Apartments Rent Too High? Rent a Room

Rent your home, or maybe just a room

More people are hoping to wait out the tough times by finding tenants for their house or taking in roommates to make ends meet.

Posted by Mai Ling at MSN Real Estate on Thursday, September 3, 2009 11:57 AM

When the economy squeezes us as tight as it has been lately, we can expect it to also put a squeeze on the rest of our lives. Perhaps especially in the comforts of our own home.
Some homeowners and renters are putting practicality before privacy, taking in roommates to help balance out their finances while the the going is tough. And with home prices just beginning to rise again in many parts of the country, some homeowners are moving into new digs but holding onto their old homes, hoping to turn more of a profit if they wait a bit longer to sell. And in the meantime? They're renting their homes out, often for less than the cost of the mortgage and utilities.
So who are the winners here? Renters. With apartment vacancies at their highest levels in more than 20 years and rents falling in some areas, they have the cream of the crop to choose from.

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Greener Equals Higher Rents Charged

The greener the house the higher the rental premium

Spending $20,000 to install solar panels on your home can sound like a painful financial outlay. But it's one that doesn't feel so bad when your energy bills plummet from, say, $200 to $10 a month, and you can see a clear long-term cost benefit.

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Green features can bring financial gain in other ways, too, as a new report from the Henley Business School in the UK found when examining the rental prices of regular, non-green homes in the US versus those with LEED certification. (LEED being the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system which rates buildings according to how sustainable they are.)

McNichols/Paul Ivey/Mike McDonald

The Margarido House in Oakland: its LEED Platinum rating should ensure it can command a higher than average rental price.

The study found that LEED certified buildings can command a rental premium of up to 31% and that the more highly rated the buildings are, the greater the premium. The report did not ascertain exactly why people would pay more to live in a LEED home. Its conclusion? "It is not established whether the premiums observed are due to the benefits of a better image, higher productivity or lower operating costs." One can only hope this question will be addressed in the school's next report.

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If your property has enough room for this and the zoning zealots don't get in the way there is a Frederick Maryland Low Wind Speed Wind Powered Generator manufacturer offering a mid size wind turbine for around $70, 000 installed.

You might also be able to sell the carbon credits you earn (if the State of Maryland enacts what they are considering as legislation)

Annoucing a new way to list your home for rent

Now Montgomery County home owners, property managers and real estate agents have a new way to help prospective renters find your property.

This blog uses an innovative approach to pairing your prospective tenets to the homes you want to rent.

All posts to this blog are going to be slanted towards what a typical Google searcher is looking for... and NOT what the typical real estate agent is posting.

If you list your home for rent in the same fashion every one else that wants to list a home does... what makes your rental stand out from the crowd?

nothing

Imagine this... hundreds of real estate agents and property managers all saying the same things about homes that are all basically the same product...

can we say Bland?

Why in the world would anyone pick your home from the crowd?

This blog will write about the neighborhoods, things to do and see, reasons for moving to a particular neighborhood. It's less like a real estate blog and more like a portal to living in the various neighborhoods.

Why does any one move? To buy a house or to buy a home? What is a home? Is it an edifice or a neighborhood?

You don't sell anything by selling it from YOUR perspective.

Nobody cares about you, they don't even care about the house, they care about what that house is going to give them!

People don't buy a camera to get a better camera.

They buy a camera to get better pictures for crying out loud.

Stay tuned... this blog is run by a Search Engine Rock Star. The next 12 posts are going to seem like jibberish. That's because they are not for human consumption.
Who cares if your site is pretty, if it doesn't rank in Google no one is going to see it any way. Web design does not make websites or blogs rank.

You gotta rank first

Leisure World

The name "Leisure World" emphasizes the area's focus on relaxed, self-reliant living. Within the Leisure World Community, more than 60 groups and organizations provide a wide variety of activities from which to choose. The Community is served by WMATA Metrobus System and is within minutes of Metrorail. For those wishing to continue their careers, Leisure World is conveniently located between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, on the I-95 corridor, in close proximity to Rockville, Bethesda, Olney, and Gaithersburg.