As you may or may not recall, depending on how close-knit you are within CPA circles, there was a significant new tax consequence and reporting requirement introduced for landlords within the Small Business Jobs Act and the healthcare reform bill passed in 2010.
This new reporting requirement was introduced to help the IRS better monitor landlord property expenses by requiring a 1099 to be filed for all independent landlords for payments during the year to any vendor or individual exceeding $600. Examples of 1099 recipients would include: gardeners, landscapers, contractors, property managers and repair services.
Earlier this year with support from Realtors, landlords, and landlord associations such as the NARPM all contacting their representatives to object to this over-reaching reporting requirement; both Congress and President Obama got the message and decided the filing burden was too great for smaller landlords. The requirement for rental property owners to file 1099′s was repealed in May of 2011. The senate voted 87-12 to approve the repeal and it was signed shortly thereafter by Obama.
This is good news for landlords, your 2011 taxes just got a lot easier as you do not now have to collect tax information from your vendors, nor report it on the 1099-MISC form as proposed in the Small Business Jobs Act.
To a landlord or property manager, vacancies are generally the worst possible thing since a vacancy is catastrophic to cash flow. It’s important that when a property becomes vacant the term until the next tenant moving in is as short as possible.
Aggregating information from many landlords, I’ve put together a solid list of tips which works well for most property managers.
Start Early – Some markets handle this better than others; however, when you get your 30 day notice from the existing tenant that is the time to start thinking about marketing your soon to be vacant home. Write (or refresh) your classified ad, make sure you have up to date pictures, and begin your online marketing efforts. If you don’t mind getting calls early to create a list or applicants, go ahead and publish your listings as soon as 30 days before it is available.
Get the Word Out – You want as many potential renters seeing your listing as possible. Be sure to use as many possible advertising methods as you can to get the widest audience. Here are examples of solutions that always work for landlords and property managers alike:
Craigslist – It’s free to list and is often one of the most productive places to list rentals available. Be sure your listing stands out by creating stunning craigslist property listings right from your property management software.
Rental search sites – Some popular real-estate sites now accept rental listings. Sites such as Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, and dozens others. These sites are often one of the first places tenants will be looking for rentals as they offer comparables, and nice graphical map displays which help tenants find homes faster. Be sure your listings are up there or you’re losing out. Rentec Direct will automatically do this for you, read more.
Conventional Sources – Don’t forget about conventional sources like the newspaper classifieds and putting a For Rent sign in a visible location from the street on the property. Also be sure to tell your friends and colleagues.
Be Honest – Is it an older house, then don’t list it as a “newer home” or “like new”, and likewise if parking is poor don’t highlight the “great on-street parking”. The more honest and accurate your ad is the more qualified applicants you are going to receive and you won’t be wasting time processing applications, showing the property, and fielding phone calls for tenants who are turned off by a misleading fact when they visit the property. Your time is much better spent focused on the tenants who are looking for exactly what you have available. Lots of current pictures available for tenants to peruse online will help you out a lot.
Provide Your Criteria in the Listing – If you require credit or criminal background checks, put that in the listing. That alone will eliminate anyone who feels they may not pass a credit or criminal scan thereby saving you time, money, and hassle. Be sure not to put anything discriminating in the ad however as that can land a landlord in a bucket of trouble.
We get asked frequently if we provide forms or agreements for landlords. While we do not, there are many resources on the internet that do. We’ve done some research to find what we feel is the is the best and most reliable source available. ezLandlordForms provides most forms necessary for landlords and property managers to start and operate a business. This includes state specific forms which have been reviewed by landlord peers and attorneys in each state. Click the image below to visit ezLandlordForms.
Other Legal Forms
If you are more in the need for legal forms to start a corporation, LLC or partnership we would recommend LegalZoom who has professional forms and assistance for entities wishing to start an organization. Other services offered by LegalZoom include: Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, Wills, Trusts, Divorce, Name Change, Power of Attorney, Real Estate Leases, Bankruptcy, Estate Planning, and other Legal forms.
