However, there is an eviction risk many renters are unaware of or simply don’t think to consider—landlord foreclosure.  In the last year, foreclosure rates in this country have reached record highs. Nevada, Florida, California, and Arizona have been hit particularly hard by the mortgage crisis according to RealtyTrac.com data, but even states fortunate enough to avoid significant increases have suffered in comparison to data from five years ago.

Unemployment has affected everyone, and even homeowners with good credit are finding it difficult to stay up to date on mortgage payments, yet landlords are under no legal obligation to inform their tenants of an impending foreclosure.  Because of this, even the best tenants can find themselves served with an eviction notice they never saw coming.  How should you handle it if your landlord is foreclosed on, or better yet, how can you make sure this doesn’t happen to you?  A few tips:

• Do your research.  Look into public records in your area.  Foreclosures are public record, so whether you have a registry of deeds, land record repository, or simply a local country courthouse in your area, you should be able to find a property’s history and information for free.
• Landlords do background and credit checks on tenants, so while it may seem unorthodox, you can do the same for them—for a fee.  Many companies provide this service, and for a nominal fee, you can have the peace of mind that you won’t be served with a notice to vacate the premises you never saw coming.
• Foreclosures occur when a bank or lender takes back ownership of a deed, so if you’re a tenant in one of these homes, get in contact with the lender.  Though it is uncommon, the lender may be willing to keep you on as a tenant.  You’ll have to sign a new lease, but that is far better than the alternative of having to find a new place to live.
• Do not ever withhold rent as a tenant. Even if your landlord is in foreclosure, until ownership of a property is officially transferred back to the lender, the terms of your lease are still in effect, and even if the landlord is pocketing the money without paying the mortgage on the home, he still has the power to have you evicted, leaving a black mark on your credit and making it more difficult to find a rental property in the future.  The correct course of action is to continue paying rent per the terms of your lease and then sue in civil court to recoup your lost rent money and/or the security deposit.

Unfortunately, with landlord foreclosure there is no “right” answer; no happy ever after ending.   Educating and protecting yourself is the best, and really the only defense against landlord eviction. However, if you take these small precautions, if you’re ever in this unfortunate position,  you may be out, but not down.

The bill also clarifies that the date of notice of foreclosure is the date complete title is transferred to the successor and directs the Secretary of HUD to develop a grant program for legal assistance to low and moderate income homeowners/tenants who are dealing with foreclosure issues.

As of the date of this article, the law confirms that tenants with a “bona fide” lease that was entered into before the notice of foreclosure can remain in a foreclosed home until the end of their lease, unless the bank sells the property to someone who intends to make it their primary residence. If the new owner intends to occupy the home, they are still required to give 90-days notice to the tenant prior to eviction.

If the tenant does not have a lease (month-to-month) or current state law allows the lease to be terminated at will, there is still a 90-day notice requirement prior to eviction. Notice must be provided by the “immediate successor in interest” which, in most cases, would be the bank or the new owner.

A “bona fide” lease is defined in the law as one that:

• (1) the mortgagor or the child, spouse, or parent of the mortgagor under the contract is not the tenant;
• (2) the lease or tenancy was the result of an arms-length transaction; and
• (3) the lease or tenancy requires the receipt of rent that is not substantially less than fair market rent for the property or the unit’s rent is reduced or subsidized due to a Federal, State, or local subsidy.

If you are a tenant who is facing a foreclosure situation (the owner of the home or apartment you are renting is in foreclosure), we suggest speak with a HUD-approved housing counselor. These counselors are trained to provide helpful advice at no cost and can be located on HUD’s website by clicking here.

Protect yourself! Don't let your posessions end up on the sidewalk.

Eviction laws and requirements do vary from state to state, but in most states, landlords are required to provide their tenants with fair warning of an impending eviction in written form. Those written notices usually state that the tenant has a certain amount of time to rectify the situation or move out. Once that period of time has lapsed, then and only then can they take a tenant to court for the case to be heard in front of a judge. Furthermore, they must follow all legal steps and procedures to the letter, or the judgment is likely to favor the tenant.

