No matter how long you’ve owned rental property, it never gets any easier unless you hire out the tasks. You’ll always be screening tenants, filling vacancies, making repairs, upgrading portions of your properties, and managing your tenants’ needs.
It’s time-consuming work, and can be stressful at times when you do it on your own. Thankfully, there are ways to make owning rental property easier.
If you’re struggling with being a landlord and maintaining your properties, here’s what you can do.
- Hire a property management company
There’s one move you can make that will make the biggest difference, and that’s to hire a property management company. A property manager will eliminate all the stress of being a landlord while helping you stay on top of your property’s physical demands.
That’s exactly what the team from Green Residential does for their clients. A property management company based in Austin, Texas, they provide top-notch services for landlords who don’t care to be involved in the daily grind of being a landlord.
In addition to rent collection, tenant screening, and marketing, they handle all the repair and maintenance work on behalf of their clients.
If you don’t want to be a landlord or you’re tired of scheduling maintenance appointments, work with a property manager. You don’t have to do everything on your own.
- Create systems and structures
A solid system will make owning rental property easier by providing a framework for how you handle common situations.
For example, a system for handling repairs would include a list of contractors and companies you may call for each type of service, from plumbing to roofing. Once you have that, you don’t have to scramble to find companies to get bids.
Another system that will help is how to handle emergency calls. Your tenants might phone you at two in the morning because of a broken pipe or a major roof leak.
It’s not fun to have to respond to emergencies, but when you have a plan, this is not as stressful. For instance, your system might be to assess the situation over the phone to decide whether you’re needed on site at that moment or if it can wait until morning.
This sounds simple, and it is, but if you don’t plan ahead to assess the situation, you might find yourself racing to your property in the early morning when it wasn’t absolutely necessary and could have waited until morning.
- Only buy property in good shape
A point of stress for many investors is having to tackle properties that need a lot of work. If you own structures that need substantial repairs, your job will be more difficult from the start.
Though it’s possible to find good deals on homes that need a little elbow grease, ask yourself whether it’s worth the discount. Would you rather save some money and have to spend time and energy on repairs?
Or would you rather spend more money up front to acquire a property that doesn’t need extensive mending?
If you don’t mind doing the work, discounted properties that require renovation can be a great deal. If just thinking about a fixer-upper makes you tired, though, you should stick to shopping properties that are in good shape.
- Set high standards from the start
One of the biggest sources of stress for property owners is problematic tenants. If you’ve only had good tenants, consider yourself lucky.
Most landlords have had to face bad tenants at some point. These are renters who do things like damage the property, refuse to leave when evicted, break their lease, fail to pay rent, or have excuses for constantly late rent payments.
The only way to reduce your chance of renting to people who do such things is to insist on high standards from the start. Don’t be afraid to raise your expectations.
It might take longer to rent your property, but it’ll usually be worth the wait. It’s better to have your unit vacant for a little bit longer than to have bad tenants you can’t get rid of when they show their true colors.
As a general rule, apply the following tenant-screening criteria:
- A minimum credit score of 650
- Stable employment
- Good personal, former landlord, and employment references
- No evictions
- No accounts in collections
- No felony convictions
- Income equal to three times the rent
- A security deposit equal to at least one month’s rent
Although you can let some people slide on an individual basis if it feels right, never make exceptions for recent evictions and always run a background check on every applicant and potential occupant.
Owning rental property doesn’t have to be stressful
If you’re stressed about being a landlord or having to manage repairs to your properties, try the tips outlined in this article to reduce your anxieties and make owning rental property as enjoyable as it is profitable.
