If you’re moving and thinking of managing your rental property yourself, there are 4 specific considerations you need to keep in mind.

Knowledge and Experience
Managing your rental property is like running a business. You should educate yourself on federal and state laws, as well as county ordinances and city laws. Consider where you will advertise to find a good tenant and how to screen prospective tenants. Once you have a tenant, you’ll also need to locate and sign a lease. Also, you’ll need to have a plan in place on how to handle tenants that move in unauthorized pets or occupants, stop paying rent, or cause damage. Will you know how to handle security deposits?

Time Requirements
Next ask yourself if you have the time to manage your rental property. Do you have time to show the property, or will you be out of town? Can you show the property at times that are convenient to prospective renters? Emergency repairs and maintenance often occur at inopportune times. What will you do when a tenant calls because the air conditioning isn’t working at 10 p.m. on a Friday evening?

Handling the Move out Inspection
Do you know the difference between “wear and tear” and actual damage, and what items you can legally charge a tenant for? What happens when it’s time to do the move out inspection? Will you have done proper move-in inspections to compare? Will you come back to town to do the inspection with the tenant? How will you handle move out repairs, cleaning, carpet cleaning, painting? Do you have vendors available at short notice? This is the situation that costs owners the most money. If they must come back to take care of things, show the house, do repairs and inspections, they end us losing more money than if they had a property management company in place all along. Property management companies are pro-active and can have it rented prior to a tenant leaving, they have vendors at their disposal, and can take care of everything quicker and less expensively than it would be for an owner to do it. They can have a new tenant in place to start paying rent much faster than an owner self-managing.

Landlord Skills
Landlords need to have great people skills. Can you keep your relationship with your tenant strictly business? What if it’s a friend? Are you charging the correct fees and rental price, or giving them a break? Will that break cost you money and a friendship in the long run? If a tenant wants to break their lease without the required notice, will you follow the lease agreement or let it pass? What happens if they need more time to pay rent? These are all things to think about. Dealing with difficult issues smoothly is just one of the many skills a landlord must possess.

If you have questions, or if you’d like to learn more about hassle free property management, fill out the form below:

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