Real Estate Investing 101

Common Mistakes Landlords and Investors are Making on Rentals

I was interviewed by Melissa Blasius at News Channel 12 a couple days ago and asked to discuss common mistakes we see investors make as they enter the rental market.

We are seeing a number of issues with many new investor/landlords. The most common are:

• Failure to conduct background screening of potential tenants.
• Many landlords are waiving security and pet deposits.
• Few investors write a business and marketing plan. They don't treat the project like a business.
• Some investors do not have sufficient cash reserves to cover non-occupied times or necessary repairs. We recommend 6 months of operating capital. Do not use credit cards for this.
• Many underestimate hold times on property. In the current market, close to 10 years may be necessary to reap optimum rewards.
• A lot of landlords do not realize it can take 3-5 months to find a good tenant in the current market. Vacancy periods are long right now due to the large number of available homes. Turnover is high as well.

The interview was part of the ten o'clock news program and carried as a news article on AZCentral.com. Below is the video feed for the interview. Hope you enjoy it.

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

What is an AS IS addendum in a real estate contract?

As more and more buyers, especially investors, purchase properties from banks and by short sale they find themselves signing an AS IS addendum to the purchase contract. The Arizona Department of Real Estate (ADRE) has created an AS IS addendum used in conjunction with the Arizona purchase contract. Today's post explores the AS IS addendum and explains some of its language.

The video does not cover the entire AS IS addendum. Please read and understand the entire document before signing.

This video commentary is not intended as legal advice. If you have legal questions regarding this or other documents used in a real estate transaction, we recommend you talk to a competent counsel.

This is the first of a series of training videos we will provide. Check under "Videos" in the category section of our side bar for more offerings.

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