Landlord Basics - Security Deposits

So you've picked up a rental or two, have gotten the necessary repairs and updates done and are ready to make it profitable with a tenant. Amongst the many things that you will need to do is to collect a security deposit from your tenant before they move in. In this article, I'm going to go over some basic things that you should know about security deposits.

First off, a security deposit is money that your tenant deposits with you against the future cost of damages that they may cause to the property. This money belongs to the tenant, and most states require that landlords keep a separate account to hold security deposits in. Some state's require that you pay your tenants annual interest on this money.

The security deposit is usually based on the amount of the rental, ranging from one to three months rent. Some states place no limit on the maximum amount of security deposits, while other states have a cap. If your security deposit is going to be equivalent to one months rent, it's a good idea to make it ten or twenty dollars more or less than the rent to clearly differentiate its purpose as a security deposit, and not a rental payment.

The security deposit is intended to cover damage to the property above standard wear and tear. While this is subject to interpretation, generally things like holes in the walls, cigarette burns in the carpet, broken windows, damaged fixtures, etc. can be claimed against the security deposit.

Laws governing security deposits vary from state to state. It's very important to check your local laws governing how much you can collect, how you must keep the deposit, what damages you can deduct from it, and the procedure for returning and/or sending notice of deductions from the deposit to the former tenant.

James Orr is a professional real estate investor, marketing expert and founder of the Learn To Be Rich™ on-line investment game. His latest project is a large-scale online reference manual for real estate investors called the Real Estate Investor Cookbook. He also works with a network of real estate agents, brokers and real estate investors across the United States through the AnalyzedDeals.com website

How to Pay HOA Property Managers For Maximum Company Profits

By James R Small

There are basically 3 compensation models for community managers.

1) Straight salary
2) Straight commission
3) Hybrid salary/commission

Let's explore all three.

1) Straight salary

In the straight salary model, the owner of the business knows exactly what the payroll expense will be for salaries. Similarly, the community manager knows exactly what he or she will be making (regardless of productivity or results). Average salaries for community managers vary depending on years of experience in the industry, cost of living in their market, and industry designations. That said the average salary is about $42,000 a year with the high end being about $75,000 a year.

2) Straight commission

In the straight commission model, the owner creates a completely variable compensation expense (note to owners: variable expenses are good, fixed expenses are bad!). The community manager doesn't know how much he or she will be making but the do know that the more they bring into their company (with through more effort or by working smarter) they more money they make. Most entrepreneurs love the all commission model, but it makes recruiting difficult and most folks that are looking for a $42,000 a year job aren't really into risk taking, especially with their income.

The straight commission model also creates potential issue with complying with the Federal Standards and Labor Act (FLSA). This issue alone makes this model a bad idea for most HOA management companies.

3) Hybrid salary/commission

The newest model of compensation in the HOA management industry is the hybrid model. In this approach, the company avoids any potential problems with FSLA compliance while creating a compensation cost that is as variable as possible. Moreover, most employees are more comfortable knowing that they'll receive at least a base income regardless of how much money they bring into the company and yet are often excited by the upside if they are more productive (read: bring in more money to the company) than their peers.

Here's an example of how the hybrid model works:

Base salary: $30,000 per year, PLUS
Commission bonus: 15% of all revenue brought into the HOA management company

The community manager can make more money by encouraging his clients to buy additional services from the HOA management company. I've seen community managers make a lot more money per year on this model and the company loved them for it!

I created a site for HOA management company owners to download free insider secrets. These secrets are proven ways to help you work less and make more money in the industry of HOA management. Download a free eBook with the most often used HOA forms and templates at http://www.HOAProfitGurus.com You can also access video blogs where I share some of the many lessons that I learned during my HOA management career including the most important things to know in the start-up, growth, and maturity phases of your business.

Recycled Metal Along With the Rollforming Process - Going Green With Building Materials

By Alice Lane

Going green with regards to building materials may take on new meanings depending on where you are building. However, a definition that is fairly universal for a green building states that a green building is erected using methods that increase efficiency within the building and that focuses on conservation of the materials used in both the construction of and maintenance of the building. There are a wide variety of products from which to choose with regard to both increasing efficiency and conserving resources.

These range from using products that improve the efficiency of the insulation and are made from renewable or recycled products. This may include cotton insulation or building using straw or packed earth, therefore increasing the insulation factors. There are some foam products that increase the efficiency markedly that are preformed and use less concrete than traditional concrete block structures. These are becoming more and more accepted in both hot and cold climates, including salt water environments. They are practically indestructible once the construction is finished. Along with the prefabricated building material, metal is becoming a product that is used instead of wood. One of the reasons for this is that metal can be recycled thus adding it to the renewable category of building materials.

