Santa Clarita Property Management

Here at Classic, we have spent a considerable amount of time finding out what it is that makes homes rent faster.  In this blog we have covered some of the basics such as making sure your home is clean and making sure that everything works!  The truth is that what you do on the outside of your home can have just as important an impact as what you do on the inside!  Here is southern California, we have a habit of letting the yards get a bit wild during the winter months.  Even if you do manage to keep up with the mowing and edging, there are typically several other areas that tend to go unnoticed by everyone (except potential tenants!).  With that in mind, let’s spring into action with this action plan for spring!!!

1.   Those leaves take a while to decompose.  Even if your lawn is leaf-free we can oftentimes forget the wee mountains of leaves that accumulate in planters, gutters, and corners of your property.  The truth is that we all have these piles of leaves, but the rental that doesn’t is going to stand out as being neat and orderly!  So attack those mountains, lord of the landscape, and conquer your vacancy…

2.   Flower beds are a great place for…flowers!  If your beds show like a flower grave yard of fossil collection, it may be time for some added color.  It is interesting to note that when companies advertise a product they tend to use bright coloring.  The truth is that they do it for a reason!  A bright splash of color catches the eye.  The great news is that you don’t need a multimillion dollar ad research campaign to benefit from these little truths.  All you need is a fresh batch of flowers like this financially friendly foliage.

More great info is on the way, so stay tuned and cut that vacancy down!

As some of you may know, Southern California was recently dusted with a bit of snow! As some of you may also know, this is a blog devoted to property management and rental homes in Santa Clarita. So why do I care about a minor snow? Read on my friends!

When it comes to advertising a home, it can help to make people REALLY REALLY want it. Here in Santa Clarita, snow is an extremely rare occurrence. We don’t get to have snowball fights, make snow angels, or watch the flakes blow by the window very often. As a result, when we do get snow it is a fun time to remember!

When we head out to take photos of a listing, we try to capture the home in the best possible way. If it is a sweltering California summer and the home has a pool and spa in the back yard, guess what gets a LOT of attention in our ads? If it is fall and the home has great trees with leaves changing colors, those trees get some serious photographic “real estate”. I am sure that you can see where I am going with this, but if your home comes up for rent in the winter and you can supply us with a charming photo of the home covered in a blanket of snow with Christmas lights shining out across the frozen landscape and smoke drifting lazily from the chimney (flowery descriptions can be nice too), then guess what? I want them!  Obviously you wouldn’t want to include photos of you digging your car out of 6 feet of snow… but if you can create an emotional bond between your home and prospective tenants, then it will be much easier sledding, so to speak, to convert them into actual tenants.

If you can learn to play on the heartstrings of your customers, you will be much better off.  So get out there with your camera and risk frostbite to your extremities Maestro!

Whoa!  As a rental home owner, that is not the headline that I would want to see.  Obviously news like that would be a bit of a shock to ANYONE that relies on an occupied rental unit to meet their monthly financial obligations.  So what could cause such a sudden drop in rental activity?  What could possibly be the root of such depressing news?  The holiday season!

Hopefully for most folks out there, the holiday season conjures up images of eggnog, family gatherings, great food, and other warm fuzziness.  I, for one, love the holiday season and all of the merriment that it brings.  On the other hand, owners of vacant rental properties have a reason to dread this festive time of year.  Why would anyone dread the flurry of fun and activity of the holidays??  To put it simply, no one wants to pack up their home and kids, schedule a move, and ask family members to lend a hand in getting all of their stuff into a new home during that time, thus effectively killing their good times!

The good news is that although the market does slow down just as much as I do after 10 pounds of turkey and cheese ball, there is hope!  This is the time for owners to seize the opportunity to price their rentals aggressively, thus placing their homes at an advantage over the poor fellow who is holding out for top dollar in a declining market.

When it comes to rental homes and rental income, math reigns supreme.  Let’s imagine that you have a home that will rent today for $2,000, but you really really want to hold out for $2,100.  Let’s also imagine that you are fortunate enough to get the asking price after 30 days.  Guess what?  By leaving your home vacant for that month you effectively passed up on $2,000 worth of rent.  As a result, it will take you almost two years with your tenant to make up that difference and break even!  And that is assuming that your tenant doesn’t decide to move at the end of his one year lease after discovering that he can get the same house in the same neighborhood for LESS money.  If that is the case, you can safely assume that the property will have at least another 30 days of vacancy at turn over.  If you haven’t broken even at that point, you have dug yourself even farther into the hole.

