Business

Determining Rental Property Value: Guide for Landlords

On paper running a real estate business seems straightforward. After all, all you have to do is ensure your expenses don’t exceed your rental income, right? Unfortunately, it’s rarely ever that simple. As a landlord, you have to strike a balance between making profits and keeping your rental rates low enough to attract tenants and to accurately do that you have to determine your rental property value. Here’s how:

How to Determine Rental Property Value

Property Type and Size

Evaluate your property’s features to get an accurate estimate of its worth on the market. A 3-bedroom single-family unit would be more expensive than a 2-bed apartment in a multi-unit complex, assuming they’re in the same neighborhood. Comparing the property cost with others can help owners define a more accurate figure on how much the rental investment is worth.

This approach involves using the sales comparison method, where appraisers determine a rental’s value based on the price tag of similar properties. Most experts recommend using at least three properties to get a better picture, especially because finding an exact unit that matches your location, square feet, type, and amenities can be difficult.

Property Condition

Consider how modern your property’s amenities and features are to calculate its value on the market. Another way real investors determine a rental’s value is by assessing its current condition and estimating how much it would cost to reconstruct it from scratch. The idea behind this assessment method, often referred to as the cost approach, is that investors the price of an existing property should match the cost of land, construction, and any depreciation. Ideally, property owners should not pay more for a property they can build for less.

This method is beneficial when landlords cannot compare their property type and size to recent sales, or in markets with well-defined construction costs, and it uses the formula:

Value of Property = Cost – Depreciation + Land Value

Rental Demand and Supply

Observe the local rental market closely to understand how current demand and supply affect your property’s worth. An accurate property valuation has to always consider the local market because location often plays a major role in determining the price of a rental. For instance, identical apartments in diverse neighborhoods can have different prices. On one hand, a three-bed and two-bath unit can cost up to $250,000 in a high-demand area with a low crime rate. However, an identical property in a less savory neighborhood could have a price tag of $180,000, which is why you should hire a knowledgeable rental property manager in Carroll County to guide you on the rental values in your area.

Seasonal Demand Fluctuations in Rental Properties

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High vs Off-Season

Plan your property purchases and sales around the calendar year to get the best results. Rental prices often follow a pattern that correlates with the seasons, allowing savvy investors to plan and take advantage of the cycle to maximize their profits. If you have some experience in real estate, most home searchers are most active in warmer weather, during the spring and summer seasons when house hunting is most convenient and coincides with the beginning of a new school year. Fall and winter months record less real estate activity, making properties cheaper as there are fewer potential renters.

Economic Factors

Use current trends to measure the potential value of your property. Aside from the seasonal fluctuations, rental prices can also vary from one year to the next based on the economy. For example, during the pandemic the economy slowed down, borrowing became expensive, and housing prices shot through the roof. As a result, predictions of cheaper housing in the off-season of the following years were still higher than projected estimates. Research market value to see options on how to increase property value so your rental stands out in any season.

Tourist Destinations

Anticipate changes in rental property demand during tourist peak and off-season. This tip is especially useful for vacation rental owners who have to plan around the holidays when vacation spots are full. Coastal towns are more likely to experience an influx of guests when the weather is warmer and tourists are off to the beach. In contrast, rental properties near ski resorts see higher demand in winter when locals and visitors want to stay somewhere cozy.

Conclusion

Being able to accurately determine your rental property’s value can give you a competitive edge in the market. Knowing how much a property is worth allows investors to decide if a potential apartment is worth the trouble, and how much rental income they can earn from their investment. Comparing your property’s type and size to similar and recent sales is a great way to estimate its price, but you can also use its current condition and local rental trends.

Consider how seasonal factors can affect rental property prices. The weather, economy, and tourist locations can easily influence occupancy rates, affecting your estimates in the long run. That’s why insightful investors also rely on the advice of experienced property managers to help them navigate rental property values.

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Business

Why Skills Alone Aren’t Enough to Build a Strong Team

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In the world of fast-growing tech companies, hiring tends to follow a predictable pattern. Leaders look for engineers fluent in the latest frameworks, product managers with impressive resumes, and marketers who know their way around every analytics dashboard. Skills are quantifiable. They are testable. And in high-growth environments where speed is currency, it is tempting to optimize your hiring process around hard qualifications.

