Green Residential
Styles come and go. Design trends fade, then re-emerge. Technology innovates and iterates.
When you’re a homeowner, improvements, renovations, remodels, and additions enable you to keep your house up-to-date and functional. You may also generally assume that such tinkering will enhance the value upon resale. But this isn’t always the case.
Land is a scarce commodity, but there are always vacant lots and acreage available for purchase in the Houston area. Whether you want a half-acre lot in a residential neighborhood or a hundred-acre farm outside of Katy, you have options. But there’s a lot more to purchasing land than meets the eye.
Home ownership is a huge responsibility that entails a unique set of challenges as well as opportunities. Though there are plenty of advantages in owning a piece of real estate that you may assume will increase in value as time passes, the house won’t take care of itself.
In order to maintain and increase its value — as well as maximize your own enjoyment — you’ll have to perform some home improvement projects on occasion.
Southern cities are popular with short-term tenants, particularly older “snow birds” who flock to warmer climes, but whether you want to attract snow birds to your properties or hope to reach a broader group of short-term tenants, you need to leverage your location. But what attracts travelers to your location? By learning to see your city through the eyes of an outsider, you can identify the attractions that will draw visitors to your properties.
When you’re a homeowner, you can update your residence in any way you like. But just because you can picture an update, that doesn’t mean you should do it. Every renovation you make should be calculated to raise your property value, at least if you want to sell your home someday and land on your feet. However, some home renovations don’t add the value homeowners expect them to.In fact, some updates can actually lower the value of your property. Here are a few you may want to avoid.
You should take great pride in your rental investment. You’ve spent a lot of time, money, and research to find a good Houston property, so hiring a well-qualified property manager to take care of it will set you up for either success or failure.
At Green Residential, we’d like you to hire us as your property managers, but we also want you to be totally satisfied with your decision. Thus, as you interview various candidates and compare your options, ask the following questions first, so you’ll know you’re making the right choice.
As a landlord, how close should you be with your tenants? This is a point of significant contention among real estate professionals, as well as between individual landlords and their tenants, but the general consensus is that the relationship should be professional. Certainly landlords want to be liked and know some person information about their tenants – it’s hard to have a good relationship with your tenants if you can’t ask about their kids or pets or just inquire about their weekend plans – but there need to be some barriers. It’s a fine line, and one that can be hard to navigate when it comes to multi-family properties.
If you’re considering purchasing an investment property, you might think about working with a partner—especially if you’re not personally experienced in property management or property buying. There are some strengths to a partnership arrangement in property management, but it isn’t always a good idea.
Before you decide to work with a partner, you should know exactly what you’re getting into.
Homebuyers tend to place a great deal of emphasis on the number of rooms in the houses they consider. It’s common for home descriptions to prioritize the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in the house, serving as a high-level assessment of the home’s functionality.
This makes sense as a concise description of the home. You can count on most homes having a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room, but the number of bedrooms and bathrooms is completely variable. Plus, the more people you have in your home, the more bedrooms and bathrooms you’ll need.
If you’re going to be profitable as a Houston landlord, you’ll need to have a clear idea of what your expenses are—and how much revenue you’ll be generating. But estimating expenses is more complicated than it seems at first, and if your calculations are off even slightly, it could spell ruin for your entire operation.