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Marketing Your Vacant Property

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A Vacant Property Is A Problem Property

When you have a vacant property, you have multiple problems.

  • You’re losing income
  • You’re paying out of your pocket to support the property
  • You insurance may go up if it’s vacant more than 30-60 days (did you realize you often need to report extended vacancies to your insurance company or your insurance is void?)
  • No one is looking after your property (other than you)
  • Vacant properties chew up your personal time (showings, inspections, phone calls)

None of these are fun and often they lead to resentment of being a property owner, an investor and a landlord as it suddenly has become work. Costly work!

Filling A Vacant Property Takes Work

I’m not going to lie to you, filling vacant properties does take work, but if you do the majority up front it can save a ton of costly work involved with extended vacancies!

One piece of that work is effective marketing. Or as it’s commonly called selling!

Yep, you need to be able to sell your property to prospective tenants. Because if you’re not, someone else down the line will and you’ll lose out on a potential great tenant.

Here’s my secret tip (it’s really not that secret, but I’m amazed how surprised many landlords are when they hear it), write an awesome ad for your property and use it over and over and over!

For each of my units I have an ad that I’ve written up that I have saved as a Word document. That original ad may have taken two or three hours of writing and research, but I use it over and over again so over the lifetime of a property that extra work in the beginning pays off multiple times over.

Often I will have two or three variations of the ad that I’ll have saved in that Word document so I have different versions for a vacancy in the spring, int he summer or perhaps the winter.

Sometimes I create a new version by cutting and pasting from my original versions as times and circumstances change or as I find more effective ways to attract tenants.

Selling Your Property in Conversation

But it doesn’t stop with the ad. The ad is just to get someone to call or email or text me.

Now that I’ve got a live person showing at least a bit of interest it’s time to start selling my property!

This does get into some crossover at this point though. There’s no sense selling someone on your property if you’re not going to be renting it to them which is why it’s important to start asking some screening questions right away as well. (You were aware I have a screening course that helps you with this?, You can order it here, How To Screen Tenants Like an Educated Landlord)

Questions like when will you be needing it? If they are just looking or it’s three months down the road you may not be interested in marketing as hard. If it’s in the next several weeks, well time to tighten that sales hat up a notch or two.

During those screening interview stages you need to be able to promote the important parts that will add value for the tenant and put your property int he best light.

This could involve finding out your tenant works only a few blocks away, look at the money they will save on the commute! Or if you accept pets and they have a dog knowing that the dog park is just down the street increase the value and the importance of your property.

They have two elementary age kids? Well, were they aware one of the best schools in the district is only two blocks away? (Obviously you need to be aware whether the school is one of the better ones, but that’s part of your original homework, don’t be “that” landlord or “that” salesperson who makes up stuff just to get the deal closed!).

Selling Your Property In Person

You need to sell your potential tenants on your vacant propertyOnce you’ve confirmed the potential tenant is a qualified applicant, you need to get them to the property, and sell in person.

Now, if you’ve got a great property it should sell itself. Although it may still require you pointing out what’s so great about it.

If you have a “less great” property, you may want to step back and consider what you can do to change that.

When I’m showing my property to possible tenants I often ask them how long they’ve been looking for a place and what they are finding out there. You know what comes back?

Comments like “Everything I’ve looked at so far has been a dump”, “The last place we looked at hadn’t had a good cleaning in years” and “There was half an inch of dust on the baseboards, I wouldn’t let my pet live there”. If your property resembles any of these remarks you have an uphill battle when it comes to filling that vacant property.

95% of my tenants stay with me over a year. The majority are closer to three, so every time a tenant vacates a property and they have been there over a year, we repaint. We can do it quickly as I’ve shared multiple times in my How Painting Can Save You Time article,

We also typically bring in professional cleaners after painting and any repairs are done.

Just by doing these two strategies we end up getting comments like “The place is so much cleaner than everything else I’ve seen” and “Is this newly painted, it looks so nice!”

That’s the type of feedback that gets your vacant property rented quickly. And we all want to rent our property quickly when it’s vacant right?

Marketing Recap

Are we in agreement that having a vacant property is costing you money?

If so, then you need to take some steps to remedy that and let’s recap what we’ve talked about.

  1. You need a good ad!
  2. You need to sell to prospects when they contact you and
  3. You need to sell the benefits of your property when they see your property.

Can you do all that?

If you can’t, tell me in the comments below what the problem is. Just to spice it up, maybe include part of your ad if that’s your problem. And maybe, just maybe (ok I probably will), if I get enough responses I will help someone fix that ad up a bit.

