Lance Mohr & Team

Tampa2Enjoy.com

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Lance Mohr & Team

Tampa2Enjoy.com

(813) 317-4009

Miscellaneous

Americans Are Spending too Much on Rent

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A recent report shows that one in three Americans is spending too much on rent. In housing markets across the nation, rent is becoming quite unaffordable for Americans. According to a report by RealtyTrac, in the current household market, Americans have to pay over 30% of their pay check or monthly median income on rent for three-bedroom homes. This is much higher than the conventional threshold for affordability. In some cities, the percentage of the monthly income spent on rent is much higher.

Urban areas feeling the pinch

The best example to show how rent prices have increased is the Bronx. In this New York City borough, a typical household uses about 66% of its monthly median income to pay for rent for a three-bedroom house. This is the highest percentage of salary used for rent in all US counties according to the same report. The Bronx is home to some of the poorest communities in the country with the overall median income being less than $35,000. However, the average rent price here is almost $1800 per month, which is very high.

This is also the case in other urban areas like Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Miami and Baltimore where there is a sizeable population of low-income residents. In these areas, renters are paying about 50% of their monthly income to cover rent prices.

Renters are being prevented from becoming homeowners

It comes as no surprise that renters are unable to save enough or do not have the financial ability to pay for or to buy a home. Ironically, the economic or foreclosure crisis caused many people to become renters and years of economic instability has kept many renters form becoming homeowners and leaving their rental properties. This is according to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.

These reasons led to a huge rise in demand for rental properties and this in turn pushed rent prices up by over 21% since 2006. In another blow to renters, real income has also fallen. Real income is the actual income after inflation has been taken into consideration, and over the last six years, it has fallen by 14% according to the Director of the Housing Studies Center at Harvard – Chris Herbert.

High rent is keeping people back

Not only are renters giving up on their dreams to become homeowners, but about one in four renters is spending over 50% of their income on rent – according to a report by the Center. This is forcing many renters to make severe budget cuts that would otherwise be spent on healthcare, retirement and food.

Moreover, according to the Managing VP of Community Development at Capital One – Laura Bailey, unaffordable housing and resulting financial problems prevents people from advancing their careers and from pursuing higher degrees. They are also unable to save enough to make down payments on a home and this vicious cycle forces them to remain in rental properties. According to her, when housing becomes affordable, people can focus on improving their lives and careers and ultimately become more productive.

Prepare Your New Home For a Hurricane

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Hurricane StormHurricanes are fairly common in regions like Maine and Texas and are one of the most devastating natural phenomenons on earth. They bring with them heavy rainfall, flooding and high speed gusty winds that are extremely powerful. When moving into a new house that is located in a hurricane-prone area, it is advisable to start work on protecting your home from the very start. When a disaster strikes, you want to have a safe home to keep your family and belongings from harm’s way.

Here is a look at some of the basic things that you can do to prepare your new home for a hurricane.

Building code requirements

First and foremost the thing to do is to find out whether your home adheres to latest building code regulations and requirements with consideration to high wind activity. Buildings made with the objective of standing tall, even in high wind conditions, have a better chance of surviving the ordeal than the ones that are not. While you can get some of that done with basic hardware tools, you need to hire a professional contractor if the structure of the house needs to be changed.

Out in the open

Having loose stones, rocks and gravel outside the house for landscaping purposes is not a good idea for regions that are prone to hurricanes. They can easily be replaced by torn bark that looks equally as good, and cementing is a good option as well. If you have trees, plants and shrubs in the vicinity, you have to make sure to be on top of things and keep them well-trimmed and taken care off. Weak tree branches falling on the house are some of the most common reasons for devastation caused by a hurricane.

Working on the structure

If you are planning to rebuild or remodel the entire house, make sure that you get the following things done:

  • Make use of only impact-resistant windows and patio doors that have shutters, which can be firmly closed to prevent things flying into the house during the storm.
  • Use a minimum of three hinges along with a heavy dead bolt lock for installing doors and make sure that they are attached properly to the walls.
  • Garage doors can be quite big, so they are one of the most vulnerable parts of the house. It is required that you get your garage door inspected by a qualified inspector and replace it if required. Use stiffeners in addition to center supports for the doors, which can be removed after there is no threat.
  • For roofing, make sure that the professional you have hired removes the entire material the previous roof is made off before putting in the new material. It is important to focus on making the sheathing of the roof as strong as possible.
  • Changes have to make to the various floors of the house with the help of a qualified professional.

