The quest to become a great landlord holds different meanings for everyone. For some people, it translates to taking care of your tenants. For several others, it refers to deriving maximum profits out of your property.
Whereas, for many landlords, it means striking the ideal balance between your tenant’s needs and your own profits. If you want to make sure that you are treating your renters fairly while also protecting your own interests, you simply need to follow a select few practices.
Through these 5 tips to become a great landlord, you can fulfill this personal milestone with ease.
1. Know Your Tenants
Whenever you are looking for new tenants, make sure that you get to know potential renters before handing over the keys to your property. This is possible through a simple yet thorough application form process. By filling out a tenant application form, aspiring renters can tell you crucial details about themselves before they sign a lease with you.
Through this form, you can decide whether or not to rent your apartment to a party based upon their renting history, financial standing, as well as the stability of their occupation. This process allows you to pre-screen tenants before you execute more stringent verification processes.
2. Perform a Background Check
The next step comes in the form of a detailed background check on shortlisted potential tenants. Similar to learning how to perform a rental inspection, you just have to know about the basic steps. From there, you may hand over the majority of the work to a third-party service at your own discretion.
This background check verifies the information that the tenant has provided in their application form. In turn, you ensure that you are dealing with a reliable party. This is especially helpful if you have invested a significant amount of money in your property through measures such as an online renovation platform, and want to protect your investment at all costs.
3. Communicate With Your Tenants
After you get dependable tenants for your property, it is time to establish active communication with your renters. Besides helping you forge a positive relationship with your tenants, it also ensures that you steer clear of any legal claims you could encounter from a lack of communication. You can fulfill this requirement by using tools such as a tenant texting app.
This allows you to roll out management updates, deliver maintenance notifications, and distribute important notices with the utmost ease. If you choose a two-way texting app, it also lets your tenants get in touch with you through a dedicated platform. This allows you to play the role of a property manager seamlessly.
4. Offer Section 8 Housing
Section 8 housing allows you to offer your rental property through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under this program, you can help very low-income tenants with renting your property through government subsidies or housing vouchers. This doesn’t affect your ability to earn income, but still lets you help your local community.
By learning what is a HUD inspection and how to get your property approved for Section 8, you can start offering this facility to those who need affordable housing. This makes sure that you are giving back to your community while also continuing to receive your required income through this helpful program.
5. Maintain Your Property
Maintaining your property is the key to taking care of your tenants and your own interests. If you neglect the home or housing unit that you have rented out, problems such as broken cabinets, leaking plumbing, and unkempt walls can grow to a significant extent.
Over time, these problems worry your tenants and put a dent in your bank account due to massive repair costs. In order to ensure that you steer clear of them, you can look into finding providers through an online home maintenance platform. Otherwise, you can also hire local vendors in person. This ensures that your property stays in optimal shape.
By following these tips, you can ensure to become a great landlord while following multiple aspects of property management to a T.