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Cloud Computing for Property Letting /Management

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Cloud computing is very much in vogue at the moment. It’s one of the latest “buzz” phrases in business today. But what is it? How can it help you as a property manager?

 

Simply put, cloud computing is the applications and services offered over the internet. Resources, software, information are shared and delivered as a service. All data and documents are stored on a server. It is not locked to any one device or operating system; it can be accessed by any device that has an internet connection.

 Some benefits include:

  •  It’s cheap – no hardware/software upgrades, installation fees etc., all you need is an internet connection
  • Great Storage capacity
  • Maintenance is provided by the seller
  • Flexible – accessible anywhere at any time

There are a vast amount of vendors to choose from for property management applications, Rentview being one of them. With Rentview, a single click of the mouse can inform both the landlord and tenant that rent has been received, send the latter a receipt and update the accounts. All records can be accessed instantly, there’s no need to frantically search the filing cabinet for the relevant document. There’s also an inventory facility, allowing pictures to be uploaded and text to be entered which can go a long way in solving a dispute at the end of the tenancy. It reduces the stress and hassle that comes with managing a property by storing the data in an easily accessible place. Visit the website rentview.com to find out more.

You may also enjoyreading – Landlords accounts and maintaining them

by Andreas Riha

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Managing property, rentals and landlord deductions through Rentview.com

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You’ve advertised the property and found the perfect tenants; all that’s left is the administrative tasks. One of these tasks is collecting the security deposit. The main purpose of a security deposit is protection from costs associated with damages that go beyond normal wear and tear e.g. broken windows, appliances, smoke stains etc. or the non-payment of rent. The deposit is taken at the very start of the tenancy, when all the paperwork is being taken care of. It usually amounts to one month’s rent, although some landlords might ask for six weeks’ worth.  A separate document should be prepared when taking the deposit, (preferably on company headed paper) stating the tenants’ name, landlord’s name, agent dealing with the property, the property itself, the amount and the date. The tenant should also receive a receipt for the payment, again on headed paper.

Similar to a previous blog on rent payment issues, landlords can also cause some hassle when they owe money for invoices. You’ve organised for the plumber or the electrician to go to the property to fix whatever the problem is, they’ve done a good job and now they’re waiting to be paid. And waiting. And waiting. This can have severely negative effects on the contacts you’ve built, possibly as bad as ending the relationship. Like tenants, landlords may just need a gentle reminder in the form of a phone call. If that doesn’t work, try moving to an email and if they still haven’t paid then a formal letter. In extreme situations, the pressure that a solicitor can bring might be needed. But take a positive outlook and hope that it won’t come to that!

A solution to this problem would be to offer property management and a rent collection service. Offering a property management service without the collection of the rental payments can result in far more headaches then the additional work in the collection of the rents. Your agency will be able to increase revenues by offering full management and rent collection. Not only will this increase your offering but now you will have happy tenants who are getting issues relating to a problem rectified earlier. Happy tenants = Longer tenancies.

Through Rentview  your landlords can see the deductions that will be made in advance of the rental payments being made. This way when the rent comes in you as a rent collection agent can make the deductions and pay your service men on time. Your landlord is kept informed in advance of deductions through his own login to his accounts, your landlord can view the invoice relating to the property and have his end of year accounts only a click of a button away. Your workmen are happy to continue to work for your agency on credit. Its a win, win.

As always please feel free to comment, share, tweet or follow us

You may also enjoy reading – Landlords accounts and maintaining them

by Andreas Riha

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Final inspection and return of your tenants deposit

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So your tenant has just moved out and wants to get their security deposit back. Well just before you do this there are a number of steps to follow to insure everything is in order and the tenant gets the correct amount due. 

Inspect the property. This is best done once the tenant has moved out and preferably in your own time rather than the tenant walking around the property with you.  You may have built a relationship up with the tenant and having them follow you around whilst looking through the property can be difficult to give a thorough inspection.  A couple of pointers here is to check everything for anything above normal wear and tear.  Move the furniture about slightly and make sure nothing is wrong with the flooring i.e iron burn mark on carpet caused by a tenant ironing clothes on the floor.  Check on both sides of a sofas removable cushion, a common area for liquid stains. Check behind any pictures or posters that were not there before , these can be typically placed to hide any holes or major scuffs on walls. 

You might get benefit from reading a previous blog on Wear and tear in a rental property

Inventory. Make sure to go through the inventory, it may appear to have everything in place but its always best to check. If you have no inventory done on this letting make sure to have one on the next letting. (Check out our previous blog on inventory)

Utility readings and accounts being closed.  So the tenant has been kind enough to close and forward their account to their new property, excellent but make sure the correct readings were given. Just because a closing bill has been produced it doesn’t mean the readings were accurate; open your meter and double check.  A couple of hundred units below the correct readings and this could cost you around €50. Call the utility company and double check. 