Be prepared

Make yourself and your family well-versed with the disaster preparedness plans used by the community or neighborhood that you are going to stay in. Always be well-stocked with food and liquids in case you are in house arrest due to the hurricane. In addition to this, have an emergency kit or bag ready that contains essential items like first-aid, medicines, all purpose knives, torches and other similar items.

Becoming a Florida Resident

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Florida is one of the most populated states in the US, and that says a lot about the kind of place it really is. If you are one of the people who have decided to settle in the state permanently and become a Florida resident, there are certain legal steps that you have to take to declare it as your domicile state. This gives you the benefit of not having to pay taxes to the state that you are moving from, in addition to the essential right of being able to vote. Here is a complete walk-through for becoming a resident of Florida.

File a declaration of domicile for Florida

The declaration of domicile is a legal document that allows you to declare officially that you are a Florida resident because of the fact that you have a residence that you wish to use on a permanent basis. Even if you have other properties or homes in other states, you need to declare that your house in Florida be considered as your primary and predominant home. The declaration has to be signed by you with a Deputy Clerk or Notary Public as your witness.

Procure a Driver’s License registered in Florida

If you have a valid driving license from another state, a written or practical driving test is not required to get a driver’s license in Florida. Take the license you already have along with your identity documents to get a Florida DL. Other documents that are required include Social Security number, proof of Florida residence address, and change of name documents if any. You are required to get done with this procedure within 30 days of declaring your domicile.

Vehicle registration

All the vehicles that you own including cars, trucks, and boats have to be registered at the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. This includes getting the required insurance and paying the registration fees.

Voter registration

This can be done either with the Supervisor of Election or while you are getting your Florida DL. The registration closes 30 days prior to the election and opens only after the elections are over.

Regarding payment of taxes

You can pay your final taxes from the state that you previously lived in before moving to Florida and notify the officials about the move. Make sure that you list your new Florida residence address when filing for federal taxes and alert the Social Security Administration about the change of address.

Miscellaneous memberships

Transfer your membership for banks, churches, clubs and groups to be registered for Florida. This is an indication of your loyalty to the state and proves your sincerity of giving back to the community in whatever way possible.

Buying a new home

If you have the requisite capital, and you are sure of permanently staying in Florida, it is better to buy a house in the state than to rent one. This is because it makes you eligible for the Florida homestead exemption that gives you tax benefits while establishing your domicile.

Contact Me

I always have valuable information ready at the go on my Youtube account or on my website Tampa2Enjoy.com. If you wish to reach me through phone then don't hesitate to give me a call at 813-317-4009

Tampa Waterfront Properties- Tips for buying/owning a boat

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Hi my name is Lance Mohr and I am a real estate agent in Tampa and here is another video on buying waterfront homes in Tampa and to give you a tip on what you need to do. It really does not make any difference if you are looking for Tampa waterfront properties whether it is a home or whether it is a lot do your due diligence, don’t just rely on the real estate agent.

Getting reliable info

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you want to be on the water, whether it is on the golf or intercostal and you have a boat and maybe it is a 30-foot boat or even a 30-foot sail boat and you need a certain depth of water. Don’t just ask the listing agent to ask the seller what the depth is, call around and as always, I don’t mind calling for buyers. The problem is if I get wrong information, that wrong information is going to be passed along and I don’t really like the liability.

There are a couple of things that you could do as a potential home buyer if you are looking at buying waterfront properties. You are going to do a couple of things, one is call different marinas. Tell them where you are looking at buying and what the address is and they can help you out and tell you most of them know especially if they are a marina that is local they are going to know and if there are a couple of marinas call a couple of them and get some ideas. The best thing to do though is when you are in the neighborhood drive up and down the street and find someone who has a boat maybe similar to the size you are buying and get out and knock on their door.

The thing about people and I know people pretty well being in this business, people love to talk about themselves, they love to talk about their kids, and they love to talk about their home. If you have questions they are going to be more than willing to help you out. They probably may or may not have had those questions if they were looking at the waterfront property so check it out and do your due diligence because you don’t want to buy a home and then find out that the depth of the water to be is going to be wrong.

