How's the market in LEHIGH ACRES?

Interesting question and one that seems to come up daily at least once.  I always quickly answer with a resounding - great!  I think it is the place to invest in real estate. Prices are outstanding, insurance rates and taxes are reasonable, we will rent the home for you and guarantee it.  Positive cash flow!  What more can you ask?  It is a win win!  Then look at that this is SW FL. Who doesn't want to live in FL?  If not now, later. We are a growing community that has plenty of room for the growth. What does it all spell- SUCCESS!

The only thing left is to hook up with a Good, honest, aggressive real estate company looking out for your best interests along with property management that does the rest to make a super successful relationship complete.

We want to be that for you!  We at AAA Realty LLC are here to show you how you can be successful.  Whether it be buying, selling or property management, we have experts waiting to help.

So to answer the  question of "how is the Lehigh market"?  Iwill again say, there is no better time to buy.

For more information on our services, the homes we have listed or our property management services, go to http://www.aaarealtyllc.com

Cheers for now

TAMMY

Brand New Marketing Kiosk- unbelievable

We have been excited about the addition of this to our Storefront in our Lehigh Acres office. 
It is a 24/7 marketing MONSTER.  Using a tecnology that is unbelievable, anyone can walk up to our window in a very busy shopping center and watch on a 32" screen any property that we have listed either for rent or for sale.  WOW!  We are super excited about this new technology that we have purchased for AAA Realty. 

Whether someone wants to watch a visual tour right there and then if they want to have the info on the property or someone contact them, they can choose to have it sent to either their phone or email and can ask for someone to contact them immediately to get more info on the property.

This is an idea of what our windo looks like at night.  There are spots for sponsors, listings and the system in the middle.  This makes for a 24/7 operating kiosk.

Interested in listing your home with us?  We also list all our rental properties on this kiosk.  No one else out there that we know of is doing this.  How's that for "More Technology- Less Corporate Nonsense" We don't just say it.  And here is the proof.

Give us a call today to see how this can help sell your home, or if you are a vendor that would be interested in partnering with us, we provide a visual ad as well as a lit up 8 1/2 X 11" ad that pops.

Check us out of the web at http://www.aaarealtyllc.com/ or give us a call at 239-368-8520 for more information on this new marketing machine.

For Now,

Tammy Rodriguez
Broker/Owner
AAA Realty LLC

Air Conditioning Service before the Summer Heat

We want to talk about AC service.  In South West Florida, there is no more of a need then before the summer sweltering heat hits to service your AC.  I like to compare it to changing the oil in your car.  If you don't keep the important upkeep items on your car up to date, you stand the chance of breaking down, costly repairs and unnecessary expenses.  It's the same thing for your AC at home.  During the cooler months, when the AC cooling system is not used, the gas sits in the systems dormant.  This can cause condensation to form in the system and well as microscopic holes that are in the AC system piping gets larger and creates small amount of loss of the gas refrigerant.  This in turn needs to be replaced or it can cause some damage and/or freezing of the system and may cause a repair as an emergency when the tenant calls to report no air conditioning in the middle of the night.  After all, we never get that call during the day when it would be most convenient or less costly.  It's after the tenant gets home, and a few hours go by and then they wonder why it's so hot in the house and finally call us at 10 or 11pm for an "emergency". 

So what should be done to "service" this equipment.  In most cases the central AC units is a split system which simply means that there is two pieces of equipment, one outside (the condensor) and one inside (the air handler).  The outside condensor is where the gas is charged in the system and is where the compresor is located.  There is a coil that has fins on them that help dissipate the heat.  These fins need to be cleaned.  This system is located outside so the landscaper mowing the lawn and all the dust and dirt that is stirred up naturally outside gets in these fins.  They need to be cleaned for the system to operate properly.  This is where a lot of leaks occur also so checking for leaks here is prudent during the ac service.  Then inside the home, the second part of the system (air handler) is mounted.  It can be either up in the attic crawl space, in the garage mounted high or sometimes is in a closet in the home somewhere.  Here is where blower motor, another coil, contactor is located.  These really get dirty here and if not maintained will break down the system and most likely a costly repair.

