8 Tips To Help You Become A Successful Landlord
Becoming a landlord can seem like a daunting venture, but it can be a very valuable and rewarding experience. Managing a property that is yours and proving your tenants with a temporary home is a great form of income. While the benefits outweigh the negatives, it is important to have your whole business streamlined and make sure you are prepared for any unexpected events that can happen at any point.
If you follow these 8 to the best ability, you should avoid any headaches and enjoy a profitable experience!
1. Treat Your Portfolio As A Business
As a property owner, a lot of responsibility will fall into your hands. These responsibilities are further increased when the idea of homing tenants comes into play. Not only is a home an investment, but having any form of a property portfolio should be deemed as a business. Perhaps you already have experience as a business owner, or maybe you are yet to know what it takes to run your own business. Managing your property and tenants should be treated as a business, so handle everything with care and professionalism.
2. Streamline Everything
The whole process from preparing your property to managing your tenants should be streamlined to help things run smoothly. Problems are what all good landlords aim to avoid, but when unexpected ones arrive you should always have a contingency plan to avoid any further damage. Consistency is key, and you should never waver from your professional plan. If you do not yet have a plan of action for your property you should make one with all the important features and responsibilities that will need to be seen to.
3. Know Your Legal Responsibilities
Being a landlord is not just as simple as buying a property, and putting any tenants in it to generate income from the rent. Landlords have legal responsibilities that they should adhere to at all times. Their responsibilities include managing all repairs, making sure the property’s gas and electrics are safe, making sure fire safety is seen, making sure the property is safe overall and making sure all provided amenities are in working order at all times. If your tenant breaks something within the home, you can of course take the cost from their deposit but it is the landlord’s responsibility to ensure that the problems are fixed.
4. Take Out Insurance & Get Support
There is a lot of legal insurance that you should also have in place to protect you, your property, and your tenants. These insurances are also different depending on what part of the country you live in, in addition to what kind of property you are letting out for example there are different types necessary for single lets in comparison to an HMO (house of multiple occupancies). Make sure you search for the specific insurance and legal action that is necessary for your area.
If you are dealing with legalities, you should also make sure you are protected. Planning for the worst is not optimistic, but it will protect you if you end up facing problems with tenants. Reading landlord legal advice would be a wise idea to prepare yourself for all possible scenarios.
5. Be Honest With What Time You Have
Before you even consider taking on your tenants, you need to be honest with what time you have spare to manage the whole business. Not only will you need to make time for solving small issues and maintaining the property, but managing tenant viewing and legalities will take up a large chunk of your time. Many landlords who have some properties within their portfolio tend to outsource the work to management companies as well as letting agents make their business hands-off. You should keep in mind that you will be losing out on revue due to percentages benign paid to the agents, however, you will be exchanging money for free time to expand your portfolio.
6. Master Your Marketing
Marketing is key if you want to rent out your property fast, find the right tenants and avoid any void periods. How and where you market your property should depend on what type of tenants you are focusing on.
For example, if you are targeting students for an HMO property should heavily focus your marketing on social media advertising and all online platforms such as Facebook groups. If you are targeting families for long-term lets you might ask estate agents to advertise on their online adverts or target online professional groups. Using multiple channels can give you the best outcome, but it can also be time-consuming if you are managing everything yourself.
7. Make Your Terms Clear
You should not be surprised if your tenants start breaking your rules if you have not made the house terms as clear as possible. For example, if you let tenants move in without informing them of your no-pet rule, you will not have a leg to stand on. In an ideal world, all tenants will read the terms of the contract thoroughly, however, most do not so make sure you are reiterating your terms in person so you know if they are breaking rules they can be held accountable for it. Tenants appreciate having a clear idea of what is expected of them, so do not forget when all your tenants come in to lay out the rules.
8. See To Problems Quickly
Even if you have prepared for all possible situations, you will still have to deal with unexpected issues. As long as you have the correct success team around you ready for such problems your tenants will stay happy. This team should consist of contractors that are available at the drop of a hat to fix any maintenance issues, and also estate agents that are ready to advertise your property as soon as your tenants give their notice.
The worst type of landlords are the type of people who leave problems to be fixed at the last minute, and this can leave a really bad taste in the mouth of your tenants. You would expect them to want to leave if too many problems are left unfixed, and you can ruin your reputation as a landlord.
