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Change is a fact of life and quite often you can’t prepare for the change before it comes up and smacks you in the head. Some change is great and makes your life better and some change is for the worse but most often change has a little bit of each element. One bit of change that can be bad for both a tenant and a landlord is a lease that has to be broken because of a life change.

If you’re in the position where you have to break a lease take a look at the original lease you signed. A lot of leases have an early-release clause which will let you get out of the lease early with very little penalties. This is of course based on your reason for breaking the lease, you can’t break it just because you want to, but a divorce or a job transfer will most likely qualify.

Then go to your landlord or the property manager immediately and explain to them the situation which is causing you to break your lease. You’ll find that people are more understanding and flexible if you’re honest with them as soon as possible. They don’t want to be put in a bad situation and may be willing to let you find a subleaser to fill out your remaining lease, or they may let you go without any further obligation if they can find a replacement lessee.

Do you want to increase the value of your rental properties without spending too much money on upgrades? If so, you want to look into do-it-yourself upgrades that will not set you back an arm and a leg. Believe it or not there are many things you can do on your own no matter how handy you are.

Here are three simple do-it-yourself upgrades that you will want to consider:

1. Landscaping. If you know how to dig a hole you can fix up the outside of any property. All it takes it a bit of sweat equity and you will be well on your way to increasing the curb appeal of your rental property.

2. Flooring. This is one of the simplest do-it-yourself upgrades. No matter if you want to add laminate flooring, carpet, or tile, this is something you can do on your own. You may not have a lot of experience, but once you do some research you will better understand how to upgrade your flooring.

3. Paint. By painting a home you can do a lot for the way it looks. Are those white walls looking drab? Are those cracks in the ceiling scaring people away? You can quickly and efficiently update any home with the proper paint scheme. This is one of the cheapest do-it-yourself upgrades around.

Just because you want to increase the value of a rental property does not mean that you have to hire a professional and/or spend tons of money. Instead, you should consider the improvements that you can make on your own. The three above are a great place to start!

If you are thinking about investing in the real estate market now may be the time to make your big move. But before you get real excited and call your real estate agent you need to know what exactly you are going to be up against. Remember, the real estate market, as well as the economy, are both going through rough times. This will definitely have an effect on whether or not you invest, how much you sink into the real estate market, and much more. (more…)

Property owners with an eye towards environmentalism are trying to incorporate green living ideas into their homes but purchasing recycled materials, using self composting toilets, buying the right kind of light bulbs and other similar measures. But to really embrace green, some people are trying to find alternative building materials and save a forest or two. Some innovative architects from Australia have found a way to turn cardboard into the perfect housing material.

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photo credit: diskychick

You may think that it was just the little old lady of fairytales that lived in a shoe, but apparently several other people have decided that shoe shaped homes are a perfect fit.

The Haines Shoe House in Hellam Pennsylvania was built in 1948 for the self-promoting shoe wizard, Colonel Mahlon Haines. The five story tall home was used as a weekend vacation home for elderly couples and came with a live-in butler and maid but didn’t last as a resort. Currently the Haines Shoe House serves as a roadside attraction.

On the other side of the states another shoe man created his very own shoe shop, literally. Deschwanden’s Shoe Repair resides in Bakersfield California and has been in business since 1947.

Not to be outdone, a few other countries have added their own shoe homes to the collection. South Africa has a shoe house at Abel Erasmus Pass, Branddraai Mpumalanga which was created by hotelier and artist, Ron Van Zyl. For his wife who said she wanted a shoe, one has to wonder if she was really serious.

India joined the fray by adding a shoe home to its Hanging Gardens and Kamala Nehru Park on Malabar Hill in Mumbai.

So if traditional living isn’t quite your style, why not come up with your own shoe and live like the little old lady did.

photo credit: AchimH

If you are going to get involved with investment properties, you need to consider all of the details that go into this. One of the most important questions is: who is going to be responsible for managing the property? In other words, can you do it all on your own? Some investors hire a property management company to help them, but others like to do it all on their own as a way of saving money. Which group do you fit into?

As noted above, the main benefit of managing your own properties is that you can save money. In other words, you do not have to share the profits made from your tenants with a property management company. If you profit margins are tight as it is, this may sound quite appealing to you.

Of course, you need to keep this phrase in mind: time is money. While you can take on the responsibility of managing your property, it will take up a lot of time. Not only will you be responsible for taking phone calls from tenants, but when a repair is needed you are in charge. Are you willing to take the time to handle these situations? Also remember, as you add more properties to your portfolio you are adding the potential for more questions and repairs.

When it comes to property management, there is no denying that you can do a lot of the work on your own. Many landlords find this the most exciting part of the investment process. In other words, they like to deal one-on-one with tenants and help with repairs when they come up. But on the other side of things, there are real estate investors who are more ?hands off.? They would much rather hire a property management company to take care of the day to day tasks.

Before you buy your first (or next) investment property, consider how you are going to manage it. Are you going to do everything on your own, or will you hire a property management company?

photo credit: roarofthefour

Many people are interested in buying a home right now while housing prices across the nation are low. However, they have learned their lessons from the problems of the recent past and definitely want to make sure that any home they do buy is a home that they can actually afford. It’s obviously important to figure out what you can realistically afford to pay for a home so that buying a home doesn’t get you in to big financial trouble. Unfortunately this type of important assessment isn’t actually that easy for the average person to figure out. Following you’ll learn about the different things that you need to look at when you are trying to determine how much home you can afford to buy. (more…)

photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

As the housing market continues to change and fluctuate, potential home buyers find themselves facing a series of questions. Some of these questions are new issues in the market. For example, many seniors who had planned to sell their big homes and buy smaller places are asking whether or not to do this in the face of declining home values. However, many of the questions that home buyers face today are the same basic questions that they have faced over time. One of the most common of those questions to plague people who are interested in buying a new home is “when is the best time to buy?” (more…)

photo credit: _sarchi
A lot of people have the misconception that it’s a landlord’s responsibility to repair a rental unit and it’s the tenants responsibility to maintain it. This might actually be a good rule of thumb to live by, but it’s not a legal tenet and doesn’t apply in all situations. (more…)

Being a property manager can be a lucrative career decision, but not everyone is cut out for this job so you shouldn’t jump into it without carefully investigating what is involved.

Property management requires a great deal of organization and people skills as you?ll have to juggle many units and tenants. Finding the right tenants is just the beginning of the job as you’ll then have to keep them happy, maintain the units, handle insurance issues, and any conflicts that arise. You may also have to evict tenants, which requires a personality that can adapt to the situation and to the personalities of your renters, it also requires a lot of patience.

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