Get a hold of me

If you have any questions or concerns about any homes in Tampa, any waterfront properties, or anything don’t hesitate to give me a call now at 813-317-4009, I would love to answer your questions and help you out. More valuable information is free to the public on my website at Tampa2Enjoy, Please check out my Facebook and all my other videos on my Youtube channel or on my website video page. I wish you the best of luck. Take care.

Tampa Waterfront Homes-Insurance

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Hello, my name is Lance Mohr and I am a real estate agent in Tampa and I want to talk to you today if you are looking at viewing waterfront homes in Tampa. If you are, most people out there when I talk to them about waterfront whether it is lakefront, oceanfront, intra-Bay, etc. or river they have a lot of questions about insurance which is completely understandable

Hazard Insurances

Let me give you a couple of tips on the two different types of insurance you are going to be getting. One of them is hazard insurance and the other is the flood insurance. So first let us talk about the hazard insurance. Florida like every other state out there were controlled by the insurance commissioner and everything is controlled but a lot of times you will get quotes and you can see one quoted whatever it is and then another one with the exact same property and it is quoted at 25 or 30% higher and what tends to happen is what they do here is probably like what they do everywhere but if a company does not want to write a policy a lot of times they will say we are not writing policies right now or they will just give you a really high quote and what they do is they take the replacement costs and the jacket through the roof. Learn more on buying insurance.

Multiple Resources

So you have a home and let us say you’re buying a home on the water and let us say that home is $500,000 and of course the lot is the vast majority of it but the replacement cost is $500,000. Well that is absurd so you want to definitely when you look in an insurance let your fingers do the walking and called several places. I am one of those people, I am a really loyal type of person but when it comes to insurance companies I do not need to tell you how they operate. It is not the agent’s fault who works for them it is the company so definitely shop around.

I always tell people call three or four of them and see what they have to say and it is better to call more in the beginning of the middle of the month because a lot of times the insurance company if they have met their quota for the month maybe they made their quota on the 22nd you call them up and they will be like, well we are not insuring in Florida right now but if you call them on the second of the month the next month and they are saying, “ Oh we have not met our quota for this month of course we are writing coverage.” Anyhow, just make sure you do that and call around and definitely get quotes and really pay attention to what everything is in the policy about the replacement costs.

Flood Insurance

The second thing is the flood insurance. I know that is a big, big, big issue at least right now at the point of this video because all of the stuff that is going around there so when it comes to flood insurance do not rely on your real estate agent, do not rely on your mortgage loan officer if you are getting a mortgage. The reason is because we don’t have the flood maps; the realtors don’t have the flood maps, the lenders and loan officer levels do not have them. Now of course with the mortgage company the underwriters all have the flood maps but give an insurance agent a call. So what I would do, let’s say I am looking at buying a property and I would say not looking at the Gulf because it is too expensive so I want to buy something intercostal so I’m looking at intercostal.

Take a couple of properties maybe two or three depending on the area I am looking and just call an insurance agent you do not have to call all of them to get an exact quote right now. I will call the insurance agent and say hey here are a couple of addresses, can you give me a quote on some flood insurance? They are going to call you back and they are going to say yes this property depending on where it is in zone one, two, three, four or five and they will give you a quote and they will say well this one is a little bit more because of this and it is flood insurance so definitely check it out and call the right person.

I know a lot of times people ask me they will say what is the flood insurance and how much would I be paying for the flood insurance? I know a lot of realtors and they want to seem like they know everything so they will just answer the question not knowing what the heck they’re talking about but make sure you talk to the right person. Take some time and look over this flood insurance rate blog.

Contact Me

I hope this helps. If you have any questions about waterfront homes, homes in general, or anything about real estate in Tampa give me a call at 813-317-4009, I would love to talk to you and help you. I would love to work with you. So I am doing a bunch of these videos series so you can certainly look on my channel or just type in the search on YouTube and look for my videos. Check out my Facebook or go to my website Tampa2Enjoy for more videos and all the free information you want. Have a great day thank you, best of luck to you.

