Common Blunders To Avoid As A Landlord
Being imperfect and making mistakes is undoubtedly inevitable and the real estate industry is no exception. Whether you are a first-time landlord or have been in the business for a while, errors are unavoidable at some point in time, most especially when you have to balance between your business and life in general. As a landlord, your mistakes can dwindle your investment, which is not a good practice as an investor. Here are some slipups that all landlords should avoid at all cost.
#1.Not taking into account the kind of tenant you rent to
Renting a bad tenant can be a massive deal breaker for tenants because you don’t only have a tough time managing such a tenant, your investment gets to feel the pinch as well. Some tenants can cause huge impairment to the apartment. This is why the screening process should be done intelligently to avert future compunction and damage.
#2.Not knowing the laws
Relatively, a number of landlords make the error of not acquainting themselves with the various laws relating to being a landlord. Even though laws differ from region to region, it will be in your best interest as a landlord to understand the laws properly so you will not fall into trouble.
#3.Failure to do routine checkups
It is very wrong as a landlord to rent out properties without doing occasional checkups. Even if the tenant is a good one, you never get to know what is happening in the property if you are not observant. Tenants have the propensity to hide things from their landlords. As a landlord, you should do frequent checkups to know the situation of the house before it becomes too late.
#4.Not doing repairs
Maintenance is very important to any property and if not occasionally done might cause greater or more expensive damages in the long run. Labors should be geared towards repairing any damage as soon as possible. Good communication should also be improved between landlord and tenant so that damage done will be easily communicated and resolved.
#5.Poor landlord- tenant relationship
Tenants are customers to landlords and as such should be treated with utmost respect. Landlords should be able to have friendly relationships with their tenants to help foster a longer lease period. Moreover the trepidations of tenants should be attended to, so that they will have more respect for you.
Conclusion
The duties of a landlord can be very perplexing, which makes is very complex. Nonetheless to get things to work, you must learn all the tricks and know which string to pull at the right time. The way to become a happy landlord is by knowing exactly what to do and say at the right time or situation.
J C Loum
