Now you have an investment property the next step is to find someone to take over its management. Do your research and list questions you want to ask when interviewing prospective property management companies. Short list a few companies that interest you.

Phone them to ask questions then, if you are still interested; make an appointment to visit in person. Visiting in person gives you an idea of how they conduct their business and you can meet the people who will represent your interests. Here are the top five questions to ask when you interview a property manager.

1. Does the Company have a Dedicated Management Arm?

You want to know whether the property management company offers a complete service or if it is just a side line for a real estate office. Who and how will your property be managed. How many staff are in the office? Who will deal with you and your tenants if staff leave or are sick?

2. Does the Company Owner/Director get Involved in the Business?

Most property management companies are divided in two – selling real estate and managing real estate. Usually the company director is involved with the sales side as it is the high profit area of the business and a property manager takes care of leasing. If the company director is involved with the property management arm of the business, you may find they take it more seriously than others.

3. How well do they know the Rental Business?

Check with the property manager how long they have personally been dealing with property management. Just because you are talking to a well known real estate company does not mean their staff have a lot of experience. It also does not mean they provide top quality customer service.

Some property managers start out working in a real estate office as the office person and work their way up. Some move into property management and the rest into sales. Other property managers have specifically chosen property management as their career.

4. How long has the Property Manager worked for the Company?

You want a property manager that is stable in their employment, and who takes looking after your interests seriously. There is a lot of stress involved in property management, with a high turnover of staff. In six months time, you want to be talking to the same person to build a business relationship that understands your needs and the property. This is a good reason to look for a property manager dedicated to it as a career.

5. What Area does the Company Service?

You are right to consider companies that have expert local knowledge but, if you intend buying more properties in the future, how far does their expertize reach?

You do have a choice – either hire a property management company in each geographic area or find one that covers a wider area to take on all your properties.

6. How do they Conduct Property Inspections?

This is really an important one – the last thing you want is for a property manager to just hand out your keys to prospective tenants. Too much can go wrong. You want to know that the property manager will give good customer service and personally take prospective tenants to inspect your property. Or, they may hold open houses at specific times. This gives them a chance to get to know a future tenant better.

7. How many Properties does the Company Manage?

You want to know how many properties the property manager manages personally. Some may have 200 or more. If they do, I wonder how they can give you and your tenants top customer service. Others may have only up to 150 but charge more for their service. This may be a better option to get peace of mind and, ultimately, make a good return on your investment property.

8. Does the Company’s Staff Work Six Days a Week?

You want a property management company that can show your properties when it is convenient for the tenant. After all, you want tenants that can pay the rent so that means that most will be at work during normal business hours; unless it is a commercial property for rent. In the world of internet advertising, enquiries come in 24 hours a day. This comes down to their availability and ability to deal with maintenance issues as well.

9. Does the Property Manager Check New Tenant’s Credentials?

It is important to ask how the property management company checks out the credentials of short listed prospects. You need to reassure yourself they check people’s credit and rental history, and their past and present employment.

All prospective tenants must be screened carefully. Does your property manager have adequate access to information for this purpose? Do they provide you with a written report that backs up their claims when handing over short listed prospective tenants?

You now have plenty of information to help you seek out the very best property manager for your growing property portfolio. Enjoy your investment.

Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.

If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.

Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.

For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.

No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.

There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.

Many people launch a home-based business and immediately begin working like they’re on vacation. They sleep late, lounge around the house during the day, talk to friends, exchange e-mails, chat online, and send text messages, all during the time that they are supposed to be working. But because they are working from home and they don’t have a boss, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of self-employed freedom. The key element of a successful home-based business is the discipline to make it successful.The very thing that makes a home-based business so attractive is also its biggest liability. The freedom that comes from working at home is a tremendous luxury, because it affords the home-based entrepreneur the ability to control his or her own working life. It’s not only comfortable working from home, but very convenient as well. A home-based business offers a legitimate financial incentive as well because there are tremendous savings from not having to commute, buy lunches out, and purchase office attire, to name a few.The thing anyone working from home needs to focus on though is that a home-based business entrepreneur’s biggest resource is time. In virtually any home-based business, income production is directly related to the amount of time spent producing it-even when working from home, there is no such thing as the figurative free lunch. Once the business is up and running and residual income develops, the time requirements diminish significantly. But a person who is in the process of launching a home-based business must understand that in the early stages of the enterprise, hard work is the order of the day.With hard work and committed effort, the home-based entrepreneur can make a tremendous income and literally create a recession proof of income for life. The key is to understand that the home-based business is a serious matter, and not a boondoggle. It’s called a business for a very good reason-that’s exactly what it is. Working from home isn’t an excuse to slack off, although it’s easy to do just that. The entrepreneur must be able to resist temptation, and to buckle down and work hard. Do that religiously every day, and your home-based business will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.