Archive for September, 2009

Tax Deductions for Landlords

September 3rd, 2009

As a landlord you have to treat your properties and your tenants as though you?re running a business, because you are. Part of running a business is knowing what tax deductions you can legitimately take and then taking full advantage of them.

Interest

Interest can be your biggest deductible expense. Make sure to include your mortgage interest as well as any interest you’ve accrued on loans or credit cards that you used for property repairs, maintenance or anything else related to your property.

Repairs

Speaking of repairs, any repairs that are ordinary, necessary and within an accepted amount are deductible.

Employees

Of course you can deduct your employees? salaries BUT remember to include everyone you use as an employee. So independent contractors who are hired to repair items or routinely perform maintenance are considered employees.

Losses

If you suffer any damage or theft to your properties you can get a tax deduction for part of maybe even all of the cost. This can fluctuate so you?ll need to look into it carefully and follow the rules closely.

Insurance

Insurance is one thing landlords often forget to deduct. Deduct your premiums for any insurance you have for your properties and any insurance you supply to your employees.

There are more deductions that landlords can take so make sure you read your tax forms carefully or contact an accountant who specializes in taxes for landlords.

photo credit:?blmurch

Top 5 Red Flags To Spot A Rental Scammer

September 2nd, 2009

My name is Dave Dugdale and I run a couple of rental classified websites (RentVine.com and PickRent.com). Over the past 8 to 12 months rental scammers have really been hitting my sites hard with bogus listings. The scammers create bogus listings with an attractive rental price, and then trick future tenants into sending them a deposit even though they don’t own or manage the property.

To combat this problem, I have created many automated systems to detect the scammers on my sites and prohibit them from posting a rental listing. The systems are not full-proof. Occasionally, the scammers get smarter than me and a posting will slip by. But, I will usually catch it fairly soon after posting. I think I have come to develop a sixth sense when it comes to spotting the fraudulent listings.

Red Flag #1 – The Price

The first give away is the price. The old adage is true: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers want instant gratification. If they price the bogus rental well below fair market value they get leads quicker.

Red Flag #2 – The Email Address

If the email address is corporate (ending in a company name) than I know it is not a fraud. It is very hard to hide behind domain records. Scammers always hide behind free services like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and others.

Red Flag #3 – The Exterior Photo

If there is no exterior photo of the front of the house, then another red flag goes up. Scammers are getting smarter and they know that people can use Google Street View to match the listing photo with the one from Google Street View.

Red Flag #4 – Duplicate Content Elsewhere

At this point if the price is too low and email address is a free one, then I take one sentence from the rental description and put it into Google with quotes around it. The quotes search for an exact match within Google. Many times I will find duplicate listings on the web with the exact same sentence. But I have to look beyond just duplicate content, as many people list their rentals on many sites. I look to see if the address, photos or the price do not match the listing posted on my site. Scammers scrape content and photos from other sites and list them with a lower price.

Red Flag #5 – New York City Cell Phone Number

A vast majority of scammers to my site come from Nigeria and they like to use cell phones with numbers from New York City. I do a reverse lookup of the phone number and see if it is from New York City, then I call it. They hardly ever answer their phones. They never call back and only want to correspond via email.

I have created a?blacklist of rental scammer email addresses for those interested in checking to see if they are dealing with a known scammer. Many of these scammers have dozens if not hundreds of email addresses and create new ones all the time. However, I have seen them come back and use older ones.

Bio: Dave Dugdale has been in the online rental advertising business for 5
years. He was the first to write a blog on the rental ad industry, and the first to podcast
interviews of industry experts in property management. Dave has also been
leading the way in better?detection of rental scams by sharing his database
of blacklist email addresses with other rental websites.

Handling Small Claims Court

September 1st, 2009

Small Claims Court is unfortunately a place that most landlords end up in at least once in their career. The key to winning your court case, other than being in the right, is having the evidence to back up your position.

No matter what the situation or why you?re in small claims court you?ll have to prepare for your appearance by bringing all the evidence you have. Don?t sell yourself short by relying on paperwork alone, but go the extra step if you can and bring photographs, letters from others involved, contracts that support your position and eyewitnesses if you have any.

Try to back up every bit of your case with evidence and make sure the evidence you?re presenting really supports your position. Be organized, thorough and make sure your argument is well thought out and supported.

If you?re going to small claims court for a matter unrelated to your property the rules are the same. You?ll fare better if you?re well prepared and have thought out the case from every aspect. There really is no need to get an attorney involved in a small claims case unless you feel you?d be better off with some professional advice, but don?t bring the attorney along, you are expected to handle a small claims case by yourself.

photo credit:?Wilson Afonso