Tampa Luxury Homes: Tips For Buyers

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Hi, my name is Lance Mohr and I’m a Tampa luxury homes real estate agent and I wanted to do this video to give you some tips if you are thinking about buying a luxury home in Tampa or really anywhere for that matter and it more has to do with the new homes not necessarily the pre-owned but of course whether you’re buying a luxury home that is new or pre-owned make sure you do your due diligence when it comes to hiring a real estate agent, just don’t take any real estate agent. Get their website, read their bio, because there are a lot of things to know about real estate in general but certainly luxury homes. So a lot of times people come to me and they say,” Hey, Lance I’m looking at getting a luxury home and I want to build.” So maybe they need to find a lot first and we start looking at the lots. Now obviously you need to find out looking at lots are the utilities hooked up and if they are not hooked up you need to budget for that. I’m not going to get into the lots too much. I'm going to give you the necessary tips for buyers.

Finding a builder

If you are looking at building a luxury home, a lot of times the easiest thing to do and by far the least expensive thing to do is find a reputable builder, which is not always easy to do that is why you need a good real estate agent to help you but find a reputable builder and someone who has been building for a number of years, not someone who just bills one or two homes a year and they have been building for the past six years but someone who has been in the business for a long time and sit down with them and meet them and talk to them and tell them about what type of home you want because they are probably going to have a floor plan that they have built in the past that might be very similar to what you want.

Instead of going to an architect and paying who knows it could be $25,000, $50,000, or even $100,000 depending on the home you buy for the architectural plan. You can just have changes made to the builders plan. Now the other thing to do if you’re not really sure about the builder; don’t be intimidated and I know most people at the luxury price level don’t really get intimidated by much but make sure you do your due diligence in finances and you might want to ask them for references of people who have purchased from them and get the references and go talk to the people; knock on the door, call them on the telephone. These tips for buyers are a must when building Tampa luxury homes.

Ask about the past

I always liked doing face-to-face and find out how the experience was seeing what areas they built before so you can just knock on the door cold and say hey did this builder build your home etc. Also get a list of some of their vendors and make sure, I know this sounds weird, but they should not mind and say hey are they paying you on time because of they are not paying their vendors on time and they are buying concrete or wood or fixtures or whatever and they are not paying their vendors you have to really wonder what is going to happen with your money if they close the doors. There are a lot of builders in that situation it is not like they are going to tell you they are virtually bankrupt and they’re going to close their doors and they’re going to keep your money so you really need to do your due diligence and find a custom builder that is going to be around today, tomorrow, and five years from now.

I know a lot of people really don’t think about these kind of things or some people feel really weird about grilling the builders but you have to because you don’t want to be in a construction loan and I’ve had this happen to people not that I’ve worked with, but I’ve seen it where they were in the process of building a home, a $2 million home and all of a sudden the builder went belly up so now they have this half built home with a bunch of money they gave to the builder and the builder declared bankruptcy and they are basically out of luck so do your due diligence whether you are looking at buying a luxury home in Tampa or anywhere for that matter.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you, I have a lot of these different videos on my website video page and on my Youtube channel. I have one’s on waterfront, luxury homes, different communities in Tampa, different cities in Tampa, and more, so please keep tuned to my channel so you can keep up to date in the real estate industry. Give me a call on my call phone at 813-317-4009 if you have any questions at all. I would love to answer them and I would love to help you. Please check out my Facebook and my website Tampa2Enjoy. Have a great day and I wish you the best of luck.

Rent Out Homes At No Cost To You

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Hi my name is Lance Mohr and I’m a real estate agent in Tampa. I have been an investor for years, geese, I cannot even remember since the 90s when I had a home in California and I ended up moving. So I am doing this video right here; actually was going to do a webinar and I decided not… I was going to do an e-book and sell it but I just don’t want to spend the time doing that so I’m just going to sort of do a freebie to help people. If you want to rent out your home I’m going to show you how to wrench it out without using a real estate agent. Let me just say this, I know a lot of realtors and property managers would be ticked off if they heard me say this but it is really true. The MLS was never designed for the rental market. It never was designed for the rental market. It was always designed for home sales; now there are certain areas that you know you can use realtors and they provide a good benefit. Not in Tampa. The real estate agents in Tampa in the rental market that I have seen, the vast majority of them I’m talking 92 to 95% of them are absolutely useless. So I’m going to go over this video and you are going to see why so many of them are so useless and what they are doing that you have no idea what is going on and I have rented properties out.

