Cathy Wolter's Brevard County Real Estate & Property Mgmt Blog and more...: April 2014

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Should You Charge A Late Fee?

The lease that I use gives my tenants a three day grace period, before being charged a late fee. I tell my tenants that if they communicate with me and do what they say they will do, I may even be able to be a bit more flexible. Sometimes checks can get lost, or emergencies come up, so I have at times waived the late fee. As long as it does not become a habit and does not cause the owner's distribution to be delayed. In this way I differ from a lot of managers and might be considered too soft to some. I like to consider myself fair and flexible. Some of my tenants have been renting from me for years, cutting some slack sometimes can go a long way in keeping a good relationship with them.

I have had a couple of instances where a person started to take advantage and I quickly had to put a stop to it. I have a current tenant in a higher priced property that is late every month, and pays a large late fee and it works ok for the owner. He has a business and sometimes has to wait for his clients to pay and he always catches up. They take awesome care of the property and are easy to work with. Because this owner does not need the rent by a certain date to pay the mortgage, this situation works.

I have had this same situation with owners that need the money to pay their mortgage and it didn't work. That's why I don't believe in being inflexible or having a "blanket" type rule. Yes the late fee is due and payable after the three days, but sometimes collecting that fee, can end up costing the owner more than if we just let it go.

Three Bedroom Two Bath SW Palm Bay Rental Home

Three Bedroom Two Bath SW Palm Bay Rental Home

Address: 412 SW Lamon Street, Palm Bay, Florida 32908

Price: $1000 a month

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2

Living Space: 1,996 square feet

Enjoy Florida Living

Beautiful three bedroom two bath SW Palm Bay home, with a two car garage, maple cabinets, corian counter tops, open floor plan, kitchen island, office work station and much more. The master bath has his and her closets, dual sinks and designer tile. When you walk in the front door, you are greeted by a beautifully arched foyer entrance and an open airy floor plan. Relax on the screened in patio, in your quiet backyard and enjoy Florida living.

Palm Bay, Florida is a wonderful place to live. It is located in Southern Brevard County and is the most populated city in Brevard. There is lots to do in Palm Bay. You can enjoy shopping, numerous restaurants, parks and recreation and much more.

The following corporations are located in Palm Bay:

Some Things I Have Learned The Hard Way: People Are Very Understanding

I have been writing a series of posts about Some Things I Learned The Hard Way, (you can see Wolters Realty

the first two here and here), while I have been laid up with an illness. I am taking these lessons I have learned and am going to apply them to the way I do my business. This post is about one thing that I learned that really took me by surprise. Here it is: people are generally understanding.

I have not been able to talk on the phone for over a week and not one person that I have dealt with has had a problem with that. I have had communications with prospective new owners. Not one of them had a problem with communicating through email. I have had plenty of communication with current owners, one of those seemed to be a little impatient, and not understanding(and he is a Dr.) but my husband was able to talk to him and he was OK with that. He just wanted to talk to someone though, not necessarily me.

I have listed three properties; communicated with numerous tenants, rented one of those properties. I have done several CMAs for new properties, two of which disappointed owners who thought their properties would rent for a lot more, so I won't be listing those. But the owners didn't mind not being able to talk. I communicated with several other agents, who were understanding and sympathetic.

Everyone that I texted or emailed instead of called back and explained that I was sick and couldn't call them back; but could answer any questions, and get someone to unlock a property, but they couldn't answer any questions for them, they had to text any questions to me, was really understanding. I rented one property that way and may have rented another one that way today. The guy is supposed to meeting my husband tomorrow after work with an application and the money.

I was really surprised at how easy it was to just be honest with people and say" this is all I can do," and how easily they were not just OK, but even sympathetic. There were a couple of things I had to reschedule; twice I had to explain to an owner that I was going to have someone else do something I would normally do. It was fine. They were understanding and OK with it.

So I learned that people in general are understanding and can be flexible. If you ask for understanding, and are honest, you will probably get it. That's a pretty good thing to learn. I always believed that people were mostly good, but in this busy, everyone for themselves mentality world we sometimes live in, it's nice to know they are also understanding.

I think that learning this will help me in my business. I think I will bit less concerned about having to do everything myself, because they expect me. I may do things because they work better for me that way, not always the way I think the other person would want it done. I think that being honest with clients and other agents and everyone, about how much we can do, is better then getting stressed out because you may not be meeting their expectations. People are very understanding.