Do yourself and your wallet a favor.  When the holidays are around the corner, play it smart!  Then you won’t BE the poor fellow that is so wrapped up in worrying about his overpriced home that he completely misses out on the holiday merriment.  Price your home to move and enjoy your holiday!  Get yourself a prime spot under the mistletoe, and grab a huge glass of that tasty eggnog you market savvy king of the cash flow.

Drink up my friend!  You’ve earned it…

When I speak with new rental property owners, I am often asked if it is better to offer a home that is empty or a home that is furnished.  The short answer is that while there is a market for both types of homes, the market for an empty house is generally much larger.  Lets take a peek and examine the reasons!

The Fully-Furnished Home:

We, as a company, do have experience in dealing with homes that are fully furnished.  In fact, they are furnished right down to an exact number of forks and spoons!  When a tenant moves into these homes, they can literally just arrive with a suitcase of clothing and nothing else.  While that might seem a bit odd for those of us here in Santa Clarita, there are times when that arrangement might be exactly what the doctor ordered.  For example, we often rent these properties to families that are being placed by insurance companies after losing their own homes to disasters like fire, flood, earthquake, etc.  A large part of the demand for a furnished home has to do with location as well!  For example, tourist destinations like Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, beach towns, and similar places will likely have more success with furnished homes because vacationers looking for vacation rentals generally don’t travel with all of their furniture.  Here in Santa Clarita, we don’t have a high vacationer draw other than Magic Mountain, and those folks generally just stay in a nearby hotel.

The Empty Home:

There are a LOT of great reasons to rent an unfurnished home if at all possible.  For starters, if you are managing your home yourself, it can be very, very tedious to go through the home and try to document the condition and number of every single item that is being left behind.  Is your stuff nice?  What if you leave a $5,000 desk behind and it gets a gnarly scratch across it?  What is it worth now?  Of course, you can always choose to accumulate a lot of cheap furniture just in case someone wants a furnished home, but where do you put it if someone wants the place empty?  I assume you would have to put it in storage…at a cost to yourself.

Obviously this blog is geared more toward rental home owners in Santa Clarita, but the universally applicable truth is that you need to know the market in which your home is located!  If you are in a hot destination area that is constantly packed with tourists, the furnished route may work out great.  If you are in a quieter more family-oriented area, your best bet for landing a renter who wants something fully furnished is to hope for a natural disaster to displace another home owner.* As always, the key to landing a renter quickly is to make sure your home appeals to as many people as possible!  If you were to tell us you HAVE TO rent the home furnished here in Santa Clarita, I would have to say, “prepare to wait a long time!”

*Classic obviously does not condone wishing for the misfortune of others.

Pets…  To truly understand the schism that has widened between the two parties to this debate, you should first take a look at both sides of the argument!  In this post, I will play advocate to both sides in an effort to come to the best possible conclusion.

Let me start with the tenant’s point of view. To many pet owners, their furry little bundle of joy is essentially a member of the family.  Especially here in Southern California where pet shrinks, groomers, and luxury boarding facilities abound!  To these tenants, the thought of giving up their dogs and cats in order to move into a home is absolutely ludicrous!  Often times, they will offer to have us inspect their current home for pet damage, show us photos of “Fluffy”, and swear on the graves of various ancestors…all to convince us that THEIR animal is different.  They can’t understand why anyone would hesitate to rent to them and their pets.

Now let us examine the owner’s point of view. Just about every owner that I have met with has heard some kind of horror story from a friend, neighbor, or family member about a renter/pet situation that went awry.  As soon as they hear that an applicant has a pet, their minds conjure up images of destroyed yards, urine soaked carpets, and smells that will linger for years.  It is just like the media…the happy news doesn’t get reported and spread!  In order for a story to be worth repeating, it has to be shocking or horrific in some way.  As a result, most owners won’t hear about the hundreds of times that we rent to people with pets and have nothing go wrong.

