As a property owner who needs tenants, you take a risk every time you hand your keys over to renters. While they might have seemed ideal during the initial stages, their true colors might emerge afterward, leaving you stuck with them for some time to come.
However, it does not need to be this way. Many landlords have found the perfect tenants for their properties. They build up solid, long-term relationships with their tenants, and all parties benefit from the arrangement. How can you ensure that you fall into this latter category of rental property owners?
Hire a property management company
There are several reasons why people might consider hiring a property manager or management company. Perhaps the number of rental units in a portfolio has grown beyond a landlord’s ability to manage.Or if the property is in another city such as Colorado Springs then it may be useful to have someone else manage the rental. Sometimes it can be hard finding reliable property managers in Colorado Springs. To find the right one you need to check if a company is well-established and has a proven track record of making the renting out property in the area a pleasant experience for landlords. While many property owners are reluctant to secure a property management company’s services due to the cost, there are several reasons why they should consider doing so.
Property managers offer landlords peace of mind and take much of the stress of renting out property away from its owners. Most landlords understand the real estate market and when and how to purchase rental properties. The Minutiae of renting these properties out can be baffling when they are not something you deal with every day. Nightmare tenants soon become a reality and are notoriously challenging to get rid of.
A top property management company like Newmark Knight Frank has better tenant screening processes than individual landlords do. They are more likely to pick up on potential issues with a tenant and decide if they are worth the risk. Agents are also trained to deal with tenants professionally without letting emotions enter the relationship. This is often many landlords’ downfall as they become personally invested in their tenants’ lives and find it hard to balance friendships with the rental relationship.
Dealing with the daily issues that renting out properties presents, such as complaints, repairs, renovations, and late payments, takes a lot of time, which many property owners do not have. A property rental company takes over these functions. A Cut Above Property Management works in the Colorado Springs area and provides clients with top-class service.
Screen potential tenants
If you are determined to go it alone, take a page out of the property management company’s handbook and follow robust screening processes. If you manage the screening stage well, you have a far better chance of being a property owner with decent, reliable tenants who adhere to a rental agreement.
Start with a look at a potential tenant’s current financial status and credit history. An applicant should present at least three months’ pay stubs as part of their application. Follow it up with a phone call to their employer to verify that the information supplied is accurate. As a potential landlord, you can also inquire about the applicant’s length of employment and attendance record. Ideally, a tenant’s income should be about three times that of the rental payment required. It means that they can afford the amount and should not encounter challenges in paying it.
Next, run a credit check to establish a potential tenant’s history of financial responsibility. People who pay their bills and loans on time pose less of a rental risk than those who do not. Running a credit check has a fee attached to it, but many landlords ask applicants to pay for it or split the cost.
Ask applicants to supply names and contact numbers for previous landlords. Contact them to find out what sort of tenants the applicants were. For example, did they complain often? Did they pay rent on time? Did they leave the property damaged or vandalized when they moved out? Did they move out voluntarily, or were they evicted for non-payment or violation of the rental agreement? The answers to these questions indicate what you could expect from them if they move into one of your properties.
Conduct an interview
Spend some time getting to know a potential tenant by interviewing them. It should not be an interrogation but a chance to get a feel for the person and gain insight into their thinking.
From a past rental history that a landlord can request as part of the application, you will have established if a would-be tenant has a history of moving around a lot. This could be a warning sign that they will not stay long-term. However, there could be a justifiable reason for these moves, and you will not know it unless it comes up in conversation and an interview is a perfect platform for this.
While getting to know a potential renter is necessary, avoid becoming personally involved with them on any level. As mentioned before, when lines in the landlord-tenant relationship are blurred, complications ensue.