Keen Investing: Apartments in Rosslyn, VA

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If you’re looking at investing in the real estate market, you might have your eye on one of the suburbs around Washington, D.C. There are lots of jobs in D.C., and the culture there is growing, making it a great long-term investment. But buying in the capital itself can be expensive and may limit your options for a good property.

Just across the river, however, you can find some of the best apartments in Rosslyn VA. Read on to learn about this neighborhood and why it should be on the top of your list for your next investment opportunity.

Welcome to Rosslyn

Before we dive into the advantages of investing in Rosslyn, let’s talk some about the neighborhood. Rosslyn is a neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, and is just across the river from Washington, D.C. It has amazing access to historic landmarks, a thriving culture, and plentiful job opportunities.

Rosslyn features a three-acre park with an amphitheater, an ornamental garden, and an enormous sandbox. Every September, your tenants can enjoy the Rosslyn Jazz Festival, and in between, they can enjoy more than two dozen sit-down restaurants in the neighborhood. The area is walkable, with lots of green space and plenty of broad sidewalks.

Prime Location

One of the best reasons to invest in Rosslyn real estate is its premium location. Rosslyn is just a fifteen-minute drive from the heart of Washington, D.C., and is even closer to some key national monuments. In fact, you can get to the National Mall in under ten minutes, thanks to the nearby I-66!

In addition to providing easy access to D.C.’s many cultural treasures, Rosslyn is close to a number of major employers. Deloitte and Lockheed Martin are both located in Arlington, employing more than 6,000 people between them. The United States Department of Defense, which employs 36,000 people, is also nearby, as is the United States Department of Justice. 

Lower Prices 

While living in Washington, D.C., offers a lot of benefits, one of the major downsides is the cost. On the landlord side, properties in D.C. cost more than $600,000 on average, which means you have to have a lot of money to invest upfront. And on the tenant side, rent is more than $2,200 a month.

In Rosslyn, however, property is much more affordable, making it a much more accessible investment. Median list prices in Rosslyn are under $400,000, and property taxes are much lower. Rent, however, is about the same as in D.C., making this a much more profitable area to invest in than D.C. proper.

Thriving Culture

When you’re trying to draw in quality tenants, you want to be able to show them that the area they’ll be living in has a lot for them to do. Rosslyn has an amazing array of restaurants, museums, bars, shopping, theater, and more. Your tenants will never be left on a Friday night wondering what to do in the city.

Arlington offers a wide variety of restaurants ranging from sports bars and pie companies to breweries and Greek food. If your tenants don’t feel like going to D.C. for some history, the Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima memorial are just two of Arlington’s most well-known attractions. And when it comes to shopping, you can find major shopping malls, European-style promenades, local boutiques, and more scattered across the city. 

Excellent Public Transportation

One of the biggest benefits of living in a city is that there’s easily accessible public transportation. This can be an important factor for tenants who don’t have access to a car, don’t like driving, or want to reduce their environmental impact. And living in Rosslyn, Virginia, your tenants will be able to get to lots of public transport options.

There are more than ten different bus lines in Rosslyn, including the D.C. Circulator, which runs to Georgetown and Dupont. There are also three different subway stations in Rosslyn: Rosslyn Station, Clarendon Station, and Court House Station. And if your tenants do have a car, I-66 makes it easy to get in and out of D.C., as well as around Arlington. 

Arrange Your Finances

Before you start investing in Rosslyn, you’ll need to get your financial situation in order. First of all, you’ll have to figure out if you can afford to pay cash for your investment property or if you need to finance it. If you do decide to get a mortgage, you’ll need at least a 20 percent down payment for the property – and the more you have, the better.

Once you’ve figured out your budget and financing, you’ll need to figure out what sort of profit margin you need to cover all the expenses for your property. Make sure you account for unexpected costs, such as appliance replacements, roof repairs, and so on. From there, you can arrange to pay the mortgage and start your passive income stream.

Find the Best Apartments in Rosslyn VA

Investing in Rosslyn, Virginia, can be a great way to set up your passive income streams. The neighborhood provides excellent access to D.C., a thriving culture, and fantastic public transport. You can also get a higher profit here, since property values are much lower, while rent is about the same as in D.C.

If you’d like to find the best apartments in Rosslyn, VA, check out the rest of our site at Nomadic Real Estate. We provide leasing, management, sales, and, most importantly, peace of mind. Contact us today and start making your D.C. investment the smart way.

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Enhanced Reporting

Your portal includes a selection of extremely useful reports. Reports are available in the “Reports” section, and are distinct from the financial statements. Unlike financial statements which are static records, Reports are dynamic real-time records that will update with current data every time you view them. 

Scroll down to learn more about Reports:

Navigate to the "Reports" module in your portal:

Owner Portal Reports
  • Keep in mind, these reports are dynamic records. They will refresh to display current information every time you view them. 

Enhanced Rent Roll Report:

Enhanced Rent Roll Report
  • The Enhanced Rent Roll Report will show the rent amount, last payment date, move-in date, lease expiration date, and security deposit amount for each of your tenants. 
  • It will also show a portfolio summary with occupancy percentage, vacancy loss, and more!