Lance Mohr

Just a little about me. I own properties in California, I’ve owned properties in Texas, I’ve been in North Florida, I own some here in Tampa, and I pretty much can rent them out myself without using a realtor within a matter of a week in a fair market value and I don’t need to use the multiple listing service. As a matter of fact, I could use it for free and I never do. They are just easier ways because the multiple listing service was not really intended for rentals. It was intended for home sales and a lot of agents do and did and are currently doing rentals. There is nothing more to help the client out so enjoy this. I think it is going to save you a lot of time, headache; it doesn’t make any difference where you are and I will just say take all of this grain of salt. Okay here we go.

Cons for multiple listing sites

Alright this is Lance and I’m going to try to keep this short right here. I’m in the multiple listing service and telling you the reason why I as a real estate agent but I have my own rental properties I do not use the multiple listing service. I personally think it is a waste and it is a waste and I will show you why. Here I’m doing the search on active homes. These are rentals. This is my rental so these are rentals. In new Tampa 14 to 1800 ft.² let’s just go over the details.

So we will go over the details and here is the problem, the agents just are not paying real estate agents enough money to make the squeeze work the juice. In other words, the agents are getting in their car and the MLS and the sales; you pay the co-broker 50% and we used to did not have to disclose that to the consumers but then you just had a lot of what you call really unethical and dishonest realtors so now it is disclosed when you are signing a listing agreement to sell. But look what is happening here. So the agent is paying $1400, okay they should be co-brokering $700. They are co-brokering less than half of that, $300. We will pick another one. $1495 co-brokering $200. This one right here $1675 co-brokering $200. This one right here $1795 co-brokering $300.

Okay, an agent is going to get someone in the car but hopefully they are going to rent. They’re going to get someone in the car and they are going to drive around all day or maybe a couple of days and they are going to get paid $300 and then going to work for a company that’s just say like Coldwell Banker Prudential, nothing wrong with those companies, but if they are doing rental properties let’s face it they are not a producer. So they’re probably on a 50-50 split plus a 6% royalty so the company is taking 56% and the agent is left with 44%. Then the agent has to pay taxes on the money and then they have to pay for any expenses gas and anything else. You can see they are not paying 50-50 percent so I just find that most of them, most of these rental properties just sit on here forever. Now this has to do with rent and not property management, don’t get me wrong and there are a lot of good agents. It is important if you’re going to use a real estate agent make sure you have it in writing what their co-brokering to the other agent.

So here’s what I do. I do not use MLS. The first thing I do is go to a company called Postflix, now I think they just got bought out by Zillow which is sort of a bummer because like any corporation they will destroy the company and Postflix has gone down a little bit since they have gotten taken over. So it is either Zillow or Trulia. So let’s go to Postflix.com and you will need to set up an account so you can see. I will just go into my account example from a couple of my rental properties.

Using Postflix

So I’m logged in so let me just…here’s some of my rentals, you can see it has been a long time since I have done anything on it. So if I went into edit….now these are all expired. They are not activated so I don’t want to activate them but as you can see right here you can do the location, contact, basic details. You can add I think up to 12 photos or something. You can do a description. You can review what the post is going to look like and they look really nice. You can go over the promote post list so it is really nice. When you put out a postflix check it out. It automatically goes to Zillow, Frontdoor, Backpage, Oodle, Hotpads, MLS, Trulia, Yahoo.

Look at all of this Free marketing, it goes to other ones. It syndicates it. So these are the syndication partners. They will also give you a URL so if you want to take this URL and put it in Craigslist. Of course we will get into Craigslist in a little bit. You can promote it on your Facebook and Twitter so it gives a lot of really good ways so I use this. It is great and the post listings look really nice. The other thing I do is I do Craigslist. You go in and you can see you will….again I just need to go into my account or create an account if you are not. Pick the area in Tampa, so you pick the area and then when you are marketing you either say you are buy owner or broker.

Craigslist

Now I will give you a couple of tips of Craigslist when you are doing it. First off put a picture in it. Put a nice description in the property that stands out. Either asterisks, asterisks, asterisks, in all capitals or something that so it stands out. Put a picture in it, at least one picture. You don’t need to do a ton of pictures. Personally I just put the URL but in Craigslist they don’t really have the HTML coding if you know what that is. If you don’t, do not worry about it.

