All Forum Posts by: Tucker Smith

 Hi Joey,

I have actually spoken with the founder of ISCscreening multiple times, and they are the real deal. They actually call local court houses to pull records and verify their initial soft check. My company has used them a fair amount, and have not had any problems thus far. That being said, I don't think your decision about which company you use will make or break you as long as you go with a company with a good service record.

You can set your qualification standards (credit score, minimum monthly income, etc.), but once you set them in stone you are obligated by law to select the first qualified application you receive as per the fair housing laws. You cannot even discriminate against the applicant's source of income. My suggestion is to pick standards that you are comfortable with so that you can confidently accept applications from anyone who meets them.

Hope this helps!

Hi @Joey Arata,

It seems everyone has already covered most of the basics, and at the end of the day it will be up to you to learn the subtle nuances of landlording (some, unfortunately, by trial and error). That being said you should still strive to work smarter instead of harder, so I thought I could provide you with a few useful online tools to get you started in the right direction.

1) www.mapliv.com is a nifty tool that can give you a solid idea of how much money your property could bring in each month. Essentially it scrapes craigslist listings and puts them on a map of the area surrounding your property. It sorts them out based on size, price, and location in regards to your property. It is a great place to start, but should not be the sole tool used to set your rent rate because it neglects interior upgrades, size of the lot, etc. I'd recommend starting with it to get an idea, then cross checking by identifying the quality of other properties (meaning interior upgrades and proximity to transportation/shopping centers) by viewing the actual listings and pictures. Keep in mind that it is not uncommon to adjust the rent rate based on the amount of interest you receive, so don't be afraid to adjust it once the listing is posted.

2) postlets.com is a great way to blast your listing out to over a dozen different listing sites, including craigslist, trulia, zilllow, and hotpads. You make one, uniform listing and it will be on the other sites usually within 24 hours of completing it.

3) tenantify.com is a popular tenant screening service, charging only $15.00 for a background and income check. That being said there are a ton of these services online so I would recommend researching them yourself to see which fits your needs the best. When doing this check to see if they are instant services providing soft background/credit checks, or if they are providing more thorough hard checks like iscscreening.com.

4) Here is a link to the national Fair Housing Laws, which I strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with. Not knowing little details such as the illegality of discriminating against an applicant's source of income can lead to big problems down the road.

I hope these tools are as useful to you as they have been for me in the past.

Good Luck!

I came across this Ted Talk by Rory Sutherland that explains how advertising creates perceived value as opposed to actual value for a product.

http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_less...

Understanding the power of perceived value is crucial for parties on both sides of an advertised deal. Sellers get the most out of their ads when they convey to the consumer how the product can add value to their lives, as opposed to showing the value of the product itself. On the other hand buyers need to be conscious of the reality that ads will never change the product, but clever ones change how we value it.

Advertising is everywhere in the realm of real estate, and knowing how it works will lead to smarter decision making, and ultimately success. Consider this as food for thought and think about how you are affected in your sector of the real estate world by advertisements. 

Going off of what Dawn said, long distance trust with a property manager is developed through full transparency. This includes updates on any work orders, rent collection, and periodic pictures of the property. Often times a good property manager is the only factor that stops investors from buying out of state, so if you do invest in SC be sure that you are kept in the loop.