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Landlord Articles

Are you taking care of your tenants?

Are you taking care of your tenants?

If you take care of your tenants, they will take care of you. And that means paying rent on time, staying in the rental longer, maintaining your property, and giving you good reviews to others.

What is that worth? Everything. In this day of review obsession and social conversations, your reputation can mean the success of your property management business – or not. Your renters should be properly vetting to begin with and kept happy throughout their stay.

Keeping them happy means being attentive to their maintenance requests, staying in touch to let them know you care, and making sure the are aware of every aspect of the lease contract.

Keep your tenants happy and they will insure your happiness as well.

What you need to know about finding great tenants

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Communicate Effectively

How should you be communicating with your tenant(s)?

Sometimes it may seem a bit difficult to manage tenants and properties in an effective way, and that’s why communication is so incredibly important.

First of all, make sure you have the right information! Be sure to have at least one phone number for each tenant, a number that you’ll always be able to reach them at. Having your tenants email addresses is also a good idea because it allows for communication on  a bigger scale. If you have a property-wide announcement to make, you can send an email out to all of your residents. Tenant File offers this feature, check it out here.

If you have multiple properties and tenants, a great way to ensure that they can all communicate any issues they have (effectively) is to set up an online portal where residents can input different requests they have pertaining to the property. Tenants can have an online login that is linked to their property so that there is never any confusion about where the work needs to be done. All these requests can be sent to management in an organized way and be handled quickly.

In addition to the online portal, you should also have a phone line, aside from the normal phone line, that tenants can use in the case of an emergency. For example, if the pipes burst and begin to flood the property, waiting for the online request to be received may not be the best option. communication

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It’s All in the Family

Recently, we talked about the different benefits and costs that come with investing in single family homes vs. apartments (multi-family homes).  Like we talked about before, multi-family homes allow you to house several families, meaning toooons of tenants. Because of the cost and management, apartments aren’t typically everyone’s first choice as far as real estate investments.  Aside from apartments, what other kinds of multi-family homes can you look into?

Duplexes

A duplex is pretty much two separate homes, side by side, under the same roof. Each half of the duplex is equipped like it’s own mini-home, allowing for two separate families to live there. Duplexes are nice because you have two separate rental incomes coming in from one single property. If you have a big house that you might want to convert, a duplex is not difficult to achieve with the right permits.

Townhouses

Townhouses are multiple separate homes, side by side, usually within a communal style neighborhood. Townhouses definitely require more work than duplexes, because you’ll definitely have more than two families, but they can be less work than apartments. Like apartments, you’ll typically use a property manager to manage your property.

Two-Flats

Two-flats are structurally similar to duplexes in that they are pretty much built in houses. In a two-flat, you have one apartment on the top floor, and another on the bottom floor. Both usually share a common basement, and front entrance, because they’re constructed in what looks to be a normal house.

multi-family home

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Where should you invest?

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As someone looking into investing in residential real estate, you need to figure out what kind of properties will be most profitable. Typically, the choice lies  between single family homes, and apartments. Both offer different benefits and require different levels of investment so it’s important to do research on what will serve your market (and your budget) best.

With apartments, you definitely have lower cost-per-unit than if you were to buy multiple houses as investments.Even though your cost-per-unit is lower with apartments, the startup cost is much lower when you invest in single family homes. Buuuuut…if you invest in an apartment building, you really have no choice as to how many properties you’ll be managing, it’s pretty much all or nothing. With houses, you can pick the number of properties you want to invest in and go from there.

As far as managing the properties, there’s definitely more of a need for a property manager when you’re investing in apartments. With a house, or houses, it’s pretty much your responsibility to deal with the tenants and properties, because hiring a property manager is not a cheap deal if you’re only renting out a few houses. Now that we’re talking about dealing with tenants, you should recognize that those who rent single family homes are usually long-term tenants; those who rent apartments typically do not expect to stay there for an extended amount of time.

Basically, look at how much you’re planning on investing in start-up costs, and whether or not you want a property management company to work with or not, and go from there.

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Expanding Your Business

As a property manager, you always have toooons of room to expand your business. But, the question is, how do you expand?

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Before anything, make sure you have a stable and organized property management business. Imagine if you have a house that doesn’t have a stable structure, do you think it’d be a good idea to expand it? Probably not. This same thing applies to business expansion. Without a stable facility, expansion isn’t in your best interest. Make sure your business is stable and that you have a good team, and good tenants.

A huge component in expanding your business lies within social media. A while back we talked about harnessing the power of social media for real estate, and as a property manager, the same tips are applicable to you. Using social media will give you followers beyond your tenants or direct business partners; it’ll let more people know what you have to offer and how they can get in on it. Maybe you can create a specific hashtag that your tenants can use to share your site across social media platforms, like Facebook, or Twitter.

Once you have maintained a strong and stable property management business, it may be time to physically expand your business by adding more properties. If you have the financial capacity to expand and have planned accordingly, look into similar properties that you can see as good investment options. Or, if you want to branch out of the property management route you’re currently taking (residential or commercial) and see what other kinds of properties would also work in your area. It’s really important to research the specific market that you’re working with and see what the needs are so that you can find a property that meets those needs.

