Being a landlord is no easy task.
Some landlords put someone in their home, and so long as its rented and the bills are getting paid on time, they forget about them. They don’t maintain the property. They let clogged toilets or broken faucets stay that way for weeks and sometimes months.
I have a friend who has been dealing with mold and water damage, rodents and pests, as well as non-functioning fixtures in her apartment. Her patio door was boarded up, city notices get posted weekly on all the doors in apartment complex. She has been trying to reach out to the landlord for months to no avail. So serious is her problem, that she has been featured on the local news, along with other tenants in the same building. Another friend of mine has been dealing with a similar mold issue that is taking a toll on his health. Yet another friend has been dealing with a cockroach nest in her kitchen. For each one of these issues, the landlord is either non-responsive or negligent in handling their tenant’s concerns.
Landlords like these usually prey on people who have no other choice but to live in their properties. They usually cannot find a place to live elsewhere, do not have the means to afford anything else, or have criminal pasts and are not able to get approved to live anywhere else. Some landlords purposefully ignore health violations and code violations by their cities.
The worst thing about these landlords is that they can sleep at night knowing they are putting other people’s lives in danger.
What seems like common sense to some is totally uncommon to others. Some people are just oblivious, and others intentionally either do not care or wish to harm others.
If I had a small issue in one of my rentals, I would immediately get to work fixing it. I do not take bad living conditions lightly. At the end of the day, I see it on par with good customer service. Another human being is paying to live on your property. The least you could do is to make sure they are comfortable and try your best to cater to their needs within the lines of your role as a landlord and their role as a tenant.
In my experience being a landlord can be both easy and difficult. If you defer regular maintenance, it will be difficult at one point or another. If you don’t take time and care into choosing who you will allow to live in your rental, you will face difficulties in the future. Utilize resources such as TurboTenant to screen a potential tenant’s background.
There are ways to make the job easier for yourself, and there are ways to make it harder. Coincidentally, taking it easy and avoiding certain necessary obligations in the beginning will make it much more difficult than if you had just taken the time to work through things with diligence and care.
I find being a landlord natural. I don’t feel as if I’m ever going out of my way. I just understand that it is an agreement between myself and another party that they will pay to live in my home and that I will keep up my end of the bargain and make living in said home comfortable.
There are some bare necessities, such as health and safety, and there are other items that go above and beyond. It all comes down to how long you want your tenants to say, how comfortable you want them to be, and how much you are wanting to charge for rent.
Here are my methods to being a great landlord:
- Take your time finding tenants—I outline here how you can better position yourself to find good tenants, so I wont go too into it in this article. The thing that I would stress again is that you should be patient, do not settle for a less than ideal tenant, and that you should always, always screen them properly before you allow anyone to live in your property.
- Set expectations from the beginning—All your expectations should be laid out in your first interview with the tenant and then again in the lease agreement. I like to write out my lease agreement with all the clauses I think are necessary to me personally as well as all the legal clauses necessary to rent in the state of Florida. I also like to highlight the most important bits so that later, if something does come up, no one can say that they were unaware of anything.
- Regular maintenance—Maintenance of the premises should be done regularly. Tenants really value items such as pest control and lawn care. When they know that you care about their comfort and the look of the home they will be more likely to accept rent increases and even stay longer. On top of it, they will have something good to say about you when it’s time to put the next tenant in the home.
- Constant check-ins—I like to check in regularly with my tenants. I ask every month or every two months how things are going. For some units, I like to walk through the place and see inside, what kind of state the home is in, and if things are really going the way the tenant says they are.
- Keep your house rules reasonable—I generally don’t have too many house rules. My main ones are no loud noises at inappropriate hours, take care of the home as though it were your own, and pay the rent on time. Some landlords do not allow people to sublet the property, they don’t allow guests overnight (most applicable to a house-hacking situation), and they don’t allow group gatherings.
- Provide extra amenities—A unit with a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, a unit that is semi-furnished, and a unit with other appliances will provide for a happier tenant, longer stays, and higher rents.
- Be flexible on the rent—In my last rental, I worked through the rent with the tenant so that I charged less but put the obligation to pay the water bill on her. In the end, it turned out to be roughly the same. However, because she would be living alone, the $200 a month that we had budgeted for water was more than the $100 she actually pays, saving her $100 a month and taking the responsibility away from us, a win-win for both parties.
- Be understanding of their needs—It is always a good gesture when someone genuinely asks you what you need in order to be more comfortable.
- Keep the property modern—It is ok to paint the home every year or two even if the tenant hasn’t moved. Renovations are fine while the tenant is still living in the home so long as it will make for a better living situation. It is up to you whether or not you want to increase the rent. If it is a big enough renovation, then an increase in rent is expected.
- Be understanding of unexpected life events—If you have had a tenant for a while, or even a new tenant who maintains your property as though it were their very own, be understanding of when life comes up and keeps the tenant from paying rent on time. I’m not saying be flexible every month. The rent is due on the 1st of every month with only special exceptions. However, if someone has been paying their rent on time for the last year and suddenly something comes up, give them the benefit of the doubt, and give them a grace period to pay the rent without adding any extra fees to it. They will appreciate it and will feel much better about giving you their hard earned money every month.
- Get renter’s insurance—One way to help your situation as a landlord and to provide more peace of mind for yourself and your tenant is to get renter’s insurance. Renter’s insurance can be bundled up with your home insurance at little to no extra cost and provide a safety net for personal bodily injury as well as monetary loss.
Following these steps will ensure that your tenants are happy, thereby ensuring that they stay longer, pay rent on time, and even pay when you need to increase the rent. While at the same time, they will help you sleep at night, help the tenant sleep at night, and provide you with a good reputation for being a great landlord.
