At Real Estate Options - we are VERY pet-friendly!

New Website Helps Tenants Investigate Landlords

Like Carfax for Renters

LDM Solutions LLC announced the launch of its tenant-friendly website, http://www.checkyourlandlord.com/, a service providing “due diligence for residential renters to easily and discreetly investigate their prospective landlord and property.”

The company says this information arms the renter with the ability to protect themselves from the recent rise in rental scams and rental foreclosures in a way that has not previously been available.

This service allows renters to assess the potential risks of a home rental transaction before signing a lease. According to a company statement, there has been an increase in recent years of rental scams and landlord fraud, as well as a rise in the number of renters who have faced foreclosure of their rental home. However, robust tools to help tenants avoid these situations have not existed in the market.

“Renters often don’t consider the risks involved in signing a lease agreement,” stated Michael Schaffer, General Manager of LDM Solutions LLC. “Through the introduction of http://www.checkyourlandlord.com/, we are making information about a rental property and its owner easy to obtain and understand. When a consumer buys a used car, it has become standard practice to review a Carfax report for potential problems. By educating renters, we look forward to the day when reviewing a CheckYourLandlord.com report is standard practice before renting a home.”

http://www.checkyourlandlord.com/ sources property and personal background information from real-time data aggregators covering thousands of public records sources at the federal, state, county and city levels. Each report is individually prepared by a trained analyst, and is unbiased, reporting only factual information.

Don't Pour Your $$$ Down The Drain!

Did you know that taking a bath requires up to 70 gallons of water (times that by how many people bathe in your household). A five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons!  Calculate the savings of showering - it will amaze you!   And, at 1 drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year.  Talk about pouring your money down the drain!  If you are a current tenant of ours, please notify us immediately when you notice drips or leaks. We want to make sure you never have to spend more than necessary on your water bills.

Get Your Money Back!

How long have you lived in your home?  Do you know that after one year of "on-time" payments on your water bill in Freeport, that you are allowed to get your securty deposit back?  They won't just give it to you, you will need to tell them you want it back.  Why let them hold onto money that's yours... look at your calendar, figure it out, and after one year of timely payments, go reclaim your money!

Advertising Yourself to be Robbed!

Does anyone really READ our the REO newsletters?  In December we wrote a warning about being very discreet when throwing out packaging for valuable items you may have just been gifted or just purchased yourself (like computers, TV's, epensive electronic gaming equipment or other electronics) so as not to advertise to any would-be theives as to what may be inside your home.  Cut up boxes and put the smaller pieces inside covered garbage cans or plastic garbage bags.  Today, as we were out cruising the neighborhoods we found this scenario (see photo!).  SCARY!  This person is advertising themselves to be robbed.  Don't make the same mistake! We all need to be street-wise today!

Your Opinion is NEEDED and VALUED!

     We are working with other property owners and managers from around the state of Illinois on laws intended to control crime in rental property.  Laws that deal with crime should be effective so that you can feel safe in your home and they should also be fair to both the resident and the property owner.

     In order to create good laws related to rental property, the people in government need to consider how people that rent feel about issues.  We want your opinion on how crime affects your life.

To fill out a (very!) short tenant survey, please go to:

http://www.irpoa.org/

     Your answers will be anonymous.  The survey is only 16 questions and will just take a couple minues to fill out.  You will have the option of signing up to get a report on the survey if you want to find out what other renters think about the issue.  This is being sent to renters across the state of Illinois, so PLEASE FORWARD this survey to your friends and family who also rent.

Thank you for your help

and for sharing your opinion on this issue.

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RentFreeport

for any updates we hear regarding to laws that will affect you.

CHANGES To Be Aware Of If You Receive Unemployment Benefits

For those of you currently on unemployment and receiving benefit payments on a debit card, and have changed your address in the last year, call 800-244-5631 immediately to update your address to avoid payment interruptions because your card is going to change in June from a blue VISA card to a red debit MASTERCARD by Chase.

You should have received an IDES red and white mailing that describes the change, but if you didn't, click here to find out all the answers: http://www.ides.state.il.us/pdf/debit_card/new/faq.pdf

The new red Chase debit MASTERCARD will usable starting July.

So, remember - if the IDES does not have your current address on file, you could experience a delay in receiving your card.  Be sure to update them by calling 800-244-5631.