If it’s an issue with how your property shows, explain it below and we’ll see who needs my help the most!

Oh and don’t forget, if you have other landlords who could use any of my information, share this stuff! If it’s helping you it will probably help them too!

Why Is My Property Not Renting?

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Property not renting? Does it look like this?
Don’t use images like this to market your property…

When You Can’t Get Your Property Rented

Why is my property not renting seems to come up quite often when I talk to landlords.

Well it usually comes down to a few minor problems. Your property not renting may look like the one in the image here, that could be a real problem, but hopefully it’s not your problem.

The biggest one typically is your rent is too high.

OverPriced Properties

If you’re not paying attention to the local market, you might have a misrepresented value of what your property should be renting for monthly. Especially in a tough market!

Even if you have a property management company in place, you need to understand what the local market rents are for properties similar to yours.

It’s your property, you need to know what’s going on.

Now if your rental pricing is right, but you’re simply not getting any calls, that might be symptomatic of your next problem, your marketing.

Lack of Marketing

In my last article I explained why vacancies are a landlords silent killer.. Because of that you need to put some effort in to market the heck out of that vacancy!

One ad on a free rental site won’t cut it.

A two paragraph massively abbreviated ad like we used to see in newspapers isn’t good enough.

Not bothering to include quality pictures can take you out of consideration.

And the list goes on.

You need to be everywhere, run ads in three four or more places, post signs in the property window, show up on Facebook and other areas. You need to write out an informative enticing ad that draws people in and reminds them they NEED to see your property as they don’t want to miss it. You need good pictures that highlight your properties best features.

You need all that and maybe more, like basic staging, perhaps new paint, renovations and professional cleaners going through so it looks perfect.

It seems like a lot of work, but if it saves you one additional month of vacancy that little bit of extra work has likely saved you a thousand dollars or more.

The last challenge you may have is you have a bad property.

It’s An Ugly House Dude!

If you’ve been involved in Real Estate for any length of time, you’ve seen these properties.

Maybe it’s the one where the landlord let the previous tenants paint, and they were very fond of black and purple… Surprise most tenants don’t want to move into a dark and depressing place, so paint it .

Perhaps it’s the property that people cross the street to avoid walking in front of? Sure dandelions are a pretty yellow, but having the front yard covered with them might indicate to potential tenants you don’t care about the property, or perhaps the overgrown bushes and scrubs are just too scary for even you to venture onto the property?

There are also the simply rundown places that look worn and tired. These are the properties where the owner gets plenty of calls and books many showings, but strangely enough people never show up for the viewings. Here’s a bulletin, if the house looks ugly or scary from the outside they probably just kept on driving and didn’t stop.

Now I know none of the people reading this have ugly houses (or at least I hope not), but it’s worth taking a serious look at your property from the street to really see what kind of first impression it’s leaving.

There could be some minor fixups that would change the appeal drastically, so do yourself a favour and go take a street side look.

Property Not Renting? It’s Not That Hard To Fill, With Some Education

property not renting? Fix it up!Here’s the after we renovated image. Compare it to the image at the top of the page, which one would you rent? Which one would you not even bother visiting?

Filling vacant properties isn’t that hard, it can be tougher in slow markets, but even where I’m located where we are currently going through 8-12% vacancy rates if you systematically attack it, you can get your property rented in a reasonable amount of time.

 

You do know your local vacancy rate don’t you? Knowing this is pretty darn important so as part of your homework after reading this I need you to go figure it out.

Then post in the comments below where you’re located (not the actual address, but City, province or state) and by sharing your info other landlords can get a better appreciation of what’s out there and what’s going on!

One more thing, if this is helping you please share it with other people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or simply just forwarding the email! Thee are some handy share buttons below to make that even easier!

Why Vacancies Can Kill Your Dreams

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Dealing with Vacancies – The Silent Profit Killer

Dealing with vacancies in a rental propertyYou work hard, you save up and you finally purchase that rental property you wanted as a long term investment, it should be all easy now right?

You build it (or purchase it) and they will come, except they don’t, and suddenly you have a vacant property that you’re paying for out of your own pocket!

Worse yet, if you’re like so many landlords out there you’re only making a hundred dollars cash flow after all your expenses are covered. That one month vacancy suddenly wipes out your entire profit for the year, if it drags out to two months you’re suddenly working for free for a couple years!

No one wants to work for free!

An Exercise In Math

Hopefully you have a good idea of what your expenses are for your property. Typically this will include a mortgage payment, taxes and insurance. Perhaps on top of that condominium or HOA fees, maybe even local recycling fees for renewable programs. Maybe you even include utilities (which is rarely a good choice btw, here’s an article explaining the pros and cons of including utilities).

