Property Management Blog

Home & Condo Rentals Blog

November 26, 2018

Chasing Market Rent

Welcome to Home & Condo Rentals’ Monthly blog. This is an informational section of our website to help constantly educate our clients and the public on what we do and ways to improve your rental experience, both from an owner and tenant perspective. This month’s topic is geared towards Annual Rental owners and what to think about when renewing a lease to a current tenant. Seasonal owners may find this information useful as well as some of the same points of emphasis can be used in seasonal rentals also. 

First and foremost, let’s define the difference ...

One of the common public misconceptions of income producing properties is that tenants are always going to trash the place and you are going to have to count on spending thousands of dollars every time someone moves out to get your unit back into shape. We at Home & Condo Rentals have seen too many instances of first time investment homeowners relying on intuition and a handshake to make decisions on who they accept as tenants. No one wishes this were still an acceptable way of doing business more than us as we still believe someone’s word is their bond, but the unfortunate reality of this approach is that there are too many people that know exactly how to play the system these ...

If this House is a Rockin, Maybe it is Hurricane Season..

Here at Home & Condo, we like to say we are not property managers, but investment managers. Your home is your investment and we manage your investment for you. As with all investments, you want to make sure that your investment is safe and well protected. We are officially entering Hurricane season down here and to kick things off, we had a pretty nice little system dump rain on us for the greater part of the last two weeks. Welcome to Sunny Florida ☺. This brings me to this month’s blog topic: How to prepare and best protect your property during hurricane season. Below are some tips for protecting your home as b...

The Spring “season” is upon us here in sunny Venice, FL and what does that mean? It is about to get hotter than blazes outside, storm season is right around the corner and our population is about decrease significantly. One of the biggest offseason issues facing seasonal owners is property maintenance throughout the summer months when no one is there to report problems. If a home is closed up for seven or eight months during the summer, you have to have the wherewithal to plan ahead for issues that could arise during that period.

The grind of season drops off for our agents so they shift their focus to checking units throughout the summer to hopefully catch any possi...

Welcome to Home & Condo Rentals’ Monthly blog. This is an informational section of our website to help constantly educate our clients and the public on what we do and ways to improve your rental experience, both from an owner and tenant perspective. This month’s topic is geared towards Annual (1 year) Rentals Owners and what Annual Tenants are looking for when they rent. This is a just a brief synopsis on what defines an annual rental. We will get more in depth on the different aspects of an annual rental in later blogs so make sure to stay tuned each month!!

First, an explanation of what defines an annual rental: An annual rental is anything that is six months and...

Welcome to Home & Condo Rentals’ Monthly blog. This is an informational section of our website to help constantly educate our clients and the public on what we do and ways to improve your rental experience, both from an owner and tenant perspective. This month’s topic is geared towards Seasonal Rental Owners and what Seasonal Tenants are looking for when they rent.

A seasonal property is any property that is rented for less than a 6 month period. In Venice, high season is considered the months of January-March (some April) and commands a premium for rental rates. Seasonal properties include all utilities, turn-key furnishings as well as cable and wireless internet....

1. Run Your Property Like a Business. Some landlords do a terrible job at running their business. It might be because they see it as a “side-gig” or a hobby” more than a business. However, when you treat your business with the respect, systems, and organization that you would treat any other business venture, amazing things can happen. What contingency plans do you have in place so maintenance concerns can be resolved without your direct involvement (in case you happen to go on vacation the day something major happens)? When you shift your view as a landlord to a “business owner” — and treat your company as such - you will find far grea...

1. Read your lease. No, seriously read it. It won’t be the most exciting night table material but you’ll thank yourself when you do read it. A lease is a binding legal contract. It creates a binding relationship between you and your landlord. What are you agreeing to? If you don’t understand, ask questions before you sign it.

2. If you don’t know if it’s allowed, get permission. “These rooms could use a fresh coat of paint in a new, exciting color.” “Hey, we should get a puppy!” “Let’s replace the light fixtures in the dining room.” These all seem like tasteful upgrade, so clearly th...