Send mail to your tenants using Postful.com | email to mail service

In this electronic world its difficult to find time to do things that do not involve a computer. So when it comes time to mailing out leases, tenant applications, late notices we find ourselves 'getting to it later'. Often times when we do get the time we're missing stamps or the toner in your printer ran out of black ink.

The guys over at Postful.com have come up with a way to convert E-mail into Snail mail.

1. Easily set up an acct
2. Send an email with the address you are sending to in the subject line
3. in the body of the email type in the information to be placed in the letter, or send an attachment.
   
4. Send it, accept the proof, and your done!

They will then print it, stuff the envelope, put a stamp on it and send away.

Cost: $.99 per letter. When you factor in time, stamps, envelopes, toner and paper.. you'll find its cheaper to use this method instead of doing the labor yourself.

Take a look at their site for more information.
http://www.postful.com/

Great Phone and Fax service for Managing Rentals

If you are a Do-it-yourself Landlord or Property Manager a Virtual office is the way to go. A Virtual Office or Virtual PBX, as it is sometimes called, is a Phone system and fax service wrapped into one. For roughly $10/mon (less than an dedicated phone line) you can get a professional fax and phone service including extensions.

How it can be useful to the average landlord or manager?

• Various Phone extensions which can forward to any phone or multiple phones if needed. So you can have an emergency maintenance line forward to your mobile phone or home phone without the user ever knowing that happened.
  
• Use the included screening service to see who is calling before you answer. You can then send to voicemail or accept the call all while the user listens to music of your choice.
  
• Have your prospect calls for vacancies go to voice mail for retrieval later while you are on the go.
  
• Have a dedicated extension for various departments or people. Ie: maintenance call go to Maintenance man.
  
• Receive faxes in your email inbox or access them online anywhere
• Fax service great for sending/receiving applications and leases.
  
• Great for hiding your home phone or mobile phone yet getting your work done.
  

Take a look at GotVmail for an excellent video demo of some ways to use your Virtual office.

Happy Thanksgiving | Tenant Reminders, lock up, heat ...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

REMINDER:
If your tenants are traveling this week, you may want to give them a quick email or phone call reminding them to make sure they turn the heat back and not off (where applicable). Also to be sure to lock up securely. In college markets throughout the US, many students for off campus housing will be leaving town and going back home. This opens the door for some of the highest crime rates in those areas.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Tenant Screening & Credit Checks for tenants

There are quite a few services online for tenant screening. One in particular we have been using for years is called CitiCredit.net. What has been nice with this service is you have the information instantly.

Some members suggest

• MrLandlord.com
• Free Tenant Report Services.com

Has anyone tried these services or have suggestions for any others?

For Rent Signs Still useful !

With a large surplus in the housing market more and more people are turning their properties into rentals with hopes that the real estate market will rebound. This of course puts more rentals out there so you need to explore several avenues when marketing your property.

Listing rentals with us is free and we currently publish our listings on several other sites such as GoogleBase, oodle, Vast, Edgieo and more. So we really try and get the word out on the net for you. In accordance we also suggest the good ole fashion for rent sign. The obvious benefits of this is to grab anyones attention as they drive by however most of the signs we see do not have an Information tube attached with them.

The outside of your rental home gives people a general idea what the inside of the house/apartment looks like as far as size and how its maintained. This unfortunately doesn't answer some of the important questions such as: how much or whats included so you're going to be stuck fielding calls. With your listing on RentalsForRent.com you get a printable flier that you can place in your info tube. This will give the potential tenant a quick photo of your property, property descriptions, amenities, pricing and more. This should help eliminate late night or untimely calls asking if you allow tenants with 200 pound dogs and so on.

To get your flier:
Make sure you are signed into your account and then find your listing by typing in the Rental ID # on the rentals page. Select the PRINT icon on your listing which should take you to a Printable version of your ad. Thats it!

Its an easy opportunity that we often overlook when filling our properties.

- Good luck