It is a tough job being a landlord. One must be ready to wear different hats according to the situation to be successful in this business. At times you act like an accountant and like a contractor at other times. However, it is common to see many landlords failing miserably despite their best efforts. It is common to refer to them as bad landlords, but the reality is that they are not bad or inefficient. They just fail to do certain things. Here are some of the important things missed by these landlords.
They fail to screen tenants properly
One of the most important causes of poorly performing landlords is their inability to screen tenants effectively. Unsuspecting landlords are easily fooled by bad tenants. They talk sweetly and pay cash up front to create a good impression. But they never pay their rent afterwards, creating losses for their landlords. Time, money, and effort is spent by landlords on eviction of bad tenants. Therefore, it is imperative for a landlord to screen their tenants properly.
They do not treat cash flow seriously
Cash flow is the life blood of this business. Your income and profit depend on positive cash flow. If you start to focus upon increase in value, you will do injustice to your business of rental income property. If the property is not generating positive cash flow, it will be hard to cover operational expenses and your business will die a slow and painful death.
The forget to take up repairs
Tenants expect their repair complaints to be taken up promptly. When landlords fail to pay attention to repairs, tenants start to feel disenchanted with the landlord and plan to leave at the earliest opportunity. Landlords think they save money by delaying repairs whereas tenants consider it as a lack of service. You can easily move to high vacancy rates if you do not fix things in an efficient manner.
They do not take preventive maintenance seriously
Undertaking repairs to fix things is necessary. Even more important is to carry out preventive maintenance to prevent big losses in this business. Failing to carry out maintenance of HVAC, roofing, and other important components, you are only inviting huge financial losses when they break down in future. By spending a little amount on service and maintenance, you can save big amount over a period. A stitch in time saves nine they say, and this is perfectly right in the case of preventive maintenance.
They don’t enforce house laws strictly
Landlords who fail are the ones who either do not have house laws or do not have them followed strictly by their tenants. These rules should be clearly explained to every tenant at the time of singing the lease contract. Also, it is the duty of the landlord to punish those who violate the rules of the house in a fair and consistent manner. If you fail to enforce house laws, tenants stop to take you seriously and flout the laws at their will.
They don’t educate tenants
Tenants are like kids who need to be trained to behave in the desired manner. If you do not charge late fee upon late payment, they will learn that they can get away by making one or the other excuse. Make sure to issue warnings and notices whenever tenants violate the terms of the lease. This will teach them to behave properly.
They don’t learn from past mistakes
Bad landlords keep repeating their mistakes and do not learn form their own experiences. You need to learn to adapt to different situations to become a successful landlord.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
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As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