 

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Should you be insured?

A couple of days ago we brought you some awesome tips for making your property hurricane safe, check them out here.  One of the things we touched on briefly was hurricane insurance. Hurricane insurance can come in handy if your property is located in an area where hurricanes are likely to hit, but it’s important to assess whether or not it’s right for you.

So, what exactly is hurricane insurance? 

Well, the deductible works a bit differently than it does with most other insurances. With hurricane insurance, the deductible is typically a percentage of the home’s cost (usually between 3 and 5 percent), but this will depend on your state and homeowner’s insurance policy. The state you’re in also determines the kind of coverage that you’ll get as far as hurricane insurance, because of the fact that not all states offer extensive hurricane coverage in homeowner’s insurance policies. Hurricane insurance will typically cover damage caused by wind and rain, not flooding.

Time to talk about flood insurance! Flood insurance can be useful if your property is in an area susceptible to hurricaneinsurances, and is also in a flood zone. There are different kinds of flood insurance you can get, depending on the type of property you manage. For commercial properties, look into building policies; building policies cover damage done to the structure of the building, like foundation and exterior, as well as some indoor things like paneling, air systems, and flooring. The coverage is usually up to $250,000. If you manage a personal property, a personal policy is better suited for you; a personal policy covers things like furniture, clothing, appliances, etc. Usually this covers up to $100,000.

So, now that you know a bit about the different kinds of insurance available to you, do some research and figure out what’s best for your property.

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Time of the (Hurricane) Season

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hurricaneWith hurricane season officially having started about  a week ago, it’s that time where having your property severe-storm ready is a must. As a homeowner, you have a big responsibility to make sure that your home is prepared for the upcoming severe weather; investing time and money into preparing your home can save you lots later on. Your tenant will also be happy knowing that you’re making a point to keep them safe.

Before the actual storm hits, be sure that all things that you have outdoors that have a risk of getting damaged, or flying away, are secured inside. If you have a shed, or something that can’t be picked up and moved inside, anchor it to the ground and make sure it’s locked. As far as windows or glass doors, make sure your property is protected! If shutters are too pricy, plywood is also a good way to board up any windows your home may have. You should also be sure to check your rain gutters and keep them clean so water can flow through easily and doesn’t accumulate.

If your property is in an area that usually gets hit pretty bad by hurricanes, you should definitely consider getting hurricane insurance. Just like other types of insurance there are different plans to choose from so it’s up to you to decide what kind of coverage is best for your home.

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What are YOU doing to make sure your tenant is taken care of?

As a property manager, you have a lot of different things to deal with on a daily basis. Because of this, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of your tenants and their homes, and they may not be being taken care of as they should be. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your tenant is receiving the proper treatment and that any issues they have are taken care of. What can you do to ensure this?

work orderWell, one of the basic things you need to do is make sure that all of their maintenance and repairs are taken care. If your tenant comes to you with something that’s your responsibility to fix, don’t wait around for the problem to get bad and then handle it; take care of things as soon as they are brought to your attention. It may seem hard to keep track of so many things that you need to take care of, but we’ve got you covered. With Tenant File, we offer an optional Work Order Form feature (check it out here) that lets you keep track of work orders that your tenants have requested.

You can also send out a newsletter to your tenants! This may seem like a lot, but it’s not difficult to do and can save you tons of time in the long run. If you plan on being out of town, mention this in the newsletter so your tenants know to come to you before you leave. If a cold front is coming and there is a risk of pipes freezing, tell your tenants what precautions they should be taking. These kinds of things make all the difference and make your tenant feel that they’re truly being taken care of.

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On To The Next One – Prepping Your Home

Prepping your home for your new tenant!

Your tenant has officially moved out and it’s time for you to prepare your property (and yourself) to find a new one. What do you need to do as far as the prepping process?

  1. Clean! Make sure your place is all cleaned up from your last tenant so that you’ll have a fresh canvas to work on.
  2. Paint. A fresh coat of paint makes all the difference in a room. Choose a standard color, maybe a beige shade, that will make the room look bigger and brighter.
  3. Take care of the floors. Once the painting in all done, make sure the floors are spotless. If the carpet has stains, get it steamed. If your wood floor looks dull, it may be time for a wax.
  4. Take pictures! You should take pictures of the home while it’s empty so you can document the exact state that you’ll be handing it over to your tenant in. You’ll end up taking pictures again when you’re staging, but these pictures won’t show the home completely empty.
  5. Staging. Staging is a very important step! Make sure your home looks awesome so that people will want to live there. We have some great staging tips here. Once your home is staged, take pictures so you can put it on the market.
  6. Listing. Having a good listing is one the biggest things that will affect your tenant search. Mention all the big things your home has to offer (pool, new kitchen, etc.) so that you can catch people’s attention.

These are pretty standpreppingard, but if you skip a step you may not be as successful in finding a tenant as you’d like.  Good luck!