While owning property and having tenants can be a great revenue stream, it can also be a nightmare if the tenants aren’t properly screened or handled. The most successful and best landlords tend to do these five things:
1. The Best Landlords Offer a Great “Product”
It’s just a fact that better tenants tend to gravitate toward better properties. While not a guarantee, the clientele a property attracts tends to align with the level of the neighborhood and quality of the property itself. The best landlords will invest in good properties and maintaining them well increases the odds of consistently drawing in good tenants.
2. The Best Landlords Use Tenant Screening Background Checks
Professional tenant screening services can help to make new tenant selection much easier. With websites like TenantScreening.biz, landlords can quickly check applicant backgrounds for an eviction and criminal history as well as a credit score. Other tenant screening services include a previous address history check, multi-state sex offender, terrorist alert, and a tenant score.
3. The Best Landlords Create a Policy – and Enforce It
Renter policies must be clearly stated as well as enforced, or tenants won’t take them seriously. One of the best techniques to ensure the rent is paid on time is by enacting and enforcing a late fee. Detailed rules about the property as well as the forms of payment accepted should be clearly determined before renting it out.
4. The Best Landlords Are Organized
The best landlords keep all paperwork and forms neatly organized. They have a folder for each tenant and maintenance service, and they file all contracts and receipts. Maintenance service phone numbers should be organized and accessible, along with stated in-house procedures for common issues.
5. The Best Landlords Have Set Hours
While a landlord is technically on call 24/7, the best landlords set boundaries; they set reasonable office hours such as Monday through Friday 9 am – 5 pm during which they answer their phone or return calls as promptly as possible. Of course, tenants can call after-hours and leave a message, but the landlord can choose to only respond to dire emergencies after-hours. The rest can wait for the next workday.
Bad tenants can make a landlord or property owner’s life miserable and can be costly in the long run, but so can an inept landlord. Follow these five landlord tips and you will increase your odds of keeping your good tenants for years to come.