In most cases it doesn't matter how often the metal is used, it can still be recycled. Unlike wood which has little or no reusability other than as firewood, most metals can be melted and reused. Once the metal has been recycled, a rollforming process can be used to fabricate products used in the building process. Everything from roofs to beams can be made from steel and used in the construction of both residential and commercial buildings. With the use of hydraulic shears and roll form dies the recycled metal can be punched, cut and reformed into a variety of strong building materials that are as much or more versatile than wood.

As metal forming machinery becomes more sophisticated, so do building materials. Metal is an amazing creative tool in the hands of architects and builders. Without the added cost of creativity, the use of steel offers advantages in framing and cladding roofs and walls. Steel allows houses to be easy and cost effective to insulate. They also are fast and easy to erect, savings money in the cost of construction. Steel also adds the advantage of being capable of withstanding earthquakes better than some of the other construction materials.

With the use of recycled metal along with the rollforming process which includes hydraulic shears and roll form dies puts metals into a green category of viable alternatives to seriously consider when constructing a residential or commercial building.

 

Public Records on Home Sales - Where to Get Them

In today's fast paced real estate world many people want to purchase homes in alternative ways and flip them, i.e., fix them up and turn them around for a profit. So that you do not pay too much money for the property it is very important to become familiar with your county's public records on home sales.

In order to do this you have to get your background information about the property in order so you must check out your local resources on public records on home sales.

Much of the information you need is now online so you can do your homework at home in your pajamas but your County Recorder's Office is an excellent place to go and familiarize yourself with their records. They are friendly and worth their weight in gold when you need what they have.

First you can track down the recorded documents on the property through your city Assessor or your County Assessor's office. In their information they will have the "book and page" of the recorded documents on the property: the mortgage, the Declaration of Value, a Ground Hazard Information sheet and other pertinent documents. The Assessor's Office can also tell you information about the property they acquired during their assessment procedure in order to establish the amount of property taxes on the property.

All of this information will be interesting to you when you focus on a property that you want to buy: you have to know how much was paid for the property when it was last sold, who presently owns it, especially if it is a foreclosed property. If the property is presently owned by the present buyers you may be able to go to them directly to buy the property rather than through a real estate agent or bank or foreclosure company representing the lender.

Another source of public records on home sales you will want to check is your local Sheriff's office to find out whether there has been a "Sheriff's Sale" on the property, the first step in the foreclosure process, where the property is sold at a Sherriff's Auction for the amount due to the lender or more. Typically the lender will buy back the debt at this point to ensure they maintain their ownership role in the foreclosure procedure.

When the information in question becomes recorded information, it is free and available to anyone in the public realm who wishes to obtain it. Public records on home sales are by their very nature free to access by anyone, so the public can track prices on sold properties, so anyone can know what a property sold for to compare it to other possible sold properties to determine a price for a house going onto the market.

The market is driven by this information so that appraisers can determine value on pending properties about to close.

Gary Pearson is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about home sales visit Selling Real Estate Site for current articles and discussions

 

How to Intrigue Real Estate Buyers

Selling a product is a tough affair and real estate is no exception. To capture the market for selling an asset, one has to make it salable by making improvements in a number of ways. The improvements usually include renovations or adding new utility features. The ultimate purpose is to impress prospective buyers with the looks and features.

When a prospective buyer is invited to take a look at the asset that is for sale, a number of small factors need to be paid attention to. The first thing is that in the present times, when there is an abundance of impressive assets in the market, the owner of an asset needs to make his asset truly outstanding in looks and features. The owner should keep in mind that the prospective buyers are busy individuals and they form impressions within minutes. The real estate may be having a lot of plus points but if these are not presented in an attractive manner, the buyer will drift away and sadly enough the owner will not get another chance to present his asset well. Hence, first impressions contribute largely to the salability of an asset.

When it comes to creating first impressions, it is not necessary to overload the asset with a large number of features. One can start with satisfying the most basic criteria of making an asset salable. One such criterion is to first keep the asset and its premises neat and hygienic. If the real estate is a terrain without any construction on it, the job of maintaining it becomes very easy. The owner needs to keep mowing out any growth of weeds and vegetation and see to it that stray animals do not litter the place with their excreta. Building a fence around the asset is recommended to keep away vagabonds from making unauthorized makeshift shelters on it.

Tidying up houses is can be quite complicated and time taking. To start off with, one needs to remove all unwanted stuff. This is where many people take the wrong decisions. It might sound funny, but there are people who retain old and broken furniture, torn off books and other things as they develop a sort of attachment to them over time. Old is gold, but it definitely does not make any sense in accumulating rubbish in the house. For that matter, even costly things give an ugly appearance if haphazardly placed. Arranging things neatly and in a meaningful way will give the real estate a commendable appearance and makes it habitable. Modern research shows staying in cluttered up places is not only bad for physical health, but for mental health also.