In most states, actions not permissible for landlords include:

-Disconnecting water

-Turning off heat or electricity

-Locking the tenant out or otherwise impeding his ability to enter the property in question

-Removing the tenant’s belongings from the property, taking the belongings of a tenant as a form of “payment”, or damaging the tenant’s belongings

Leases are strong legal documents and cannot usually be negated without obvious fault by either party.  While the tenant has significant legal protections, the tenant cannot refuse or withhold payment even if they make out of pocket repairs to a property without discussing the issue with the property manager prior to withholding a portion of the rent.  Moreover, the tenant cannot withhold rent if the landlord increases the monthly rate, assuming that the lease allows pricing at the landlord’s discretion.  Any attempt by the tenant to withhold these funds opens the door to potential eviction proceedings.  The best course of action for any tenant that feels a landlord is abusing the terms of the lease is to take the landlord to small claims court, rather than attempting to handle the matter yourself.

Facing an impending eviction is not a pleasant prospect for anyone involved.  Lawyers, judges, paperwork, money; all of these bring headaches that would be better avoided. As frustrating and insurmountable as debt may seem, it is in everyone’s best interest to get his or her rent paid on time. Open communication between landlord and tenant is key to resolving disputes on every issue, money included.  Taking matters into your own hands is ill-advised, because, remember, try as you might , debt owed on a property doesn’t disappear, even if the property burns down.

Ashley Edwards, HomeTownRent.com

Disclaimer:  Neither Ashley Edwards nor any employee of Rental Ventures is a legal expert.  If you have questions or need advice on a matter related to eviction, please contact a lawyer.

On Sunday evening, June 27th, HomeTownRent implemented our biggest “code launch” (changes to our website and system) in years.  We are excited to announce a successful upgrade to our entire system architecture, database structure, listing management, and photo upload process.  That’s techie talk for an even faster, leaner, and simpler site to help you find or advertise your next rental property.

Key to HomeTownRent’s growth as a national, and now international, network of local rental advertising websites, has been our focus on simplicity, ease-of-use, and effectiveness for both renters and property managers.  And key to our growing success as a company is the “scalability” of our internally developed software system.  We aim to provide the benefits of completely local rental websites to any city that values such a service.  We’re now operating local websites in: USA India Australia New Zealand South Africa

Not only can we now handle an ever-increasing amount of traffic on hundreds of top ranked local websites, but our platform is integrating a growing number of quality “feed” partners to make it easier for property management companies to import their listings automatically to our websites, thus giving renters the best and most up-to-date selection possible.

HomeTownRent Upgrade highlights include:

1)      More powerful, efficient, and easy to use Manage Listings page. Thanks for countless, continuous feedback from property managers who use our system every day, we believe that we have the most user-friendly page to manage the advertising of your property listings.

2)      Ability to re-order, remove, and add captions on up to 12 photos per listing.  Our old site was a little wonky, with no easy way to change the order of photos.  We’re really excited to bring property managers a sleek and simple image management page, where you can add captions describing each picture (great for optimizing the search engine results for your individual rental listing), change the order of your images, and easily delete images you don’t need.

3)      Ability to upload larger-sized photos. Digital cameras are taking larger photos all the time, and we’ve improved our system’s ability to upload, and instantly resize, larger-sized photos of your rental homes and apartments.

4)      Manager Dashboard with access to listings, stats, messages, and resources. When property managers login to one of our local rental websites, the first page they see gives them clear access to all of our easy-to-use tools.  We’ve changed the way we display stats to give you an aggregate total of the number of views and emails for all your properties by various date ranges, and then display email and view counts for each property since the date it was last advertised.  This should help property managers assess how online views and email leads it takes before renting out each unit.

5)      Ordering system with receipts and order history. While many of our newer websites offer free one-year trials, we have also improved the accounting tools you have asked for to generate receipts for services you purchase, whether they be our annual listing subscriptions, featured property listings, or branding packages.

6)      Branding package to add your logo and website link on all your listings for one annual fee. Over the years we’ve helped many property managers improve the rankings of their own website by providing clickable links and logos from all their listings on our site back to their own website.  For only $99/year total, this is money well spent to improve the Google rankings of your site.

7)      Unique web address for each listing. Now its even easier to advertise your listing around town – just use the short link we provide for each rental listing (ex www.RaleighRent.com/96588) on your fliers, in print ads, Craigslist postings, Facebook page, or your own website or blog.

