The blog will focus on the South Sound, state and national housing and rental markets, as well as cool Web sites, weird real estate trends and warnings about scams.
Please send along your questions and suggestions.
No-pitching policy
Open House is a forum to read about and discuss real estate issues. It is not a place to pitch your services. That means no direct solicitation, no phone numbers and no pushing readers to your Web site or place of business.
Rain City
Seattle area real estate blog
Seattle Bubble
Real estate and the housing bubble
The Real Estate Blog
National scope
Inman News
(National real estate news/research co. with a blog)
360 Digest
Seattle-area blog on real estate, art and politics.
- All
- Affordability (29)
- Agents (5)
- Apartments (6)
- Appraisals (4)
- Assessments (2)
- Boomers (1)
- Brokers (2)
- Condos (29)
- Cool houses (11)
- Cool sites (10)
- Dream home (4)
- Environment (2)
- Financing (5)
- Foreclosure/bankruptcy (39)
- Hey, readers (6)
- Home insurance (1)
- Housing prices (115)
- Legislation (4)
- Marketing (35)
- McMansions (3)
- Misc. (75)
- Mortgages, good and bad (46)
- My take (27)
- New projects (14)
- Remodel heaven, remodel hell (4)
- Rentals (2)
- Sales activity (46)
- Seen on the street (10)
- Sharks (0)
- Ugly homes (0)
- Vacation homes (2)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
- December 2008 (3)
- November 2008 (1)
- October 2008 (5)
- September 2008 (6)
- August 2008 (16)
- July 2008 (23)
- June 2008 (25)
- May 2008 (14)
- April 2008 (18)
- March 2008 (18)
- February 2008 (23)
- January 2008 (18)
- More...
XML Feeds- CustomScoop
- Craig Hill
- artman77
- Guest Users: 536
Apparently there are 10 million of them, most are men and two-thirds are at least 45 years old, according to a survey by CompleteLandlord.com, a Web site that offers landlord-related services. About two-thirds also have full-time jobs.
Like businesses in general, most landlords are small time: 59 percent own less than 10 units with 45 percent owning less than five, according to the survey. What could they use more of? Real estate forms that help them comply with state and local laws and access to services to evict problem tenants. Makes you wonder how worthwhile it all is.
There's an East Coast software company called iiProperty.com that has developed an online rental tracking program and it looks very promising. In fact, for those of you who own multiple rental properties this sucker could be a godsend.
For about 13 bucks a month you can plug in up to 4 units into the program and it automates all sorts of stuff you probably hate to do manually. Like:
• Quick Post to Craigslist for rental ads
• Track Rents due and received
• Automate Invoices
• Tenant Notices via Email or Snail Mail
And for an additional monthly fee you can track up to 55 units, saving you endless headaches.
My favorite part about it though is the free Rent-o-meter.
This thing compares what you're charging for rent and what your neighbors are asking. I checked it out using a duplex address of a property I own and it kicked out 18 neighboring duplexes with prices and addresses all mapped out on Google maps.
It appears to be very accurate too. I always wondered how competitive my rates were, and now I know! I'm exactly where I expected to be positioned, rent-wise.
There's another fun link on the Rent-o-meter, it's a Top Ten List of the highest rental Rates in the US by zip or city. Not hard to guess the names that pop up: New York City at $5,200 per mo, Malibu at $4,615 per mo, and Beverly Hills seems to be a steal at only $3,550 per month.
Hey, maybe instead of spreading bark in out in front of the duplex next Spring, I'll dump some sand out there with a plastic pool and some fake sharks in it. That way I can call it beachfront property and raise the rent on my tenants. :)
Submitted by Steve Hurley