While discussing neatness, one should also consider an associated factor, and that is keeping the asset and its premises hygienic. Pesticides and insecticides should be used generously to keep the asset and the premises free of disease causing organisms. Clogged drains should be cleared. Water tanks should be cleaned frequently and periodically as stagnant water tends to be the breeding grounds for a lot of pathogenic organisms like mosquitoes that cause potentially lethal diseases like malaria, dengue and brain fever. The pipeline network of the real estate should be free of leakages as this can contaminate the water flowing through these pipes. Faulty pipelines should be identified and repaired promptly.

Kamyar Shah writes about different topics including self storage, property management, secret shopping and management consulting issues. Real Estate Buyers Self Storage

Plans For Your Self Storage Building

You can have your own mini storage building as this is going to be great investment for you. Nowadays, storing has become a very common household problem faced by each and every family. Recent study showed that 1 of every 6 families lease a storing place for their items. They use this unit regularly, to store their seasonal items or to keep sporting goods. So, a well serviced facility will be of a great help to your neighbors. You can also generate profit out of this investment, by making it convenient with most of the service available in storing industry.

There are plenty of companies, who will provide you the service to build a mini storage building . They will customize the building to be a perfect fit to your land arrangement. Generally the building width varies from 10 to 60 feet and unit width to 15 feet. You may have a sloping roof along with unit stepping for inclined land. This type of structure makes the units adaptable at any climate. These pre designed structures are going to be strong, sturdy, secured and durable. You can customize them according to your choice making them to look attractive to attract more and more customers.

It is advisable to use steel as the main material for the mini storage building structure. Steel has many advantages compared to other materials like wood. A steel construction is erected faster, so that you can start the center as soon as possible. It saves up to 60 per cent on your construction and material price. You can always add new extensions to the existing facility, without any interruption to your business. You do not have to face any cracking or rotting problem with steel. This is also safe from pest and insects. There is no fire hazards associated to steel. The materials are fully recycled, thus you are also preserving the nature by not using wood from forests.

If you use steel as a building material for your mini storage building , you can save up to 40 per cent on the insurance premium. It is very easy to keep the units clean and dry. Usually, you will get 25 years warranty for repairing purpose. You can also save money to maintain the ideal storing condition. Steel also guarantee you the security of the stored materials. Once the building is erected, you can have beautiful surface textures and colors to apply on. Your customer will feel comfortable to keep their things at a unit which is built of steel.

Select an experienced construction agency to build your mini storage building .. Keep your surveyed property plot plan handy for their requirement. You need to make a deposit on the fee, before they start looking into your project. The cost of construction will depend on the size and complexity of your project. If you are planning to build a large storing facility, better to hire a construction manager. He will look into each and every module until the building is completed.

You will find lots of construction companies, if you search online. Free instant building design is also available at their websites. You can also quote to calculate the cost of your project. At the website, you have the privilege to choose from more than 500 different type of building kit sizes and design arrangement. Once you finalize the company they will ship the drawings and plan as early as possible. The material will be shipped no later than one week.

Kamyar Shah writes about different topics including self storage, property management, secret shopping and management consulting issues. Self Storage Building Self Storage

Home Staging Helps Increase Your Home's Market Value For a Profitable Real Estate Sale

Your Miami Beach condo can be a great investment when the right time comes. Because the place is by the beach, most people who plan on a retirement purchase these kinds of homes. If you plan to sell your Miami Beach condo, raising its value first would be a great idea.

How exactly can you raise a value of a home? Through home staging, you can make your condos worth 20% - 50% more of its original value. Because home staging means redecorating the place, the value of the condo would increase and the home would also sell at a much faster pace. Since you get to attract more customers, selling your Miami Beach condo would be extremely easy.

Home Staging Options

Your Miami Beach Condo can be home staged through different ways. You can have someone redesign the place for you or you can redecorate the condo yourself. If you want to save more and you know how to do home staging, you can definitely change the look of the condo by yourself.

Home staging also offers several techniques in the redecoration process. If only a certain area in your condo needs the fixtures, then you can focus on that part alone. Doing so would make you save more money in the end. However, if the place needs complete redecoration, you can choose no other step but to change the entire look of the condo unit. After all, home staging can raise the price of your home despite the high costs of the decoration process.

In home staging, you have to consider some other areas in the condo which needs renovating. For example, electrical wires and the plumbing system can be changed if needed. The better the place, the higher price you can expect. So even if the redecoration takes much of your time and money, it is definitely worth the money you're going to make once you sell your unit.

