PropertyManagementMaven: January 2008

HOORAY!  This site is AWESOME and the rental amounts are pretty accurate for most areas according to review by the landlords on the MrLandlord Q&A 

Zilpy.com Launches - Rental Data Website Built In Partnership with Zillow

Posted by Bill Quirk on January 29, 2008

Just came across a press release announcing the launch of Zilpy.com. From the release:

Today, Zilpy.com launched its free online service providing instant access to the most comprehensive and accurate data about the rental market nationwide. "Whether it's Rent Heat Maps for any given city or metro area or down-to-spot rent evaluations Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), the newly launched service crunches a huge amount of rental data every day" said Mrs. Drabkin, VP of Marketing.

Just came across this, and will have to dig into it more to develop what I think, but the partnership with Zillow is interesting and the site definitely has a Zillow look & feel. The press release is below:

Ok...after spending some time on the site I first have to say wow. Great mapping, a nice layout, and a great organization of a lot of data. RentalHomePros.com, a yet to be launched website backed by NARPM has a chief goal of collecting and sifting market data to help with analysis and to become an authority on rental trends. So, it appears Zilpy has already collected a ton of data and has possibly beaten RentalHomePros to the punch.

The real question though, is where is the data coming from? There's no way it can be transactional data of what a lease was actually signed for.....centralized sources with that data just aren't that common. So it must be information in regards to advertised prices which could come from GoogleBase or from scraping a site such as Oodle. If that's the case, then I think there must be a ton of flaws in the data.

For example, Rentometer.com is a site that's had this same goal and was recently quoted in a CNN article in which they used advertised prices on their site to gauge what was happening in the rental market. But almost all of the properties on Rentometer are apartment communities listed with a rent range such as $650.00 to $1150.00. There is no indication of how many $650.00 apartments exist at that community or how many of the more expensive units are there. And in an analysis with that data, I'm sure Rentometer just takes an average which could be seriously flawed since the complex might have 10 units at $650.00 and 150 units at much higher prices. As a result, I thought their methodolgy was flawed, and disagreed with their conclusions in the article.

Similarily, one of the chief complaints from Realtors and real estate agents about Zillow is that the Zestimates can be wildly wrong. And that's probably because the data sources they are using are bringing in incorrect information.

So, if Zilpy is somehow able to provide an accurate picture of what's happening in the rental market then it will be an amazing resource. But, they'll need to reveal their data collection methods at some point for credibility. Otherwise, it could just be garbage-in, garbage-out.

This entry was posted on January 29, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Zilpy.com. Tagged: Zillow, Zilpy, Zilpy.com.

While renting a large 4BR home in Redfields in early December, I showed it to a couple moving from the condos across from the subdivision.  She walked the dog by the house, saw that the FOR SALE sign had disappeared and my FOR LEASE sign appeared a couple of days later.  She made an appt and viewed the property, took application forms and then waited a few days.  She called me and wanted to know if she could "negotiate" the rent and as is my response to this question, I advised that I can always RAISE the rent. 

She said that she and her husband had always negotiated their rent and wanted to offer $200 less than what I had quoted to her.  I advised her that while negotiating for a cookie-cutter/plain vanilla condo in a project that is half-investor owned may make asking for a reduction a good idea, low-balling on a well-maintained, 4BR home with full basement and 2-car garage might not work.  She then responded that their offer was "market" to which I responded that the "market" for the home was actually $400 MORE than what I had quoted her and that we lowered the rent because of the winter/slow winter rental season.

The next day, while making a bank deposit, I received a call from a Florida couple who had sold their home and were moving to the area in 3 weeks.  They wanted to see the Redfields home and I met them 20 minutes later.  After the showing, they took applications and left me a check for the first months rent and deposit.  We then did the lease signing via Priority Mail and fax and they moved in Jan 1st.  

Eventhough the number of "detatched RENTAL homes" in the CAAR MLS has stayed between 55 and 65 over the last 8 months as unsold homes came onto the rental market, new tenants to the area will see the advantage to being able to rent large homes in a desirable area for the next several years.

The Lake Monticello, Forest Lakes, Redfields areas continue to be in demand as rental home desginations for JAG and NGIC families as well as Medical Center employees so local Realtors with investor clients who want to buy and hold for the long term should be looking at newer 4BR homes with garages and basements and if it has a fenced yard, all the better.

In his "message from the Chair"...Schaefer Ogelsby mentions that at the VAR Property Managers Coalition in Natural Bridge last October, he realized that many VA property managers do not know the state laws regarding smoke detectors.....the following is the code section he references

 § 15.2-922. Smoke detectors in certain buildings.

Any locality, notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, general or special, may by ordinance require that smoke detectors be installed in the following structures or buildings: (i) any building containing one or more dwelling units, (ii) any hotel or motel regularly used or offered for, or intended to be used to provide overnight sleeping accommodations for one or more persons, and (iii) rooming houses regularly used, offered for, or intended to be used to provide overnight sleeping accommodations. Smoke detectors installed pursuant to this section shall be installed in conformance with the provisions of the Uniform Statewide Building Code. The ordinance shall allow the type of smoke detector to be either battery operated or AC powered units. Such ordinance shall require that the owner of any unit which is rented or leased, at the beginning of each tenancy and at least annually thereafter, shall furnish the tenant with a certificate that all required smoke detectors are present, have been inspected, and are in good working order. Except for smoke detectors located in hallways, stairwells, and other public or common areas of multifamily buildings, interim testing, repair, and maintenance of smoke detectors in rented or leased units shall be the responsibility of the tenant; however, the owner shall be obligated to service, repair, or replace any malfunctioning smoke detectors within five days of receipt of written notice from the tenant that such smoke detector is in need of service, repair, or replacement.