Now for some stats: We estimate conservatively (based Classic’s on hundreds of managed properties), that more than 85 – 90% of renters own some kind of cat or dog.  Here in Santa Clarita, the rental market has become increasingly competitive!  An increase in the number of available properties coupled with an unchanged pool of renters means that if you want to rent your home quickly, you need to appeal to the largest market share that you can.

In conclusion, I would encourage home owners to at least consider the prospect of renting to folks that have pets.  Is it because of some wacky idealistic world that I’ve imagined where people and animals live together in a dreamy rainbow filled wonderland?  Absolutely not.  As a rental home owner, I want to make sure that my home has as little vacancy as possible.  If my home comes up vacant, I don’t want to make a decision that will eliminate all but 10% of potential renters.  For the average home in Santa Clarita, one month of missed rent on a vacant home is about $2,000.  With dough like that on the line, every day counts!  After all, you can use every dime of the tenant’s security deposit to correct pet damage if need be.  In fact, it is completely acceptable to increase the rent for folks with pets, take a larger deposit (make sure you know the legal deposit limits), etc.  There are plenty of ways to safeguard your home and investment from the potential pet carnage!

Always remember…  Less vacancy means more money in your pocket!

Sometimes, the world continues to move and change even when we don’t want it to.  For example, I remember just in MY lifetime when the cost of gas was outrageous  at $1.29 per gallon.  I am sure there are several folks out there who remember when it was even less!  How about home sales?  There was a time when you could expect your home equity to double every 12 months like clockwork!  And now?  Well, you get the idea.

On the flip side, there are some changes that have made life much more convenient and have changed mankind forever!  For example, we complain about the cost of gas but where would we be without our cars?  You think a 2 hour commute to work is bad?  How about a two DAY commute on a horse?  How about the unbelievable medical advances that have been made over the past decade?  Would you rather go to a modern hospital or go to some guy that sticks leaches on your arms to let out the “bad” blood that he thinks is causing your health problems?  Some advances have been great!

In my estimation, the most groundbreaking and life altering invention of my time was the advent of the internet.  Never before has worldwide information been so readily available.  Instead of waiting days or weeks for news about something happening on the other side of the world, we can now have live access through video, social networking sites like Facebook, and more!  Rapid information access has never been this easy!

So how does this relate to companies these days?  As the internet continues to become the primary source of information, successful companies must constantly adapt to, and utilize the web to accomplish their goals!  In your quest to locate a trustworthy property management company or any other company for that matter, you may want to pay close attention to the way they present themselves online.  Is their website easy to use, easy to navigate, and clean-looking?  Or is it out of date, cumbersome to navigate, and unappealing?  Is the content relevant, informative, and well presented?  Or do you have to search hard for the answers you need only to be disappointed by a poorly written, half-hearted attempt at information?

It occurred to me the other day that if a company refuses to adapt to the needs and preferences of today’s market, what other areas have they fallen behind in?  Are they sub-par in the areas of customer service?  Accounting technology?  It certainly makes you think!

Here at Classic, we pay very close attention to the market and the requests of our customers and clients.  Not only does our adaptation of the latest technology make our jobs more streamlined, it also allows us to present the homes that we manage to potential renters in the best possible way!  Being the best property management company in Santa Clarita isn’t an accident!  It takes dedication to our customers, and a willingness to adapt to the ever shifting conditions and demands of the rental market.

As a rental home owner, I know firsthand about the slew of emotions that come into play when you choose to rent out your home.  Although I am not the kind of person who gets sentimentally attached to a house, I can see how others might.  I have had the pleasure of working with a LOT of homeowners.  While most of them make the switch from homeowner to investment property owner without any difficulty, others seem to have a bit more trouble.  You see, if you want to become a successful investment property owner, you have to be willing to view YOUR house as A house.  Lets take a quick look at how this can affect your way of thinking.

Someone who views their home as THEIR house is going to worry excessively when a tenant wants to paint a room, plant flowers, hang pictures, mount plasma T.V.s, etc.  As you can imagine, this can create a bit of a hostile living environment for tenants.  If a tenant moves into a home and is forced to leave everything exactly how it is on move-in day, it is the equivalent of asking someone to live YOUR life instead of their own!  Once you turn your keys over to someone else, you have to be able to view the rental as a business.  You aren’t living there anymore, the tenant is.  Now, some homes may be fabulous to the point that every human being would love to live there without changing a thing, but odds are pretty strong that a tenant will want to do something…

Obviously there are boundaries!  For example, I wouldn’t give a tenant free reign to knock down walls to make rooms bigger, cut skylights, or perform other major construction without my consent, but if they want to paint a room for their daughter, hang a giant plasma, or plant veggies out back, I say go for it!  Why you may ask?  Because this is one area where I know that it is not personal, it is business.  The happier I can keep my tenants, the longer the tenant will stay, and the more money stays in my pocket.  That is just good business sense!  After all, you can always tell them they have to put everything back the way it was if they decide to move out.

