Archive for November 2011
Finding a House for Rent
November 26, 2011 | 
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Trying to find a house for rent can be very frustrating, to say the least. Most people complain that there just is not enough houses for rent to choose from. You might find the perfect house for rent, but it is not in the right area. Conversely, you may find houses for rent in areas, other than in your desired neighborhood. As a means to finding more houses for rent, you might want to consider a rent-to-own program. Generally there are more houses available for rent-to-own, then there are only for rent. No need to worry that you have now committed yourself to buying the house. Signing a rent-to-own contract simply means that if you want to buy the house at a later date, you have that option. But what if your credit is bad, or you have no credit? For most investors bad credit is not a big concern. Typically, they work with a loan officer who will help you repair your credit, often in 6 months or less.
The great thing about rent to own houses is that typically, you get a rent credit, which can be applied to the purchase price of the house. Often, as much as 20% per month for all on-time payments!Look at the following example:
You find a house for rent, on a rent-to-own program. The option to purchase price is 200,000. After 24 months this rent to own house appreciates in value by the industry average of 4% per year, making it worth 216,320. Now, let’s say your rent payment is $1,500 per month. At the end of two years you will have paid $36,000 in rent. But wait! You have a 20% rent credit of $7,200!
IF you choose to exercise your Option to Purchase, you can buy this $216K house for $192,800! The best part is, there will be NO REALTOR FEES! What bank would say no to a loan like that? So if you are trying to find a house for rent, you just might want to consider rent to own houses too.About the author: David L. Trosdahl has been the CEO of 3 regional sales & marketing companies and founder of a non-profit corporation. A real estate investor since 1991, David has bought and sold numerous residential properties, and has helped many people find a house for rent. David is a member of the real estate investors association: MNREIA, is founder of the real estate investing website: RentToOwn-MN.com and many others.
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Advertise Your House For Rent and Get Internet Exposure With Craigslist
Advertising your house for rent doesn’t have to be a daunting proposition. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising and promoting your rental home.
For most landlords and property owners, the major problem they have is a lack of leads and renters who know about their house. If you’re trying to rent a house, one of your biggest hurdles is advertising. But with the Internet and Craigslist you can now tell others about your house that is for rent by tapping into free Internet advertising. Some landlords waste a lot of time and money using a Realtor add their rental property to the local Multiple Listing Service or MLS.
Although, you can get decent exposure with MLS services, it doesn’t compare to the cost effectiveness of Craigslist. These MLS systems feed hundreds of different real estate websites but they websites don’t produce a quarter of the leads that Craigslist does. MLS systems and newspaper classifieds use to be the only way to get leads and exposure for your home for rent. But with the Internet you can get as much exposure as you want and for free.
With the Internet, you can still get your home for rent exposure to dozens of websites for free. The best of these websites is Craigslist, hands down! With Craigslist you can place photos and descriptions of your property for rent. You can easily and quickly create a classified on Craigslist for free. This great classified advertising resource also gets great exposure on Google and will further expose your rental ad across the Internet and world.
You don’t have to be Internet savvy to advertise your house for rent on Craigslist. The web site is user friendly and is incredibly easy to use. They eliminate all barriers to help you successfully advertise your home on the Internet.
Pricing Your House For Rent – Classified For Rent Sites Are Great House Pricing Sources
Determining the rental price or your house for rent is an important decision with classified advertising and what you decide depends on what you are offering.
If you have purchased a rental house with tenants in place, you may not need to advertise your rental home right away.
However, you need to know the rental value when you purchase the rental house. You may have to raise your tenants’ rent to the appropriate local market rates.
If you set your rental rate too high, you may loose your resident. Asking for too high of a rental rate will also cause your house to sit vacant because no one will pay that rental rate.
This is income and money that is loss and that will never be recaptured. Once it is loss you can never gain it back.
In normal market conditions, you need to price your rental unit according to the current market rate. Your rental rate should reflect what the market can bear.
Tenants who are willing to pay rent that is above the market rate usually have bad credit and can’t qualify anywhere else.
If your local market has more demand than supply, you can possibly charge more for rent than during normal market conditions.
To price your rental house correctly so that it will rent quickly for as high as you can, you must conduct some market research.
Find out what other rental units in the area are renting for by checking reliable sources where other landlords and real estate investors advertise.
Plan to raise the price of your house for rent based on their length of residency at the property, other classified ads, condition of the rental home, and the current lease.