Landlord duties range from tedious to routine, but regardless, it’s a stressful role. Managing just a single property can be a full-time job, and if you have multiple rental properties, you can expect to stay busy.
Though it’s true that renting properties is an excellent source of long-term income, that comes with a price. The financial aspect is easy to manage, even if it may be tedious at times.
What’s more difficult are your relationships with tenants, repairs and maintenance, and staying up to date with landlord-tenant laws. These three general categories are all major sources of stress, but if you follow the tips below, you’ll have an easier time being a landlord.
1. Hire a Property Manager
If you’re looking for the best way to reduce the frustrations of being a landlord, you should obtain a property manager. You could hire an individual, but it’s better to go with a company because it’s a lot of work for one person.
Then too, you’ll get access to more expertise and experience with a company. For instance, landlords in Austin, Texas use the Austin property management services of Green Residential because their team includes a variety of experienced professionals, such as real estate agents, photographers, and CPAs.
When you hire out your landlord duties, you won’t have to perform any of the following tedious tasks:
· Collect rent
· Chase late fees for late rent
· Schedule repairs and maintenance
· Perform inspections
· Prepare legal notices, including lease changes and evictions
· Screen tenants
· Market your property
· Run background checks
All of these tasks are necessary, but their routine of them can make owning rental property exhausting. Hire a property manager and they’ll take on all the tedium for you.
2. Calculate Your Every Response
Is a tenant late with the rent? Did a renter break a lease policy? Are you struggling to evict someone who won’t move out?
Did a tenant damage your property beyond the cost of what their security deposit would cover? Don’t respond to any of these situations without a definite plan for what you’ll do and say. You want to ensure your responses are legal as well as effective.
Much of the frustration of being a landlord will come from the problem tenants you’ll encounter. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have any problems, but they’re bound to happen eventually.
You can’t control when these issues occur, but you can modulate how you react to them. Most of your frustration will come from getting worked up about these types of situations.
To avoid getting stressed out over these events, try not to respond to any of them right away. Take your time to figure out what you’ll do and how you’ll react.
For example, if a tenant just gave you their fourth excuse for being late with the rent, don’t argue with them; plan your next move. Do you want to evict the person? If so, start by creating the proper notice to get the ball rolling.
Try to deal with every situation as a matter of factly as possible and never allow your emotions to drive your actions. You’ll feel less stressed out when you retrain yourself from reacting emotionally to frustrating circumstances.
3. Make Things Easy for Tenants
When your tenants have an easy time fulfilling their obligations, you’ll have an easier time being a landlord. The key is to have a system that makes it simple for your tenants to contact you and interact with you.
You should have a system that makes it easy for your tenants to:
· Report problems and make requests. Many landlords use an online system for this and it works for them.
· Contact you in an emergency. You may not enjoy being available 24/7, but your tenants might need you at 3 a.m. when a pipe bursts. Make sure your renters can contact you in a way that ensures you’ll be readily responsive in an emergency. If you don’t want to be contacted directly, hire someone to manage your emergency calls. This is where a property manager can be extremely helpful.
· Pay rent and/or late fees. It’s getting more common for landlords to offer online rent payments, and some even offer a 5% discount if a tenant arranges for the rent to be deducted from a checking account automatically every month.
When your tenants aren’t struggling to fulfill their obligations, it will be easier for you to respond to their needs. You can’t avoid problems altogether, but at least you can have a strong, organized system to handle them swiftly.
Being a Landlord Isn’t easy, But It’s Worth It
Being a landlord is stressful, but it doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your life. By managing your reactions to stressful situations, and hiring a property manager, you can reduce and even eliminate the stress of owning rental property.