In this series, we have been discussing ways to cut down on the amount of time that your rental stands empty.  The previous two installments discuss strategies that owners can employ to reduce vacancy on a home that is currently vacant.  In this article, we will discuss cutting down vacancy on a home that is occupied!  That might sound a bit contradictory, but read on my friends!  Soon all will become clear.

The Happy Tenant:

Oftentimes, it is easy to take a tenant for granted.  Let’s face it.  If rent is coming in regularly, you aren’t getting neighbor complaints, and you don’t have excessive repairs, your headache-free rental probably won’t occupy much of your thoughts.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you spend your time in panic mode because things seem to be going TOO well!  I love a smooth running rental!  After all, that is what we strive for each and every time we take on a new listing.  What I am suggesting is that you work with us to keep good tenants as happy as possible.  Here at Classic, our job is to make decisions based on YOUR best interest.  Here is the best way to look at it.  If you have great quality tenants, and you can keep them happy enough to stay for a long long time, you can virtually eliminate vacancy all together!  Imagine the peace of mind that would come with never having to cover two mortgage payments without incoming rent!  So how does one take on a feat of this magnitude?  Well, the simplest way is to hire Classic to do it for you!  After 17 years in this valley, we have honed our skills to a fine point.  If, however, you are one of the do-it-yourself types that prefers to manage their own homes, here are a few simple ways to entice tenants into long-term stays…

It is all about communication.  If a repair pops up, get back to the tenant right away!  If you get a message from your tenant about a repair,call them back to let them know that you got their call and are working to get someone over to the home.  Once you find someone to handle the repair, give the repair man the tenant’s name and number so that they can coordinate schedules to get the work done.  We also recommend calling the tenant to let them know that they should be expecting a call from ABC Repairs to fix the problem.  The key here is to make sure that repairs and requests are handled expediently.  Don’t put them off for a few days while you price shop.  Keep them in the loop and they will appreciate you all the more!

Be flexible!  Let’s imagine that the tenant has a new baby girl and they would like to paint a bedroom pink.  Let’s also imagine that you really really like the mustard yellow color that you painted the wall in the 70′s.  Honestly, it is hugely in your favor to let the tenant paint that room.  It may not seem like a big deal to you, but little things spread over the length of a year can add up.  And hey, worst case scenario is that you paint it back to your 70′s glory days when they move out!

Get creative!  You can even offer rewards programs to your tenants.  For example, you could tell them that if they pay their rent on time every month for the first year, you will discount their rent $100 per month for the second year.  Or you might try to simply stay in touch in a way that means something to the tenants.  Consider this:  I personally own a rental property here in California.  I love my tenants more than you could imagine!  They take awesome care of the property, they are always on time with the rent, and I never want them to move!  As a result, I try to think of ways to let them know that I appreciate them.  For example, this past Christmas, I sent them a hand written note and enclosed a gift card for the Outback Steakhouse.  I have also sent an occasional Starbucks card or something of the sort.  Why do I do it?  Honestly, in my case, I do it because I have seen what kind of renters are out there and I can honestly say that my renters are top-notch.  I appreciate them!  They are the kind of renters that every owner will kill for.  But the truth is, if I can’t find a way to let them know that, then what good is it?

The best way I can think to sum up this article is this:  If you want everything in your house to function correctly and have a bit of your personal touch, then why should a tenant not enjoy those same privileges?  When I think of my rental property, I don’t think of it as MY home.  To me, it is just a house.  I want it to be my tenant’s home.

In the last post of this series, we discussed how overpricing your rental even by a small amount can lead to HUGE losses in income.  While overpricing is by far the leading cause of rental vacancy, it is by no means the only cause.  In this post, we will dive into the wonderful world of “it’s just a rental!”

