Recent news regarding the mortgage debacle (as bad as it appears) might spell great news for the real estate investor who currently owns real estate investment property.

According to the latest reports, because people are losing their homes to foreclosure, the demand for rental income property is on the increase, allowing many landlords to raise rents, and therefore increase cash flow.

It might sound heartless, but it’s not. Though I am sympathetic to someone who may have purchased a home and then subsequently lost their job (like in Detroit), I am certainly not sympathetic to someone who purchased a home on a shoestring hoping to make a buck just to get sideswiped by the economy. It’s as Dennis Miller says, “It’s the law of the jungle.” If you risk and you lose, that’s the end of it. You lose. Go on and find another table to wage your bet on, just don’t whine expecting my tax dollar to bail you out.

I digress.

The point is that real estate investors have a real opportunity to capitalize on real estate investment properties knowing that rents might be on the increase.

It all demands all locality, of course. But real estate investors would be wise to check the rents in their specific market to see whether a rent increase might be in order. You may be surprised to discover that they are in order. Subsequently you might discover that your real estate investment generates more income tomorrow then it did yesterday.

by Jimmy Cox

These ten rules are an effort to gather the most common do’s and don’ts of the relationship between a landlord and his tenant into a simple code:

1. Never fear a vacancy. Get rid of the bad ones quickly. To submit to a threat is no solution to anything. To accept a hard luck story instead of rent solves nothing. If he’s that kind, you will be called unpleasant things later anyway when your kindness must be cut off.

2. Get a good tenant or none. It is far better to leave the flat vacant another month or two, than compromise your requirements. To take the unsuitable applicant because you dislike having a vacancy simply exchanges one headache for another.

3. Do not make any improvement or installation that is not needed to keep the building in good shape for the class of tenant you will get. Avoid overzealousness to improve, spend, or repair. Second only to the pitfall of no. 1, this is the major cause of owners not getting rich.

4. Give good attention to repairs. See the need with your own eyes. Talk to other owners or contractors. Learn the best measures for that type of repair. Except where you have a reliable mechanic, such as a carpenter, or it is a small repair, never give the job out on an hourly or cost-plus basis.

5. Treat the tenants fairly. Supply the services and repairs to which they are entitled, and to the extent that the letting reasonably calls for.

6. Never let the tenant’s urgency become yours. Lack of heat, a roof leak, a burst pipe or other “life-and-death” emergencies must not get you excited any more than the phone company gets excited when you report your phone out of order. Nor for that matter does the hospital get excited when a call comes in that someone is dying.

7. Never get involved in inter-tenant feuds. It is best to refuse to listen.

8. Never try to improve the standard of living of anybody.

9. Keep away from the buildings except for minimum inspections. You will be buttonholed if seen about the premises, and there never was an apartment of any class where a tenant couldn’t find something he wants you to correct.

Train the tenants to send the rent to you, preferably by mail, even if you must supply stamped envelopes. You can easily obtain a permit for the self-addressed type which you can give them generously and thus pay only a few pennies more than regular postage on those you receive.

10. Never sue anybody. You will avoid practically all need for it by following the practices learned here. At most you may want to file a small-claims action for rent occasionally, as a measure to teach a skipping deadbeat a lesson, and show the others in the town that you will not permit abuses, but that is about all.

You do not need to employ a lawyer for the small-claims action. Talk to the clerk of your local court and he will guide you in bringing your suit. If you checked the tenant before accepting him, you will usually receive the money before the date for court appearance. If not, and he contacts you with a cash offer of settlement before the trial, you should take it if it is at all within reason. You have better things to do with your time than chase him for $1 a week.

Follow the above rules and your position of landlord should be as close as possible to being stress free.

About the Author

Read Our Free Real Estate Course And Set Yourself Up To Be The Next Donald Trump!
Click Here For Free Online Ebook http://www.freerealestatecourse.org/

Editors Note: Please feel free to contact me if me if you would like to post a link to any of our real estate investing video tutorials. If you haven’t had a chance to see them yet, go to the ProAPOD Real Estate Investment Software website and follow Videos-Real Estate Investing.

ProAPOD® Real Estate Investment Software is not property management software, nor does it have any affiliations with property management software. On the other hand, our real estate investing software solutions are used by customers who own or manage rental property, and as such, might have an interest in property management software.

For this reason, I elected to include this short article about property management software, including a few resources I discovered on the web recently where you can purchase property management software.

Seemingly, there are several types of management and landlord-oriented software products available that may lend the kind of management support you need to operate your property effectively. Most contain similar features such as a tenant, rent roll, bill paying, and property data. Slight differences surround the availability of legal databases, office forms, help files, and online web support and access to other website materials.

Of course, prices vary, from just under $100 to just $1,000, depending on the features and the number of units to which it was to be applied. So you will want to research multiple software products and weigh the features they offer against the price you are required to pay.

As promised, here are three property management solutions you might want to preview. Sorry, I don’t have their web address, just their name; just do a Google search to locate them. Rent Manager XP, Rent Right, and Promas Landlord Software.

Hope it helps.

By the way, I just completed a short, animated video called “Feel the Power”. It’s intended to promote my real estate software solutions, but you might find it entertaining. Please check it on my website by following Videos-Real Estate Investing on the menu.