A Short Guide To Renting Out Your Condo

A Short Guide To Renting Out Your Condo

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What is a condo?

Condos are a little different from apartments and therefore the process of renting them out is also slightly different, so what exactly is a condo? In terms of structure, condos and apartments are essentially the same and this is where the confusion lies. The main difference between the two can be defined in terms of the ownership. Condos are available to own, while (usually) apartments are only available to rent.

What are the benefits of renting out your condo?

The most obvious benefit is the income you’ll gain from renting out your condo. As property values tend to rise over time, it’s likely that your condo will be a great investment to make money. With any luck, you’ll earn a good return if you choose to sell it in a few years. What’s more, if you upgrade or make renovations, you can then take this expense off your income (and end up reducing what you owe in tax). Some people choose to rent out their condo because they are not currently living in it; however, they are not prepared to sell. Others choose to because they need money to cover the mortgage on the property they are currently living in. Whatever the reason you would like to rent out your condo, there are a few important steps and considerations to make.

What is the process of renting out your condo?

The very first thing you need to do is to look over your condo documents, to ensure that you are permitted to rent it out. Your condo may have certain lease restrictions; for example, sometimes the owner must live in the condo for a set amount of time before renting it out. Another type of restriction involves limitations on the number of condos that can be rented out in the same development. 

Check with HOA

As part of the above process, you’ll need to go through the Homeowners Association

(HOA) to check if there are any restrictions which apply to you. The HOA create and enforce guidelines and rules for property owners. When you buy a condo, you then become a part HOA automatically. On purchasing your condo, the rental restrictions will be made aware to you. If restrictions are put in place after you have already purchased your condo, then you will not be required to adhere to these.

Advertise your condo

Once you know that you are allowed to rent out your condo, you need to advertise it to prospective tenants. Be sure that you write a detailed description, including as much information as you can. From the proposed rental costs to the deposit or the type of tenants, for example will you rent to couples, or are pets allowed etc. The more specific you are in your description, the more likely you will be to attract candidates who are right for your condo.

Screen applications

You’ll need to run background checks on your prospective tenants to ensure that you protect yourself. For instance, ask for their proof of residency, their income, and references from previous rental properties. Failing to screen applications properly could land you in some financial trouble later down the line.

Prep the lease

When you are preparing the lease between yourself and the tenant, you must be thorough. Outline all of the appropriate rules in terms of looking after the property, the house rules and the deposit. When entering into a legally binding contract, it’s important to pay attention to detail. With so much to do, it can be easier to hire condo management services to complete all of these steps for you. 

Consider a condo management service

These services can be useful to help you with a variety of time consuming and essential steps. There are many tasks associated with condo and rental management, and failing to adhere to them all may leave you with problems in the near future.

An excellent condo management service can streamline the process of paying association fees and property management bookkeeping. These services will often offer inspections and reports, obtain quotes for repairs, or perform landscaping if required. You can even access rental services including marketing, tenant background checks, condo viewings and resolving tenant conflicts. You likely want the benefits of renting out your condo, without a lot of paperwork and technicalities to deal with! A condo management service can prep the lease, arrange apartment clean-outs and provide useful software portals. For a simple way to rent out your condo, a professional service is just what you need.

Is the Intent to Pay More Important Than the Ability to Pay the Loan?

Is the Intent to Pay More Important Than the Ability to Pay the Loan?

Should You Consider the Borrower’s Intent or Ability to Pay?

by Lina Martinez

Do you often wonder how lenders, banks, and utility companies approve loans and other subscriptions? What is it in you that signals to your credit card company that they can trust you with an increase in credit limit? What makes them think that you can pay or have the intent to pay them in the first place? For all they know, you could be a criminal who hacked into the system to modify your credit score and history.

Lenders usually have different considerations to make when approving a loan or subscription. They depend on credit score companies to check how you fared in previous loans and bills. These companies compile your credit history. They create a profile of your ability to pay the loans based on your income and other sources of money.

But there has been a movement as of late in the banking industry. Borrowers are not only being judged based on their ability to repay the loans, but also on their intent to pay it in the first place. In India, this came afterbillionaire Vijay Mallyadefaulted on his almost $1 billion loans in 2016 and fled the country. The Economic Times says that this has pushed the interest of judging people’s intent to pay to the forefront of the lending guidelines.

