Product Description

Take a look through the Forbes annual issue of the richest Americans, and you will find a majority of those personal fortunes have something to do with real estate. Real estate rental income rarely experiences wild swings in value, instead providing predictable returns at many times the rate of money market accounts or CDs. In addition, there can be substantial tax advantages as well. However, being the “landlord” can be difficult, time consuming, and potentially wrought with financial and legal obstacles. This new book will make the process of managing your rental properties easier. This new book and companion CD-ROM will teach you how to avoid headaches, hassles, and lawsuits by learning how to professionally manage your rental property. Maximize your profits and minimize your risks. Learn about advertising, tenant screening, managing tenants, legal rights, landlord rights, discrimination, vacancies, essential lease clauses, crime prevention, drugs, gangs, security issues, as well as premises liability, security deposits, handling problems, evictions, maintenance, recordkeeping, and taxes. The CD-ROM contains dozens of forms, sample contracts, letters, notices, rental applications, agreements and checklists. It includes topics such as evicting irresponsible tenants, collecting damages, running multiple properties, handling complaints, emergency procedures, expenses, and utility management. We spent thousands of hours interviewing and e-mailing real estate property managers and investors. This book is a compilation of their secrets and proven successful ideas. If you are interested in learning hundreds of hints, tricks, and secrets on how to make money (or more money) on managing your rental properties, then this book is for you. Instruction is great, but advice from experts is even better, and the experts chronicled in this book earn $1,000 to $300,000 per month managing rental properties. Inside the pages of this new exhaustively researched guide you will find a jam-packed assortment of innovative ideas that you can put to use today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16108 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"...this book is chocked full of important considerations before making your decision." -- Susan Gordon, Past president, National Association of Residential Property Managers

"...this book is chocked full of important considerations before making your decision." --Susan Gordon, Past president, National Association of Residential Property Managers

About the Author
Jamaine is a freelance writer that spent more than sixteen years as an Operations Research Systems Analyst for the U.S. Army. Her research skills, combined with knowledge acquired from a good friend who personally acquired, held and managed more than 80 properties at any given time, were used to research and document the material presented in this book.

Customer Reviews

Make Yourself a Professional
I have a few rental properties that I've managed myself over the years, with some success, but I was looking to do better and acquired Jamaine Burrell's book to get some pointers. Her book, The Rental Property Manager's Toolbox does the trick!

The "Toolbox" has all the advice, tips, forms, and sample letters that one could possibly need to make the transition from an "amateur" rental property manager, like me, to a professional. I can see a number of areas in which I have not taken the best approach in the past (especially regarding unsupervised children) and believe that, following Burrell's advice, I can not only be a more effective manager but make more money too.

The book covers all the bases, including financial and legal issues, property acquisition options, advertising, finding and screening potential tenants, tenant problem and complaint management, and property sale, and also includes a CD with all of the forms discussed in the book. This is a great resource for anyone intending to get into property management or for anyone, like me, who has been managing properties without the benefit of professional advice.

very good but lacking...
The Rental Property Manager's Toolbox is very well written and a very nearly complete book for new landlords, but not quite. As a new and unwilling landlord this book was a great & definite help in overcoming a very steep learning curve and a great deal of ignorance on my part. But having said that, where's the lease? A number of forms are included but there is no boilerplate lease. Also, on page 152 under credit history no mention is given of any of the numerous websites that one can purportedly get credit information on prospective tenants. I had to take my chances on what I could find out myself and talked to two professional property managers, neither of whom get credit reports either. I had to go to a lawyer software program for 1 or 2 other items as well. A solid 4 star however!

A Rental Management Must
This book is written for those who are currently involved in the search for and ownership of rental property. The chapter dedicated to acquiring rental property covers financing and loans, various types of mortgage loans, other types of finance, and what to look for during a pre-purchase inspection. The chapter also stresses the importance of finding the right real estate agent, lawyer, accountant, and financial advisor.

Also included with the purchase of the book is a CD-ROM featuring pre-written forms, agreements, letters, and legal notices. Samples of the documents are also included in the book, such as a tenant information letter and a rental agreement violation letter. Legal documents are often intimidating and difficult to understand in one reading. I found the inclusion of these documents allowed me to review, research, and understand each document at my own pace.

The information presented in this book will allow a rental property manager to become pro-active rather than reactive, preventing small problems from becoming sticky situations. I recommend this book to anyone involved in the rental property management industry interested in simplifying and streamlining their business.