10 Important Tips for New Landlords – Rental Property management
When you step into the shoes of a landlord the first time, it seems like a lot of work with unforeseen challenges. Marketing your property, meeting with potential tenants, screening tenants, preparing all the paperwork, and rent collection, etc. are overwhelming tasks, no doubt, but with the right knowledge and guidance, you can do it with ease.
We have some tips for first-time landlords to help them manage the rental property –
- Run your rental property as a business – It doesn’t matter if renting your property is your primary source of income or secondary, always treat it as a business because it is, in fact, a business and a good source of income.
- Look for tenants online with proper screening – List your property on the good property listing websites. You can even consider promoting rental property in Facebook groups. Keep in mind that you will need to filter the applications and do proper screening to select high-value tenants for further meetings.
- Research the market to set the right rent price – Have a better understanding of the real estate market in the area. Research on rent pricing with similar property and set competitive yet confident pricing that you can sell to your tenants.
- Do a background check – To keep bad tenants out, do a proper background check of potential tenants before renting them. A background check should involve credit history, work history, living history, family history, and so on.
- Prepare a comprehensive rental agreement – Before renting your property, have a well written rental agreement in place. This agreement should have all the terms, conditions, rules, and regulations in accordance with local laws to avoid any legal problems later.
- Enforce rental property rules properly – Make sure that your tenants follow all the property rules so that they don’t disturb other tenants and damage the property. Let your tenants know the strict consequences if they violate the property law or local laws.
- Collect the rent online – Collecting rent online will save you time, energy, and hassle of visiting property every time you want to collect rent from different tenants. Either give them the option to deposit directly in your bank or set up an account with any payment service to give your tenants multiple payment options.
- Maintain digital records – This is very important and will help you in many situations. Set a digital bookkeeping process. All records such as tenants’ information, leases, agreements, maintenance, rent collection, etc. should be digitally accessible anywhere and at any time.
- Focus on good tenants – Identify good tenants who are currently renting your property and try to serve them better by resolving their complaints faster and providing them with anything they need from you. You want to keep them long-term for better revenue optimization.
- Consider hiring a good property manager – Renting a property is a step-by-step process that needs to be managed efficiently and effectively to meet financial expectations. Every step matters and failing at any step can cause financial and legal problems.A good property manager will save you from lots of trouble by actively taking care of everything from marketing your property to resolve any legal case quickly.
On a final note, it is not hard to manage the rental property but it needs discipline and better execution if you want it to be a good source of income. If you need any consultation regarding your real estate matters, We are waiting to hear from you. Contact us today.