If you want to go to a website in Craigslist now, you cannot just click it you have to copy and paste it and put it into the URL. This right here this is in Craigslist. You cannot just click on it. You have to copy it and go up here and copy and paste. So it is sort of a bummer. But here is a trick about Craigslist that a lot of people don’t know about Craigslist. If you are going to do Craigslist you need to do it methodically and here is what I mean.

Craigslist does not allow duplicate content and they are going to flag you. It is called ghosting. You are going to get ghosted and you are not going to know it because you are going to think your ads are up and what I mean is this. You go in Monday morning and you do an ad, you put it in Craigslist. You get up Tuesday morning and you take that same ad and you put it in Craigslist again. You get up Wednesday morning and you take that same ad and you put it in Craigslist again. Well you are not going to get credit for number two or three because they are duplicate content and they are going to ghost you. So in other words, you think you are live, they are going to send you a link that you are live but you are not going to be able to find that ad anywhere.

So what you need to do like when I do Craigslist what I will do is I will do a rotation. I will usually do morning and evening. Sometimes I may do three times per day. For example, Monday morning I try to get it in early before people go to work so it is in the early edition. So let’s say I do 7:00 in the morning. I post an ad in Craigslist at 7:00. I make a different ad and at 7:00 or 6:00 at night I post another one. When I post that ad I remove the first ad. Then I get up the next morning and I put my third ad in and when I put my third ad in on Tuesday morning at 7:00 I remove my second ad that I put in last night and then I keep jumping back and forth because Craigslist and this is more of a guideline than the rule I have found, you are not supposed to have duplicate content but they usually do a hold for 24 hours.

In other words they don’t want…..you can’t remove it and then a couple of hours later stick it in again, they will ghost you. They are pretty smart. You always have to figure out and I have learned Craigslist is smarter than I am. Google is smarter than I am so you just have to keep that in mind.

Clientele

Now Craigslist can generate you a lot of clientele, information, and leads; people wanting to see your home but in my opinion they are not always the best. Postflicks won’t get you near as many. Craigslist will probably get you quite a few but they are not always the best but don’t say no we don’t want to do that and the one I tend to use that I like the best of them all is Rentals.com.

Now this will cost you money. It can cost 50.00-100.00 or 110.00 but it works and the people you get on Rentals.com are higher quality. So in other words you are not going to get as many as Craigslist but you are going to get a better clientele than Craigslist but don’t discard Craigslist because it is hugely popular. Also be careful about scams going out there. I’ve had people doing scams on some of my _____. Now you have everything squared away and you are ready to go.

What's Next?

Okay now what do you do? Alright it depends on two things. Is the property vacant? If the property is vacant what I would do… I’m going to tell you what I did, you can do whatever you want, but what I will do is if the property is vacant I am not going to run over there every time someone wants to see it. For Pete’s sake these are people who are looking to rent. A couple of tips on renting, if you are going to rent out the property make sure the property looks really, really nice. If you need to clean the carpet, if you need to pull all the weeds and put in fresh mulch and put in sod do it because renters are sick and tired of these scum lords that just rent a bunch of junk out and it does not take that much money.

Anytime a tenant moves out of one of my properties I always rekey it because you have to do it by a court of law. I always clean the carpets. I always get a professional carpet cleaner in there. I always get a professional maid service in there. If I need to touch up the paint or do whatever I do but it really does not cost that much. So do that. If you rented it out I would just say hey look I am doing an open house and I am going to be showing it on Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 so if you can make it please show up and I have a bunch of applications with me. I have some people that say no I cannot make Saturday at 2:00 to 4:00 and I will say okay if I don’t get it rented out then I will let you know when you can see it.

A lot of times if they are looking for a place to live they will figure out a way. They will take off work or work it into their schedule. I really don’t go out of my way too much because I price my home competitively when I rent it. I don’t try to get every nickel. Think of it this way. If I am renting something for $1500 and I want to get every nickel and it takes 2 months to rent it, I just lost $3000 so wouldn’t it behoove me to maybe rent it for $1400 or even $1395 and have it rented out within a matter of a couple of days or weeks? That’s my opinion. So anyhow I will go ahead and do that.