A service to the AC includes checking for leaks, top off the freon, clean the inside and outside coils, cleaning and checking out contacts, etc and then changing out the filters. This would be what consists of a basic service.  There may be times that the freon needs to be reclaimed and a leak fixed and then there may be a little more involved.

This necessary service is needed twice a year optimally but never less than once per year.  Now is that time and we encourage all our owners to get this service now.  We offer it at a special price of $129.00

What Is Involved In Tenant Placement?

To expand upon my last post about "What Do I Get For The Property Management Fee" I will now cover what you are paying for and why it is worth every penny we charge.

After we have an agreement in place for Property Management:

1. We send out an inspector to complete a Pre-tenant inspection. This compresensive report includes all items that are needed to have the home "tenant ready". 
2. We will coordinate any work that is needed based on that report.
3. A visual tour is created for the property.
4. A individual Marketing Plan is developed for your property.
5. The property is placed in our showing book, website and all of the items in the marketing plan will be put in place.
6. Two real estate agents are in place daily at our office to be available to talk to any inquires that come by phone or walk in.  Our agents are the only ones that will show a property.  We never did or ever will send a potential tenant out to a home with a key or a lock box code to a home.  
7. Prior to showing your property, a pre-tenant screening is done with the potential tenant to verbally make sure they pass our minimum standards for a tenant. 
8. Once they pass that screening, our agent will make an appointment to show the property.
9. Protential tenant is given a showing form to fill out telling us about the showing, whether they liked the home, what they liked or disliked about the home and what we could do if anything to get them to put a deposit on that home immediately.  
10. The showing form is used to complete a weekly recap email that is sent to owner weekly with possible ideas to further market or make a change to price or place an incentive for the property.
11. Once a good potential tenant is found, they pay an application fee, and place a deposit on the home.
12. Potential tenant must have a local current ID.  No out of state licences or ID's are accepted.  If someone is moving to the area, they must change their ID prior to moving in the home.
13. A very thourough tenant screening takes place including credit and criminal checks, previous landlord check, job verification.  
14. If a pet is allowed, proof of county registration, up to date shots and a meet and greet is scheduled with the dog to take pictures of the animal to keep on file and to assure the dog is not nasty.
15. Once and if the tenant passes our Resident Selection Criteria, we contact you for final approval of the tenant which must be in writing to move forward.
16. At this time a move-in date is scheduled at least 48 hours after tenant places and we verify that all utillities are placed in the tenants name.
17. Prior to move in all adults over 18 must watch a movie at our office that explains how to care for the home and what is expected of the tenant while living in one of our managed homes.
18. A lease is prepared by our attorney and lease and other paperwork is signed by tenants after we have signature from owner or I have POA to sign on behalf of owner.
19. A compresensive move in inspection is preformed with tenant at the home with pictures and then the keys are handed over to the tenants.

We don't cut corners.  Each property we place goes through this process.  After years of experience, we have found that this system is what works best and our marketing programs are second to none.  We will be happy to answer any additional questions you might have.  Check us out on the web at http://www.aaarealtyllc.com/ or call us at 239-368-8520 in Lehigh, 239-985-9649 in Fort Myers or toll free at 1-888-243-1720