Ability to Pay

The ability to pay is based on your income and credit history. Lenders are going to look at your credit score. They are going to check your current financial status-how deep in debt you are and how much you are earning a month. Where is your income coming from? From retirement? Investments? Inheritance? Salary? Do you have a business? How profitable is your business? Do you have a stable job? What percentage of your salary is your computed monthly amortization?

Theborrower’s ability to pay is quantitative. It is based on science. It is based on numbers and statistics. It is easier for a lender to grant a loan or subscription when there is empirical data to back up this decision.

Intent to Pay

Then, there is the intent to pay. This is a human trait. Credit companies can measure a person’s intent to pay based on their credit history. In India, since 2016, many companies have used a set of questionnaires, specifically targeting a group of borrowers. The questions reflect the needs and challenges of the sector the borrower is a part of. This means that there will be different criteria for educational loans, small- and medium-sized business loans, housing loans, and car loans. The questionnaire was made in such a way that borrowers cannot bluff their way through it.

Lenders say that this formula is around 97% to 98% accurate. They can efficiently collect payments from borrowers using the criteria of the intent to pay. When there is the intent to pay, lenders are more able to recuperate the money they have lent.

The ability of the borrower to pay should be prioritized more than one’s intent to pay. Customers with good intent to pay cannot do so if they don’t have the ability to pay. On the other hand, those with the ability to pay but don’t have the intent can be held legally. A lending business is not just about letting people borrow money. It makes its profit from recovering the money lent to businesses and people, so the ability to pay back the loan is more critical than the intent.

Making The Most Of This Quiet Time For Your Business

Making The Most Of This Quiet Time For Your Business

Many businesses all over the world are closing their doors, with many employees working from home or working limited hours. While it is a difficult period for many businesses, there is one thing this crisis is giving us – time. If you often feel as though you don’t have the time for many key business tasks, now could be the time to play catch up.

Want to make the most of this quiet time for your business? Here are some suggestions for things you can do to help get back on track.

Image Credit: Unsplash under Creative Commons

Plan ahead

For many people, it can feel like you’re always playing catch up, instead of being able to look ahead. Having a bit of downtime can help you to plan ahead, looking at your business’ overall goals, and planning for weeks and months at a time. Take the time to use online planning tools that will help you organize your workload and put you in a much better place by the time things get busy again.

Get your accounts in order

If you usually leave your accounting until the very last minute, why not get things in order now? This could be an excellent time to sort through receipts, check invoices and identify where you’ve over/underspent. Get in touch with specialist accountants who know the ins and outs of your industry. A great accountant like Copas.org can be an asset to your business, helping to grow it further. With your accounts in order, you’ll be in a position to make better financial decisions and plan out the rest of the year.  

Put new systems in place

Time can be a reason why many new ideas never come to fruition. Perhaps there’s new software that you want to try, or a new way of working, but with everything moving a million miles an hour, it’s not always possible to try new things, During a period of downtime, you can take some time to trial new ideas and implement some changes. If there are policies and processes that could save you time and money, then they are worth pursuing during this time.

Check-in on your employees

A period of downtime can be daunting for your employees, who could be finding it hard to stay motivated and even be worried about their jobs. Keeping up employee morale is very important at the moment, so in addition to checking in on work, check in on them personally as well. Even a brief conversation to ask how someone is and if there’s anything they need help with can make a big difference, helping to show that they’re valued and appreciated. Providing regular updates to your employees can also help relieve uncertainty, so try to communicate as much information as you can.

While there’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment, it is possible to make the most of this time. Going forward, you’ll want to make the most of minimizing downtime and maximizing efficiency to help keep your business running and make it even stronger in the future.

Benefits of Targeting Local Communities for Small Businesses

Benefits of Targeting Local Communities for Small Businesses

Small Businesses Strategies on Dominating the Local Market

by Felicia Jones

Running a small business is challenging, especially if you are entering a competitive market. You need to find unique ways to promote your brand and get customers to trust your products. Your competitors will also try their best to ensure that they attract potential customers. Taking a look at their current campaigns can help you come up with your own marketing strategies. Thus, you need to ensure that you can come up with unique and effective strategies that will put your brand on top of the competition.

