Santa Clarita Homes for Rent | Best Place to Own Rental Property | Homes for Rent SCV | RentWithClassic.com | Hotspot

Remember, you can always contact us for information at www.RentWithClassic.com or 661-702-9631.

This morning as I met with my Thursday morning networking group, I realized something. Santa Clarita is not a normal city. In fact, Santa Clarita is downright abnormal. All of the things that make a city “normal” don’t seem to happen in Santa Clarita.

For example, let’s look at what is perhaps the greatest indicator of economic health for an area: unemployment. The most recent unemployment numbers for Santa Clarita are 7.7% compared to L.A. County 12.5%, California State at 12.2%, and a national unemployment rate of 9.6%. Or how about housing prices? We have a client who purchased a rental home in Sept. of 2008 that is going vacant right now and had the home appraised by his realtor to see where he was. He was told it would sell for exactly what he paid for it. Compare that to the national housing situation and you see a difference. Or check out the research on crime rates, average incomes, average credit scores, average level of education, “adult” businesses per capita, bars per capita, etc…

You see, Santa Clarita isn’t normal. It’s abnormal. It is WAY ABOVE AVERAGE! Sure, all of this makes Santa Clarita a great place to live, a great place to raise a family, and a great place to work. But guess what else it makes Santa Clarita? It makes Santa Clarita a fantastic place to own a rental home! Low unemployment, high incomes, good credit scores = great rental property performance. When someone searches “Santa Clarita Homes for Rent”, you have a great chance that the person doing the search is going to be a great candidate to live in your rental home.

Need help finding one? We can do that. Already have a realtor but need to know how much rent you can expect before you close escrow on the home? We can help. Need help finding the right person to live in that rental home? We do that, too. All you have to do is ask! www.RentWithClassic.com or 661-702-9631.

Santa Clarita Homes for Rent | RentWithClassic.com | Preparing a Quality Rental | Hotspot

Contact us for great ideas on rental home preparation www.RentWithClassic.com 661-702-9631!

Working for Classic has given me a great insight into the rental market.  While this blog is geared mostly toward the Santa Clarita area, there are several things that are universally applicable.  For example, what are tenants looking for when they head out to view rental homes?  Here are the top three things that folks tend to focus on when considering a home for their family:

1) Location!

Obviously the old saying about “location, location, location” is pretty played out by now.  However, location is absolutely important for renters and buyers alike!  Nobody wants to live in an area where they are afraid to open the door at night.  Nobody wants to live in a neighborhood where police helicopters and cruisers are a common fixture.  Obviously, if an owner owns a home in an area like this there isn’t much they can do about it other than cleaning up the streets themselves like Michael Douglas in “Falling Down”  (Classic does not condone mental breakdowns and acts of insanity…Viewer discretion is advised).  The only alternative is to make the best of the home and price it right, which leads us into our next topic…

2) Price!

In an economy like this, the price plays a gigantic role.  In fact, overpricing your home is the leading cause of vacancy in rental homes today!  A few years ago, when money was growing on trees and things were all rainbows and ponies, a tenant would often be willing to drop large amounts of money to get an upgraded home with all the bells and whistles.  However, now that the money tree got cut down, the rainbows are gone and the ponies are dead, tenants are much more concerned with staying inside of their budget!  Here at Classic, we always say that upgrades aren’t really a good reason to price your home higher than the neighbor with the same floorplan, but they are a good reason for a tenant to rent your home over the neighbor’s at the same price!  More on this topic can be found on our company blog HERE.

3) Condition!

Most people would probably be pretty startled to know what conditions many owners will consider to be “livable” when it comes to their properties.  I have walked into rental homes that were so gross that I wanted to burn my clothes (and exposed skin) when I walked out for fear of contaminating the environment!  Tenants want to live in a home for the same reasons that you do!  They want a clean environment to come home to after a long day at work, a shower that doesn’t leak, windows that open, carpet they can’t see through, paint that’s not splotchy, and climate control that works!  If you want to get a tenant quickly, or more importantly, retain the tenant that you have, you need to make the home something worth coming home to.

While this is obviously not an exhaustive to-do list, it hopefully conveys the general spirit of investment property ownership.