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Screening Potential Tenants for your Rental Property By Email

March 10th, 2010

I had an interesting experience recently, when I needed to find new tenants for my small rental property. Not interested in paying huge rates to advertise in the local weekend newspaper, I found a well-used online website to advertise at a much cheaper rate, uploaded a few photos and the details of my property, and waited.

It wasn’t long before the replies from potential tenants started rolling in. Since it was advertised online, most of the potentials chose to reply using email, which was actually great for me – it was easy to collate the information about them and arrange a viewing with several of them at once.

As I read their emails, I found myself immediately screening them into good possibilities and bad. I discovered you can tell a lot about a person by what kind of email they write in reply to such an ad – whether they bothered to write a coherent message or just sent me a text-message style query without the normal politeness or niceties you’d expect. I arranged to meet some from each category, and interestingly the ones who hadn’t been professional about their communication with me generally turned out to be unreliable – and I figure if they can’t turn up punctually to a viewing, then they may also find it hard to pay their rent punctually. Those who treated their response to the ad more professionally certainly gave me a better overall impression – and it’s one of those responses who’s become my now reliable tenant.

4 Ways to Keep Your Tenants Happy

March 8th, 2010

Keeping tenants is much more profitable than finding new tenants so the key to being a prosperous landlord who doesn’t have added troubles and work is to keep your tenants happy. The following four tips can help you keep your tenants in your property and insure everyone’s happiness.

Business Attitude

Treat your tenants with professional respect. Don’t gossip with tenants or become their buddy but treat them with respect, a polite demeanor and take them seriously. Let them know that you will listen to their complaints in an even and fair manner and treat no one with favoritism.

Be Available

Whether it’s you, a manager, or a property management company, someone always needs to be available to deal with tenant issues. Some of these issues will be emergencies and others can be handled later, but no matter what your tenant will want to be heard. Taking initiative and routinely contacting your tenants through a phone call, email, letter, or in person will go even further to let them know they matter.

Safety First

Always put your tenants’ safety first and don’t be afraid to let them know this. Let them know when safety related repairs are being made or if you’re taking steps to prevent break ins and theft.

Additional Conveniences

Whenever possible, give your tenants those little extras. Bus tickets, group discounts, a picnic table, new landscaping or any little thing that you can provide that will be appreciated by most of your tenants. If they feel respected and like you care they’re more likely to treat you with respect and hold up their end of the agreement.

Choosing Tenants: Information vs Instinct

March 3rd, 2010

When it comes to choosing the right tenants for your investment property, you won’t always get it perfectly right. However, there are two important parts of selecting the most appropriate tenants, and that involves both gathering information, and using your instincts.

Information is power, of course, so make sure you get your tenants to complete an application form, or tell you in an interview, about their basic rental and employment history. Check in with their employer to make sure they really work there, and call their previous landlord to make sure they usually pay the rent regularly.

Of course, there are ways for tenants to get around this – if they’ve been making late payments for rent, then they’re unlikely to give you the contact details for that landlord, and it’s not so easy for you to know if they’re telling the truth when they say they’ve been staying with a friend for a few months or living with their parents – both of whom aren’t going to tell you otherwise. That’s why using your instinct is also important. Do you get a good impression of the prospective tenants? Are they professional in their communication with you? Do they dress in a way that fits their occupation? Using your instincts is just as important as gathering the facts, and you should combine them to decide on the best tenants for your property.

Raise the Rent or Keep A Tenant?

February 17th, 2010

If you’re self-managing your own rental property, or your managing agent has said you should consider raising the rent, there’s an important point you should think about before you just see the dollar signs of more rental income being paid into your account. Unless your tenant is leaving, think twice!

When you have a suitable tenant in your property, and there is no sign that they will be leaving any time soon, it is often not worth raising the rent they have to pay. Doing so can be a catalyst for them leaving, and then the amount of income you gained from your rent increase will be eaten up by the costs of changing a tenant. Even if you are managing the property yourself, there are always costs when you change a tenant, even if it is just the lost days or weeks of rent, and the cost of advertising. For example, if you raise the rent by $10 a week, but then your tenant leaves your place empty for even just one week, think about how many weeks it will take to recoup this lost rent.

Take the time to consider your options before you increase the rent. Sometimes getting more money one week means you might get less the next.

How to Handle a Bounced Check

January 14th, 2010

Unfortunately it’s a part of being a landlord, but bounced checks happen, and for some they happen quite frequently. There are different rules in each area with how to deal with bounced check, so check your local laws and what tenant resource groups recommend, but the following bounced check tips for landlords may help you get through the process and get the money that is owed you.

Written Notice

Give the tenant written notice that their check has bounced. This can be handled in a number of ways but getting a signature through the postal service is usually the best way as it proves that the mail was received. Include a photocopy of the bounced check with your letter, also let the tenant know how much you have been charged by your bank and that they will be charged those fees as well. Also spell out what steps will be taken if they do not pay in an acceptable or timely manner.

Give Them Time

You can’t expect immediate payment from the tenant, there is typically a couple days leeway between when they see your notice and when they’re expected to make good on the check. Receiving another check does not count as payment until you are certain that check is good.

Still No Payment

If the tenant still hasn’t paid within the grace period then it’s time to take further actions which include beginning eviction proceedings.

photo credit:?Hello Turkey Toe

3 Ways To Deal With Difficult Tenants

December 9th, 2009

If you’re managing your property yourself, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll strike it unlucky and end up at some stage with a difficult tenant – one who pays their rent late, or doesn’t take care of the property, or simple doesn’t answer your calls. Here are a few tips that might help you deal with a difficult tenant:

Use Multiple Channels of Communication

Make sure you have more than one way to contact your tenant – by post, by phone and by email, and if possible, with other contact details such as the employer’s name or a relative. Sometimes tenants might appear difficult simply because they prefer to communicate one particular way – if you figure out your tenant is most likely to respond when sent a physical letter by post, then give up the convenience of the phone or email and write them a letter.