But here is the trap: A team stacked with talent but lacking ownership will never scale effectively.

Over the years, we’ve seen companies across a wide range of industries thrive by tapping into nearshore talent from Latin America. While technical skills certainly played a role in their success, one quality consistently stood out above the rest: a strong sense of ownership. It wasn’t just what these professionals could do — it was how deeply they cared about the outcomes.

Table of Contents

What is ownership mindset, really?

Ownership mindset is more than just accountability. It is a proactive, results-driven approach where team members take initiative, act in the best interest of the business and treat challenges as their own to solve. It is the difference between someone who says, “That is not my job,” and someone who says, “I will figure this out.”

We define it as a blend of initiative, responsibility, problem-solving and alignment with outcomes. People with an ownership mindset do not just check boxes. They drive progress.

And in today’s decentralized, remote-first world, that mindset has become the number one indicator of long-term team success.

Why skills alone are not enough

Technical skills evolve quickly. What is cutting-edge today could be obsolete in a year. While foundational knowledge matters, the reality is that most great developers are constantly learning. But no amount of knowledge will help if someone lacks the drive to apply it effectively, the judgment to prioritize the right problems or the resilience to work through ambiguity.

We have seen companies hire incredibly skilled developers who could not operate autonomously. They waited for instructions. They did not raise red flags. And when problems emerged, they lacked the sense of urgency to act. That is not a skills issue. It is a mindset issue.

Ownership mindset drives better business outcomes

At ParallelStaff, when we place developers, we vet for more than just technical capabilities. We look for people who ask the hard questions during interviews. Those who take pride in the products they have built. Those who view the success of the client’s mission as their own responsibility.

Those developers consistently:

Proactively solve problems instead of escalating them
Communicate clearly and consistently, even under pressure
Identify improvements and inefficiencies without being asked
Go beyond task completion to drive project success

This is particularly powerful in remote and distributed teams, where autonomy and self-leadership are non-negotiable. If you are building a team across time zones or continents, you need people who will move things forward, not wait for permission.

In fact, many of our clients who build dedicated teams with us say the same thing: “Your developers feel like part of our company, not just vendors.” That is the byproduct of hiring people with ownership built into their mindset.

Hiring for ownership starts with values

At ParallelStaff, we center our culture on five core values: Excellence, Efficiency, Integrity, Growth Mindset and Ownership. These are not just words on a website. They shape how we vet candidates, how we coach developers and how we deliver to clients.

Our vetting process goes beyond code tests. We simulate real-world project scenarios. We assess communication under pressure. We look at how candidates handle change and ambiguity. Ownership shows up in the gray areas: when requirements shift, timelines compress, and stakes are high.

When you hire for ownership, you are not just filling roles. You are building a culture — one where people think like founders, lead without titles and care deeply about the outcome.

How to identify ownership during hiring

Hiring for ownership takes intentionality. Here are a few strategies we use and that you can apply, too:

Ask behavioral questions focused on outcomes: “Tell me about a time you took initiative on a project without being asked.”
Test for decision-making, not just delivery: Present candidates with scenarios where they need to prioritize, push back or propose alternatives.
Watch how they speak about past teams and projects: People who take ownership will talk about we, our users and the results. Not just what they were told to do.
Look for learning agility: Ownership-driven people do not wait to be taught. They go figure it out.
Do not overlook red flags: If someone blames others or needs constant direction, that is a long-term cost.

Cultural fit: The force multiplier

When you build remote teams with cultural alignment, things just work better. Meetings are more productive. Trust builds faster. Collaboration scales. And your team does not just execute. They evolve together.

That is why companies that prioritize ownership in hiring often see:

Ownership is not something you can train overnight. It is something you find, reward and reinforce.

Hiring for skills gets you workers. Hiring for ownership gets you builders.

The best teams are not just technically competent. They are mission-driven. They care. They push. And they do not need to be micromanaged because they manage themselves.

At ParallelStaff, we believe ownership is the single most underrated trait in scaling technology teams. It is how we help clients move faster, build smarter and grow sustainably.

If you are scaling your engineering team and want to avoid the common traps of traditional outsourcing, start by prioritizing mindset. Your future self and your customers will thank you.

But here is the trap: A team stacked with talent but lacking ownership will never scale effectively.