How to read your electric bill

Waste collection. Similar to that of the utilities some waste collection companies invoice in arrears and they won’t forward the bill on with the previous tenant. They want full payment or no collection of your waste next time around. Waste collection blog

Rental payments up to date. Cross check all your payments received and insure that they tally with all that is due.  Sometimes it can be easy to assume that because the tenant paid in full every month when you checked that he continues to do it when you don’t. Rent payment blog

Returning the deposit should be done as promptly as possible for your tenants and the PRTB states it should be done in a speedy fashion. The time limit without a dispute is 2 weeks but this should be ideally done within 48 hours of a tenant leaving the property. This should give you more than enough time to go through everything and more than likely in today’s climate your tenant will be deepening on it. 

Whilst some of the above may seem excessive to some it all comes from experience as a property manager and all of the above areas of caution have come up many times.

As always please feel free to comment, share, tweet or follow us

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by Andreas Riha

Letting agency software

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Landlord accounts and maintaining them

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If you have a number of properties on the go, it might be best to hand over accounting duties to a chartered accountant or a management agent. It will cost you, but you can be confident that they’ll be maintained correctly. Also if your agent uses Rentview all your accounts will be viewable at the click of a button for you. If you’d prefer to do them yourself, you have the choice of either writing them out or using Microsoft Excel. It is a matter of comfort, but Excel does have advantages over manual accounting.

Spreadsheets store huge amounts of information & can be corrected easily

Have an inbuilt calculator function

More secure through password protection and back-up copies

Less cumbersome and easy to carry around if stored on a memory stick

More flexible in terms of presentation


As for the accounts themselves, they will need to contain figures on rental income charged and received, expenses and any capital costs. Expenses include insurance, utility bills, maintenance etc.

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You may also be interested in our blog – New landlords accounts page

by Andreas Riha

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Rent Arrears Notice

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The rent is late; there’s no sign of it being paid and you can’t get in contact with the tenant. What can you do? Depending on the relationship with the tenant, a gentle written reminder stating that it is late and providing contact details may be enough. Unfortunately, many times this won’t be the case and you may have to go down the route of issuing a 14 day rent arrears notice.

Residential Tenancies Act

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, this notice must be in written form, specify the date the notice is served, the amount of rent due that has not been paid and if the amount isn’t paid with 14 days of the date of receiving the notice, a 28 day notice of termination may be issued. The safest way to issue this is through registered post, but there is an easier alternative. Rentview will automatically generate this notice for you and sent it to the tenant at the appropriate time, taking the hassle out of drafting the document and sending it. Visit the website for this and many other services.

Here is an example of a rent arrears notice

You also might be interested in –

PRTB Adjudication process & Rent payment issues and tenants

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by Andreas Riha

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Parking in apartments

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Parking Permits

Parking permits are the norm for parking in apartment complexes nowadays. The introduction of parking permits in apartments was necessary to reduce the possibility of people parking in the wrong space or a space that is reserved for someone else.

Property management companies

Property management companies benefit from parking permits in apartments in a couple of ways, below are the main ones.

Collecting management fees

If a property’s management fees were not paid, a parking permit would not be issued by the property management company. If the property was a let property, the tenant faced the possibility of clamping and as a result the pressure was placed on the landlord to pay the fee or face an empty rental property.

Managing Illegal parking

If parking within some complexes is not enforced, it can lead to illegal parking which is both dangerous and a problem. Think of cars parked on paths and corners which block pedestrians’ view of crossing. One of the serious pet hates amongst many drivers is double space parkers such as below.

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No permit

For an apartment complex with a greater number of car parking spaces, for a number of properties an agent could be tempted to not organise a permit. Before an agent does this they should consider this situation – the agent lets the apartment and the tenant moves in happily. The next day the agent receives a phone call from the tenants saying they have been clamped, and there’s a fine waiting to be paid. The tenant could potentially leave the agency liable for the clamping fine, or the tenant could argue that the landlord should pay. Sounds like quite a mess, doesn’t it?

Here are a few of solutions. Firstly, don’t move the tenants in until you are sure that there’s a fully paid permit in place. Or if the tenants are eager to move in and there is no permit available as yet, explicitly state in the contract that this is the case and give the date one is expected to be received. Also include who should pay the fine if the tenant is clamped in the interim.

Clamping fines

Fines will vary from £20-£180 depending on the location and the clamping companies policy. Some other changes include banning clamping in hospitals, introducing a two-tier appeals process, providing more ways of paying the fine and having a register of clamping operators. These operators can be quite difficult to deal with, as your situation isn’t as important to them as getting the fine paid.

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Image Credit EllBrown

On street parking

County councils offer parking permits to residents for on-street parking, enquire with your council to see if you qualify. As a landlord, tenant or managing agent you can apply to your county or town council for on-street parking permits. Each council differs in its requirements so contact your local council to see if you qualify.

You might also be interested in Keeping a tenant happy

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Preparing a rental property

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Showings are a key part of the rental process, they allow potential tenants to get a good feel of the property, which goes a long way in helping them decide whether to rent or not. They can also be a handy tenant screening process to find out which potential tenants match the landlord’s requirements. Showings are generally easier when the property is currently vacant as it gives more time to prepare. Try to arrange all showings for the same day so no time is wasted, but make sure the times are staggered so there’ll be no overlap. If the property is occupied then this may be more difficult.