    Automated Listing Feeds. HomeTownRent takes a very selective approach to where we accept incoming listing feeds from, and where we allow listings on our website to be distributed to.  We only accept feeds from Property Management Software programs and other web partners who have a dedication to maintaining quality listings, preventing scams, and ensuring the availability status is updated in a timely manner.  We currently accept feeds from sources including RentalHomePros, AppFolio, Buildium, DIY Real Estate Solutions, HeroPM, Promas, Property Boss, PropertyWare, RentBits, RentShout, FloridaRentalAds, and more.  We allow sites including Oodle, RentBits, and GoogleBase to re-post our listings.  If you are using a software system, database, or website and would like to know if you can automatically update rental listings on our HomeTownRent platform through your existing provider, contact us for more information.

What’s Next?

While we’ve made a lot of exciting changes, we’re equally excited about he changes to come.  We have a lot on our plate, including integration of more listing distribution to other quality websites, more resources for renters and property managers, a free renter’s account to get updated on the newest listings, a mobile version of our websites, call tracking, and much more.  We’d love to hear your feedback on what you’d like to see us improve upon next.  Just contact us and brainstorm away!

We look forward to continuing to serve your rental and advertising needs in an even more effective and efficient manner in the years to come!

Regards,
The HomeTownRent Team

There are three general guest policies you can adopt: no policy, a strict policy, or a flexible policy.

No Policy

If you decide to go without a policy, be prepared!  While you may not want to restrict your freedom in your own house, you must realize that when a conflict arises it is partly your fault for not setting some ground rules.  Do not be surprised when you cannot watch your favorite TV show because the guest is constantly playing video games or when you find yourself wondering if the guest uses more utilities than you do.  A lack of “policy” tends to encourage rather than discourage the “guest-roommate effect.”

Flexible Policy

A flexible policy allows you to set guidelines without outlining every little detail.  The policy could be interpreted for each situation.  For example, you might suggest that whoever invited the guest to your house or apartment is responsible for cleaning up after them or that you only offer guests your own food.  This policy allows you and your guests to have a good time while respecting the space of your roommate.

Strict Policy

A strict policy will help you and your roommate(s) know exactly how to handle guests.  You may declare everything from how long a guest may stay to where a guest is allowed to hang out in your apartment or home.  Can a guest stick around after the housemate who invited them has left for work or school?  After how many showers should a guest chip in for utilities?  On what nights are guests allowed to sleep over?  If someone finds a partner they want to see all the time, could they “move in” and start paying rent, or are there limits to how often the partner can stay over.  Keep in mind using a strict policy will limit not only your roommate’s guests but also your own guests!

Whether your policy is extreme or somewhere in between is all up to you.  Just remember, the policy you choose can determine the degree of the “guest-roommate effect” you experience.  Of course you should also make sure your lease doesn’t prohibit parties before you invite everyone you know over to your place!

Sarah Emmerth, HomeTownRent.com

Living on your own for the first time is an exciting part of growing up, but don’t let new-found responsibilities stress you out. Here are five simple ways to keep your lights on, your water running and your landlord happy…

1. Plan ahead: Talk to your landlord before your lease starts and clarify when he or she needs the rent each month, how he or she wants it paid, and what his or her late policy is.
2. Give yourself a deadline: Turn your rent in a couple of days early, so if something goes wrong you can still get your rent in on time.
3. Collaborate with your roommates: If utilities are not included in your rental agreement, decide how to split and pay them before your lease starts.
4. Do your research: Read through your lease carefully to find out your property manager’s policy on parking, pets, yard care, house maintenance, guests, and other important issues.
5. Get insured… or not: Renter’s insurance isn’t required by law, but many renters look into it to protect their property from theft and damages, and themselves from claims if someone gets injured in their homes.

While these five tips aren’t the only things first-time renters should know; they are a great foundation to help you start you rental ventures smoothly.