There are various marketing strategies you can try to boost your brand and promote your products. However, some of these strategies won’t work immediately, especially if you haven’t built your brand’s reputation. You have to look for ways to introduce your brand to your target audience first. To do that, you have to focus on attracting the local market first.

Benefits of Targeting the Local Market

Targeting the local market helps you to raise brand awareness and introduce your products and services. Here are other essential benefits that you can get for going for local marketing strategies:

  • Learn the basics of marketing to a specific audience
  • Improve brand reputation
  • Build customer trust
  • Spread the word about your business

Effective Local Marketing Strategies

Some companies get professional local SEO services to ensure that their marketing campaigns will be useful. If you are also planning to use the same technique, you need to at least understand how local market targeting works. Here are a few methods to consider:

  • Take your business online-Ensure that you have an online shop so that people will have a way of browsing your products and services. Creating a website and a mobile app and managing social media pages can help you broaden your marketing reach.
  • Implement local SEO strategies-Focus on implementing local SEO practices to get more leads and attract new customers. Keep in mind that the majority of consumers check out local shops to check out items they want to purchase. It would be best if your shop comes up whenever they do a search related to your business.
  • Request customer feedback-Always ask for feedback from consumers. This way, you will gain information about how you can improve your brand. Conduct surveys and analyze consumer behavior of the local market. This will give you a hint about your business strengths and weaknesses. Use consumer feedback to adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
  • Participate in local events-Check out events that will be held in your local community. You can think of ways to become a sponsor or a participant for such events. Doing this will help you increase the popularity of your brand.

You probably want to expand your business and target global customers in the future. However, before you can make it big in the business world, you need to stand out in the local market successfully. If your brand becomes popular with the local community, you will have bigger chances of achieving success in going global.

Even if you are just a small business owner, you can achieve major growth if you work hard, especially when it comes to improving your products and services. You should also continuously implement effective marketing strategies to target potential customers precisely. This way, you can ensure that your business will slowly make its way to the top of the competition.

You Don’t Need A Business Location In The City To Thrive: Here’s Why

You Don’t Need A Business Location In The City To Thrive: Here’s Why

When you start a business, often this is done from the comfort of your own home, and this can mean that you get to make some great savings in terms of business leases and overheads. However, when it comes to branching out and moving your business forward, a specific location to work from is often the obvious step to make. However, many assume that you need to be in the city amongst all of the action, to thrive. But this has its high costs and can often not be a viable choice. With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why you don’t necessarily need the city slick office in order for your business to still thrive and be successful. 

Image source – Pixabay – CC0 license 

Social media means we are always connected

When it comes to being in a connected world, now more than ever means that any business is in the position to connect with customers and other businesses by using social media. Social media is a great way to advertise your business and reach out to potential customers and also share news of up and coming product launches and services that you offer. You can be anywhere in the world and still find new customers to engage with and also sell to. 

Being in the position to boost wireless signal 

Working in the city often means you have the potential of better WiFi and signal, and that is true. But working outside of the city in the country because you want to save on costs doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a poor connection. Companies like Sunsight can often antenna align and produce products that can help when it comes to wireless signals. This means that you don’t need to sacrifice in costs to always be connected with your business. 

Shopping online is often the first choice

Let’s face it, many of us shop online these days. It is convenient, easy to do and enables you to get what you want quickly and easily. So a website that can offer up an ecommerce option can help you to make those sales no matter where your business is based and how you are operating. A decent website can help you to be one of the first choices for customers. You also need to ensure that your website is visible and seen online, so you might want to think about search engine optimisation and the use of keywords in your content to take advantage of this. 

Video calls and remote working makes things possible

Video calls and remote working can happen in any location, and with the use of the internet can help you to make things possible. This works well when it comes to outsourcing certain aspects of your business and also taking advantage of different options. 

Excellent courier services and delivery options 

Finally, with the use of different courier and delivery options you no longer need to be in the city to take advantage of a quick service. Helping you to provide to your customers in the quickest way possible. 

Let’s hope these suggestions help you to see that city working isn’t always the best option for your business. 

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