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Top Idaho Landlord Repairs for Rentals

Every state has laws when it comes to Landlord and Tenant guidelines.

States require particular things from the lease to the cost of rent and how the owner can raise it, to the repairs. As a landlord, some things are strictly their responsibility to do for repairs, and then there are things as a tenant that fall to them to fix. In this blog, we will go over things that are specific to the state of Idaho. However, nothing on this page should be taken as legal advice. You should always consult with your lease, lawyer, or property manager for questions and concerns regarding your property or your current lease situation. Also, please note that in Idaho, landlord and tenant rights are slightly different for mobile home parks and condominiums.

In the state of Idaho, Landlord repairs are pretty specific for minimums.

Idaho law mandates that landlords must ensure residential properties they rent meet certain conditions. The owner (landlord) must maintain the good working order of all electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling, or bathrooms supplied to the tenant. So repairs to air conditioning units, replacing parts to your heater such as a heating element are done at the owner’s expense. Other items would also be repairs to the hot water tank, repairing any plumbing under sinks or behind walls. You will find that some rules file under these repairs. Make sure you check your lease and understand what you could do to shift the landlord’s responsibility to yourself, the tenant.

Examples of this could be damage to any parts of a water heater due to the tank being emptied and left emptied. Damage to the air conditioning unit due to irregular filter changing. Damage to toilets/sinks due to obstruction with anything that the plumbing system is not designed for. Smoke detectors that are up to code are also the responsibility of the owner as well. However, changing the batteries to the units falls under the tenant unless the property is vacant.  Remember, check your lease for property specifics.

Other top Idaho landlord repairs for rental homes you will find would be the repair of roofs. Any leaks, holes, or roof damage must and should be reported immediately to your landlord in writing. If you are renting from a property management company, should be reported immediately to them. Electrical outlets you find that does not work and require a professional to check also must be notified. By Idaho law, landlords are responsible for maintaining their tenant’s safety and health. Items like exposed wires, insect infestation such as termites. 

 

Know the following….

It is essential to know that you must request these repairs in writing as a tenant. Once the landlord receives written notice of the required repairs needed, they have three (3) days to address the issue(s). Here is where renting through a property manager comes in handy. After all, they are working to keep both the tenant and landlord’s best interests in hand. Learn how RentWise Property Management manages maintenance requests here. Also, please note under no circumstances under Idaho law can you withhold your rent until repairs are done. Failing to make rent in full and on time, you run the risk of being evicted no matter the reasons.  

 

If you are an owner and would like to learn more about frequently asked questions, get those HERE. 

 

If you are a renter or looking to rent a home in the Treasure Valley and want more information contact us today! 

Top Reasons Why Real Estate Agents Should Partner with Property Managers

Why should real estate agents partner with property managers? 

 

We get questions like: ” Why wouldn’t an agent just want to do the property management themselves, and it just becomes another stream of revenue for them?”  There isn’t a short answer to that. Agents can do it themselves, but you will find many real estate agents don’t want to. Working with property management companies like RentWise Property Management in Idaho’s Treasure Valley area makes life for real estate agents easier. Real Estate agents find that partnering with property managers saves them time, money, and many headaches. If you are a real estate agent, you will find that working with a property management company might be what you are looking for. Here are just our top reasons you should partner with a company like RentWise, especially in Boise, Idaho, and the surrounding area. 

 

Increase your Customer Experience

As a real estate agent, you might feel like one fish in a vast sea, which can be pretty intimidating. You want to be known as the real estate agent to use. The agent that goes above and beyond even when it’s not your area of expertise. There’s nothing like receiving the best customer experience because you want to tell people about it when that happens. You want to share that business with your friends and family. Word of mouth is an incredible tool for a company. When you work with RentWise Property Management, we handle all the heavy lifting for you and your client. From picking up the keys, switching utilities, walk-thru punch list, and estimate coordination, we take care of it all. Therefore, giving you back the time to service more clients and leads us to our next reason. 

