Tenants and landlords often ask what the market rent is in a given area.

They can easily find the information on this free handy website.*

Type in an address across the country and it will provide an estimate of what approximate comparable rents are.

I have tried it in my area of Brevard County Florida and found it to be pretty accurate.

*Please remember, a Realtor is your best source of the most up to date market info on your local area.

This article is authored by

Sandy Shores, Brevard County Real Estate

Brevard County Real Estate Investing

Melbourne Florida Real Estate News

There are some people who are cut out to be landlords and others who purchase investment property who will find it stressful, time consuming, and much more work than they had ever imagined.  Before you invest money and effort in the purchase of rental property you should test your own expectations against the following list of Landlord characteristics.

 Enough capital to prevent a feeling of anxiety.  Owners who must have a tenant within thirty days will accept an applicant without running the proper credit or criminal checks;  Procrastinate making needed repairs; Try to include repair clauses in there lease; And hold onto a tenant far past the time when you should have filed for eviction.  If you need the rent to pay the first months mortgage, you are living too close to the edge.

Don’t be a controller.  There are many tenants who pay the rent regularly who do not maintain a property as you would.  This may include cleanliness, life style, family composition, or work ethic.  As long as they are not violating the terms of the agreement, owners/landlords do not have the authority to enter the property and interfere with the tenant use of the property.  Even if you find their actions are in violation of the agreement, you must go through proper channels to remove them in order to avoid legal liability.

Quick to do repairs.  If you are slow to live up to your responsibilities as a landlord expect that your tenant will return the favor and be slow to pay the rent. 

Be organized.  Landlords will need to keep track of leases, repairs, expenses, rent, telephone numbers, applications.  This is especially important in a court action.

If your profile doesn’t reflect that of a good landlord, call us at CENTURY 21 Hecht Realty property management for professional property management to help with your investment property.

I originally added the paragraph below to the Rental Info page on this site – but I wanted to put it in a blog as well.

BEWARE OF RENTAL SCAMS! This blog post from a real estate agent on ActiveRain tells of how some scammer stole pictures from one of his listings and posted it on CraigsList. The scammer was pretending to be a relative of the owner, supposedly a soldier suddenly deployed to Iraq who needs someone to live in the house.

Would-be victims are encouraged to drive by the property, and if it’s suitable, send the money to the relative “handling” it for the soldier and they’ll mail you the keys.

Be very very careful – and though I have not yet heard of this happening here in Northeast PA, it’s only a matter of time before some crook thinks it’s a great idea, especially with the surge in people looking to rent.

I would encourage you to only consider units where the landlord or person working for the landlord is able to meet you on site and show you the property.

Thank you, Geoff Scowcroft for this heads up!