Unit Comparison Report:

Unit Comparison Report
  • If you own multiple units (or buildings) with Nomadic, you’ll get access to the Unit Comparison Report. 
  • This report enables you to quickly compare financial performance between your units at a glance without toggling between individual reports. 

Income Statement Month-Over-Month:

Income Statement by Month Report
  • The Income Statement Detail – Monthly Report serves as a month-over-month record of portfolio performance. You’ll see itemized income and expense categories and can track monthly. This report will update with fresh data every time you view it. 

Financial Statements

Financial statements will be published to your portal on a monthly basis. The statements are found in your Documents library, and provide a historical record of all financial performance. The statements serve as a snapshot of financial performance over a given period, and are static documents (unlike Reports, the statements do not update/change in real-time). 

Scroll down for more info about the Financial Statements in your Documents library:

The Documents area contains monthly financial statements:

Owner Portal Documents
  • The statements in the Documents are are static documents. They are posted to the portal once a month to serve as a historical record of financial performance. 

Download a statement to see month and YTD financials:

Owner Portal Property Statement

You'll also find a month-over-month operating statement:

Month over Month Statement

Portal Communication Tool

You can use your owner portal to communicate with our team. Any messages you send through the portal will go straight to your Account Manager. When we reply, you’ll get an email notification and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

Here’s an overview of using the communication platform:

Click "Communications" and navigate to "Conversations":

Commincation Dashboard Screenshot
  • The communications module will contain a record of all messages that you create through the portal. 

Click the "New Message" button and send your message:

Owner Portal New Message Screenshot

Responses will show up in the conversation ticket:

Portal Conversation Response Screenshot
  • You’ll get an email notification whenever you get a response, and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

You can reply in-line using the comment box:

Owner Portal Comment

Each conversation will be logged in its entirety:

Portal Conversation Snapshot

Understanding the Ledger

Your portal includes a ledger with all transactions. The ledger is populated with data in real-time as transactions flow through our accounting software. Much of this information is also available in the Reports area, as well as the Statements in your Documents library, but the ledger is the most comprehensive resource for diving into the details. 

Please scroll through the sections below to get a better understanding of how to interpret the ledger. 

By default, transactions are sorted chronologically:

Owner Ledger Dates
  • The date reflected in the lefthand column is the actual transaction date, not the “bill date”. This is the date the transaction was actually processed. 

If you have multiple properties with Nomadic, you'll see the address for each transaction in the "Location" column:

Ledger Property Column
  • You can filter the ledger to look at just one property, all properties, or specific sets of properties. 
  • If you only have one property with us, you’ll just see the ledger for that property. 

The Description column displays the transaction type:

Owner Ledger Description Column
  • BILL: this is an expense transaction, such as for repair costs or management fees.
  • CHARGE: this is a transaction  billed to the tenant, most typically a rent payment. 
  • NACHA EXPORT: this is a credit we processed to your distribution account. This type of transaction is how you get paid! 

The Amount column shows the dollar value of each transaction:

Owner Ledger Amount Column
  • Positive Amounts: if an amount is positive, it reflects a transaction that is payable to you. Typically, this will be a rent payment that we collected from your tenants. On occasion, a positive number could also signify a journal entry or credit adjustment. 
  • Negative Amounts:  if an amount is negative, this is a transaction that is either payable to Nomadic or is an amount that has already been paid to you. Typically this will be for repair costs or management/leasing fees. Owner draws (net distributions into your checking/savings account) also reflect as negative amounts, since they have already been paid to you. 

The Account Balance column shows a sum of positive/negative transactions at a given point in time:

Owner Ledger Account Balance Column
  • Account Balance should always equal zero after a net distribution has been processed. When the balance is zero, this means that all expenses have been paid and you’ve received the remainder as net operating income, leaving a balance of zero (meaning: no one is due any money, as all funds have been distributed appropriately). 

Navigating the Propertyware Owner Portal

Your portal includes some extremely useful features that help you understand your property’s financial performance at a new level, with real-time transparency into every transaction.

Scroll through the snapshots below for an overview of portal navigation! If you need more help or have specific questions about using the portal, you can reach out to your Account Manager any time for a screen share. 

You can filter all info by date range or property:

PW Portal Filters

View a snapshot of income and expenses on your dashboard:

PW Owner Dashboard View

See every transaction in real-time on your ledger:

Owner Portal Ledger View

Statements and forms will be posted to your documents library:

Owner Portal Document Library

View a suite of real-time financial reports:

Portal Reports View

See a running list of all bills, and drill down for more detail:

Owner Portal Bills View

Under Bill Details, you'll find dates/descriptions/amounts and more:

Portal Bill Details

You can also communicate with your Account Manager through the portal:

Owner Portal Communication Tools

How do net distributions work?

Net distributions keep your accounting clean and simple. Each month we’ll collect rent from the tenants, deduct any repair expenses for the previous month and any management/leasing fees for the current month, and credit the remaining net operating income to your account. 

Net Distribution

You’ll receive a statement via email each time a net distribution is processed, and can view all transaction details in your Propertyware owner portal.