When you decide that you will make the most out of your real estate investment, the best way to do is to be a cool landlord. You don’t have to pay extra fees towards a property manager because you will do the managing by yourself. Here, we give an overview as to how to become a model landlord.
Overview of Becoming a Landlord
There’s more than just being a landlord than what we saw when we were renters. Being a landlord is not easy because of the baggage that is associated with managing a home and a business into one.
Not only landlords are expected to keep a place running and hassle-free, they should also keep good harmony with the renters.
So, do you still want to be one? The following are some starting tips that will help you in the rental investment business.
Be legally responsible
Being a landlord entails that you will do lots of paperwork and familiarization. These usually start from paying legalities to make your real estate property into a legal business. Another to-do is to familiarize yourself with the laws relating to your new business and know them like the back of your hand. In this way, you can effectively manage your property to become a good long-term investment.
Treat the tenants as customers
Simply put, a landlord is a businessman and a tenant is a customer. As a businessman, we want our customers to be satisfied so they keep coming back, right? When you lay out detailed rules and regulations, respect and protect their rights, you can get better tenants that would stay with you for a long time.
Be ready for maintenance calls
Being a landlord means that everything that isn’t owned by your tenant is your responsibility. Thus, if there’s a clogged toilet, leaking faucet, etc., it’s on you to act on them. Be ready that these may happen in the wee hours of the morning and even while you’re asleep.
If you don’t want this responsibility, then don’t live with your tenants or assign a caretaker than can also become a plumber into your property.
Give the renters their privacy
Though you’re a landlord, it doesn’t seem right for you to enter your property without giving an early notice to your tenants. Barging in on them especially when they’re indulging on something private is just simply an invasion of privacy. You may even get complaints because of that.
Keep cool.
There are times that one or two tenants may not pay the rent on time or fail to pay it for that month. Surely, there are more problems that will come your way as a business owner and a manager rolled into one. So, to not be tagged as a “bad” landlord, you should keep your cool. Discuss things in the lease contract before the renter signs a lease as to what must be done when such future problems may arise.
Conclusion
If you’ve experienced to become a renter, then you knew how a good landlord should treat their tenants. Thus, when you become a landlord yourself, incorporate such good traits so that the renters can trust you with their money. And you, on the other hand, can trust them with taking good care of your property during their residency.