business plans and logic that reflect capital growth in the investment. With a myriad of product offerings available it maybe difficult for a prospective property investor to determine what constitutes a good offer from a financial institution.

The best investment property lenders will look and consider 6 key elements in their risk assessment. So it is very important that you as the proposer understand clearly and prepare in advance a plan that accurately presents your facts in order to pitch smartly to get the finance you need.

6 key Investment Property Loan points

Equity available – Know what you have in terms of tangible equity in your home, other investments in assets, and liquidity. Use this valuable information to form the basis of calculating your security to finance the investment plan. This ensures to the lender that you have a sound knowledge of your strategy in investing and you have a good consideration in managing your risk.

Interest Rate Percentages – It is generally anticipated that the higher the investment deposit the better the mortgage rate. Buy-to-let mortgages rarely attract the discounts that home mortgages attain. However interest rate benefits are gained if you are prepared to put up front 20 – 25% of the loan value. Try and avoid low deposits as the rates for larger deposits will be more attractive both in the short-term overhead reduction and long-term gain.

Current debts – Ideally all outstanding mortgage and loan liabilities or commitments should be understood and declared when requesting the finance. This will determine the maximum loan available to you for your investment project. Ideally this should be considered in advance of any property speculation or viewing of proposed properties. You may also find through this process that it presents an excellent opportunity to consolidate current finance and reduce overheads through the consolidation process.

Current Income or Salary – Lenders will often consider salary and income within the mix of calculating repayments. Multiples of salary are often considered along with the yields or estimated monthly rental incomes from the property portfolio. Important to the property investment will be the current state of the property and whether the property requires investment in refurbishment or modification to enable tenants or renters to occupy.

Tax liability Reduction – You can often save money by offsetting your mortgage payments, maintenance costs and agents fees against rental income. This will ultimately reduce tax liabilities against any profits made in rental and capital growth.

Insure properly – Accidental damage caused by renters or tenants does occur as does general wear and tear. So, make sure that you invest in adequate insurance and don’t let these costly overheads affect your profits. There are specialized landlord and investment property insurers who will cover your property for these eventualities and once again these fees should be tax-deductable.

Summary:

Investing in a property portfolio can be a lucrative venture provided that you are prepared and you understand and manage your risks. Lenders will look for good credible knowledge of the investment and will make assessments based on the six points raised earlier. An ill-conceived plan and approach will unlikely attract the finance desired from leading financial institutions. Alternative sources of finance may be available to you, although you should expect to pay significantly higher costs in terms of interest payments set-up fees and management costs. If the numbers don’t add up in the plan the leading lenders will not support your venture. If this is the case then veer towards prudence and carefully rethink the 6 key steps to a smart loan.

About The Author

Brian Long is the the author of numerous article. He has an MBA and writes about various finance related topics. For more information or to find a investment loan property Holiday Home Loan Online, Investment Property Loan, Home Building Loan, Business Investment Loan, visit (Second Home Loans). www.2ndhomeloans.co.uk .

By: William Tingle

“And what does your husband do?”

There it was. The question that causes both my wife and I to both look at each other and then the person asking it like deer in headlights. I always dread that question whenever I find myself in a social situation where everyone there does not already know what I do to feed and clothe my family. What do you say anyway?

For a while after I left the “normal” existence that everyone expects you to live, tied to a mind numbing, dream stealing JOB, when asked the dreaded question I mumbled something about being a real estate investor, careful not to actually say it loud enough for anyone to hear and secretly hoping that at that precise moment someone would accidentally spill something on the host of the gathering or someone would yell “FIRE!” so the answer would be forgotten. I knew if nothing profound and unexpected happened at that exact moment, the next comment from the individual inquiring would be “Ohhhhhhh………I see” or worse, The Look.

All of us investors know The Look. It is the one your family and friends all gave you when you told them about your crazy real estate idea.

It is the look your father gave you before he smacked you upside the head and said, “Are you CRAZY? That stuff doesn’t work! It is all a scam!”

It is the look your wife gave you when you told her you had ordered the Carleton Sheets course. You know, the one right before she started ranting about how her mother was right and she should have married that guy Artie from shop class in school. At least he holds a regular job at the ceiling tile plant and yeah, he might breathe fiberglass and asbestos all day and be on an oxygen tank 24/7 before he is 50, at least he holds a regular job.

Oh yeah, selling them on your entrepreneurial spirit could be difficult.

After the mumbling phase, I tried answering with “I am retired.” That created it’s own set of problems as than I had to get into a long conversation with the “askor” about how it is I retired so early. I had to tell them the truth (which took me back to square one) or be evasive and be subject to the “he must be a drug dealer” look.

After several months of that, I shifted again. This time I was a “Problem Solver.” I quickly discovered that the 70+ hours a week that people spend watching TV leads them to identify “Problem Solver” with Mafia Hit Man and a guy named Guido with garlic breath.

Errr……….that wasn’t good either.

If I filled any other position associated with the industry from agent to appraiser, that would be fine but INVESTOR, well, that is another matter.

I always consoled myself with the thought that in time it would get better. As people got to know me, they would understand what it is I do and not think of it in negative or “abnormal” terms. That assumption was blown to bits at a recent get together where one of the attendees walked by and was invited to join the few of us who were chatting already. He kept walking and said, “No way! I ain’t getting sucked into the real estate vortex.” So much for acceptance.

So the question becomes, what is it that we investors do? What title can we give ourselves that explains what service we provide, what value we add, what it is we do to earn our keep while at the same time equates with honest, respectable, trustworthy and just plain good citizen?

These days investors, problem solvers, whoever we are, whatever we are seem to be the red headed step children of the real estate industry. It is fine to be an agent, broker, appraiser, banker or anyone else in this business but to do what we do ranks us with the used car salesmen & snake oil peddlers of the world.

I can’t speak for everyone in my collective “group” but I can more easily list the things I do on a daily basis than give myself a title. After all, titles aren’t that important to me, you can take $3.00 and one and buy a gallon of gas, but they ARE important to most others it seems.

Let’s see………….. I…………………..

1. Improve neighborhoods by beautifying old, neglected homes.

2. Help create a larger tax base for the city/county by improving properties & employing people.

3. Employ many through the services I need with my business. Landscapers, house cleaners, carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, carpet layers, A/C technicians, insurance companies, mortgage companies and many others.

4. Give credit challenged people a chance to own a home through financing it for them, gifting down payments, helping with closing costs, etc.

5. Increase property values by improving real property.

6. Help keep people in foreclosure from losing it all and wrecking their credit for the rest of their lives.

7. Teach others to become financially independent.

8. Donate to charitable causes in the area.

9. Provide quality housing to those on Govt. assistance programs and my other tenants.

10. Create a solution for someone who needs to sell now where most others can see no solution.

The term “Creative Real Estate” is used to describe how we do deals using unconventional methods to create win/win situations for buyer and seller. At least that is how I have always understood it.

I am now starting to feel that the term actually means you have to be creative in how you describe your activities if you want to fit in with others. I am now on a mission to come up with the perfect term to describe my “place” in this world. I want the title to convey my contribution to society as well as accurately describe the things I do.

Maybe I am asking too much but I would like that title to not inspire a raised eyebrow from the person getting it either.

William Tingle

Copyright 2006 Sub2Deals.com

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