New Lead Paint Requirements

I hope by now everyone is aware of the new EPA Certification requirements regarding Lead Paint. Boring? Yes, but heavy fines are more excitement than I can handle. Since I have been managing rental properties (20 years now) lead paint disclosures had to be used to warn tenants in houses built prior to 1978 not to let their kids eat the paint.

Apparently, that warning has not been enough to satisfy the govt. Now they have created a whole new burocracy to protect paint eating children. (Despite my obvious sarcasm, please don't think that I am insensative to lead poisoning in children. I have 5 of my own). However, I am not aware that this is a huge problem requiring a bunch of new laws, expensive requirements and heavy fines, training and certification of painters, hiring new inspectors to enforce etc. Sounds a lot like federal job creation and revenue enhancement at our expense.

In case you are not familier with the new requirements, here is a summary:

"The Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Program" (RRP) is a federal regulatory program affecting contractors, property managers and construction trades who disturb painted surfaces. Failure to comply could cost you up to $37,500 in fines per day.
The EPA requires that anyone who performs renovations, repairs & painting on child-occupied homes, child care facilities, and schools built prior to 1978 that disturb lead-based paint shall be Certified by EPA and that they are or used certified renovators who are trained by EPA-approved training profiders to follow lead-safe work practices, YOU MUST be certified by October 1, 2010"

So if you own a rental property built prior to 1978 you had better hope that your Property Manager complies with this requirement by makeing sure all painters and repair persons have are certified. (Yes, ours is).

Awesome! We made it. Boy, creating a new web site can be a very involved undertaking, but 6 months later we are here. Some of the advantages of the new site include better results in organic search engine results which will help prospective tenants locate our available property listings better and faster. We are already the most intensive vacancy marketing property management company in Southwest FL, but this will help us even more.

Currently, our vacancy marketing reach involves more than 20 different web sites including Rentals.com, Rentalhomesplus.com, Yahoo, Google, Hotpads, local.com, Rentalhomepros, rentalhouses.com,twitter,lycos, Craigslist and many more! If someone is looking for rentals in Southwest FL, we want them to find our houses.

How important is internet marketing of vacancys? According to recent research, 90% of people looking for rental information use the internet. This only makes sense. How many people enjoy circling the classifieds and waiting for call backs on properties they may have an interest in, verses sitting in comfort at their computer while checking map locations, pictures of the home and seeing how updated it is. There's no comparrison. Futher more, 84% of web searchers use more than one online source. We want to be there front and center no matter where they are looking. This leads to shorter vacancies and better selection of renters to choose from.

I hope you like the new look and feel of our new site, Please let us know your comments!