Welcome To Florida Landlord!

 

We’re open for business 24/7, 365 days a year! Our books, kits and forms are bought by Florida landlords worldwide. As a result, we've met some really cool people from the four corners of the globe! And best of all, thanks to the wonders of the Digital Age, my wife, Barb and I can conduct business in our underwear in the privacy of our home office in Floral City, Florida, without ever having to worry about getting a “memo” from some pencil neck geek in personnel!

 

Celebrating Our Tenth Anniversary Online

 

The Florida Landlord Web site has been helping Florida's do-it-yourself residential landlords for over ten years now! Ten years in "Internet years," is a virtual lifetime on the World Wide Web. And we plan on being around for many more years to come.

 

The One-Stop Cybersource For Florida Landlords

 

Florida Landlord is the nationally recognized one-stop cybersource for Florida's do-it-yourself residential landlords, who don't have a small army of employees at their beck and call. So if you’re a Florida do-it-yourself residential landlord, looking for reliable, up-to-date information, step-by-step instructions and practical, no-bullspit advice, on how to manage your residential rental housing business for maximum profit with minimum problems, you've come to the right place!

 

The key to consistently making money in the residential rental housing business in Florida, is in knowing how to maximize your property’s profit potential. And that’s exactly where Florida Landlord comes in. The founder and Webmaster, Thomas J. Lucier, is a seasoned, savvy professional, with twenty-nine years of hands-on experience as profitable, do-it-yourself residential landlord in Florida. Tom is ready, willing and able to share his specialized knowledge, problem solving skills and myriad of experiences with Florida’s residential landlords. Click here to read more about Thomas J. Lucier.

 

Special Thanks To Ed and Theresa Frederick of Frederick Design

 

Since 2003, my wife, Barb and I have been fortunate to work with the Web site development and graphic arts team of Ed and Theresa Frederick of Frederick Design. They're the creative geniuses behind my two Web sites. All of the logos, book, kit and forms covers are the handiwork of Theresa Frederick! Ed Frederick is not only a Web site development wizard, he's also a computer expert who knows the inside of a PC like the back of his hand!  Thanks Ed and Theresa, Barb and I couldn't have been this successful without you two professionals.

 

  How to Contact Florida Landlord Right Now
   Questions about orders:
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  info@floridalandlord.com
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              consultations@floridalandlord.com

 

My Tenant Bullspit Detector Test is specifically designed to weed out tenant applicants who are deadbeats, troublemakers, career criminals and other likely "Tenant's from Hell!"

 

     **All Books Are Shipped FREE OF CHARGE Within 24 Hours**

 

 

Advice for Homeowners Who are About to Become First-Time Landlords

 

If you’re a homeowner, who for whatever reason, is soon-to-be a first-time Florida landlord, I’ve got some ready-to-use advice for you. First off, read my book, The Florida Landlord’s Manual, all the way through, two times. Secondly, make regular visits to this Web site, to get the latest scoop on what’s going on in the residential rental housing business in Florida. And whatever you do, don’t overlook the following four factors, in your rush to convert your home to a rental property:
1. Insurance: Your standard homeowners’ insurance policy won’t cover your home, once it’s been converted to a non-owner-occupied rental property. You’ll need to purchase hazard and liability insurance policies that are written to cover rental property.
2. Homeowners’ Association Rules: If your home is located in a so-called deed restricted community, that’s governed by a homeowners’ association, you’ll need to read the association’s rules, to see if there are any restrictions against renting out your home. Many homeowners’ associations have their own lease rider, which landlords are required to give to their tenants. And if the tenants fail to abide by the rules outlined in the lease rider, the homeowners’ association will force the landlord to evict them. Please keep in mind, that hell hath no fury, like a homeowners’ association board of directors, with a real or imagined score to settle against a wayward homeowner!
3. Homestead Exemption on Property Taxes: Once a Florida resident’s homesteaded property has been converted to a rental property, it’s no longer eligible to have up to $50,000 in value, exempted from its property tax assessment. As a landlord, you’ll have to pay property taxes on the full amount of your rental property’s tax assessed value, which will most likely result in a substantial increase in your monthly mortgage payment.
4. Federal Income Tax: As a landlord, depending upon your income and participation, you can deduct all of the expenses that are associated with operating your rental house, and you can also depreciate the property, for tax purposes. However, if you haven’t lived in your soon-to-be rental house, for two of the past five years, you’ll most likely have to pay federal capital gains tax, on any profit you make, when you sell the house.

 

 

You Need Knowledge and Management Know-How to be Successful

 

I need to warn you right upfront, that if you adopt the old “fake it until you make it" approach to property management, that’s commonly embraced by slacker landlords nowadays, you won't be able to cut it, in the residential rental housing business. As I’ve written for years, the number one cause of landlord failure, in Florida, is good old fashion incompetence. I know this, because over the course of a year, I’ve received over five hundred e-mail messages and telephone calls, from do-it-yourself residential landlords, all over the state of Florida. And I can tell you from firsthand experience; that the root cause of why so many landlords’ can’t turn a profit, can be traced back to a lack of knowledge and management know-how.