 

Increase your revenue and time:

You will find most real estate agents that aren’t partnering with property management companies are wasting a lot of time managing properties instead of building your real estate business. Many tasks come with property management; you have to deal with maintenance, rent collection, background checks, and applications coming in. Imagine getting that time back and investing it into showing homes currently on the market or increasing your leads. 

When you lose out on time like this, you also lose revenue. Real Estate Agents also have the potential to increase their income through partner programs. Partner programs like ours at RentWise encourages real estate agents not only to refer us their clients, but we promise to send them right back to you when they are ready to sell or purchase more properties. We also guarantee our agents a paycheck when their client signs a 12-month rental agreement.

 

Our personal goal at RentWise Property Management is to make you look good. Real Estate Agents have always been a large referral source. Contact us today, and let us show you how we create “Less Hassel, More Happy.”

 

 

Paying Rent Online

Paying rent online has become the norm across the board these days however; the convenience of doing so comes at a cost for most tenants. While we here at Rentwise can’t control what the credit card companies and banks charge we do our best to mitigate any expenses we can. We do not upcharge these fees or charge any other fees related to paying rent online so having options is just one way we try to serve our tenants.

3 Ways to pay rent online:

Pay your rent with a checking account:

This is the most cost effective way to pay rent because it’s FREE! Simply log in to your tenant portal, plug in your checking account and routing numbers and you are all set! You can even set up auto pay if you don’t want to worry about paying your rent on time each month.

Pay your rent with a credit card:

This method comes with a 2.99% fee of the transaction amount. So if you rent is $1500 per month you would pay a fee of $44.85. We know some of our tenants like to rack up those air miles or maybe they are just short on cash one month, so this option is great for those satiations.

Pay your rent with your debit card:

This is a new feature that Appfolio just rolled out that enables a tenant to pay rent with a debit card, any amount, for a flat fee of $9.99. This is much more affordable than paying with a credit card so we are super happy about this change for our tenants.

If you would like to know more about how we can help make renting LESS HASSLE, MORE HAPPY please reach out to us! We are here to help! Call 208-949-3083 or email us at office@rentwisepm.com.

 

What will my property rent for?

What will my property rent for? The most asked question of any property manager I would venture to guess. (It’s either this or how much do you charge? That is an entirely different blog) Every investment transaction hinges on this factor so you can imagine how important it is to have the most accurate information as possible. We know there are a plethora of resources on the internet to assist any investor in determining what rents could be however, we would caution against making an investment decision based solely on the internet numbers alone.

Here are the 3 resources we recommend:

Rentometer – this website offers a rental estimate based on percentile and requires very little information about the property making it a quick and easy referral point, it is free to use up to a certain number of inquiries. We are not directly affiliated with this site but we do utilize it via a subscription service as a professional property manager which allows us unlimited access.

Zillow – oh how we have a love/hate relationship with Zillow but they are the largest resource for available rentals so it is a necessary evil to take a look. We find that Zillow is usually $50 to $100 within range.

A Real Life Property Manager – this is ultimately the BEST way to determine what your property will rent for. We as property managers have the most accurate real time knowledge and expertise to determine what a property will rent for based on the location, age, size, upgrades and nearby amenities. While online resources can consider a limited amount of these criteria, a local property manager who knows the area you are investing in is the best resource by far.

If you want to know more about our services or how we can help you get the most out of your investment reach out to us at 208-949-3083 or courtney@rentwisepm.com. Less Hassle. More Happy.

 

Self Showing Lockboxes

Self-showing lock boxes became very popular after several agents where attacked and even killed in our industry as well as the real estate industry. Unfortunately this has become something that happens more often than people probably know (or want to know) so we initially started using self-showing boxes for the safety of our staff.

Most property managers do not have the staff available to have more than one person at a showing at a time. I will admit that I have definitely felt a little “uncomfortable” during a showing from time to time. We also found that utilizing the self-showing services helped us rent properties much faster than before. We had a pandemic if you will, of missed appointments, no shows and difficulty coordinating schedules with all the other responsibilities we have as property managers.

Utilizing this technology enables us to be more efficient with our time and energy, focusing on qualifying tenants, managing maintenance and being more available to our existing clients and tenants.

