Every real estate investor is different. You should come to the market with a unique set of investment goals and ideas about what success looks like.  There’s a lot of talk about real estate investments and the potential that exists to make money. Real money. Wealth.  You hear these promises all the time. From current investors. From lenders. From property management and real estate experts like us.  We stand by that. You can make a lot of money as a real estate investor. But you have to do it right. You have to educate yourself and surround yourself with people and experts who ..read more

Money matters.  You know this. It’s probably a large part of why you invest in real estate: to make money. But, how do you know if you’re making money at all? How do you know if you’re earning as much as you’re spending? How do you know if one property in your portfolio is outperforming expectations but the others are mediocre at best?  It comes down to monthly and year-end accounting reports.  This is the only way to make sense of your investment property finances. We have a lot of new tools in property management that can gather extreme amounts of data. We have property mana ..read more

How confident are you that you understand the laws that govern your rental property and the relationships you have in place with tenants and applicants?  How confident are you that you’re complying with all those laws? It doesn’t take a lot of research and reading to understand the very basics of local, state, and federal rental laws. The laws are always changing, however, and that’s where things can get complicated. The lease agreement you just used last year might be missing some key language. Even existing laws are often applied in new ways, leaving landlords confused and sometimes mi ..read more

Raise your hand if you love thinking about taxes.  Ha. Of course you don’t. This is perhaps the least favorite thing for most of us to spend our time thinking about, doing, or agonizing over. No one likes paying taxes. No one.  But, there’s some good news when you’re a real estate investor. Plenty of tax benefits are available and working in your favor. Yes, you do have to declare the rents you collect as income. Yes, you do have to pay capital gains when you sell a property and make some real money.  You can offset a lot of that exposure, however, with the tax breaks you get a ..read more

  You Don’t Need to See It to Believe It!   Just about everything is done online these days, right? You’re buying shoes. You’re buying groceries. You’re booking your next trip and you’re filling online shopping cart after online shopping cart with a collection of items that you’re planning to buy without ever seeing those items yourself.  Would you do that with a property?  Buying a property without seeing it might not seem the same as buying a sofa or a clock without seeing it, but the mechanics of the deal really aren’t too different. Sure, the investment is worth more a ..read more

We all have an “oops” moment from time to time. As a landlord, you might have realized too late that you forgot to attach a late fee to a late rent payment or you neglected to send a plumber over to check a dripping toilet when you said you would.  Minor missteps are one thing. You’re bound to make mistakes, even if you’ve done all this before.  Larger oversights, however, are more difficult to recover from. Suppose you violate a fair housing law. It may have been unintentional, but that’s a mistake that may cost you $16,000. Oversights can be avoided, and one of the best ways to av ..read more

Sometimes, you can work around the flaws in your investment property.  The roof is falling apart? Replace it.  The appliances are aging faster than a bad joke? Install some energy-efficient models that look great and work well.  What can you do about a bad location?  Not much.  Location matters. You don’t have to be an experienced real estate investor to know this. It matters when you’re buying a property, it matters when you’re selling a property, and it surely matters when you’re trying to rent out a property. It especially matters when your goal is to rent out that ..read more

We personally do not know any real estate investors who enjoy being surprised.  Anything unexpected – whether it’s a damaging weather event or an eviction or a sudden water leak that floods your investment property – is usually unpleasant. It often requires some quick thinking, some instant mobilization of vendors and other professional partners, and an effort at keeping your residents safe, calm, and still willing to pay rent. How can you prepare for the unexpected when, well – it’s unexpected? The trick is effective risk management. Your property investments are extremely valuable. You ..read more

Vacancy is a problem for all rental property owners, and while we can list dozens of strategies to help you shorten your vacancy time, here’s the easiest way to avoid it: Keep the tenants you currently have. It may not seem that simple, but it can be. When you invest the necessary time and resources into implementing a sound and serious tenant retention plan, you’ll find you keep more of your residents in place, which means you earn more and spend less in both the short and long term.  You need to actively work towards encouraging your residents to renew their lease agreements at the end ..read more

Evictions can be extremely unpleasant and when you make a mistake that delays or throws out your lawsuit, it can be frustrating and stressful.  In New Jersey, there’s a pretty standard set of processes and timelines that must be adhered to when you’re evicting a tenant. All you have to do is follow them.  But, mistakes can easily be made, especially if you’ve never done this before.  We’re going to highlight some common eviction mistakes, and we’re going to show you how to avoid them.  But, first, let’s provide this valuable piece of advice: Don’t Do It Alone You don’t hav ..read more