Tenants

Now here is a beauty. I love it when tenants are on the property. Tenants are the best because they will do all the work for you if you know how to schedule with them. So what I do I call up the tenant and I say hey we have a couple of choices that we can do. I need to lease my place out so I am going to give you the option. I can go ahead and hire a real estate agent if you want but they are going to be trucking through your home day or night whenever there is a buyer we are going to put an electronic lockbox on the door and they may come in at 9:00 in the morning or they may come in at 6:00 to 7:00 at night when you are eating dinner.

I don’t want to disrupt you and your family so the other option I have is if you want, I will do the marketing and the advertising. Any time someone calls me up to look at the home I will ask them to drive by the home to make sure they like the home and they like the neighborhood. Then I tell them to call me back. When they call me back if they want to see the home they I will give them your name and number and you can schedule a time that is convenient for you and your family to show them the property. How does that sound? They love it. I’ve never had a tenant not do that. Not only that but they are thrilled that you are so considerate with them and they are going to do all the showings with you.

Now the reason why you want to have them drive past the home and the neighborhood is number one because the first thing that comes out every tenant’s mouth when they talk to you about rental. Hi I am calling about the property for rent. When can I see it? They don’t even know the area. I’ve even had people say, for example our property in Panther Trace in Riverview, they will say, “Oh I know where Panther Trace is.” I’m like, okay but I am going to give you the address. I still need you to run dry past the property and make sure you like the property and make sure you like the area and then give me a call back because I don’t want to disrupt my tenant every time someone wants to look at the property. Does that sound fair? What are they going to say? So they say yes.

If they never call me back, they were never a bona fide renter as it is. Quite frankly probably only 33% of them even call back which is great for me. If they are not interested I don’t want to be bugged nor do I want to bug the tenant. If they want to rent it, they will drive by. It is as simple as that. I think every blue moon you get someone who says they drove by and they didn’t but most people do. So I think most people are pretty honest about that and they will drive by and the tenant will obviously filter them. I send the tenant the applications and I will email them an application and I say can you print out about eight of these and if they want an application just give the application to them. By the way the application you can actually put the application if you do rentals on Rentals.com. There is a little place where you can upload a PDF.

So great, that is all you need to do and I never placed my homes in the MLS. I always have the tenants do that and then I just always give them a choice and they always say hey I would love for you to do that, I don’t want to be bugged. Sometimes if they are getting a lot of showings I will tell them hey look why don’t you just tell them you are going to show it on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or on the weekends so you are not getting bombarded every night but generally if it is conditioned nice, if it is priced right, if you have good pictures, and you do what you are supposed to be doing marketing right it will rent out very quickly. I never have a problem. I usually have a line to rent out my rentals because they are in good condition. I do what I need to do. It looks good. They rent out quick and my tenants are very happy with me.

Finding a “good” tenant

I’ll give you a final tip. One of the things….I always figure out where the market rent is. If the fair market rent is $1500, I will price it at or in some cases a little lower than that and then when I am talking to the tenant I will be blunt. I will say now you know this is a little under rental value. The reason why I did and if they argue with me I will just say okay I know it is and you know it is. You rented it out and I will tell them the reason why I have it a little under value on the rent is because I want a good tenant and I don’t want someone busting my chops on everything. I don’t want you calling me all of the time. If you have a legitimate problem or complaint then by all means give me a call but if there are little things I expect you to take care of them. I expect you to mow the lawn, take care of the grass, expect the rent to be there on time etc. Most of them understand that. I mean you have to set the guidelines up front.

Conclusion

Hopefully this helps. If you have any questions do not hesitate to give me a call at 813-317-4009 or visit my website at Tampa2Enjoy.com. If you are looking at buying or you know anybody that is looking at buying definitely pass on my information. Like my Facebook page which is on my website. Check it out and if you know anybody renting just forward this video. Again I was going to charge people for all of this because this is really some of the most valuable information I have ever given away for free but I really just don’t have time to be doing ebooks or dealing with all of that stuff so I don’t know maybe I will in the future. Anyhow as of right now you have this free so I wish you the best of luck with it. Check out all my other informative videos on my website's video page or on my Youtube channel. Good luck and take care.

Rob Gronkowski is Tampa’s New Neighbor

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It is no secret that Florida is a wonderful state in which to live. Humankind enjoys the water and there is plenty of it. One of the latest sales of Tampa waterfront houses brought New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski to Tampa in late November 2012.