Sara Creef, HomeTownRent.com

The conference where you get the most home for your dollar is the Mid American Conference, or MAC.  The towns in which you’ll find MAC schools include Kalamazoo, Michigan (KalamazooRent.com); Akron, Ohio (AkronRent.net); and Muncie, Indiana (MuncieRent.com).  These are lovely towns to live in and raise a family, but lacking in major draws to outsiders aside from the colleges themselves, causing them to fall under the radar of many investors looking for a safe, stable environment for their hard earned cash.  And not only do college towns tend to have excellent medical and educational systems in place, they also maintain a high level of culture without having to be in such a large metropolitan area.

On the flip side, this can be unfortunate for people in search of a comfortable and affordable place to live.  Many public universities have suffered from continual belt-tightening in recent years, leaving many without funds to upgrade or build more dorms and other housing units. As a result, these college centered towns have large populations of young people in need of affordable housing with flexibility and mobility.

As the percentage of young people heading to college reaches a historical high, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pool of potential renters does nothing but grow, increasing demand for existing rental stock and opening opportunities for future development. American Campus Communities (ACC) has demonstrated that the larger Real Estate Investment Trusts can make a healthy return in college towns, and so can individual property investors.

College town investors may anticipate nightmares when it comes to actually managing their properties.  They are unable to shake mental images of keg parties and vomit on the carpets.  While you do face unique risks leasing to young students, property managers also have the option to rent to faculty, visiting professors, and graduate students, many of whom have families with little desire to play beer pong until 2 o’clock in the morning.  Furthermore, if as a property manager, you decide to rent to undergraduate students, there are caveats within the lease that can be added for you protection, such as requiring parent co-signers or higher initial security deposits.

Most importantly, in college towns like Akron, Ohio, the cost of living is approximately 39% lower than in a city like Los Angeles, meaning that if you make $50,000 a year in L.A., you’ll only have to make about $30,000 in Akron to maintain the same lifestyle.  With prices in the housing market bound to increase as the nation slowly pulls out of the recession, overall, one of the most stable options with the greatest potential for investors or prospective property managers is to head back to school.

Ashley Edwards, HomeTownRent.com

Property management companies have to be sharper and more efficient.  Reaching the younger, and therefore more likely to rent, consumer meant becoming more technologically savvy. Even a decade ago, the rental market relied on newspaper classifieds, yard signs, and word of mouth advertising.  People turned to the internet when they had exhausted other options.  However, the internet is an integral part of the today’s renter’s everyday life.  As newspaper classifieds have fallen by the wayside, rental advertising sites like HomeTownRent have established themselves as mainstays within the market.

Companies like PropertyWare, Property Boss, HeroPM, and Buildium have simplified bookkeeping, kept logs of maintenance issues, and eased the stress of marketing for many property managers.   In an economy where everyone needs every dollar they can get, filling vacancies is a significant priority, and it’s an objective that cannot be fulfilled without a strong marketing scheme in place.

As a tech company, it is important that we stay on the cutting edge of any developments in the field, and the 2010 Southeast NARPM Conference provided us with a chance to do just that while building contacts with many influential and respected property managers from markets throughout the southeast. NARPM, or the National Association of Residential Property Managers, is an organization that promotes the professional and ethical practices of rental home management.

As HomeTownRent has become a major player in the world of online rental marketing, and continues to gain stronger footholds, we attend trade shows such as this one to network with property managers and bolster ties with listing syndication services, like Rental Home Pros. This allows us to efficiently serve the advertising needs of property managers in a constantly changing rental market, and thus enable renters to quickly find the perfect place to call home.

HomeTownRent.com also attended seminars on technology advances in the field of property management.  These seminars covered topics as varied as optimizing feeds from various property management software to how to make the most out of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.  Additionally, a lot of time was spent focusing on how property managers can enhance communications between themselves and consumers by improving the look and style of their personal webpages, using Skype for cheap and fast communication, and maintaining any video feeds for their own sites or sites like YouTube.

Overall, the weekend was a huge success for all involved.  The conference was beneficial from both marketing and educational perspectives, and strengthened ties between HomeTownRent and both its property management and technology partners, further establishing HomeTownRent as a leader in the rental advertising industry.

