Realty Information Systems

Even landlords that make money month after month from their rental properties’ can lose everything if they fail to prepare for planned and especially unplanned maintenance costs. Some property owners or managers do a great job maintaining their property and as result have never had a huge unforeseen maintenance issue. However, these landlords or property managers may fall into a false sense of security and believe that they do not need to put revenue aside in case a huge unfo

Water is quickly becoming a scarce resource in certain areas. Droughts all over the world are affecting large areas of land and populations. Currently in California it seems that not one, not even senior water rights holders are safe from the water restrictions that being put into place (source). Even though our planet contains over a billion trillion liters of water, less than 1% is easily accessible drinking water. As a property owner or manager this trend may frighten yo

Most people have no idea how much it costs to have a rental property. Like homeowner, landlords have a range of different monthly and yearly cost to pay for such as insurance, mortgage, management fees, and taxes just to say a few. Most landlords are trying to save as much money as possible every month because each dollar saved is a dollar earned. One way some landlords or property managers might cut cost is to spend less on maintenance, a practice called deferred maintenance

California is experiencing one of the worst droughts in recent history. Governor Jerry Brown has mandated through executive order that there has to been a 25% reduction in is potable urban water use state wide. The goal is to save 1.2 million acre feet of water in the next 9 months. Since anywhere from 50% to 80% of residential water use is for outdoor activities the conservation effort is going to focus on this nonessential use. If you are a landlord or property manager in C

Every few months more technology based home products and appliances are being released with the promise of saving their users time and money. For property owners and managers software for property management has changed the industry by making it easier to manage both large and small properties. Property management software companies such as RISSOFT software for property management continue to upgrade their software to improve property owners and managers businesses. The next

As tax season comes to a close one question that many Americans will ask themselves is did I pay too much in taxes? According to TurboTax, if you’re a landlord then it is likely that you did pay more in taxes than you needed to because you overlooked deductions and tax benefits that rental properties often offer. According to Nolo.com the lost revenue from over paying taxes is often the difference between making a profit or losing money on a rental unit. Nolo.com lists severa

According to RealPage Performance Analytics 54.5% of renters decided to renew their apartments lease rather then move in February. The apartment lease renewal rate has been improving since 2010 and has not been this high in 10 years. The fact that renters are choosing to renew their leases in such a high number is significant considering that rents are continuing to rise while new apartment supply continues to be high. Jay Parsons, Director of Analytics & Forecasts, MPF Rese

Topic In Software for Property Management Use Resident Surveys to Improve Your Rental Property Resident Surveys are a fast and easy property management system tool to find out ways to improve your property and at the same time show residents that you care about their opinion. However, it is important that you take the time to make a well thought out survey to ensure that tenants will be likely to complete it. When constructing a rental property survey the first aspect to thi

Topics in Building Management Software Fill Rental Vacancies before They Are Vacant A vacancy in a rental property means lost revenue. Every month that the unit or property is vacant hurts a landlord’s bottom-line. The most important step a landlord or property manager can do to prevent vacancies is to act before the unit is vacant. The first step in preventing unit vacancies is finding out a soon as possible if a tenant is going to renew the lease. Tenants should give prope

Most standard leases include a clause that informs renters that their property is not covered under the Landlord’s insurance policy. Most leases and property owners strongly recommend that tenants purchase their own renters insurance. It is not standard practice to require tenants to buy renters insurance. One reason why landlords do not require renters insurance is requiring tenants to get renters insurance could turn away potential tenants and can be a headache to enforce.