We get asked frequently if we recommend any particular debt collection agency for delinquent tenants. Second most on that topic we get asked if there is is any way to report delinquent unpaid tenants to the credit bureaus. I’m pleased to say that we’ve found both!
We’ve partnered with a OLDDEBTS to provide this service to Rentec users and trusted affiliates.
There’s a ton of benefits to using Olddebts. The ones that make the most sense to us are:
The collection process can be handled online, and setup only takes a couple minutes.
Olddebts is a flat-fee service that costs less than $20
Olddebts will report the delinquency to the credit bureaus for just $5. This is the best part because not only are you warning other landlords about this tenant who fails to pay their rent, but with the debt going on their credit you are far more likely to collect on it. They will most likely need to pay you before they can move into another house, buy a car, etc.
Olddebts handles all the dirty work. They send the collection letters and report to the bureaus. The funds come back directly to you.
We are very impressed with how their program is setup and how effective it is. To get setup or read more about Old debts, CLICK HERE to visit their site.
We’ve added video training to many locations of the software to help new and experienced users alike to quickly learn the components of Rentec Direct.
When you login now, you will see the film strip icon on the right (a smaller version), in the upper-right hand corner of the pages, right under the Settings tab. Simply click the filmstrip image and a video tutorial will pop-up giving you a walk-through of the current process.
We’ve already updated the system with training videos for the following topics:
Managing properties
Managing tenants
Managing bank accounts & owners
Reports
System Settings
Workorders
Recurring Transactions
We’ve started with videos for these areas as they are the most used and/or more complicated parts of the system. If you have any suggestions for other locations within the software which would benefit from a training video, please let us know.
You can also quickly access many of the training videos from this training videos page.
It is easy with Rentec Direct to setup tenant and owner portals so tenants and owners can have their own login to the system to view their accounting details.
Here is an educational video showing how the ledgers work together in Rentec Direct to automatically flow transactions to the tenant, property, owner, and bank account ledgers. Rentec Direct automatically takes certain transactions and flows them to the appropriate accounts, such as; A tenant payment received automatically posts as income to the property and any associated owners and bank accounts. As multiple ledgers are concerned for a single transaction, this video illustrates how the process happens.
This video provides a brief demonstration on how to manage tenant deposits. You will get guided through the process of receiving a deposit, tracking deposits, charging against deposits, and finally returning deposits.
To help new Rentec Direct users get started fast, we’ve compiled some video training material. These videos are recorded in HD, so they look best and can be viewed the easiest when viewed in full screen mode. To enter full screen, just click the outward arrows in the lower-right of the video. After reviewing this training material, if you have any questions, pleaseloginand click ‘need help’ in the upper right corner to contact our staff.
Our first video is a quick tour of the basic usage of the software. This is a must see for all new users.
Training Video #2
This video provides a brief demonstration on how to manage tenant deposits. You will get guided through the process of receiving a deposit, tracking deposits, charging against deposits, and finally returning deposits.
Training Video #3
This video will guide you through a detailed training on adding and managing properties within Rentec Direct.
Training Video #4
This video will guide you through a detailed training on adding and managing tenants within Rentec Direct.
Training Video #5
This video will guide you through a detailed training on adding and managing bank accounts and property owners within Rentec Direct.
Training Video #6
This video will show you how to use the reporting system within Rentec Direct.
Training Video #7
This video guides you through the system settings screen and goes into detail on some of the more complex setting options.
Training Video #8
This video will demonstrate the built-in workorder system within Rentec Direct. It will show you how to add and manage workorders and how tenants can post repair requests from their tenant portal.
As you may or may not recall, depending on how close-knit you are within CPA circles, there was a significant new tax consequence and reporting requirement introduced for landlords within the Small Business Jobs Act and the healthcare reform bill passed in 2010.
To a landlord or property manager, vacancies are generally the worst possible thing since a vacancy is catastrophic to cash flow. It’s important that when a property becomes vacant the term until the next tenant moving in is as short as possible.
We’ve added video training to many locations of the software to help new and experienced users alike to quickly learn the components of Rentec Direct.