Called the ‘Casa de Fiesta', the home is set up for any sports fan with ten flat screen TVs included. There is never a reason to miss a moment of on-screen action, regardless of the action. Brothers Chris and Dan are also active in the NFL, so chances are good that many of those games will focus on football.

What other features can be found in contemporary Tampa real estate located by the water? This particular home was built in 2007 and provides 4700 square feet of comfortable living. In keeping with the theme of water, there are fish tanks (custom built, of course). Now and then the evening gets a bit chilly, making the remote-controlled fire pits a great way to take the bite out of the air.

Athletes have to keep in shape and many prefer to do that in the comfort of their home. A common feature in Tampa for many homes is a pool., or in this case, two pools. A fully equipped gym keeps those muscles in tone, while the spa helps ease any soreness resulting from the type of workout demanded of a top NFL player.

This Westshore Yacht Club home is designed for entertaining. Included with the home is a bar and small restaurant. The furnished house also includes a first-class security system.

Just like others searching for the right home, Gronkowski looked in several areas, including Miami. This location by Old Tampa Bay delivered what he wanted. It is a short walk to the dock, where the 26-foot boat that was part of the sale rests when not in use.

Tampa 2 Enjoy-Tampa, Florida Real Estate

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Tampa 2 Enjoy is your gateway to finding fun in the sun, as well as Tampa foreclosures, Tampa waterfront properties, Tampa luxury real estate and just about anything else you're looking for in the Tampa area.

Positive Signs That National Home Sales Are Increasing

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image of arrow going upThere is good news on the housing market. More “For Sale” signs are getting that magical “SOLD” sign running across the sales placard on the front lawn. According to a report from the Commerce Department in August 2012, U.S. new home sales rose 3.6 percent in July. That number matches May's two-year high of 372,000 new-home sales. That annual rate, seasonally adjusted, reflects the highest sales since April 2010.

The downward turn of new home sales several years ago is due to a number of things. Massive layoffs and company closures caused people to concentrate on current financial responsibilities rather than incurring an additional one in the way of a new home. Because of limited funds, credit records were damaged. That prevented qualification for home loans. Banks were subject to scrutiny on loans given during the last decade. The result is more stringent requirements for mortgages. It is harder to qualify for a loan and the required down payment has increased.

Builders walked away from planned and partially completed housing developments when the sales stopped. As a result, the number of new homes for sale is significantly less than usual. The number of new homes for sale in July was only 142,000. Nearly half a century has passed since 1963, the last year records reflect that low of a number.

Home prices escalated rapidly up until 2006. The bubble burst in 2006 and sales stagnated. Lower prices have provided affordable pricing, as homes are nearly a third of previous prices. Mortgage interest is less than 4 percent and the economy is rebounding.

Further good news is that previously-owned homes are part of the increased home sales market. That is true for Tampa Bay real estate as well as other parts of the nation. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of previously occupied homes in July surpassed the number for June. With a ten percent raise in sold homes during the past year, the number of homes that were available in July could be exhausted in about four and a half months.

Builders that left projects standing due to lack of funds and buyers are gaining confidence. Potential buyers are once more looking at homes and property. Building permit applications are the highest they have been in almost four years, as new homes are built.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) estimates 3 jobs are created for a year for each home that is built. Tax revenue is also significant, as it totals approximately $90,000. As projects are undertaken and developed, others appear to help with the recovery. Home prices increased slightly over two percent for a one-month period in May. April and May increases lead to a perception that the housing market is on its way to recovery.

A healthy housing market requires 5.5 million previously occupied homes and 700,000 new homes sold each year. An anticipated 8 percent growth in annual sales of previously owned homes sold will result in 4.6 million sold for 2012. New homes will also fall short of their goal. However, the trend towards recovery is steadily moving forward with these positive signs that national home sales are increasing.

If you are considering the purchase of Tampa, Fl. real estate or have questions, please visit www.tampa2enjoy.com.

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Keller Williams Realty – Tampa, Florida

Mohr Home Group
18302 Highwood Preserve Parkway
Tampa, Florida 33647
(813) 317-4009 | Map | Email
Licensed REALTOR® in the State of Florida

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