Finding The Best Home Stagers

Home stagers are actually an easy find. You may even see one in yourself. However, you still need to ascertain the credibility of a home stager to make sure that your condo unit will be well-decorated after the process.

Internet is a good source for home stagers. By searching over the web world, you can find the finest home stagers who can bring the best changes in your Miami Beach condo. You need to be specific on your search so you can find a good home stager who works near your place. You also have to find out the credibility of a home stager through certain reviews from the internet.

http://epicmiami.com -- Miami Beach Condo

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

Destin Real Estate Market Update

By Chris Anderson, PhD

The Destin real estate market, like many areas around the country remains weak. The good news for buyers is that if you are looking to buy, you probably could not pick a better time, assuming you are very aggressive with your offers.

What everybody knows in this market is that it will return, and will return very strong at some point. When that turning point actually occurs however is anybody's guess.

The data below provides a good indication of the market status.

• # Sales : Down by 55% compared to last year
• $/Sqft: $182 which is down 9% from last year
• Median Price: $290,000
• Average Sales Price: $433K
• Average List Price: $888K

Notice in the table below there is a very large difference between the average list price and the average sale price. This simply means that currently, most of the sales are occurring only in lower priced properties.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A CONDO

If you have ever planned to own a Destin condo on the beach, now may be one of your best times because of the extreme market conditions. In addition, you can consider a Destin property by getting into a Foreclosed homes or condos.

Our latest report shows that there are over 180 condos for sale in the $300k to $350k range which is unbelievable for this area. We can almost promise you that you will find some owners willing to wheel and deal to make their pain go away.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A DESTIN HOME FOR SALE

Let's face it, for almost any price bracket, there is a lot of inventory on the ground, even in the $1Million range right now. However, our sub $200K range is showing very few properties so if you could acquire on cheaply and touch up a bit, it might be a great opportunity.

Visit http://www.DestinRealEstateCenter.com to get unbiased, Destin market updates delivered to your email.  Also, make sure you check out our latest destin real estate video.

Choosing Appropriate Maintenance Personnel

Whether it is an asset on hire or an asset on sale, property maintenance is mandatory to maintain high occupancy and also for enhancing its worth. The owner of the asset may be skillful enough to perform many of the maintenance tasks like keeping the premises clean and hygienic, but there are certain jobs that require greater expertise and time. These are repair and renovation jobs.

Generally, repair work is an integral part of maintaining assets. If the owner cannot devote the required amount of time or does not have the requisite skills to get repairs and renovations done, he should always take outside, preferably, professional assistance for getting these jobs done. He can call in the plumber or electrician, or the building repair staff when any part of his asset develops defects, but these people are going to charge him a lot.

For assets with recurrent problems, it is always advisable to have a long term property maintenance agreement with the professionals maintaining the assets. The professionals maintaining the assets can be expected to back up the owner whenever there is a crisis. For example, when there is an electrical failure, the assets maintaining professionals can be expected to handle the situation more deftly than the owner of the asset. This is because they are experienced in dealing with a number of such situations.

However, before going for any professional proper assistance that is related to property, the owners can search for people who have knowledge of repairs and renovations. The owner can strike a deal with the tenant regarding his performing property maintenance operations on the asset. He can ask the tenant to do some renovation jobs in exchange for relaxation in some payments that the tenant makes. By doing this, both the owner and the tenant of the asset are saving a lot of money they would have otherwise spent unnecessarily. The owner gains by not having to pay for the repair work done and the tenant gains by not having to pay the fee for hiring the accommodation.

Before choosing a professional property maintenance firm, there are certain things to be considered. The first thing that the owner should consider is the tenure for which the firm has been in the industry and its performance track record. Firms with a lot of experience for maintaining assets should be preferred over new firms. The skill level of the professionals sent for taking care of the asset should be satisfactory. If the firm sends inappropriate professionals to perform the repair work, the owner of the property should reject any assistance from these professionals and ask the firm to send the professionals appropriate for performing the job.

The owner of the asset should hire property maintenance professionals who live close to their asset because they will be able to devote more time in attending to the repair and renovation issues of the asset. Professionals who stay far away will have difficulty in commuting to and from the property owing to which they cannot devote much time on their task on the site. The owner of the asset might have to pay the asset maintaining professionals, who are distantly located, charges for transportation. On the whole, maintaining an asset is a task with many facets and the owner of the asset must use the correct selection criteria in choosing the appropriate person to take care of his asset.

Kamyar Shah writes about different topics including self storage, property management, secret shopping and management consulting issues. Appropriate Maintenance Personnel Storage Unit

Cambodia Property Market

Early this year I had the good fortune to spend some time in Cambodia, and inevitably couldn't resist taking a look at the property market there.