 

It's Time for You to Become an Aggressive, Proactive, Hands-on Manager

 

Right now, do-it-yourself residential landlords, throughout the state of Florida, are being squeezed from all sides. And in many parts of the state, it’s becoming harder and harder for landlords to turn a decent profit. In overbuilt markets, where there are more rental properties than tenants, many landlords consider themselves lucky, if they’re able to operate their rental housing business on a break-even basis. And if that isn’t bad enough, skyrocketing fuel prices have driven up the cost of everything, which has made it more expensive than ever, to operate a residential rental housing business in Florida! However, knowledgeable landlords, who use an aggressive, proactive, hands-on approach, to manage their residential rental housing business, continue to profit in tough economic times. That’s because they’ve been able to cut costs and increase income by:
1. Adopting a bottom-line mentality.
2. Establishing a bare-bones budget.
3. Keeping close track of monthly income and expenses.

You need to always keep in mind that change, is the one thing that’s constant, in the residential rental housing business, in Florida. And in today’s lackluster economy, the landlords, who can’t, or won’t adapt to change, will end up going the same way as the Dinosaur and fail to survive! As a very wise old sage once said, “ignorance can be overcome by education, but stupidity lasts forever.”

 

 

How to Manage Your Tenants with Minimum Problems

 

Here are three surefire ways, for you to avoid ninety percent of the tenant problems, that plague most uninformed and naïve landlords. First off, thoroughly screen tenant applicants, and only rent to rational, reasonable, intelligent, mature, conscientious, financially responsible, civilized adults, over the age of eighteen. Most of the people, who fit this tenant profile, are considerate, and respect other peoples’ rights and property, and generally don’t require much supervision. Secondly, don’t alienate your tenants, by acting like an arrogant, obnoxious, pompous, unreasonable, heavy-handed, humorless, uptight, little twerp! If you want to be respected and taken seriously by your tenants, you must project a professional image, and act in a fair and even-handed manner. Thirdly, don’t try and win a popularity contest with your tenants, by becoming their best pal, lover, boozing buddy or confidant. Friendships between landlords and tenants are usually tenuous at best, and quickly dissolved by petty disagreements, which result in the landlord losing a “friend,” and gaining a vacancy. If you follow all three pieces of sage advice, that I’m dispensing here, managing your tenants should be relatively easy.

 

Eight Ways to Reduce Your Risk and Limit Your Personal Liability

 

Nowadays, thanks mainly to those ubiquitous predatory plaintiffs’ attorneys, who run tacky “legal rights awareness” ads on television, far too many people in Florida, view lawsuits as a way to achieve the so-called American Dream, without ever having to work for it. So I won’t be the least bit surprised, when the day comes, that one of Florida’s notorious ambulance chasing attorneys, starts advertising for longtime sufferers of PTS, “perplexed tenant syndrome,” or some other nonsensical, made-up malady, which targets residential landlords. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but in today’s sue-happy society, landlords need to know how to reduce their risk and limit their personal liability by:
1. Keeping a low profile.
2. Screening the background of everyone who works on their rental property.
3. Requiring their tenants to purchase renters’ insurance.
4. Maintaining a smoke-free policy on their rental property.
5. Requiring that repairmen and contractors and their employees be adequately insured.
6. Forbidding tenants from keeping vicious breeds of dogs on their rental property.
7. Carrying adequate general liability and personal umbrella liability insurance on their property.
8. Holding the title to their rental property in a separate business entity.

 

Don’t Let Strangers Manage Your Rental Property

 

I’m an aggressive, proactive, hands-on landlord, whose bottom-line oriented, and focused on cutting operating expenses, eliminating vacancies and increasing income. And as far as I’m concerned, all small residential landlords in Florida, should take the same approach, and manage their own property. This way, they won’t be at the mercy, of so-called property managers, who may, or may not, know what they’re doing. I’m no fan of the residential rental property management industry in Florida. I think that the majority of Florida real estate licensees, who are masquerading as property managers, are grossly incompetent, less than honest and generally do a pretty lousy job, of managing other peoples’ rental property. Plus, when you hire a property manager, to manage your rental property, you’ll be required to sign a property management agreement, which basically forces you to relinquish control over your own property. No hired manager is ever going to look after your rental property like you will. And that’s exactly why, I always advise people, not to buy a small residential rental property, if they don’t plan on managing it themselves.

 

 

Ten Rules to Run Your Rental Housing Business By

 

Lastly, over the years, I’ve had success using the following ten rules, to run my residential rental housing business by:
Rule #1: Know what you don’t know.
Rule #2: Anticipate situations before they become problems.
Rule #3: Don’t let other people make their problems your problems.
Rule #4: Concentrate on doing what you do best.
Rule #5: Set a goal, make a plan, and work hard.
Rule #6: Accept full responsibility for your own actions.
Rule #7: Understand that agreements are only as good as the people who sign them.
Rule #8: Assume nothing, verify everything, and be prepared for anything.
Rule #9: Learn from your past mistakes and don’t repeat them.
Rule #10: Do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it.

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