Ashley Edwards, HomeTownRent.com

When you live in one town for a long time, it’s easy to ignore how essential the people and infrastructure that you have become accustomed to really are.  While it’s easy to find a new grocery store or barber, it’s unlikely that your new barber will know how to trim your sideburns as perfectly as the last one.   The trappings of “home” are what we miss when we settle down in a new city, but it doesn’t have to be hard to feel at home in a new city. Here are a few tips that can help accelerate the acclimation process:

If only moving were really this easy!

• Hang pictures during your first week. Every house looks nice enough when you first move in, but the cold austerity of a new house can serve as a harsh reminder that you’re not at home anymore.  Pictures serve to remind you that you haven’t lost connections or relationships you hold dear, and can give you a sunny outlook on your future in a new town.
• Do your research. Recommendations from people who are familiar with your new surroundings on everything from coffee shops to dry cleaners, and looking on websites like yelp.com will help you build new relationships with confidence, which can take a huge burden off your mind during a stressful move.
• Get (kind of) lost.  Drive around and take in the city sights.  This will give you a good understanding of the feel of the city, and will also help you feel comfortable navigating around your new city as you come to see which streets connect and intersect with one another.
• Make detailed plans. This is the flip side of “getting lost”.  Knowing exactly how far apart places are or how long it takes to get from place to place is crucial when it comes time to get the kids to school or arrive at important meetings on time, so practice routes that you’ll have to travel frequently.
• Subscribe to the local paper before you move.  Even if its just for 3 months, getting the local paper delivered (and picking up the free weekly) It’s a quick way to feel involved, and might provide easy conversation topics as you meet new people.

It’s never easy to alter so many aspects of your life, and there may even be a point during your move when you consider throwing in the towel and staying where you are.  Though it can be overwhelming at times, handling a big transition like a move can be made better if you just add a little touch of home.

Nicholas is only the most recent renter who emailed us in frustration, having lost money to a scammer listing on a competitor’s site:

“I am letting you know of a fraud property owner going by the name Steve Lamberti. He is using the email slambertiapt@live.com. He scammed me for $2500 on a Honolulu, Hi rental condo. I was scammed due to Rentals.com already knowing about this guy and not monitoring their site properly and allowing this guy to put his listing up on their site.”

Not only was Mr. Lamberti’s fraudlent Honolulu listing showing up on Rentals.com, but on dozens of other sites.  Even after Nicholas notified the sites of this fraud, the scam listing stayed up for many days.  As of the writing of this article, we found yet another scam listing active on Rentals.com posted by Steve Lamberti.  Is Rentals.com leaving renters to the mercy of scam artists?

Scam Rental Listing found Active on Rentals.com

Nicholas wrote to us that “I am also very willing to voice my horrible opinion of Rentals.com, and how they do not treat these fraud matter seriously…..they still have an active listing for this guy even though I have called them 4 or 5 times now!”

Rentals.com writes on their Consumer Alert page that “While the majority of listings on Rentals.com are legitimate, please be aware that certain individuals post property rental listings on Rentals.com to scam potential renters.”  We challenge them and all rental websites to strive for zero scams.  It can be done.

A Growing Wave of Online Rental Scams

2009 and 2010 have seen a huge surge in the number and sophistication of online rental scams.  Since January, we’ve heard stories from dozens of renters who each lost hundreds or thousands of dollars to rental scammers on various rental websites.  The danger is real, and people are being defrauded.  Don’t let this happen to you!

There are 3 big components to the wave of rental scams.

1. First, scammers are using the profileration of online rental advertising and classified sites to post fake rental listings.
2. Second, the difficulty of prosecution coupled with the thoughtlessness of many rental websites regarding the quality of their listings puts all renters at risk.
3. Third, the growing dynamic of data feeds, listing syndication and aggregation are expanding the reach of scammers.

Don't Get Caught in a Rental Scam! (Image Courtesy of the FBI)

Scammers are Everywhere: Are you Safe?

 We’ve found scam listings on Craigslist, Rentals.com, and hundreds of other rental sites. While Craigslist is by far the biggest offender, and free sites tend to attract their fair share, scammers have managed to infiltrate even paid services. We’ve had our share of attempted scammers, and have put in place rigorous and aggressive measures to keep them off of our sites.  And in doing so, we’ve learned most of their tricks:

Scam artists rarely give a working phone number. If they do list a phone number it often goes to a strange sounding voicemail, one which sounds like it was set up by a computer or has the voice of an “operator” explaining the person is not available.  If you cannot ever reach a property manager by phone, don’t even bother communicating with them.