Some Things I Have Learned The Hard Way: Part Two

This is one of several blog posts I have written about having Asthmatic Bronchitis, the past week or so. In this post, I am sharing about my Dr. Visits, what the treatments have been and how they have helped. I got really sick due to combination or reasons, some of which I may have been able to prevent. Throughout this process I have learned a lot of lessons, that I do not intend to forget. My hope that sharing these posts, it will not only help me to remember, but might even help someone else to not get here in the first place.

So I decided to start organic gardening. You can read more about that here. I ran into some health problems, more about how it came about and why in posts to come. I waited too long to go to the Dr and did not take my health seriously and once I finally went to the Dr, I expected a quick fix.

When I first went to the Dr. I had been struggling with asthma for a couple of weeks, had a really bad sinus headache for a week or so, a sore throat and felt really weak. They said it was bronchitis and sinusitis. They put me on prednisone and antibiotics and I figured I would be fine by Monday. I wasn't, I was worse. It didn't helped that I worked a couple of hours on Saturday. I had to meet a new tenant with a key. My husband could have done it, but I figured I should do it. (You guessed it that thinking will be another blog post).

I went back to the Dr on Tuesday and they increased the prednisone and prescribed inhaled steroids as well. By that time I had some questions, since I was laid up all weekend I did some research, also had gotten some input from friends with recent episodes of bronchitis. Why wasn't I feeling better? Will doing this help? They explained that this was Asthmatic Bronchitis and that it was going to be hard to get over, because the pollen is the worst it has been in 30 years. I should stay indoors at all costs. I was to follow up with my primary care Dr in 2 days. That was Tuesday.

So two days later, I am at my primary care Dr. and I actually felt even worse. I got a breathing treatment, (a nebulizer) a shot of cortisone and instructions to do nebulizer treatments for two weeks, continue the prednisone, stay inside and avoid my dogs as much as I can, (they keep bringing more pollen in),use air purifiers, rest and comeback in two weeks. They said the cortisone would work really fast and I would have some relief soon, I didn't. It did keep me from sleeping that night.

It is now four days later, fourteen nebulizer treatments later, two full days later, that my dogs are being closed off on the other side of the house, and are very upset, as am I. It breaks my heart, they must think I don't want to see them. We have air purifiers running, my husband and my sister vacuumed everything, and then vacuumed it again. My breathing is still bad. I still cannot even have a conversation.

One thing that I learned this week is that there is nothing you can do about certain things, being sick is one of them. The only control I have over this situation is that I can do everything that the Doctors are telling me to do, no matter how frustrating it is. This lesson can hopefully stay with me and help me to have more patience when other situations come up, that I have no control over. I do pretty well with stress lately compared to a few years ago, but do tend to get upset by things I cannot control. I have no control over nasty people's attitude, so why let it upset me? I can't make someone respond to me in a timely manner, so why stress about it?

Things are going to happen as they are supposed to happen. My planning that I will be better by Monday or that someone will do something by a certain time, because that's what I want, actually means nothing. That doesn't mean I don't believe in the power of positive thinking because I absolutely do. So for today it's positive thinking, lots of patience, being able to work from the couch, lots of help from family, understanding clients, the ability to communicate through email and texts and TV shows on demand, that are getting me through.

Some Things I Have Learned The Hard Way: Part One

I go to a lot of effort to stay healthy. I am very careful about germs. I watch what I eat. I exercise regularly, take vitamins and supplements and try to keep my stress levels down. I avoid artificial sweeteners, I don't drink soda, I choose organic when it is financially feasible. I try to use lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. So this kind of thinking made me decide I wanted to grow some of my own vegetables and herbs. I also had been to several Pampered Chef parties and got some really cool things to aid in my preparing of fresh herbs and vegetables, so I was really inspired to start my own organic garden. You can read more about that here:

I have asthma. It started when I was nine and was very severe when I was a child and teen. It went away by the time I was an adult and came back briefly in my mid twenties when I was pregnant with my son. Thankfully it went away again and when I was 35 I decided to learn to roller blade and loved it and did it as much as I could. One day while doing it on a cold morning it came back, and has been with me ever since. I normally have very few problems because of it. It flares up rarely, I have to really careful about being around bleach, strong fragrances, smoke and mold or mildew. I can't exercise out in the cold. I have rescue inhalers that help when needed and recently had even been able to get off any maintenance medicines. I had been on them for years, since my husband had to go to CA for the Air Force and I went and visited for a week. That was one year that they had really bad fires. I ended up really sick after that and almost had pneumonia. That was about five years ago, and long forgotten.