The Cambodian economy is still recovering from the fallout of the Khmer Rouge conflict, but it is recovering fast and my view is the place will look completely different in just a few short years. Many of Cambodia's roads are dirt roads which turn to mud in the wet season, even between major towns. However, this is now changing and roads are being built apace.

Since being in Cambodia I have noticed that the Cambodia government is taking steps to make both easier and safer for foreigners and foreign entities to invest in the country with the aim of attracting considerable foreign investment, and not just in real estate.

It is also expected that the Cambodian government will soon make it possible for foreigners to buy real estate in their own names without the need to set up a company as it currently stands.

Without going into the economic details in this blog, we believe that all the signs are pointing to surefire growth period to come in the Cambodian property market. Many international property developers have already made their way on to the scene recently in light of the changing regulations.

Particularly recently I have started to see property developments promoted not just in the capital Phenom Pehn but on the coast, in locations such as Kep. I think there there is undoubtedly a lot of potential, but investors must be aware that the market is still very new and immature and will change a lot of the coming years - so it is not without its risks.

Given property price growth in many of SE Asia's property markets has either slowed considerably or are in reverse gear, Cambodia may be a place to look for those interested in investing in the region and can handle a little more risk and uncertainty.

The Cambodian property market is certainly a market to keep a close eye on.

Simon Tweddle is Managing Director of an international property investment company based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Real Estate Market Analysis - What's Best For You?

As a homeowner, in a changing market it is important to know your home's value. The value of your home is dependent on many different factors, some in your control and some out of your control. Factors that are out of your control in determining the value of your home include supply and demand, market conditions, interest rates, and the economy. Other factors in which you have some control over include, location, style, size, condition and amenities of your home. To determine the value of your home a market analysis can be conducted.

What is a Real Estate Market Analysis?
A Real Estate Market Analysis is a report of current and past market activity comparing your home with other similar homes in your area. The analysis enables you to easily compare the features of your home with others and to determine the best pricing strategy for the market.

Why get a Real Estate Market Analysis?

A Market Analysis is a very handy tool to use in a number of different situations:

1. Are you considering selling your home?

2. Have you invested or thinking of investing money in your home with expensive renovations and improvements and want to know if the value of your home has increased or will increase to reflect the changes?

3. Have the changes in the real estate market made you uneasy about the value of your home?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you should have a Market Analysis completed on your home.

Who conducts Real Estate Market Analysis?

The best person to conduct a Market Analysis on your home for you would be a licensed real estate agent who is familiar and lives in and or does business in your neighborhood. In order to produce an effective market analysis the agent would need a tour of your home and know specific details of your home. Some basic questions they will need to know include:

1. Style of home (i.e., Ranch, Colonial etc)
2. Number of Bedrooms
3. Number of Kitchens / Eat in Kitchen
4. Number of Bathrooms
5. Dining Room
6. Living Room/Den/Family Room
7. Basement - Finished or Unfinished
8. Size of lot

Based off of the information on your home they will assess your neighborhood and compare similar homes in your neighborhood with houses currently on the market, recently sold or expired from the market. Based off the information they will compute the best pricing strategy for your home.

Most agents do not charge a fee for this service. They conduct the analysis as a courteous in hopes of getting your listing in the event you choose to sell your home. If you own a home call a local real estate agent and have a market analysis completed on your home today!

Gary Pearson is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about real estate market analysis visit Best Selling Real Estate for current articles and discussions.

Declutter Your House With Junk Removal

By Anthony Williams Sr.

No matter where you live in Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto to Halifax, clutter is a problem for most people. Things just tend to pile up and if you are a classic pack rat personality (or have a spouse who is), you're always thinking that you could be able to use that broken light bulb or that old stack of scratched records from the sixties. Sadly, most of us never do get around to using these things, so they just fill up closets, basements and attics and threaten to take over the house in general.

Junk Removal as a Means of Decluttering

One of the biggest problems people face when trying to declutter their homes is not having anywhere to put the stuff they want to get rid of. Many organization books will suggest that you have various boxes, to give away, to sell, etc. This is a big problem, though, because once you've finished sorting all your stuff into these boxes . . . you haven't gotten rid of a single thing!

The whole point of decluttering isn't to organize the clutter you have, it is to actually get rid of it. Let's face it, most people just don't have the time to actually set up a garage sale or sell stuff on eBay, so it all sits in those neat little boxes, still taking up space in your basement. Sure, it looks neat and tidy, but you still have a space issue. And your home shouldn't be for storing things you will never use again.