What Exactly Do You Get For Your Monthy Property Management Fees

This is a question that we get asked a lot. I always chuckle inside but because we get asked so much, I will try to do my best to cover what we do as a property management company. I will do my best to scratch the surface. Here we go:
1.  We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for calls for emergencies. We  pay someone just to be available for emergencies, even if they don't go out or have an emergency they have to be compensated.
2.  We utilize a web based property management program. This costs several hundred dollars a month just for utilizing this program.
3.  We pay someone to manage the accounts financials as well as service requests and all monies that flow in and out of the accounts. This person also spends a great bit of time organizing for repairs, getting prices, getting approvals from owners, explaining explaining explaining when the endless questions are asked from the owners, the tenants, our maintenance staff and management.
4. Someone tirelessly works the phones to forward to the appropriate staff member to take care of.  We just expanded our phone system to 6 lines. We don't want to miss a call so we need to have that up and running efficiently.
5. Another Real Estate Licensed staff member is working diligently processing potential tenants making sure nothing gets missed from being uncovered to accomplish a full screening process. We are licensed directly from TransUnion to pull credit and background checks. This is in itself can be a separate business.  This same licensed staff member is keeping up with the expiration dates on your contracts and leases and has a very strict process to follow to meet specific deadlines so that all parties are protected. They also work with our agency attorney to complete new leases, non compliance with lease issues etc.
6.  We utilize and pay a staff member to keep a 3 month inspection calender organizing, making appointments and scheduling these very important aspect for inspecting the interior of the properties.  This is another web based program that prints out field notes, an inspector is assigned to go to the property utilize the field notes filling in the blanks of this 8 to 13 page report along with pictures. Then inspector uploads the pictures and the field notes are filled in on the official report that is now sent to the owner as well as kept on file. Now if items need to be cared for the maintenance manager staff member needs to coordinate the work with owner, repair staff or sub-contractor to take care of issues. If the tenant is in non-compliance of the lease, a notice needs to be sent out personally.  We don't send out notices without also a witness so two staff members go out to serve these notices.
7.  When a new tenant moves in and at the time of move out, a very comprehensive move in and move out report are generated and completed with pictures to back up and is part of the report. This is to assure there is little to dispute if damages occur.
8.  A staff member takes payments over the counter and over 3/4 of the tenants we serve, pay this way. If payments are not made by the 5th of the month, we issue three day notices that must be delivered by two staff members personally so there is nothing to give the tenant a way of extending a possible eviction saying they never got the notice. We have a witness to the fact it was in fact delivered. If they don't pay and owner wishes to complete with an eviction, we will work with our attorney to move in that direction, putting together all of the information together the information the attorney requests.
9. If a tenant abandons a property or voluntarily gives the keys and moves out, we must go out several times to assure the security of the property, check to see if they left, talk to neighbors to see if they can enlighten us with information and do the best we can to protect your property.
Additionally we have all the overhead expenses of an office, employees to carry out these things above, insurances, vehicles to accomplish the above. We have not covered tenant placement in this blog so we will address that in a future blog.
For more information on AAA Realty LLC and our property management services go to http://www.aaarealtyllc.com

Make sure you buy in the right area

If you are going to buy and rent until you decide to move here, you want to involve your property manager. Location is a very important factor for many reasons.  If you are buying as a srick investment property, even more so its important to involve your property manager in the process.

Lehigh Acres is the place I have called home for the past 12 years so I write with some expertise on the area. I have offices in both Fort Myers as well as in Lehigh acres. My children have attended schools in both Lehigh and Fort Myers. My heart is in SW Florida. I believe it to be pardise living. Only 30 to 40 minutes from some of the most beautiful beaches and not to mention the 900 golf courses that reside here. Lastly a very cool addition to the outskirt of Lehigh in Fort Myers is a brand new spring training stadium is underway for the Boston Red Sox. 

Choosing SW FL as your new home or place to invest is in my opinion, a great one. Finding the right person/company to help you with your decisions is just plain a smart move. Its what we do. We rent homes and condos and we do it well. We know the areas that rent better, faster and for the best return. We can assist you with thay whole process. Wouldn't it be worth it to you to have that knowledge before you purchase?  You have it. Just give us a call or email us or check us out on the web. You won't be disappointed

Cheers for now,
Tammy Rodriguez
Aaa Realty LLC
239-368-8520
Http://www.aaarealtyllc.com
Trodriguez@aaarealtyllc.com

We Need Rental Properties!

After just placing over 20 homes in the last 30 days, we are desperate for more homes to rent.  This sounds like a good problem to have but actually from our standpoint, it is not.  We have done a steller job of marketing our properties and have between 50-75 leads calling and emailing us daily for rental properties and we are having to turn them away.  That is not a good position to be in for us.  We are seeking properties that are ready for move in so that we can fill the need. 

Our system of marketing is second to none.  You can check us out on the web at http://www.aaarealtyllc.com/ for more information.

Cheers for now,
Tammy Rodriguez
Broker/owner  AAA Realty LLC