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Business

5 Language Apps That Can Change How You Do Business

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

Being able to speak multiple languages, or even a few key conversational phrases, can be a major asset in today’s business world. Imagine being able to negotiate with international clients in their native language instead of resorting to Google Translate—that’s what developing real international relationships and trust should look like.

If you’re interested in expanding your skillset, we’ve selected some of the best language apps for entrepreneurs and business owners. This way, you don’t need to block off hours of your schedule for formal classes or hire a tutor. Keep reading to decide which app’s methods may suit your needs most effectively.

Table of Contents

Babbel

Designed to get you speaking ASAP, Babbel helps you build practical conversation skills in 10- to 15-minute lessons. The app also has a new AI conversation partner so you can practice skills in real time.

Key feature: AI integrations
Number of available languages: 14
Price: $169.99 for a lifetime subscription (reg. $599)

Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)

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Qlango

Looking for a fun, quiz-style way to practice? This app’s gamified lessons and smart repetition keep learning light but effective across common and lesser-known languages. It’s an excellent choice for casual learners. (It may also be a great replacement for Duolingo.)

Key feature: Gamification
Number of available languages: 56
Price: $34.97 for a lifetime subscription (reg. $119.99)

Qlango Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)

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Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone teaches you through immersion, not translation, using visual and audio cues to help you learn a new language the same way you acquired your native tongue. This is for anyone who wants to become fluent.

Key feature: 30+ years in the game
Number of available languages: 25
Price: $179.99 for a lifetime subscription (reg. $399)

Rosetta Stone: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)

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Beelinguapp

Read your way to fluency with side-by-side audiobooks and native texts. Beelinguapp is great for visual learners who want to boost comprehension through stories, news, and more.

Key feature: Audiobooks
Number of available languages: 150+
Price: $144.99 for a lifetime subscription with code BEELEARN5 at checkout (reg. $359.99)

Beelinguapp Language Learning App: Lifetime Subscription

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Promova

Promova is a flexible, all-in-one platform that adapts to your learning style with AI-powered lessons, grammar tools, immersive role-play, and even podcasts or video content. With accessibility features like Dyslexia Mode and ADHD-friendly white noise, it’s built to help you learn comfortably and confidently.

Key feature: Accessibility-focused design
Number of available languages: 12
Price: $79.99 for a lifetime subscription (reg. $299.99)

Promova Premium Plan: Lifetime Subscription

See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Babbel

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Business

Airbnb Now Offers Bookings for Massages, Chefs, Fitness

This year, AAA is predicting a new Memorial Day weekend travel record with an estimated 45.1 million people venturing at least 50 miles from their homes from Thursday, May 22, to Monday, May 26. That’s an increase of 1.4 million travelers compared to last year. (The previous record was set in 2005 with 44 million people, the company notes.)

If that gives you pause to hit the road, Airbnb wants to make things easier by being your own personal concierge when traveling (or deciding to hang out at home).

On Tuesday, the company announced a redesigned app with a spate of new features, including one called “Services.”

“Hotels do have one thing that we don’t have, and those are services,” CEO and Cofounder Brian Chesky, 43, said at the launch event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Now, Airbnb users in 260 cities can book things like food (in-home and ready-to-eat meals from professional chefs or full-service catering); photography sessions; massages and spa treatments (Swedish, deep tissue, reflexology, facials, microdermabrasion, body scrubs); personal training (yoga, strength training, HIIT); and beauty services (hair, makeup, nails).

Chesky told the New York Times the company was always “destined to do more” than just be an app to book or offer a place to stay.

^Airbnb

Airbnb says that all service professionals are “vetted for quality,” have an “average of 10 years of experience, completed Airbnb’s identity verification process, and are required to submit relevant licenses and certifications.”

It’s not Joe-from-down-the-block who’s coming to cook your meal (no disrespect to Joe). Airbnb is touting its connections and offering “chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants, award-winning photographers, and elite trainers.”

But even though that may sound expensive, the company says there are services at all price points, with many below $50.

“Airbnb is currently used as a noun and a verb, and it means a place to stay,” Chesky told the New York Times. “The question we then asked was what if you could Airbnb more than an Airbnb and essentially monetize the biggest asset in your life, which is probably not your home but your time, passion, and skill set.”

If that gives you pause to hit the road, Airbnb wants to make things easier by being your own personal concierge when traveling (or deciding to hang out at home).

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