Have you ever rented an apartment to a tenant only later to regret it?

If you have been investing in either residential or commercial real estate for any length of time (shall we say, longer than a week} than chances are good that you probably you have.

Tenants, for better or worse, are the lifeblood of multifamily residential income property yet can be our rental property ownership experience worst nightmare.

Okay, you rented one of the units in your 6-unit apartment complex to what you perceived to be a quiet, peaceful, non-assuming, almost scholarly-looking fellow later to discover that he loves rap and does not mind cranking up the volume to one zillion because he wants every other tenant in your apartment building to love it, too.

Let us further assume that you acted like any responsible property owner, asked him politely the first time to quiet the music, and actually solved the problem for about three days. The second time you acted less timidly and squeezed out another couple of days.

Now, you have concluded that the kid is either stupid or deaf (we know that he is tone deaf, and probably stupid) and you want him out. Can you break the rental contract?

Well, the good news is that either the tenant or the property owner can terminate month-to-month rental agreements at any time as long as proper notice is given, typically 30 days. So in this case, serve the music-lover a thirty-day notice and reclaim the air space for your investment property.

When it comes to real estate investing, especially when the investment concerns tenants the proverbial saying holds true: It is always easier to find tenants than it is to get them out, so choose your tenants very wisely and with patience.

I believe I heard that spoken from a real estate investor who, after years of owning rental income property, looked about ten years older than his age.

When it comes time to find a new tenant for your rental income property, one of the biggest issues facing a real estate investor is federal and state discrimination laws.

Income property owners must be careful not to violate discrimination laws because penalties for discrimination can be costly, and it can damage an otherwise good reputation as a property owner.

Worse, whether discrimination is intentional or unintentional, it is still illegal. No matter how well intentioned a property owner might be when initiating certain policies, it does not justify discrimination. Moreover, there are subtle forms of prejudice that can get you into trouble if you are not careful.

1. Race and Religion. A property owner cannot use a person’s personal belief as a reason not to rent to that person– no matter how strange it may seem. Moreover, a property owner must be cautious not to write ads or send subtle messages with forms of written or oral communication that would benefit, support, or discriminate against any race or religious group.

2. National Origin. A property owner cannot require that all tenants be U.S. citizens, or give discounts to people who are of a particular origin. Even in cases where you might suspect that an applicant is here illegally, you cannot ask for paperwork that might prove citizenship unless you ask every applicant for this proof.

3. Family Status and Age. A property owner cannot refuse to rent to families with children, or to someone based on the applicant’s age unless the applicant is not a legal adult or the apartment complex is legally categorized as senior housing only.

4. Disability. A property owner must treat every tenant the same and cannot ask tenants whether they have disabilities of any sort. Federal law protects anyone who has a physical or mental disability–including mental retardation and AIDs—from being refused occupancy unless it can be shown that the tenant’s behavior poses a threat to the health and safety of other residents or the property.

5. Gender. A property owner cannot discriminate against a person solely on whether they are male or female, or make decisions about where they live in a rental unit based on their gender.

6. Source of Income. In many states, it is illegal for a property owner to refuse to rent to someone based on the source by which the income is earned such as public assistance.

7. Marital Status. In many states, it is illegal for property owners to refuse to rent to a couple that is not married or unmarried couples based on the property owner’s religious beliefs.

8. Sexual Orientation. Some states and many cities make it illegal to discriminate against tenants based on sexual orientation.

Understanding discrimination is a vital part of managing your real estate investment property. You would be smart, indeed, to understand the laws at every level–federal, state, and city—if your real estate investing plan includes income property for rental to tenants, and always better off if you remain cautious not to violate those laws.

Buying real estate software can be tricky because, unlike the nationally known brands we easily recognize for most computer software, real estate software seldom has national recognition.

As a result, once we decide that we want real estate software and start to look for it, unless a colleague has recommended the software to us, we must make our determination about the quality of the software based on what its developer tells us.

Text alone, however, should only be one part of our discovery–we should examine the real estate software’s website itself and look for five things that can also help us judge whether the real estate software has the quality and suitability for our purpose.

1. Website design. Is it the website well organized, creative, and easy to navigate? Or is it lack-luster and confusing? Remember, the same company claiming that their program is easy to use designed (or at least approved of) the website. When you are concerned about real estate software being very user-friendly, there is no better place to begin than with the user-friendliness of the website design itself.
2. Sample reports. Are there sample reports you can preview? Do they contain all the information you need, and more importantly, would you feel professional when presenting them to colleagues and customers? If not, or worse yet there are no sample reports, perhaps you should move on.
3. Testimonials. What do the current users say? Are they actively engaged in real estate? If so, what kinds of credentials have they earned. Customer testimonials about real estate software is helpful, especially from those whose designation reveals more than a casual connection with real estate.
4. Support. Once you buy the software, can you call and talk to a live person, or is future contact limited to email, something less personal like a forum, or even worse, is there no means of contact at all? Personally, I want to be able to talk to the real estate software developer, and when I cannot, I generally move on.
5. The developer. Is the developer actively engaged in real estate? It just makes good sense that a real estate software solution you would find helpful to your real estate business would be the work of another real estate professional.

The price for the real estate software is not the issue we are discussing; nonetheless, it may give you a clue about the quality of the software so we should at least mention it.

Perhaps I am just old school, but I have always believed that we get what we pay for. Naturally there are exceptions to every rule, but having purchased real estate software myself, I did discover that the most suitable real estate software I purchased with the least regret sold for what might be called a “Goldilocks price”–neither too high nor too low.

Years ago, for example, I purchased real estate investment software for $350 that proved to be cumbersome to use; and more real estate investment software for under $100 that proved to be less than desirable to use.

This is the primary reason that I developed real estate investment software that can be sold in a mid-price range–absolutely effective but easy to use.

Okay, there you have it. Arguably, not a solution to life’s more important issues, but hopefully some help to those of you who are looking to purchase real estate software with little other information than a website to make your decision on.