Though certain email addresses raise suspicion, many scammers use email addresses which on the surface seem legitimate, such as brycerental@hotmail.com.  Yahoo, Hotmail, Live.com, and Gmail figure prominently among scam email providers.  One scammer, going by the name john Streicker, had his own website, americarealtyowners.info, which sounds good but isn’t a working site or a real business.

Many times, the rental listing posted by a scammer looks legit. Likely, they are simply cutting and pasting real information about a property, whether or not it is available.  They often lower the price so it seems too good to be true, like a 3 BR for $800 in New York.

A classic email communication from a scammer tells the renter to send a money order or wire transfer of funds to cover the deposit and/or first month’s rent, along with personal information, and then promises to mail the keys to the renter.

Hello ,
Thank you again for your reply .If you are ready to proceed with this transaction I must tell you how this service works and what we need to do.
You have to deposit to the RENT service the first month of rent-$1200 and a security deposit of $1200, so they can proceed with the shipping of the keys and the contract. Like I said, I will pay for two days delivery so you’ll receive the Keys and the contract signed by me right away. I will explain you step by step how this service work.

Basically, if you cannot reach a property manager or landlord by phone, and if they cannot meet you with keys to show you the unit, they are trying to scam you. Any property owner or manager who is really out of the country or unable to take calls should have a management company or business associate able to meet you, and you should always make sure to verify that they are the legitimate owners or managers for the property.

Scam Prevention on Rental Websites

Identifying scammers and fraudulent listings is really quite easy for advertising sites like Rentals.com and Craigslist… but thus far, these and many others do not seem to be fully proactive in addressing this growing problem.  Here at HomeTownRent, we believe that maintaining quality is not just good business sense, but our responsibility to renters and property managers alike.  The following steps have allowed us to stop the vast majority of scammers from listing on our sites:

1. Rental website operators should have human staff call every person who sets up an account to add a rental listing.  The vast majority of scammers use a phone number with a fishy sounding voicemail (for example, one provisioned by some online telephone number service – try calling 206-600-5633 for an example), someone else’s number entirely, or one that doesn’t even work.  Website operators should call new accounts even on paid services – there are some scammers who use stolen credit card numbers to be able to post listings on websites which charge property managers.
2. Deactivate any listing that is not associated with a legitimate phone number. Many sites, including ours, do not mandate that a lister post a phone number with a listing.  But we should all mandate a working, legitimate phone number to be able to set up an account and post a listing.
3. Block the account holder from using their account until they reply to a confirmation email which requires them to provide a working phone number.  (Some responses to these confirmation emails that includes a phone number is from a real person who is legit – usually, they miss-typed their original number, or had not configured their voicemail).

There are many other ways that advertising sites can weed out a portion of scam listings: sending emails with a link to activate accounts, moderating any listing where the price per bedroom is way below market rate, blocking foreign IP addresses, and so on.  But only real staff time (not an automated system) devoted to calling everyone who creates an account to add a listing is the sure fire way to protect a rental website, and the renters who use it, from becoming a haven for scammers and fraudulent house and apartment listings.

Giving Scammers a Free Megaphone?

Sadly, when a scam artist posts a fraudlent listing on one site, that scam listing may very quickly be exported to hundreds of other websites. This process, often referred to as listing distribution, syndication, feeding, or aggregation, means that poor quality can very quickly get around.  HomeTownRent listings are picked up by Oodle and other aggregators, so if we did not catch a scammer on our site, they would quickly end up everywhere. The graph below illustrates the continued growth in online rental scams, helped in part by wider distribution of listings that were never checked by the originating website.

Online Rental Scams are a Growing Threat (Source: RentalScams.org)

Unfortunately, with so many free and paid rental classified services NOT doing their part to maintain quality, catch and block scammers, and deactivate suspect listings, the powerful tools of listing distribution give scammers a free megaphone to defraud even more renters.  If you suspect that a website you visit has scam listings, let them know you expect more, and vote with your clicks – search elsewhere!

Yours in Stopping Scam and Protecting Renters,

HomeTownRent