Host Justin Palma who seems like a really nice and laid-back kind of guy, presents a sometimes dry subject in a very  interesting way. He uses actual footage of contractors working to repair or rehab his rental units in his “In The Trenches” section and he uses his “In The Office” section to explain the business end of things. I particularly like his use of animated charts to make the office work visually interesting.

When you have a minute definitely check out Justin and  Landlording.tv. Here’s a sample:

Post from: The Successful Landlord Blog

Interesting Site: Landlording.tv

Days pass until one evening you see the caller id flicker with their name.  Your heart sinks to your knees.  When you answer, you find that your fear is confirmed.  Life has thrown a curve ball and they are unable to stay put.  Worse yet, the tenant is squeezing out with barely the required notice, leaving you no time to find that much needed new tenant and to handle those necessary inspections, repairs, yardwork and a top to bottom cleaning.

The first thought that may pass is to refill your glass with another Long Island, but organization and focus is the key to navigating this one with sanity.  Below, I’m going to outline a few tips that may help you with your mission.  So for now, put down the tequila, take a deep breath and get back down to business.

Getting the Word Out Quickly

If you haven’t already embraced the web as a vital ingredient to your marketing, it’s time to start. Print media shouldn’t be ignored entirely, but the majority of shoppers are using the web to expand their choices and make the best use of their time. So should landlords.

Craigslist – Known for many things, this melting pot of classified ads is full of home seekers.  You don’t need an account or your wallet to post your listing and you can anonymously filter your replies.

Rent -  This one is a must.  Another service by web giant eBay, Rent.com draws a huge crowd of dwelling seekers.  At one point, the service stopped allowing individual property owners to list with them, but they have now lifted the ban.  This does come with a high price tag of $15 per lead, but keep this one idea in mind – it doesn’t take a search engine and a magic eight ball to find them.  Their name says it all.

Rentlinx – I had almost forgotten how handy this site is.  With one practically painless effort, you can submit your property to multiple hot services at once.  Google Base, Hotpads, Homes, National Housing Locator Service, Show me the Rent, and Vast are all in line to help spread the word for you when you activate your listing at Rentlinx.  Best of all, it’s free.

Google Base – Put your vacancy in front of the enormous number of consumers who search for real estate information on Google

Backpage – Another community classifieds site with a growing reach, Backpage is much like Craigslist and offers free listings.

Hotpads – By far the most elegant and robust for home shoppers, Hotpads offers something for everyone, whether they are looking to rent, buy or just find a vacation spot.

Sublet – Not my favorite on the list but still worth the effort with a large following in the greater metro areas.  Sublet offers apartment rentals, rooms & houses for rent, despite it’s name.  Many of the leads are seeking short term leases.  For a monthly premium, you can search through and reach out to house hunters in your area.  I’ve heard a lot of success stories with this service, but thus far the results have been rather weak for me.

Oodle – “More listings, smarter classifieds” is what they proclaim.  More free classifieds, and if it’s free and on the interwebs, it must be good.

Friendster – Yep, Friendster.  They too have free classifieds, powered by OLX, with a nice seat within the Google search results.

Cringe, Copy, Paste

As tempting as it was to throw a going away party to all of my marketing efforts after the last exhaustive tenant search, it was with great joy that I found all of my old accounts still in place in my anxious hours of need.  My Backpack account allowed me to quickly relocate all of the sites that I marketed with in the past.  By keeping the locations of all of these along with the account registrations, tenant applications, contracts and property photos you will save your self a lot of time and frustration by smartly equipping your digital toolbox.  Once you have the ad content perfected and all of your account registrations behind you, just start copying and pasting until your heart is content.  Check in on your accounts from time to time to make sure that they’re all still in good standing, as site terms and services will change from time to time.

Keep Your Realtor in Your Pocket

It’s hard to do too much to promote your vacancy and a good relationship with a realtor can be a lifesaver.  Some are willing to help you get listed in the MLS, which is invaluable.  Have someone else run around meeting those flaky house hunters for you!  When you do have to go show the property yourself, make sure to always confirm the appointment before heading out.  Renters aren’t widely known for their ability to commit or planning far in advance, so remind them that your time is valuable.

Other sites to Try

Rentahome123
For Rent by Owner
Rentspeed
Propbot
Move

Post from: The Successful Landlord Blog

A Guide to Marketing Your Property Online

These bug screens, being quite fragile since they are made of aluminum and fiberglass, from time to time, need repair. Though a screen making service is available through my least favorite construction materials store, I find it to be easier and cheaper to build or repair your own.

