While an apartment may look nice and meet a tenant’s needs, the landlord may be a difficult. The problem is that tenants don’t know this until after they sign a lease and move-in. At this point, it is to late. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a review of a landlord before signing a lease and have some questions answered?
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Because credit plays such a big role in our financial lives, everyone should order a Credit Report once a year. Federal law requires Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to provide you a FREE credit report every 12 months. However, due to the pandemic, the credit agencies are offering free weekly online credit reports. 3 reasons tenants should check their credit report
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According to CoreLogic, rents rose 9.3% in August versus a year ago. In addition, all major metropolitan housing markets covered by CoreLogic show positive rent growth. The largest increase is in Miami with a 21% increase. So why are rents going up? Low Supply of Rental Units There has been severe under-investment in housing construction for years in the United
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With rents going up, many tenants are wondering if their apartments are going to become unaffordable. Would it be helpful to know if this problem was coming your way? The winning team at the Zillow HBCU Housing Hackathon targets this problem. Morehouse College’s Solution A team of four students from Morehouse College won first place in the Hackathon by creating
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While some tenants stayed and worked from their existing homes during the pandemic, others changed locations. Why stay stuck in an apartment in a city if you have the option to work from a mountain cabin for a few months and then do the same in Florida? This experience has shown that some jobs can be done from anywhere, and
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When the eviction ban was struck down by the Supreme Court, it was believed that there would be an explosion of eviction filings. While there have been increases in some cities, there is no evidence of an eviction boom across the nation, yet. Why are evictions not rising? 4 reasons for the lower than expected filings include the following: Courts
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Real estate websites are the go to place to search for rentals. They provide tenants helpful information and save time. While some sites focus on local markets, others focus nationally. Five of the most popular websites for rental search are listed below. In planning a search, a good strategy is to use 2-3 of the websites to cover an area.
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It is hard to check neighborhood crime before renting a property, but everyone wants to live in a safe neighborhood. To solve this problem, three companies allow users to search their neighborhoods for criminal activity. They are SpotCrime, CrimeMapping.com, and LexisNexis. SpotCrime allows users to easily look up city and county crime data and reports. In addition, users can search
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With sea level rise, hurricanes and tropical storm a hot topic, it is reasonable to wonder if you are renting in a flood risk area. While news often highlights the risk of flooding to home owners, tenant are also at risk of losing their home and personal property. A helpful tool to determine if you are at risk is Flood
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Tenants often wonder how rent payments can be reported to credit bureaus. It is has been a concern for years. Renters that pay on-time receive no benefit on their credit report. As a result, they are charged higher interest rates when buying a car or financing another purchase. In addition, millions of Americans lack credit scores but pay rent every
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In a 6-3 decision on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the CDC’s latest eviction moratorium less than a month after it went into affect. The moratorium was supposed to be in effect until Oct. 3. The six Supreme Court Justices determined that if a federal, eviction moratorium is to be in effect, Congress must authorize it, not the CDC.
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There has been news and articles about the slow rollout of the $45 billion in rental assistance funds. At the end of July, only $4.7 billion has been distributed according to the U.S. Treasury. There are many issues that have the caused the slow process, but an interesting one is that landlords do not want to participate. Why would a
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The CDC is implementing a new eviction moratorium until Oct. 3 across most of the country. The moratorium targets areas of the country experiencing “Substantial” and “High” levels of Covid infections. Since most of the country is experiencing a spike, 90% of the tenants behind on their rents are expected to be covered. Community levels can be checked on the
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With the eviction moratorium ending today, July 31, many tenants are wondering what to do when facing an eviction. Although there has been $45 billion in rental assistance allocated by Congress, it has been slow to reach people. As a result, evictions are a real possibility for millions of families. Tenants should take these steps NOW if facing an eviction.
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Inadequate storage is a common problem when renting an apartment. As a result, tenants have to be creative and use every space available. To be successful, tenants often use containers, boxes, and “storage” products designed to make life easier. While these products come in every shape, size, and price, most tenants need at least a good, bulk storage solution. One
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