In the process of starting my garden my husband stained some wood planter boxes for me, and then left them in the garage, because it was going to rain. We didn't realize that that the fumes would get in the house. I have other posts about all of that, that I will post, but the bottom line is, that before we figured out what it was and what to do, my asthma was really bad. The containers were moved outdoors and I was unable to get my breathing under control since then. I went back on my maintenance medicines and used my rescue inhalers and it just didn't seem to help. In fact I ended up getting really sick.

Instead of slowing down and taking care of myself I pushed through it and continued to do everything I normally do. I actually even ended up putting myself into situations that made me get sicker

This situation made me realize that the things we do in our business and personal lives really effect each other. Improvements in ourselves and how we see ourselves can effect the way others see us as well. So feeling better about who you are, makes you a better business person. I believe that everything happens for a reason and that getting knocked on my butt the way I have been these last several weeks, had a lot to teach me. I definitely have learned a lot. The first thing I have learned, is that my health and well being need to come first, no matter what.

My Experience With Growing an Organic Container Garden: Part One

I decided I wanted to start growing some of my own vegetables and herbs, organically. I have run into some interesting things in the process so far. I thought this was a good topic for renters, who may want to have a garden but need to set up more temporary one, without doing any damage to the property. Or someone in an apartment or a condo without much room. Or someone like me, that doesn't do well with the bugs and heat and wanted to make an attempt at growing some organic vegetables and herbs. I thought I would write series of about the experiences I have had and the things that I have learned and will learn, throughout this process.

So the first thing I did was some research and decided that zucchini would be easy, maybe some tomatoes, maybe some cucumbers. I went to Lowe's and picked up some organic seeds, forgot the cucumbers and ended up getting bell peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes, chives, rosemary, and basil. I bought organic biodegradable planters and had a bunch of toilet paper holders, got fish emulsifier fertilizer to use if fertilizer was needed, I really wanted to do this organically.

We have a Florida room in our house, so I figured I could start the seeds inside and possibly keep them inside avoiding the necessity for pest control. I bought some indoor lights, brought in some heaters for cooler nights and was really excited to get started.

I researched how to plant each one and ended up having to soak some, I had never heard or that. I guess I didn’t do enough research beforehand, because everything I read about starting rosemary from seeds(after I bought them), was that it was really difficult. You are better off starting with a cutting or seedlings. I was shocked at how fast the zucchini sprouted, and was happy with the tomatoes and chives. The rosemary sprouted a few, but ended up with white stuff (mold?) on the soil. I looked it up and saw that it was probably from not enough circulation and/or too much water. I tried to save them, but the white wouldn’t go away. I worried that it may spread so I threw them away. I think he toilet paper rolls were a bad idea. I saw it on Pinterest and thought it sounded good, but I think I should have either not used them or filled them to the top with dirt, because they were too narrow to allow enough circulation.

It was was only week one, and the the rest of the plants were doing fine.

Affordable Waterfront West Cocoa Two Bedroom Rental

3718 West Malory Court, Cocoa FL 32926

Price: $815

MLS number: 692802

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2

Square Footage: 1091

Amazing Water View

You Will Love the Views From The Florida Room of This Beautiful West Cocoa Rental

Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to rent a waterfront property, at an affordable price. This waterfront duplex has cathedral ceilings and a fireplace, an open living room and a dining area. The wood laminate floors and stone fireplace allow you to feel cozy and comfortable, while the cathedral ceilings, and open space gives you the feeling of relaxing in a very spacious place. The kitchen or patio on the water, will make entertaining a breeze.

West Cocoa, just minutes from SR528 and I-95 West Cocoa is a peaceful haven that is central located to everything. Only about an hour to Orlando, a half hour or less to the beach, minutes to the Port and about a half an hour to Kennedy Space Center, it is a great central location. close to schools and colleges and shopping and just minutes to stoll around Historic Cocoa Village or even catch a show at the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse or The Cocoa Riverfront Park.

Rented in Five Days!! 1200 Ambra Drive, Melbourne FL 32940

Really nice three bedroom two bath Viera home in S 1200 Ambra Drive Front

ix Mile Creek. Property is located on a large corner lot, it's beautifully landscaped and lawn service is included. The Large screen patio overlooks the lake. There is a two car garage, a formal living and dining room, a family room and an eat in kitchen. Great Viera location close to schools, restaurants and shopping, including the Avenue of Viera Mall. Just minutes from I-95. About a half an hour or less to the beach. MLS # 691832

Rented in Just 15 Days! 4620 Elena Way Melbourne, FL 32934

Don't miss this spacious, bright, open four bedroom Front

two and a half bath, Melbourne rental home. Located in he Palmwood Subdivision, just minutes from I-95. You could enjoy the private, quiet backyard, while relaxing on the large screened porch overlooking a nice wooded area.