Preparing a rental property

Before the showing: Make sure the property is in tip top shape. This will mean notifying the landlord of any damages/repairs needed, possibly arranging carpenters, plumbers etc. to fix problem areas. The property will need to be cleaned from top to bottom which the landlord may be happy to do, or they may require the services of a professional cleaning company. Freshen up the walls and floors if they’re looking dull with some new paint or a proper cleaning. Repainting can have the wonderful effect of re-energising a room and making it look brand new. Again, this will all need the go ahead from the landlord. Don’t forget to mention any problems with the exterior of the property or the garden.

If needs be, get in a professional cleaning company. There are lots of cleaning companies specialising in end of tenancy cleaning which will help in preparing a rental property for showing.

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On the day of the showing: Do a last minute check to make sure everything is satisfactory. If there are any unpleasant smells, eradicate them with an air freshener spray or some incense. Make sure the property is well-lit; open curtains and turn on lights if necessary. Prepare to answer all questions to the best of your ability. This will mean knowing the property and the area inside out, as potential tenants are bound to have many questions for you.

If there are tenants currently living in the property: If you have built a good relationship with the tenants then there should be no problem in asking them to do a bit of cleaning and tidying before the showing. There should also be no problem in asking them to vacate the property to allow the showing to take place. This is the ideal, and we all know that tenants can be problematic. If they are letting you down during showings then you must talk to them. Explain why the property needs to look a certain way and politely ask them to make sure it’s that way in future. If there’s no improvement, provide some sort of incentive for them, like a voucher for a restaurant or a reduction in the last month’s rent. If that doesn’t work, it may be time to get the PRTB involved.

You might also be interested in the following blog – Choosing the right tenant and managing your rental payments

Please feel free to comment or add on preparing a rental property,  tweet or follow us.

by Andreas Riha

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Tenant Complaints About Noisy Neighbours

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One of the risks with renting or buying a property is you don’t know who your neighbours are. You don’t know if the neighbours are renting or buying, what kind of people they are etc. Rented properties tend to have more issues associated with them. It’s difficult to figure out a reason why this is the case, maybe it’s because the properties isn’t theirs that they don’t feel the same duty of care to it, but that discussion is a touch tangential to the topic at hand. It can be very frustrating as an agent to be getting complaints from tenants about the neighbours’ activities which are seemingly out of your control. So what can you do? Ask your tenant to keep a log of the noise to see if a pattern emerges. Then try to talk to the neighbours directly, in a polite way of course. Being overly accusatory isn’t going to work. If the noise persists, the following is a route to take.

1. Find out who the management company in charge of the property or the landlord is and get in contact with them to inform them of the complaint

2. If the problem is not fixed, write them a formal letter on company headed paper asking them to fix the problem and inform them of the possibility of PRTB action or eviction

3. If it still isn’t fixed, make a third party complaint to the PRTB (this costs €25 and the complaint form can be found on their website)

If the property is a local authority house, then the local authority would be the first place to contact after the neighbours. In some extreme cases, the Gardaí may be better equipped to handle the problem, or at least would work in conjunction with the other parties involved.

You may also be interested in our blog on Keeping a tenant happy & Choosing the right tenant

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Best Places to Market Your Rental

If you have a property that’s ready for rental, you need to find tenants for it. You want the property rented quickly; therefore you need the maximum amount of people possible to see it. The obvious place to market your rental on is the internet. But the internet is almost unfathomably large, so where exactly should you start? The first place is undoubtedly the property portals; daft.ie, myhome.ie etc. They are the first sites people think of when looking for a property. Next up, social networking sites. They are very much the ‘flavour of the month’ for marketers. The two key sites are Facebook and Twitter. Set up profiles on both, where you can advertise the property, share links to daft.ie or myhome.ie and generally engage with potential tenants. Twitter isn’t as good for providing a lot of detail on properties, so it’s more effectively used by giving brief updates or sharing links. Like or follow the profiles of other property management and estate agent companies. People who are browsing the pages of other companies will be looking for a whole range of companies and so will click on your page if they see it. 

We could talk about the virtues of social media marketing all day, but in doing so would miss out on less tech savvy potential tenants. These people may be technophobes, just aren’t familiar enough with the internet and the technology needed to access it or simply don’t like the internet. For these reasons, attention should be given to the more traditional outlets. Newspapers, the radio and leaflets are all effective ways of communicating the message to people.A sign outside the property can catch the attention of passers-by, who either could be looking for a property themselves or know somebody who is. These signs should have your company logo, phone number and website to make it easy for potential tenants to get in contact. The same can be applied to notices in bulletins boards in local shops, community centres, libraries and colleges. Finally, if you want to be particularly creative you could wear a large sign around your neck with a picture of the property and some key details about it. It may get more laughs than potential tenant interest, but it certainly would be attention grabbing!

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