Around 43.3 million United States households rent their home. If you are someone who manages rental properties for these people, it’s best to know effective management strategies.
Proper management for rentals will lead to happy, satisfied tenants and a smooth operation.
Here are 4 strategies for rental property management.
1. Screen Potential New Tenants
You don’t want unqualified tenants who don’t respect you, the lease agreement, the property, or paying rent.
One way to try to cut down on potential problem tenants in the future is to have a thorough tenant screening process. This will weed out the unqualified tenants and leave you with the best candidates to live at your property.
It’s up to you to decide how thorough you want the process to be. Some basic requirements are a credit check, background check, and a reference check.
You can also screen for financial requirements. You want your tenants to be able to have enough funds to pay you every month for the rent and other fees. Ask for proof of finances like their last three pay stubs.
If you’re looking for assistance placing tenants, help with management, or other landlord resources, click here.
2. Lease Agreement
Creating a good lease agreement is a way to protect yourself as a landlord from potential legal trouble. This is why it’s important to have an attorney look over your lease agreement before finalizing it.
Reading through the lease agreement for both the tenant and the management will mean that there’s less of a chance of misunderstanding each other down the road.
If your tenant has any questions or concerns about the lease, they can come and get more clarification before signing.
3. Communication is Part of Rental Property Management
Like in most relationships, communication is key. You can use either email or paper flyers on their door to communicate with your tenants.
Whenever you are planning mandatory maintenance or construction, it’s best to communicate that with your tenants in a timely manner. This courteous act will allow them to prepare themselves if the maintenance technician needs entrance to the unit or to be ready for construction noise.
Another reason why communication is important is that it allows you to effectively talk to your tenants about complaints or questions as they arise.
Whether they call, leave a message, or email you, try to respond as quickly as possible. This will make them feel like you aren’t ignoring them and that the issue will resolve itself soon.
4. Maintenance and Property Care
Rental maintenance requires you to fix any problems that arise with the tenant’s units. This can be issues like a plumbing leak, faulty locks, cracks in walls, or a split in the patio screen.
There are general maintenance tasks that you need to do regularly like cleaning all the common areas, taking out the trash, and general yard work tasks.
You can also decide to include every couple of weeks for the units.
It’s important that the rental units have functional heating and cooling units as well.
Build Respect
These rental property management tips will help you create a successful working relationship between you and your tenants. The hope is to make a great place to live with mutual respect for the management and the tenants living there.
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