Below are the questions and answers from an existing client who was concerned about our showing method. His reply: “Thanks for clarifying things for me. I can see both sides. It makes me more comfortable that you are able to work the lock remotely. It seems to provide some assurance that the access for people is not unlimited. Let’s continue the process as is. Thanks Mike”

Q & A’s:

Do you change the code after each showing? Each person that accesses the property is given a unique code to do so after they answer a series of questions about themselves and uploads a copy of their photo ID to the system. That is how we track who/when someone accesses the property.

Do you have to go there physically to do that or can you access the digital lock remotely? We assign lockboxes to the property remotely, and codes are assigned remotely.

Are there any cameras recording and/or warning visitors that they are being monitored? There are no cameras. There are several signs hung throughout the property to ensure that lights are turned off, doors are locked and they key is placed back in the lockbox. When we perform vacant house checks we have a checklist of several items we monitor to ensure all things are the way they need to be.

If someone duplicates the key while the rest in his party is viewing the house, would that allow them access at a later time? I can not say that this is not a potential issue however it has never happened. The viewing code is only good for 1 hour. When we perform vacant house checks one of the items we check is if there is a key in the lockbox. Typically several people are viewing this house over the course of a day or few days so we would be notified very quickly if a key is missing. Again, that has not happened. A potential applicant must go through a process to receive a code and most criminals do not go to that kind of trouble.

I am sure there are many more possibilities that I am not thinking about right now, like squatting, cooking up meth, stealing the appliances etc. Who would be liable for the damages and any claims arising from those activities? Either your home owners insurance or our liability insurance would handle any issues that would arise on that front. If we were to find a squatter in the property we would take the steps to have them removed asap obviously. Idaho does not have laws that “protect” squatters. We have not had an negative incidents to date using the self showing boxes. We have heard all of the stories and which is why we have taken steps to ensure that these things do not happen. Once an application is approved the lockbox is disabled and only vendors or staff can access it. That typically takes between 3 to 10 days lately.

Maybe things haven’t happened around here yet, but the “Big City” is moving into Boise as we speak. Watching Portland, Seattle,Chicago ……. inner cities and now suburbs burn and get looted without consequences makes me wonder how much to trust anyone. I have to assume that I bear all the risk? You do not bear all the risk, our insurance is aware of our practices and they are quit common across the united states with property managers. We have taken every precaution we can to ask the right questions, set the limitations on showings and we check our vacant properties on a regular basis.

If you would like more information about this or how we can help make owning an investment property Less Hassle, More Happy, we would love to speak with you. Give us a call at 208-949-3083 or email courtney@rentwisepm.com.

Building credit as a renter

Do you wonder how you can build your credit as a renter? Have you ever heard the saying; you must have credit to build credit? In order to get a loan, you need credit history; however, the only way to build credit history is to take on debt with credit cards and/or loans. What if your one of many who do not want to start off in debt in order to build your credit? Here at RentWise Property Management, we feel the same way! We are excited to say that RentWise Property Management has partnered with Appfolio and Experian RentBureau to report our tenant’s positive rental payment history to their credit without running up unnecessary debt. 

According to Experian’s RentBureau, they incorporate on-time rental payment data reported to Experian RentBureau into Experian credit reports. 

Rental payment information will be included as part of your standard credit report and may be incorporated into certain credit scores. The inclusion of positive rental payment history within Experian credit reports allows you to establish or build credit history through timely rental payments.

What this means for our residents is for every on-time payment made, within 24-hours Experian RentBureau receives a notification of another payment made. This data can be accessed by other management companies during the tenant screening process for payment verification’s and most importantly continuous on-time rental payment data may be incorporated within Experian credit reports used by credit granting institutions like banks, credit unions, auto finance companies, and telecommunication providers.

This partnership is just one of many programs that RentWise Property Management provides to our residents. So if you are asking yourself how can I get started building credit while renting a property, head over to our available property page by clicking here to see if there is a home that works for you today and start building your credit with your first on-time payment. 

If you would more information about this or any of our services contact us at 208-949-3083. Less Hassle. More Happy.