The kitchen has an island, a double pantry, a dishwasher, a built in microwave and two sinks. kitchen

There is a formal living room, formal dining room, family room and a loft. There is an inside laundry room and tons of closet space, including storage area under the stairs. The master bathroom has a garden tub and his and her's walk in closets. There are spectacular cathedral ceilings and plant shelves for endless decorating possibilities.

This home also has a two car garage, a screened patio, fenced back yard and is located close to schools, restaurants and shopping. Yard

Lawn service is included in the rent and pets may be permitted on a case by case basis. There are separate air conditioning units for the upstairs and downstairs, to help maintain the same temperature throughout the whole house. There is also an alarm system for added security which can be monitored if you so choose.

For more information the MLS# is 691792

Should You Charge A Late Fee?

Business Places and Things I recommend in Brevard County Florida: Del's Freeze

Anyone who really knows me, knows I love ice cream. It is probably my favorite treat. I eat it almost every day and have for as long as I can remember.

Although I have lived in this area for twenty years now, I am sad to say I only discovered the best ice cream place in Brevard Couny just about three years ago. I had driven passed it many times but it doesn't look like much on the outside, so I never bothered to stop. That was until I met some wonderful ladies while I was volunteering at Satellite Beach Library and they raved about it so much I just had to try it. I am so glad I did. It is so good and really inexpensive. I go there as often as I can. I have even gotten my out if town relatives to look forward to going there for ice cream when they come and visit.

It is so creamy and fresh tasting, it reminds of the Carvel ice cream places, that we used to go to on Long Island when I was a kid. Del's Freeze has been around since 1968 and definitely has a nostalgic feel. I don't eat hot dogs but they sell those as well. It is just a little roadside building, with no indoor seating. They do have some covered picnic tables and the ice cream is delicious. The portions are very generous and the prices are great. They only take cash, so that can be a little inconvenient, and the lines are really long on weekend evenings, but it is well worth those inconveniences.

Advice to Couples Buying Their First Home, One Step At a Time

Debbie Reynolds wrote an awesome blog with advice to first time home buyers. It is a really scary thing to buy your first home and most people are kind of afraid to admit that they are anything less than excited. Debbie's advice about communicating your thoughts and fears with your agent is so important. Many of the things that the first time homebuyer is worried or apprehensive about can be easily addressed by a good experienced agent that has been through them all with previous first time home buyers. Most of the time the first time home buyer will feel a lot better after addressing the things that they are worried about, and after hearing that they are not alone in their fears.

A good agent can make the first home buying experience a lot easier and Debbie's post is an excellent reference for them to start the process with:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/4340297/advice-to-couples-buying-their-first-home-one-step-at-a-time

How Important Is It to Listen?

www.woltersrealtyandpropertymanagement.com

Have you ever had a conversation with someone that you can tell is not actually listening to anything you say, but is just busy thinking about what they are going to say next? Or how they can turn it around to be about them? Or maybe they just really do not want to hear what you are saying. I think most people have come across a person like this more often then they would like. I know I have and sometimes realize that there is no point in even continuing to have the conversation. I have people like this in my personal life and have learned to just not talk to them about anything that really matters to me, since it will just be either ignored or turned around to be about something different.

Business wise though, this can be a real problem. I used to work with someone that constantly claimed they did not know something, even though I know I personally told her multiple times. She used this as an excuse not to be responsible for things she was supposed to be doing, but wasn't. It got to the point that I needed to write everything down, and/or remind her constantly. But there was always something I was not yet aware that she wasn’t doing yet, so it ended up biting me in the butt to have continued to work with her despite the fact that she did not listen.

Sometimes it is an owner that doesn't listen and that can cause problems in expectations and of course in communication. Sometimes a tenant acts like they are listening and understanding, and yet they will do exactly the opposite of what was asked of them, then they claim they were never told. I have certain tenants that I will only communicate with in writing. One of these would continuously claim I said things that I would never say. That tenant claimed I told her that she could make any improvement that she wanted and just deduct it from the rent. I would never say that, and never have. This led to a couple of disagreements with her, before deciding to put everything in writing. I have had to resend and copy and paste quite a few conversations with her since then, as she had continued to claim I said things I had not. It is so much easier to just copy, paste and resend, than it is to argue.

Wouldn't it be wonderful everyone just actually listened?