The Best Ways for Landlords to Prepare for a New Year
For most entrepreneurial men and women, a new year is always filled with grand plans for personal, professional and financial growth. This is true across industries, with most self-starters using the final months and weeks of the year making lists of new year goals and the steps to accomplish those goals.
If you are a real estate investor, chances are you have taken time or will soon to forecast what the upcoming year will look like. You may have some tenants who you wish to keep, some you wish to remove and others who are in limbo. You may be thinking of making an addendum to your leasing agreements and using the new year as a time to launch new projects for your properties.
To prepare yourself, you should consider the following:
Easy to Understand and Legally Sound Leasing Agreements
You want to make sure that the agreement you enter into with your tenants is understandable, clearly lays out what is acceptable and accurately describes your responsibilities as a landlord and your tenants duties as the renter. Even if you believe your current leasing agreements meet these requirements, the new year is a good time to review them and make updates.
Response Time to Maintenance Requests
Working to ensure that your tenants request for maintenance is met with swift responses will ensure that you not only keep your tenants happy, but you have a positive reputation as a landlord. A high level of responsiveness will also cut down on any safety hazards, as well as cut down on delayed rent payments because of an establishment of trust with your tenants.
Freeing Yourself of Bad Tenants
You may also find the new year a good time to do some "housekeeping" by making space for you to remove problematic tenants. When it comes to "bad tenants" you want to be sure you have a criteria that makes sense for you as a landlord. Someone who is annoying, but always pays their rent on time and does well with upkeep may require that you have a bit more patience. As opposed to someone who is nice but consistently pays their rent late, receives complaints from neighbors and is generally not a good steward of living on your property. Take the time to identify who your bad tenants are and why.
Offer Support to Employees and Contractors
Your contractors and employees likely help keep you sane when dealing with any issues that arise from the management of your property. Using the new year as a time to get their feedback and offer new policies or incentives that support their ability to effectively serve you and your tenants can be a great investment with a big payoff!
Think of Ways to Keep Your Best Tenants
How do you market your available spaces and when you have stellar tenants where do they usually come from? You'll want to make sure you're tracking how you get your best tenants--and do more of that. You can also offer incentives to your sources, and through them (i.e. giving a special rate for those who find you through sitewhohelpsapartmentseekers.com).
Keeping these 5 crucial things in mind will help you prepare your properties, yourself, your team and your tenants for the year ahead. Also remember to do things that help you maintain mental, physical and emotional health. After all, owning and running investment properties is a huge undertaking that can be rewarding, but draining if you don't make time to take care of yourself.
Happy New Year, we'll see you in 2020!
If you are a property owner for multiple residential locations, you may find yourself dealing with tenant disputes more often than you like. For more information on how to evict your tenants, contact our office at info@theonyxgrouplegal.com. Our experienced team knows how to settle landlord tenant disputes efficiently, allowing our clients to manage their residential properties, and get paid, without disruption.
Comments