Real Estate Investing 101

Greater Phoenix Rental Market Showing Strength

I was in a workshop with Cromford Report guru Mike Orr a couple days ago. He mentioned ARMLS data shows strength in the Greater Phoenix rental market. Specifically, he said the active rental listings during 2009 hovered between 8000 & 9500 rental listings. Today’s ARMLS numbers for all types of rentals popped up at 6339.

Mind you, not all rentals are on ARMLS. Many rentals are advertised using other media, yet I believe the ARMLS numbers show a trend. I have put called into AZCentral.com and Rent.com to see if they have similar figures. When I get them I’ll update this post.

In the meantime, let’s look at some ARMLS single family home rental numbers; The data is pretty telling. The table below shows the number of active rental listings as of this post,  as well as the number of signed contracts year-to-date in 2010.

NOTE: ALL DATA IS FOR SINGLE FAMILY HOMES ONLY.

City	# of Active SFH Rental Listings on 2/26/2010	Signed SFH Rental Contracts Jan/Feb 2010
Valley Wide	3352	3263
Phoenix	670	668
Chandler	142	266
Glendale	136	177
Peoria	143	156
Anthem	51	71
Scottsdale	623	280

As you can see,  the number of active listings is about 50% of the signed contracts numbers. This indicates the inventory is turning over approximately every 2 months.

Chandler and Anthem are showing great strength with the inventory turn over in the 1 month range while Scottsdale is relatively sluggish with a turnover rate of approximately 4 months.

Provided that the ARMLS numbers represent a general market trend, landlords are seeing good news for the future. Add to this the number of home owners being displaced by foreclosure or short sales and the 2010 rental market is looking good.

If you would like us to run this data report for you, we’d be delighted. We can provide results by city or zip code.

Best to you,

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Data provided by ARMLS.

How to Reduce and Deal With Criminal Acts By Tenants

Crime and criminal acts by tenants is a growing problem for landlords. Meth labs, distribution of drugs, and other unsavory activities cause damage and can create a myriad of problems for a landlord or property manager.

One of the full-time property managers in our brokerage, Martha Zabala, gave me a copy of an addendum she uses with her rental agreements. Martha has a reputation for being a tough, yet fair property manager who likes to cross all the "t's" and dot all the "i's". Thus, it comes as no surprise she is ahead of the curve on a problem that is likely to get worse until the economy heals a bit.

Martha says this document has helped execute quick evictions on tenants who violate its conditions and makes those who have evil plans think twice before renting your property.

Below is a link to the "Crime Free Addendum to the Rental Agreement" she uses. You'll want to run it by your attorney to adjust it to conform with laws and code in your state and city. This particular document was drawn up for use in Arizona and the language and references are those of Arizona.

Download CRIME FREE ADDENDUM TQ RENTAL AGREEMENT.doc (19.5K)

We hope this information helps keep your real estate investments safe and happy.

Ron Urban & Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777