Rather than plan on something that you will never get around to actually doing, it can be quite cathartic to get rid of all that junk at once. A junk removal service can be very helpful in getting rid of it. You can put everything into boxes or bags, whatever you like, call the service and they will haul it all away for you. This eliminates the problem of piling even more stuff up just so you can store it until "someday" you do something with it.

The Benefits of Decluttering

There's nothing like having a home that you are free to live in to make getting rid of all that junk totally worth your while. You'll find that you have plenty of extra space once all those boxes are gone, too. Here are just a few of the benefits of tossing things you don`t use:

• You won't be searching through piles of stuff for one important item.

• There will be plenty of space for things you do need to keep.

• No more feeling guilty that you don't fit into your skinny jeans .. . . and haven't for ten years.

• You'll discover a lot of things that you may have thought were lost and gone forever.

• It's an emotional lift to see everything cleared out.

• They say a cluttered home makes for a cluttered mind . . . so cleaner should mean more concentration.

• Everything you need will be easier to find.

• It will be easier to keep your home clean with fewer things in it.

Decluttering can take a while, especially if you've been stockpiling for some time, but it's something that will make you feel a lot better once it's done. The best way to feel that weight lifted and to breathe a sigh of relief is to actually physically remove all that junk from your home and send it on its way with the junk removal service. Well worth the money, junk removal will whisk all your unwanted, unneeded and useless clutter away, leaving you with a neat and tidy home.

Junk removal Toronto by 1-877-Junk-Two-Go

5 Massive Mistakes Homeowners Make When Hiring a Home Stager

When you decide to hire a home stager to decorate your property to sell faster and for more money, you need to make sure you're investing in the right person. After all, you're trusting someone with the sale of your largest asset, your primary real estate, so you have to be careful to put that trust in an experienced professional.

Having operated a successful home staging business since 2002, and having trained more than 900 people worldwide how to become home stagers, I am well aware of what a homeowner or Realtor needs to look for when selecting an expert home stager.

Here are the five biggest mistakes homeowners make when looking for a house staging professional:

1. Focusing on Price

The last thing you should be focused on is how much the home stager is charging. Saving a few hundred dollars in fees and getting bad advice will cost you thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. Of course you have a budget in mind, but you stand to make a huge profit from effective home staging. That's why you should consider hiring a home stager as an investment in the sale of your largest asset. For optimal results, invest in the highest quality stager you can find.

There are ripples being made in the industry in light of a training company that guarantees its students they will make $31.45 per hour as home stagers. You should know that this is not what the homeowner or agent actually pays, it's what this particular company is willing to pay people who take their course, they actually charge the client far more.

Professional home stagers expect to earn anywhere from $250 to $500 for their initial consultation. Beware of anyone willing to work for significantly less for doing work that you stand to make anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000 profit from.

Rates will vary, depending on your geographic location and the stager's experience, but you shouldn't hire someone just because they charge a ridiculously low rate. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

2. Looking for Credentials

Another common mistake is to look for "credentials," since none exist in the home staging field. There is no governing body or official organization ruling over the home staging industry. There are no official home staging accreditations or certifications in this completely unlicensed field. The letters you see after some home stagers' names simply come from a particular home staging training company who pushes them as part of their marketing strategy.

Instead of relying on unofficial credentials, look at testimonials from past clients, before and after photos and real estate knowledge.

3. Hiring someone without looking at a website or portfolio

I always recommend that people not hire a home stager unless they have a web presence. Because you're hiring a professional in a visual field, you want to see how they express themselves through their biggest marketing piece - their website. As an alternative to building their own website, many graduates of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program list their businesses online which is like a mini-website, allowing potential clients to view an online portfolio and learn more about their business.

A professional portfolio full of before and after photos is a must. How else will you know what kind of results you can expect from a real estate stager? Because some companies provide ready-made portfolios to home stagers as part of their training programs, it's important to ask questions about the photos anyone presents as their own work. If they can't tell you details about the property or you've seen the same shots on another stager's website from the same "school" or training program, this should raise a red flag.

When you try to find a particular home stager's website or proof online of their existence, if you can't find them you have to question how serious they are about their business. Alternatively, if they have a very unprofessional looking website, you have to wonder whether they'll be capable of staging your home the way you expect from a professional.

4. Not looking for references or a proven track record

Read through the testimonials you'll find on most home stagers' websites. If there are none available (or they only provide initials and not full names), contact the stager and ask if they have any references. You shouldn't hire someone to stage your property without hearing about others' experience with them.

Every stager has to start somewhere. If they haven't staged a client's home yet, they should at least be able to tell you about the many homes they've bought, staged and sold of their own and be able to provide real estate agents they've worked with for their own homes. The point is to look for practical experience.

