American Apartment Owners Association's (aaoa) Blog

By Wayne GathrightPart One, How to Create a Solid Lease Agreement DRAFTING THE BASIC LEASE AGREEMENT 1.  Parties.  Include the full names of ALL prospective tenants - these will be the only ones held accountable if there is a dispute.  Be sure to include both names of a married or unmarried coupl...

Make Your Lease a "Tenant Satisfaction Agreement"Every landlord struggles to write a lease that is airtight and covers every situation that might arise.  "Landlords should strive to make it more - to make it a ‘tenant satisfaction agreement', says real estate software consultant and developer Way...

Our collection guru Bill Gray has some advice for you:  If you have old, uncollected rent files, you may be sitting on a wad of cash."A lot of landlords just give up when the tenant skips and they can't find a new address - they think that if they didn't collect the unpaid rent right away, it's a...

Screening the tenant before you rent is only half the battle. Circumstances can change, and your ideal tenant can become a potential rent collection problem. Maintaining a current and complete tenant file is a simple way to protect your valuable investment. Remember, the sooner you are aware of a...

HOW TO PROFIT FROM FORECLOSURES IN ANY MARKETan interview with Alexis McGee, President: Foreclosures.com"Coming up with the money is never the problem when investing in foreclosures.  There are more money partners than there are deals," advises Alexis McGee, who coaches first-time foreclosure buy...

 COME SUMMER, LANDSCAPING CREWS MAY BE HARD TO FINDNew Hiring Rules May Cause a 30-50% Reduction in Work Force, Drive Up Cost Landscaping businesses, a $40 billion industry, are reeling from changes in the guest worker program that is designed to allow these small and seasonal businesses to hire ...

What is a 1031 Exchange and How Can It Save You Money?an interview with Michael Gray, CPA: Realestateinvestingtax.comCPA Michael Gray comes to the table with over thirty years experience is accounting and tax advising. And every year he helps his clients grow their real estate investment portfoli...

Easy Ways for Landlords to Save Money with Low-Cost Energy Conservation UpgradesLower energy costs mean bigger profits. Whether your tenants pay their own bills, or you prorate the bill among tenants, lower utility bills attract tenants and increase occupancy rates. Providing energy efficient uni...

TENANT BACKGROUND CHECKS:  Four Tips to Detect Fraud For many landlords, "fraud" is a four-letter word. That's because they know it spells getting ripped off, with precious little recourse to collect the bad tenant debt. Unfortunately, a significant number of rental applications are completely fa...

ATTENTION LANDLORDS: HAVE YOU TURNED GREEN?Owners of multi-family housing have a unique opportunity to help safeguard the environment by lowering energy usage, reducing carbon emissions, and conserving water. Haven't had your green meeting with tenants yet?  Don't know what to do?  The City of Ft...