Owning a property can be a nuisance because you have to maintain a lot of things on your own. Plumbing, construction repairs, landscape, all are your responsibilities. However, things tend to get even more challenging when you have to manage more than one. All your duties get multiplied by the number of properties you have. And the most popular idea that people entertain is to welcome tenants in a property that’s sitting empty. But that means that you are not only multiplying duties but also adding onto them.
Renting your property out to someone might be driven by needs or because you don’t use it, but what you need to realize is that renting properties is a business. People looking for rental properties don’t prefer visiting them, let alone rent them if they aren’t attractive enough for them. The only people who will consider your fragile property are the ones already struggling to make their ends meet. These are the kind of people from whom you will have to wring the money out instead of getting paid on time. That is why people advertising their property for rent, make sure that it’s in mint condition for visitors. They maintain all the essential services and repairs and keep it ready for people to move in on short notice. It is how the wheel of rental properties go around.
People wishing to set foot in this business often have to shoulder a lot of headaches after this maintenance and repair jobs. However, some seasoned individuals in this business make their lives easy by outsourcing their responsibilities. What they do is hire genuine property management professionals who take care of all these upgrades for them and offer a lot more services to ensure their property’s safety. They even assist people with advertising and finding the right tenants for them to make their life easy and avoid losing money on vacant properties. They are undoubtedly the best way out of the situation.
However, if you still feel that you should give it a go, then here are seven ways to help you take care of your property.
1. Avoid long-term contract
The biggest mistake that you might make while renting out your property is to prepare a long-term contract. To avoid going through the trouble of finding another tenant soon, it is nothing rare for landlords to do. But that restricts you from considering a lot of changes around the property. First off, you don’t get to amend or append to the terms of a contract, which means that you will have to adhere to some old articles that might start to hurt you. Secondly, you are not compatible with every kind of person living in your property. You might not like your content for certain habits or misgivings, but you will have to bear them for quite some time. And thirdly, the property might start costing you more than what you are making out of it, and you start thinking of disposing of it. In this case, a long-term contract means that you will have to wait for it to expire, and you might miss out on some excellent offers. That’s why it’s in your best interest to avoid that.
2. 24 hour tenant lookout
People are looking for properties around the clock, and what might be your time to relax would be another person’s to make a move. That means that you can miss out on a lot of potential tenants if you aren’t on the watch. What you can do is hire advertisement services of a marketing team that also takes care of the responses for your offer. Such marketing teams are easy to find and can provide a descript tour of your property to people sitting at home with their expertise. That maximizes your chances of you renting out your property as soon as possible.
3. Timely inspections
An ideal way to take care of anything is to pay attention to it. So the best way of taking care of your property is by having timely inspections scheduled to avoid encountering a significant blunder. Try to be thorough while at it so that you don’t miss out on anything. Check the plumbing, electrical panels, heating, flooring, roof, and all other things that you can think to prepare for any future repairs. That way, you won’t be caught off guard while shouldering an expense.
4. Regular repairs & maintenance
The next move after figuring out what the problem is to decide how to act on it. No degree of inspection can help maintain your property is you don’t choose how to work on your results. So you will have to make unquestionable that you act on it once you notice that there’s a problem. Don’t neglect on repair and maintenance jobs and let them pile up. You might know, but you are welcoming a bigger problem than you already have at hand. Deal with them as soon as possible to avoid allowing them to develop.
5. Property logs
Maintaining property logs is an excellent idea to keep track of your duties regarding a property. You can register tenant complaints, keep track of the contract expirations, vacant properties, interested party visits to take the property, rent payments and defaults, and similar other things of that sort. By fostering this habit, you can maintain your properties efficiently with minimal efforts. A better way to do this is to enlist the help of an online app that helps you with these logs and sends timely reminders to carry out these tasks. It further simplifies your job and makes your life easy.
6. Monthly & year-end statements
The reason for renting out any property is to make some extra money using it. But will never know if you are drawing in any profits from your ventures unless you document all the statements about it. That is why you need to prepare monthly and year-end account statements which will help you determine the areas where you are losing money, and cut down on them. Similarly, it will help you decide if it’s worth continuing this activity at the same price, or it’s about time to look for potential buyers to get your property’s worth. So make sure that you diligently prepare and review them to validate your approach.
7. Legal issues
Something that you can’t avoid when thinking of renting a property is the legal paperwork and issues that come along with it. It could be related to the contract, term amendments, renewals, or eviction notices. All these actions demand that you enlist the help of professional associates to ensure that there is no lapse in paperwork, which might make you suffer while taking back the possession of your property. Preparing for the worst in advance can help dodge specific unwelcomed situations that might disturb you later on.
Summary
These were seven practical ways of taking care of your rental properties and making sure that they relieve you of your problems, instead of adding onto them. They sure look simple when presented encouragingly, but all these tasks are easier said than done. So in case, you aren’t well versed with all this, you should hire some professional help to take care of all these things for you at once.