Sean Dreznin, Commercial Investment Real Estate Agent

I found this article on Mashable and it is chocked full of so many web resources that I felt I should share it with you. The Internet is filled with websites and services that can help you find a new place, but sorting through them can be more frustrating than the apartment hunting process itself. Whether you’re planning a move across town, relocating for a job, or just need to find an apartment with cheaper rent, we’ve put together over 50 tools to help make the process easier.

If, on the other hand, you’re a landlord looking to rent a property, we’ve included a few tools specifically for you. Also note that almost all of the listing sites we’ve provided for renters invite landlords to add vacancies, quite a few of them for free.

Rental Management

GetPropertize.com - Geared to helping an individual with property to rent, Propertize helps you track income & expenses as well as helping you generate your tax reports.

OnsitePropertyManager.com - Multi-featured property management software that also includes nightly back-ups of your data.

Property-Management.Buildium.com - A full-featured system that prints checks, makes work orders from online maintenance requests, allow residents to pay securely online and more.

Rentomatic.com - Offers both free and paid plans, can assist you in advertising, automating rent collection, track maintenance and more.

RentYield.com - Lets you manage your vendors as well as your tenants, track the performance of your properties and more.

TenantMarket.com - Helps landlords to locate tenants for their vacant properties.

The above are just a few of the 50+ tools and resources provided by Sean P. Aune. Sean is Mashable's Lead Features Writer, responsible for our ongoing, almost daily round-ups of the best resources about different Web topics.

To contact me visit me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SeanDreznin

Howard Hanna Real Estate offers to take over buyers' leases

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is adding a stimulus of its own to the housing market, in the form of a program in which it will take over the lease of an apartment renter who buys a home through the brokerage.

Look for ads this weekend promoting what the company calls “The Apartment Dwellers Trade-in Program.”

Howard “Hoby” Hanna IV, president of Howard Hanna Ohio, said the company decided to offer the program because it’s seeing more prospective homebuyers in the market thanks to the new, $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers. However, he said buyers remain reluctant to complete purchases.

About 8% of first-time buyers cite concerns about getting out of their leases as an issue, according to a poll by his company, Mr. Hanna said. As far as details go, Mr. Hanna said for apartment dwellers to use the lease trade-in program, they must use a Howard Hanna agent and its affiliated mortgage company and allow the brokerage to try to find a replacement tenant for their suite.

This article written By Stan Bullard caught my attention in the Crains Cleveland Business and can be found here.

I feel this marketing aspect crosses a line, which I regard as a potential Conflict of Interest.

Owning an apartment building is difficult enough with Real Estate Taxes too high, utility costs rising and foreclosure/short sale housing opportunities all over the market and now a company that actively sells apartments is gearing its marketing to basically lure away tenants from apartment owners to sell them homes.

I am sure this point will be brought up, so I will touch on it briefly... The point being, a tenant in a lease who wants to purchase a home, and this program allows them to do so, while effectively paying the landlord for the rent owed. The underlying problem is taking renters out of the market. Now while it is just fine to conduct business as usual and offer incentives geared towards home purchasing (100% money back promises, reduced commission, moving costs, etc., these incentives are directed at people who are looking for a home, not renters who already have a home...

Alright, I am finished espousing, let the comments rain down upon me... :)

This weekend I threw $1,100 down the drain.

That is to say, I paid my rent. Pop-finance pundits have long used the drain cliché to describe how renters like me waste money, while homeowners with mortgages “pay themselves” and “build equity.”

In April 2007 I argued something different: Renting Makes More Financial Sense Than Homeownership.

Basically, houses produce poor returns over long time periods while stocks and other investments produce good ones, and the outlook for houses is especially poor now, so I’d rather rent cheaply and funnel my extra cash into something other than a house.

Even though house prices have plunged and I have enough money to buy one, I’m still not nearly tempted. In what follows I’ll give five reasons. (The first two form the core of my original argument.)

Reason 1: Houses produce lousy returns, while stocks produce good ones

Reason 2: House prices have further to fall

Reason 3: Many houses for sale today seem designed to waste money

Reason 4: Big houses are targets for future taxes

Reason 5: Neighborhoods are changing in unpredictable ways

The original article was written by Jack Hough and the specific details of the 5 points are locacted here at this link.

Visit our company to see Apartments for Sale

BATTLE OF THE CANTONS!

From Canton, GA, to Canton, KS to Canton, TX to Canton, SD, to "The Good Canton" Canton, Ohio...

Hoover vacuum jokes

Boring McKinley Memorial

Tombstone jokes...

Oy Vey! You can tell deep down in places he may not talk about, that Stephen Colbert loves Canton, Ohio and why shouldn't he... The Professional Football Hall of Fame, Timken Headquarters, Belden Village which is a nice retail center and some quaint and affordable sleepy suburbs as well.

THINKING YOUR REAL ESTATE TAXES ARE SKY HIGH? How many politicians have forced their hands into your cookie jar squeezing their sweaty fingers trying to grasp the change in a frenzy. From the Auditor's website, the following information describes all the jousting for your money.

"The Fiscal Officer cannot and does not raise or lower taxes. There are 74 taxing authorities in Summit County. They include the County of Summit, 5 county agencies, 26 school districts, 3 library districts, 12 cities, 10 villages, 9 townships, 1 water district, 1 fire district and 1 cemetery district. Each of these taxing authorities are responsible for putting their own levies on the ballot for the voters to approve. Real property taxes levied in Ohio are taxes imposed on the value of the property."

Are there any taxbreaks available to me? There just might be... Click here to take a look

After reviewing the programs available though the county, I have to say, I am less then impressed. It seems all that cash and ludicrous spending budgets and self-motivated politicians have led to bloated programs and owners who are strapped in trying to afford their Real Estate Taxes. Based on the taxes we pay on Real Estate here in Ohio, I would like to see what kind of relation they are percentage wise to the rest of the nation versus home values.

Summit County Fiscal Officer, John A. Donofrio Tax Settlement Budgets