Try To Stay in Regular Contact

You can avoid the problem of poor communication (and of course, good communication is essential for resolving all tenant problems) by keeping an open, regular relationship with your tenant. Whether this is a regular phone call to check everything is in order, or a monthly email summarising the rent paid and the rent owing, whatever it is – if you’re in contact regularly, difficulties are less likely to emerge.

Be Firm, But Fair

Don’t wildly threaten eviction every time the rent is a day late, but don’t be too easy, either. You might need to remind your tenant that you also have bills or a mortgage on the property to pay, and if they don’t pay rent, that causes you a lot of problems – some tenants actually forget this part of the equation, but will be more helpful when reminded. Give them warnings, too, but clearly explain your expectations as regards care of the property and rental payments, and stick to what you say.

Be Friendly yet Professional with Tenants

December 3rd, 2009

How do you treat your tenants? Is this something that you even think about? If you are a landlord you need to be friendly yet professional with all your tenants. This is not always easy to do, but it is a goal that you should set for yourself. Simply put, a friendly and professional landlord will have more success than one who looks down on tenants and is always in a bad mood about something.

Of course, there is a fine line between being friendly and letting your tenants walk all over you. Make sure you are friendly, but only to a point. There is no reason that you should be so nice that you let your tenants pay late, for example. By establishing a professional relationship your tenants will know that you are not going to deal with any actions that are against the terms of the lease.

It is important to be friendly to tenants ? this can benefit both parties. Just remember that being professional is every bit as important. If you strike a balance you should be able to get along with the majority of your tenants. And that is what you want, right?

photo credit:?philsown

If a Tenant Leaves Stuff Behind

November 12th, 2009

During your tenure as a landlord you may run across a tenant who leaves some of their belongings behind after they vacate a unit. Each state has slightly different laws about how to deal with discarded property so you should check with your local and state ordinances to get the proper procedure for your area but there are some general rules that apply everywhere.

Tenancy Must be Terminated

Obviously you cannot take something from a tenant while they?re living in your unit, that?s obvious theft, but what if they?re gone? Even if the tenant is gone you can?t take their property until the lease has officially been terminated, this may require written notice, verbal notice, an eviction proceeding or a certain period of time.

Wait for Abandonment

Also, if a tenant vacates their place and leaves something behind you have to wait a predefined period of time to officially declare it abandoned.

Notification of Property

One would think that the tenants know they left stuff behind but the landlord is still required to send written notice to the now ex-tenant that they have left property behind. This notice also informs them of their legal rights and the predefined waiting periods for your region. You also can inform them (or bill them) for any storage fees while you hold their property.

Storage

Yes, it is the landlord?s responsibility to store property safely throughout the entire waiting period. But as mentioned above, you can recoup any losses for this or you can charge a reasonable storage fee of your own.

Disposal

Finally when you?ve completed all steps of notification and proper storage and the property is still abandoned after the waiting period it is your responsibility to dispose of it. You can sell or donate the property or you can throw it away.

It?s essential that you research your local and state laws for abandoned tenant property because if you handle the situation you can actually be held accountable and sued by the tenant for the value of their property.

photo credit:?Indigo Goat

What to do if Tenant is Late with Rent

November 10th, 2009

Being a landlord can be very rewarding but there is one problem that seems to crop up for every landlord at least once in their career, tenants who are late with rent repeatedly. It?s important that you don?t let this activity persist but handle it with diplomacy from the outset and treat every tenant in the same manner when they?re late with rent.

Late Notice?

The first step is letting them know immediately that the rent is late and how much the late fees are in a late notice.

Phone Call?

Follow up the late notice with a phone if you haven?t received some sort of response within a couple of days after the late fee notice.

Eviction Notice or Legal Notice?

Some people are loathe to jump into the eviction process and prefer to send a legal notice from their attorney and many tenants are threatened enough by that step that they respond. Other tenants need the threat of eviction and some landlords prefer moving right into eviction mode.

Eviction Process?

A landlord can simply not let tenants slide on the rent or they?ll never get paid which means they in turn will never be able to pay their bills. So eviction is the eventual outcome if your tenant is still delinquent with the rent then you have to move through the eviction process.

Credit Bureau

Don?t forget to report your delinquent tenants to the credit bureau, this will prevent others (at least those who are diligent in their background checks) from falling into this tenant?s trap.

photo credit:?longlostcousin

Budgeting Tips for Landlords

November 3rd, 2009

When the economy goes bad it?s not uncommon for landlords to feel the pinch pretty hard. Not only are their tenants more likely to be late with payments or skip out all together, but you may also find more vacancies than normal. If you?re looking for ways to cut back your expenses and get you through a financial rough spot the following tips may help.

Lower Income Tenants?

If you?re not opposed to having lower income tenants who get assistance from the state or county, the local government does pay promptly as long as you keep up with your end of the paperwork.

Maintenance?

Make sure to keep up with maintenance around the property, even though the expense may seem a little much at the time it will prevent you from larger, more expensive repairs in the future.

DIY?

Do whatever repairs you can yourself to avoid third party costs. Its time consuming but it can be very cost effective.

Tenant Allowance?

Like many parents do with their children, offer a discount on rent for some tenants who perform maintenance tasks around the property. You will need reliable tenants who you can regularly count on but if they?re having financial difficulties they may be more than willing to shovel snow or mow lawns for a discount on rent.

Priority List

Constantly keep a priority list of things you?d like to do around the property and their order of importance, this way when a little extra money does come your way you can tackle them one by one.