I have highlighted and underlined the sections that apparently are not being followed.  What is not mentioned is that the "certificate" can actually be wording in the lease document itself and that the "service, repair or replacement" does NOT refer to the batteries which the tenant can be tasked to replace in the lease wording. 

As an aside, at the VAR Chip Dicks' L-T update last May, the VAR staff provided Schaefer with a name tag that indicated "THE KING"....and  I told him that while I appreciate his lofty position within Virginia's real estate community, to me, THE KING is KING RICHARD PETTY * 7 time NASCAR champion #43....those of us over 50 or who have grand kids who love the movie CARS * we all laughed.

I also note that the 3 RE practice "tracks" for CE * Residential, Commercial and Property Management * will be terminated.  This idea never really got support from the state's property management and commercial specialists.  There were never sufficient CE classes or professional organization education courses that could be approved through the VREB process to entice commercial or property management agents to select those tracks and risk not having sufficient CE hours when their licenses were set to expire.  I found it was easier and much more interesting to drive to Richmond to Mosley-Flint courses with out-of-area Realtors whose perspectives and experiences were different and educational.  

In his "message from the Chair"...Schaefer Ogelsby mentions that at the VAR Property Managers Coalition in Natural Bridge last October, he realized that many VA property managers do not know the state laws regarding smoke detectors.....the following is the code section he references

 § 15.2-922. Smoke detectors in certain buildings.

Any locality, notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, general or special, may by ordinance require that smoke detectors be installed in the following structures or buildings: (i) any building containing one or more dwelling units, (ii) any hotel or motel regularly used or offered for, or intended to be used to provide overnight sleeping accommodations for one or more persons, and (iii) rooming houses regularly used, offered for, or intended to be used to provide overnight sleeping accommodations. Smoke detectors installed pursuant to this section shall be installed in conformance with the provisions of the Uniform Statewide Building Code. The ordinance shall allow the type of smoke detector to be either battery operated or AC powered units. Such ordinance shall require that the owner of any unit which is rented or leased, at the beginning of each tenancy and at least annually thereafter, shall furnish the tenant with a certificate that all required smoke detectors are present, have been inspected, and are in good working order. Except for smoke detectors located in hallways, stairwells, and other public or common areas of multifamily buildings, interim testing, repair, and maintenance of smoke detectors in rented or leased units shall be the responsibility of the tenant; however, the owner shall be obligated to service, repair, or replace any malfunctioning smoke detectors within five days of receipt of written notice from the tenant that such smoke detector is in need of service, repair, or replacement.

I have highlighted and underlined the sections that apparently are not being followed.  What is not mentioned is that the "certificate" can actually be wording in the lease document itself and that the "service, repair or replacement" does NOT refer to the batteries which the tenant can be tasked to replace in the lease wording. 

As an aside, at the VAR Chip Dicks' L-T update last May, the VAR staff provided Schaefer with a name tag that indicated "THE KING"....and  I told him that while I appreciate his lofty position within Virginia's real estate community, to me, THE KING is KING RICHARD PETTY * 7 time NASCAR champion #43....those of us over 50 or who have grand kids who love the movie CARS * we all laughed.

I also note that the 3 RE practice "tracks" for CE * Residential, Commercial and Property Management * will be terminated.  This idea never really got support from the state's property management and commercial specialists.  There were never sufficient CE classes or professional organization education courses that could be approved through the VREB process to entice commercial or property management agents to select those tracks and risk not having sufficient CE hours when their licenses were set to expire.  I found it was easier and much more interesting to drive to Richmond to Mosley-Flint courses with out-of-area Realtors whose perspectives and experiences were different and educational.  

While brokerage real estate agents are contacting the property owners in their farm areas and "thinking outside of the box" for this spring's real estate market, area property managers are busy with entirely different duties.

By the end of December or early January, we send out year-end financial statements to our owner clients indicating their income and expenses for 2007.

Those of us who send out newsletters (mine go out quarterly and are posted on my website at the same time * http://VaHomes4Rent.com), the end of the year is a time to touch base on owners who may want to sell or purchase additional rental property.

We prepare 1099s for our owners and vendors which need to be mailed before January 31st. We wait the month of February to see if there are any discrepancies in records and then send our transmittal form AND IRS copies of the 1099s to the IRS.

This is also a time to start to think about lease renewals and rent increases. While properties that target UVa students as residents rent in October for the following June, rental homes in the area usually have leases that expire in May, June and July so renewal/rent increases notices will go out in early February.

Last year, my rents for homes in Forest Lakes and Lake Monticello increased an average of $85 per month and there was no mass exodus as some expected by this large of an increase * it would cost more to move than the $900 - $1,000 increase so they remain since their children are in schools, friends are established and they are comfortable in the homes.

Those properties that will be vacated need to be marketed ASAP. Since I have interior photos of my properties when they are VACANT as well as floor plans created by my husband, I am already marketing properties that I know will be vacant.

Having taken web marketing classes in Scottsdale sponsored by HomeRentals.net (my website host) in Sept before the NARPM convention, I learned how to use Craigslist in a unique way to market homes FREE on the web and I am looking forward to testing my new found knowledge.

In the meantime, I'll carve out some time to watch Speed Weeks from Daytona and hopefully see a Toyota win their first Sprint Cup race (they won 2 Busch/Nationwide races in 2007)