As a landlord, the stories of challenging tenants are common, but what often remains unspoken is the significant role landlords play in those experiences. The adage, "We get the tenant that we deserve," holds true, as the condition of your property and your management approach directly influence the type of tenants you attract. By adopting the right mindset, treating your rental property as a business, setting up effective systems, plan for problems, you can create a harmonious and mutually beneficial landlord-tenant relationships. In this article, we explore the crucial connection between your property and mindset, how to select the right tenant, how to avoid and plan for problems.
Your property and mindset
As just mentioned, you often hear stories from landlords with terrible tenants, but you don't often hear the other side of the story. As a landlord, if you don't put in any effort, give your tenant a building in terrible condition, don't pick up the phone when problems occur, or don't want to do any essential maintenance, the chances are you will end up with a bad tenant. If you don't provide the bare minimum, why would your tenant bother to make any effort for you? It is logical that bad property and lousy management result in bad tenants. This is not to say that you won't have any issues if you always act well, but if you offer poor services, don't be surprised when you get poor tenants.
Therefore, the first thing you need to work on as a landlord is your mindset. You must remember that your tenant is a customer and not your friend. You have to treat your rental property like a business. And like any business, you must try to keep the best relationships with your customers and go the extra mile for them. However, you must draw the line on some aspects of your business and ensure your tenant follows them. Whenever you deal with your tenant, you must show professionalism, be organized, follow the law to the letter, and be clear with the rules. Then, whenever there is a misstep with those rules, you must immediately react in a professional manner to prove that you are on top of everything and won't get bullied.
How to select the right tenant
As a landlord, you have the chance to pick and choose the tenant that will live in your place. It's why it's crucial that you select the best tenant possible and not the first one who comes knocking at your door. Although there is no such thing as an ideal profile for a tenant, you can do some background checks to ensure the tenant is right for you by verifying their income and employment, rental history, conducting interviews, etc.
Keep in mind that, depending on the country you live in, there are some questions you can ask and some you legally cannot. You must ensure that you follow the law strictly and only ask pertinent questions as a landlord: What is your job? What is your salary? Do you live with a family? Do you smoke? Do you have pets?
How to avoid problems
The best way to deal with problems is to avoid them in the first place. You can avoid many problems by setting up systems in such a way that those problems can't occur. Here are some examples:
Let's say that you rent an apartment and the water is calcareous. If your tenant doesn't regularly maintain the faucets, sinks, and shower, they will be damaged over the long run, and you might have to replace them. Instead of counting on a tenant to do their job, you should consider installing a softener to improve the water quality and radically increase your water infrastructure's lifespan. Then, whether or not your tenant does their part correctly, your water infrastructure will last much longer.
If you have a garden and you want to ensure that it is properly managed, you can include a management fee in the rental, where you will hire a gardener to take care of it for you. That way, you ensure it is well taken care of, and you won't face the problem of a tenant who "forgot" to take care of it for five years.
Write a clause in the lease contract that prohibits pets on your property if you can. That way, you avoid having your tenant's pets damage your property or being too noisy for the neighbors.
If you don't want to be woken up at every hour by your tenant, be very clear that you can only be contacted during office hours and that you always answer within 24 hours. Only give an emergency phone number for real emergencies: fires, flooding, and so on. Honestly, even in those cases, there is probably nothing much you can do except call the fire station.
Of course, every rental property is different. You have to look at your place and see what kinds of problems could happen and how you can set up things so that they don't.
How to plan for problems
Unfortunately, even with the best systems, issues will happen. Fortunately, most of the time, being a landlord means solving the same kinds of issues. The good thing is that you can plan in advance for problems and already have your solution ready. Then, when problems do happen, you simply have to refer to the solutions you have already prepared. This allows you to respond more effectively and prevent your emotions from getting in the way. For example:
• If there is a leak or your facilities don't work, give in advance to your tenant a list of phone numbers of handymen living nearby who could solve those issues if you can't do it yourself: a plumber, an electrician, a locksmith, a heating specialist.
• If your tenants don't pay on time, have a reminder set to check with them. If the problem persists, you might need to consider the type of legal action you have to take. You can have warning letters and eviction notices ready in advance for that purpose.
• In case your tenants damage the property, make sure that the lease contract is properly signed when the tenant moves in and that you have a documented lease report with pictures showing the state of the property when the tenancy started.
• In case your tenant loses their house keys, always have a backup set ready for them.
Aside from these examples, you should try to figure out the problems you will most likely face as a landlord for the type of property you have and prepare a solution for them.
Conclusion
Being a landlord can be very rewarding, but you must have the proper mindset for it. Your real estate is a business, and like every business, you must put every chance on your side by selecting the right tenant, creating systems that will avoid problems for you, plan and find solutions for every problem you can think of.
Did you like this article? You will find it and many more others in "The complete investment guide" by Kévin Poncelet. If you are interested to learn more about investing, consider supporting our work by buying our book on this website. If we don't deliver to your location, consider buying it on Amazon, where we deliver worldwide.
Comments