The screen above has a severely damaged frame and torn material. We will need to replace the damaged piece of aluminum frame and replace the fiberglass screen material.

Materials & tools needed: Aluminum frame, fiberglass material, screen spline, screen tool & utility knife.

Remove the old screen material and spline.

Measure and mark the new piece of frame using the old one. I’ve found that doing this by measurement only mostly results in disassembling the newly repaired screen so that you can trim off about 1/8″ from the frame because it won’t fit in the window frame. Not fun and a big time waster.

Cut the new frame piece to size using a fine-toothed hacksaw blade. Be careful as the frame is quite fragile and prone to bending. Install the new frame piece into the frame.

Next, lay the new screen material over the frame and using the screen tool, push the fiberglass material into the slot in the aluminum frame. This will prepare the screen material for spline installation. The spline is a ribbed plastic tube which holds the screen material to the frame. (see picture below)

Once the spline (above) is installed on all edges of the frame…

…trim the excess screen material from the frame using a sharp utility knife. Be careful not to damage the newly installed screen material within the frame and voila…

…a repaired bug screen. The tools above are pliers (to fix bent pieces of the frame), screening tool, utility knife & fine toothed hacksaw.

I recommend doing screen repair (or building) on-site because fitting them to the window frame is so much easier.

Post from: The Successful Landlord Blog

How To Repair Bug Screens

^{The old washer valves}

First things first: Turn off the main water shutoff valve to the house unless you want to deal with a fountain in the laundry room.

Next, remove the old values using a pipe cutter (or hacksaw). I had to use a hacksaw due to the limited space in the enclosure.

^{Washer supply pipes after valve removal}

Next, prep the supply pipes by removing any old solder and oxidation with a wire brush or some semi-coarse sandpaper. Also, using the same technique, roughen the inside of the valve coupling. This will greatly improve the soldering process and promote a better seal with the fittings we will install later on.

Apply a good coat of water soluble flux to the outside of the supply pipes and the inside of the valve coupling.

^{Apply water soluble flux to the supply pipes and valve couplings}

Next, using the pieces of Duroc^® to protect the plastic enclosure from heat damage, place the female valve couplings on the supply lines and heat with a propane torch. Heat the fittings until the copper looks to be a brighter shade of orange. While heating the fittings, gently rub the solder along the joint to be soldered. When the copper approaches the correct temperature the solder will begin to melt and flow upwards between the supply pipe and the valve coupling.

Important note: Things will go much more smoothly if there is no water in the supply pipes. If water is too close to the joint being soldered, it will take much longer to come to temperature as the water has to be boiled away.

Carefully remove the Duroc^® from the work area and place it in a bucket of water as it may be hot from exposure to the propane torch. Next, using a big and very wet sponge, cool the fittings enough to where you can touch them with your bare hands.

^{New valve with Teflon tape applied}

Use an adjustable wrench and a crescent wrench to tighten the new valves into the valve couplings. Be very careful not to twist the copper pipes as they could be damaged causing them to need replacement.

^{New shutoff valves installed}

Below are the tools necessary for this task.

^{Crescent wrench, adjustable wrench and wire-brush multi-tool}

^{A good pair of gloves is essential for this kind of work}

^{(from top left) Lead-free solder, Teflon tape, propane torch, water soluble
flux paste, torch igniter}

Duroc^® pieces and female valve coupling

Post from: The Successful Landlord Blog

How To Replace Washer Shutoff Valves

Basically, the tile grout in the tiles near the floor eventually loses its sealing functionality and moisture seeps through the paces between the tiles causing the drywall backing to degrade. This weakens the tiles and causes even more moisture to get behind the tiles.

Here’s what it looks like behind the tiles. Yick!

What I do to repair this kind of problem is remove all the weak tiles until you find strong drywall/wallboard.

Remove any damaged drywall from the back of the tiles. I used a grout knife to scrape any paper and loose Thinset mortar from the back of the tiles, that way, I can use them again.

Cut to size and screw into place pieces of Durock^� concrete wallboard to be used as the new backing for the tile. Durock^� is great because it will not degrade if it becomes wet. These days, the entire backing of a shower stall or tub enclosure is usually Durock^� or some kind of concrete wallboard.

Apply and texture a coat of Thinset^� mortar to the Durock^� wallboard and replace the old tiles.

Once the Thinset^� is dry (usually overnight) use a good rubberized, sanded grout between the tiles.

And that’s it. Good for another 10 years and about $2000 saved from not re-doing the entire shower enclosure.

Oh, how I love property maintenance so.

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How to Repair a Shower Stall