Hello everyone
Today I am going to give some tips on how to be a better landlord. Some things I have learned over 17 years and hundreds and hundreds of tenants, or at least as many things as I can fit into a 4 minute video.
The most important thing I can tell you is to spend your time, money and energy up front, vetting your prospective tenants BEFORE you let them into your properties. It is a lot easier to say ‘No’ up front than to try and get a problem tenant out once they have moved in.
Don’t listen to your instincts. Get the prospect to fill out an application and then take the time to check everything out:
- call current and, if possible, their prior landlord
- verify employment
- pull a credit report
- ask important questions to the prospect and see if what they told you matches what you found out from your calls.
If you have a prospect that is getting their money from a government agency, charity or church group make sure you get that group to pay you the rent money directly, as opposed to having the money going to the tenant first.
Make sure you get all of your deposit money BEFORE you give the tenant keys to the unit. You won’t get it after they move in.
In regards to the building itself, I have found that most of my repair and maintenance costs trace back to water. Water is your biggest enemy as a landlord. After you take control of a property be proactive and repair any problems with roofs, windows or foundation leaks. Fix pipes that are corroding or rusting out. Put shut off valves on sinks and toilets. Just like you were proactive with vetting your tenants, make sure you are proactive with repairs as well. It is a lot cheaper to fix the items that look iffy up front as opposed to after you get the leak and you have to replace drywall, baseboard and flooring too.
All of these items are described further in the video.
Feel free to download the eBook versions of my two books. This can be found elsewhere on this site.
As always, if you would like to discuss this or any other real estate investment question or you have capital and want to do a Joint Venture please contact me.
Happy investing, Darcy.
