photo credit: Lexsion

Being a landlord is one thing, but being a good landlord is another. If you’re thinking about renting your property or getting into the landlord business then set your sights on being a good landlord and save yourself the headache and trauma of having bad tenants and facing future lawsuits. The following tips will help you in your effort to becoming a landlord that your tenants respect and may actually like.

Tenant Screening. For every applicant you need to perform the same steps, check their credit, their references and their income. Even if you have? bad feeling about them from the get go, its important that you document your research as they could come back and say you illegally discriminated against them.

Business First. Yes, your cousin’s kid may need a place to live but is that a wise business decision? Make all your decisions based on what is right for the business, you’ll save some headaches and possible lawsuits if you stick to business.

Know the Law. Be aware of your local and state laws regarding rentals and tenants. Ignorance of the law is not only no excuse, but it can get you into a load of trouble in the future.

Listen. The best way to be heard by your tenants is by listening. Hear their complaints and issues and then either tend to the problems or provide them with legitimate reasons why they will not be taken care of or what the timeframe is. Be someone your tenants can talk to.

Remember that your tenants want to have a good living experience and you want a good business experience so working together to create an atmosphere of professional courtesy will go a long way toward establishing a good, healthy relationship.

photo credit: merfam

If you’re a property owner you will no doubt find yourself frustrated, exhausted and sick of dealing with your properties and tenants at one point or another. It’s just a part of the investment, the highs and lows of being a landlord. But some people actually suffer from more of these lows than others and hiring a property manager is the perfect solution. If you fall into the following categories you may want to consider hiring a property manager for your rental properties.

“Too Much Property”
If you have a lot of rental units or properties and are finding them just too taxing then it’s probably time to seek outside help. You?re not doing your tenants or yourself a favor if you?re spread too thin.

“You?re too Far Away”
If you live quite a long way from your properties then you may want to find someone who is in the area who can deal with your tenants and any problems that may arise. What is too far? Well, that?s up to you and your schedule.

“You?re Not Good at It”
Let?s face it, some people just aren’t good at dealing with other people or don?t have the organization skills necessary to be a hands on landlord. If you’ve ever rented you’ve probably come across these people before and the last thing you need to do is be one of them.

If you fall into any or all of these categories you probably want to consider hiring a property manager, either a full time service or possibly just some part time help. Whatever you decide, make sure you’re making an informed and well thought out decision.

Rental properties can be a very lucrative business and property owners stand to gain financially from both rent paid and property appreciation. The problem arises as tenants go bad and damage your property, refuse to pay rent, and ultimately refuse to vacate the premises. To limit the potential of selecting a bad tenant, you’ll need to properly research your applicants.

Contact your local housing rental authority and see if they have any standard application forms that you can use for every applicant. If they do not have the information and cannot point you in the right direction you can either shell out a large chunk of cash to a real estate attorney or create the forms yourself with a bit of internet research. The forms should be the same for every prospective tenant and should collect all the vital information you need regarding the person and their living situation. You’ll also want to get them to authorize, by signature, you to search their backgrounds a bit and to gather their credit report.

Now, you can either do the background check yourself, or you can hire a company to perform this search for you. It can be an involved process and hiring an outside agency, especially if you have many rental units, can be well worth the added expense. You can have this company also get the person’s credit check or you can take care of that yourself.

Make sure that you research the listed references and previous landlords as this information can be absolutely invaluable.

There is no excuse for skipping any of the due diligence in this matter as a bad tenant can end up costing you thousands and may tie you up in court for years.

(photo via flickr cc)