5. Neglecting to hire someone with real knowledge of the real estate market

You're not looking for someone who just knows how to decorate. Make sure the home stager knows the local housing market. A home stager is as much a part of the real estate industry as a real estate agent, and they should have a good grasp of the market they're in. If they don't know what homes usually sell for and how long they can sit on the market, you should look for another stager in the area.

Because there isn't an independent organization or association monitoring whether or not a house stager is operating professionally and providing a high quality service, it's buyer beware. If you avoid these five common mistakes as you search for the perfect expert home stager for your needs, you should be pleased with the professional you choose.

Happy House Stager Hunting!

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 900+ Graduates worldwide. Debra is the author of two home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell for top dollar.

How to Prevent Shared Wall Noise Bleed

By Eric Henry

Most homes and apartment buildings are simply not constructed with shared walls treated to block noise from being transmitted between rooms. Their shared walls, in fact, actually assist sound travel, and the best way to prevent unwanted noise from passing from room to room in your home is to treat the common walls so that they no longer conduct it. How is that done?

Adding Density
If you want to keep sound from being transmitted through the walls of your rooms (a process also known as noise bleed) you will have to isolate the rooms from one another by first adding to the density of the existing walls with MLV, or mass loaded vinyl sound blocking material which you will nail or tape over the surfaces of the walls you wand soundproofed. This MLV will help prevent your walls from vibrating and conducting sound waves.

Disconnecting Shared Walls
Once their existing walls have been covered with the MLV, you can proceed to isolate each of the rooms you want soundproofed by disconnecting the walls they share. These shared walls are the primary conduits by which the sound waves to pass from room to room.

You will actually be building new walls in front of the shared walls in each room, and the space between he new and existingv will collapse the sound waves which enter it. The sound which actually makes it through will be significantly less than it was when it left its source. You will create your new walls by adding horizontally positioned furring strips at even intervals from the floor to the ceiling of your room, and covering them with sections of drywall.

Doubling Your Results
You can further prevent noise bleed between your rooms by using more soundproofing materials. Sealing the joints of your ceilings, floors, and walls with a high-grade acoustical caulk, and adding extra layers of both MLV and new drywall will further reduce your noise bleed.

If, for example, you use two layers of MLV (which are not in contact) over your existing soundproof walls, and overlap the seams of each layer by at least 1/2", sealing the overlaps and the perimeters of each layer with the acoustical caulk and PVC seam sealing tape, your make the existing wall much more soundproof. If you then add a third layer of drywall separated form the second layer, you'll create a second dead space to collapse whatever sound vibrations make it through the first one!

While no soundproofing techniques can completely stop noise bleed through common walls, adding density and disconnecting your shared wall surfaces will come as close to doing so as you can reasonably expect!

You can also find more info on sound wave transmission. Soundproofingbliss.com is a comprehensive resource which provide information about sound proofing item.

Finding Apartment Management Personnel at Your Local University

For those of us in apartment management concerns, find good long-term employees is a difficult task, especially at the entry level. Yearly turnover for some companies can be as high as sixty percent, which means that searching for good personnel can be an ongoing process. I would like to introduce a new pool with some very excellent applicants: the local college or university.

To motivate the need to expand our applicant pool, realize that in three years there will be another one to two million apartment homes added in the US. These additional housing facilities will create seventy thousand new jobs in the apartment management industry. We currently have not planned to find a source for these additional employees.

Retail stores and hotels have traditionally recruited college students to come and work long hours over during the holiday season, and they have good success in finding staff for their positions. These positions are often labor intensive and are not high paying positions, but still they are viewed as traditional opportunities for college students. The apartment management and multifamily housing field should take a good look at this pool of applicants.

When an employee leaves one of our apartment management companies located in a major metropolitan area, their replacement is typically an employee from a similar company. In general, eighty percent of new hires come from the apartment management industry. Often they have left, or are considering leaving, their position for just another dollar an hour. Or even worse, an additional fifty cents an hour, with sometimes a decrease in benefits. The likelihood that such an employee will be a long-term hire satisfied with their position is small.

We should be looking for employees that are enthusiastic about working in the apartment management industry, hopefully with knowledge of what the industry is about. How can we develop that? Our company has developed a working relationship with colleges in the southern Georgia and northern Florida area in order to do effective college recruiting.

One major way to get college students interested in the day to day workings of the apartment management industry is to offer internship programs. Our program offers the intern housing in the complex that they are located in, and a small stipend to make their effort worthwhile. Typically our programs run for thirteen weeks, an average length for a summer or one semester internship.

The main focus of the internship program is to give hands on experience in apartment management careers. These include not only the entry level jobs, such as leasing, but also a week or two of experience in the higher levels of management within the company. These internships not only give the students a thorough background, but also give the apartment management personnel a refreshing look at their own jobs and the most effective way to get tasks done. It is definitely a win-win situation.

