Basic Landlord Tips
With the recent declines in the property market, a large portion of speculating investors have turned into reluctant landlords. If this describes you then stick to the basics of property renting to ensure that you can ride out the storm.
When renting a property, the first and foremost task on your priority list should be screening the prospective tenants before you hand over the keys to your property. That means doing a background checks on the tenant, reviewing their credit report and checking previous references from their previous landlords.
When conducting the checks, make sure that you ask for a picture id such as a driver’s license or a passport to ensure that you are checking out the correct person.
If you think you are likely to get a good demand for your property then see if you can arrange an “open house” so that you can show the prospective tenants the property all at once. This will save you considerable amount of time which can be invaluable if you managing a number of properties in a portfolio.
Once you have completed the viewings and selected your tenant, make sure that you do not hand over the keys to the property until the deposit checks have cleared.
Being a landlord is not as easy as you may think, especially if you have a lot of properties. You will have problems and need to have money in place in case you need to spend money on potential problems. Renting property without the right checks or a contingency fund can lead to painful problems.
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Bill said:
It’s unfortunate that most new landlords just don;t do enough screening of prospective tenants. I put a series of tips together for landlords as well, and that was one of the big pitfalls that occurs when landlords are to desperate to fill the empty space with out doing all their diligence.
Regards,
Bill
September 10th, 2009 at 7:09 am