I have worked in this biz for a while now, and it still blows my mind when I hear the phrase “it’s just a rental” attached to some problem areas of homes.  Now, keep in mind that there are times I totally agree with and would use that phrase myself!  Other times however, the phrase causes me to suffer temporary paralysis and nausea.

The Gross Home:

Every now and then, I will encounter a home that honestly freaks me out a bit.  Here are a few examples of problem areas that I have seen:  Bathtubs with cracks/holes in them, broken plumbing fixtures, holes in walls, holes/rips in carpet, stains on ceilings/walls/carpets, overgrown yards, exposed wiring, etc.  Obviously, several of these problems are not only gross but can cause massive liability and safety issues!  Although it sounds fairly obvious, I have to remind folks sometimes that RENTERS ARE HUMAN TOO.  A good rule of thumb is this: “Would you live there yourself?”

On the other hand, there are a few genuine reasons to use that dreaded phrase.  For example, if your home still has wallpaper, paint schemes, and fixtures from the 70′s, you are more than welcome to leave it in that condition…as long as it’s clean and everything works.  Having said that, keep in  mind that the more up-to-date and upgraded your home is the faster its going to rent, but that doesn’t mean that you have to run out to Home Depot and blow $20,000 to outfit your rental with granite, stainless steel, wood floors, and the works!    When I am taking a look at a home that someone wants to list with us, I am looking at the condition of three main items: flooring, paint, and overall cleanliness.  These three items can make or break a rental so keep them in mind!

Is your carpet more beat down than our economy?  If you have disgusting stains that cleaning can’t solve, or if you have to dodge rips and tears like land mines, it may be time to bite the bullet and break out the wallet.

If your walls are terrible, PAINT THEM.  I don’t believe you when you tell me that your food stains, scuff marks, crayon streaks, and dirt are actually a new style of faux finish…and neither will a tenant.

If your house is filthy, hire a crew to come in and get it up to par.  I don’t care if it takes your local Boy Scout troop, a professional cleaning company, or a HAZMAT team!  Get it done and get it done right!

Remember.  The condition of your home attracts tenants of like caliber.  If you put a home on the market that looks terrible, guess what kind of tenants you will attract…   Put a shiny clean home on the market and you will attract the kind of tenant that you want to keep forever!

Here at Classic, we know that vacancy in a rental unit can cause a financial hemorrhage for the owner.  In fact, most of the properties we manage can lose the owner hundreds and hundreds of dollars each week that they sit empty!  As a result, we take our job of minimizing vacancies very seriously.

As a rental home owner, you can play a big role in the amount of time that it takes to rent your home.  In this series of blogs, I will go over the top reasons for vacancies in rental properties and show you what actions to can take to eliminate them!  Although I don’t intend to put these reasons in order of importance, this first reason is by far the leading cause of emptiness…both for your rental and your wallet.  Read on my friends!

The Overpriced Rental:

Nothing in the rental world spells death of income like an overpriced home.  I could go on for some time recalling the eulogies that I have delivered over the death of an owner’s income.  Sadly, the owners of these properties knew the cause of death but refused to act on the doctor’s advice.  Had they done so, their income would have lived a long and glorious life!

Allow me to give you an example.  Let us imagine that you have a home for rent in a certain city.  This is the home that you lived in when you got married.  The home that your children were born and raised in.  The home that your childhood cat “Fluffy” is now buried behind.  Whatever the reason may be, you know in your heart that this home is FAR more desirable than anything else that the city has to offer.  Unfortunately, renters don’t care about “Fluffy” and the childhood memories.  With the economy in the toilet, taxes increasing, and tax credits being cut, today’s renter is looking at ONE thing when they skim a list of rentals…$$.

As a result, it is increasingly important to make sure that you are competitive with your pricing!  Remember, every week that you hold out for that extra hundred bucks could be costing you HUNDREDS in lost rent and mortgage payments!  If you would like help pricing your rental, give us a call for an open and honest opinion.  We don’t agree with the methods of some companies that will tell you whatever you want to hear only to pound you with price reductions after your pen met their paper.  If we think that you are listing out of your ballpark, we will let you know before you sign with us!  We are not in the business of LISTING rentals like some companies.  We are in the business of RENTING them.  There is a huge difference!