The program has also been very successful in attracting new employees. We have hired over ten graduates as full time employees once they have completed their college studies. These new hires are some of the most enthusiastic and confident people I have encountered in any apartment management company, and several have already been promoted past their entry-level positions. I highly recommend that every metropolitan area implement a similar program in order to get high quality employees with great company loyalty.

David Lindahl, also known as the "Apartment King" has been successfully investing in single family homes and apartments for the last 10 years. David regularly shares his secrets and experience on the same stage as Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Donald Trump! If you would like some free information, please go to http://www.davesfreegift.com

Four Ways to Boost Property Value Quickly and Inexpensively

This real estate investing article wants to show you four ways real estate investors can increase investment real estate value quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

1) Upgrade Vacant Land

If your investment is vacant land (not improved rental property), there are several things that you can do in an effort to add value. For instance, you might consider getting a temporary use so the land can be utilized maybe as a U-Pick strawberry patch, or an overflow parking lot for a used car dealership. Clean out any junk or debris littered on the land, and try to get the neighbors to clean up their properties, as well. If the lot is barren, consider strategically planting some trees or plants. Finally, check with the local authorities and see whether the land can be rezoned to a higher and better use.

2) Spit-Polish the Exterior

Curb appeal is the property's calling card. The first impression a prospective buyer gets as he or she drives past or up to your income property can mean the difference between a sale with a profit and no sale at all. Start with the landscaping. Pruning or replacing plants and shrubs around the building is a good way to add very positive results immediately and in the long-term. In fact, landscaping is probably one of the best elements for you to consider first.

Redesigning the property's entrance can also dramatically impact the property's appearance. As can a new walkway or the installation of a new door (many consider the "front door appearance" one of the very best single expenditures). New door hardware, a new brass mailbox, and a new brass doorknocker around a freshly painted or new door, for instance, can be all it takes to give an overall impression of quality throughout the building and the kind of "remodeling" that can turn a dull, drab property into a fresh vibrant one that seems to beckon new buyers.

How should you handle things that need "fixing"? If you're new to real estate investing, you might shy away from properties that need a lot of repairs unless there's ample capital to handle hidden problems that could surface. Otherwise, here are some tips.

Small items that need to be fixed should be completely repaired with quality material. Broken toilet seats, doors that stick, cabinets that will not open or close, plumbing that drips, and so on, are all minor things found in most income property that can be fixed without much cost. Just be sure to do it right and to use quality material.

3) Dig for Interior Treasure

If you're looking at an investment property that's priced below market, chances are it's because the previous owner failed to care for it. Turning around a property that hasn't been cared for can take ample cleaning, fixing, and painting, and may take time, but it will be worth it.

Here are some quick and easy things that you can do during the inspection process to determine whether the property is hiding a few "gems" that might give the interiors of the rental income property a fresh and more expensive look.

Look under the carpet for hardwood floors, tile, or marble. These may be much easier to bring back to their natural state than replacing the carpet, and can add value. While you're at it, also look for rotten floorboards, termite damage, and worst of all, asbestos. The key is to know what you are dealing with in all eventualities, and if a problem is encountered, you can get an estimate on what it will cost to deal with it, or walk away from the deal by using one of the outs in the purchase contract.

Check under the paint on doorplates, hardware, and railings. Countless brass fixtures and other brass items have been discovered in older properties under blankets of paint that you wouldn't be able to replace today for less than a fortune.

Tap on the doors and walls to see whether they're solid. Solid wood doors in good shape can be restored and add value to a neglected building. Solid-sounding walls might indicate block or heavy plaster, which are more costly building materials than cheap wallboard, and therein capable of adding value to the real estate. Plus, these better-quality features are sure to provide you with good marketing copy later.

4) Exhibit Pride of Ownership

Any owner making an effort to maintain a property in top condition and shape is an owner exhibiting pride of ownership. Thus giving the impression that the property was purchased to be "owned" and not for a fast turnover, and in turn making the most positive statement to tenants and future buyers. Moreover, how a landlord maintains his rental property becomes public knowledge in a short period within small communities, and even in larger cities, eventually becomes known inside real estate circles.

Just be clean and neat. Pride of ownership doesn't have to be lavish or extravagant, nor should it be unless the rents and property location warrants it. The idea is to draw interest in the property and at the same time to eliminate any doubt that things are not well maintained.

James Kobzeff developed ProAPOD to provide superior and affordable real estate investment software for real estate agents and investors. Learn how you can create cash flow and rates of returns in minutes at => http://www.proapod.com