Whatever that total number you come up with is your absolute break even number you have to cover each month. Why don’t you take a moment and try and figure out what that is, I’ll wait here…

…

…

…

Got it? Well now let’s talk about what number Educated Landlords use.

They take that number and add another 5-10% for maintenance and another 5-10% for vacancies and that’s the REAL number they need to cover each month.

For maintenance if the property is recently fully renovated or new it will be closer to 5% or even less, for older more worn properties it will be closer to 10% or even higher. The vacancy rate is safest if you take the current local vacancy rate and double it, so if it’s 4% use 8%.

Currently our local vacancy rate is between 8-10% depending on which report you look at, I kind of put a ceiling at 10% since I seem to have minimal problems ever filling properties.

Bottom line whatever that number is, is what you need to cover each month, or worse what you lose each month it’s vacant.

I know, some folks will say you’re not really losing the extra percentages you tack on, but I disagree. If it was full you would have those coming in and flowing into a reserve fund to cover repairs and vacancies. Without it coming in, you still need to do ongoing maintenance and if it’s not flowing in to cover vacancies, it’s bleeding out to pay for the vacant space.

Look Hard At That Number

Whatever that number is, it’s important. It might be $1,000, it could be $1,500 perhaps it’s even higher, whatever it may be it’s coming directly out of your bank account, so don’t you think that should be a priority to fill it?

Yet I hear all the time from landlords that their property has been vacant for two months, four months or even longer. Ouch!

Big picture, if it’s taking you four months to fill a property (or after four months it’s still vacant), you need help.

What’s Your Problem?

You need to figure out your problem. Is your rent too high, is the property too ugly, did you pick a bad location or more commonly do you just have no idea how to market?

That last one seems to be the most common in my experience. Could it be your big problem?

If it is, I can probably help you.

But I’ll talk more about that in an coming post. For now, do soem of your math in preparation for the next post and we’ll do soem more landlord math again real soon!

Oh, one last thing. Could you leave me a comment and let me know the longest (or better yet the shortest) amount of time you’ve ever had a vacancy?

 

What’s The Best Way To Screen Tenants?

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Is There A Best Way To Screen Tenants?

Best way to screen tenantsMany first time visitors here are looking for the best way to screen tenants. The problem is, there is no single best way.

It really requires a multitude of strategies to ensure you’re screening as well as possible.

There is no single question you can ask, a certain number they need to have for a credit score or a the ultimate reference. It’s a combination of all of these plus a bit of your gut.

The real challenge that comes with this is that it’s also a matter of consistency.

If you have a multitude of requirements and a broad range of questions, hoops and steps that take you from a vacant property to a fully rented property it becomes incredibly important to create a process.

A process you can repeat to ensure you’re using the best way to screen tenants possible rather than a haphazard approach where you could miss steps.

How I Can Help You Screen Tenants

Fortunately I can help a little in that department, or a lot depending on your needs.

best ways to screen tenantsAt the very least I’d suggest you grab my list of 7 interview questions you need to ask prospective tenants. That will help you a little by providing several basic questions that you can consistently ask tenants during the phone interview stage of your vacancy.

By asking these questions before you even show your vacant unit you’ll save yourself an excessive amount of potentially wasted time by weeding out tenants who will never qualify for your property. Or who are simply testing the waters and aren’t even serious.

On top of that by creating a systematic process that you repeat over and over as a best way to screen tenants for your landlord business, you’ll be able to protect yourself from potential discrimination complaints.

Would You Like A System For Screening Tenants?

Of course the 7 Questions are just the beginning. They make up just one of the 7 steps required to properly screen a tenant.

These steps include

  1. screening with a good rental advertisement
  2. screening with an initial phone interview (using the 7 questions)
  3. screening with an in person interview at the property
  4. using a solid application form
  5. calling of work references
  6. calling of landlord references
  7. and finally a credit/criminal check

Then capping all of this off with how you feel about the tenant. After all if you’re in the business of creating good solid homes for tenants long term you do want to rent to someone you like don’t you?

I feel using these steps are the best way to screen tenants and to screen them consistently so that you get the best possible people for your property.

You’re more than welcome to build your own system using this set of steps and off of my original 7 questions.

What If I Built You The System?

Now many astute landlords will look at that information and realize it could take many many hours to create their own system. And it would be a lot of work.

Wouldn’t it be far easier to have it already done for me? In a format where I could download the steps, maybe learn the best way to write my ads so they can do soem screening for me?

Maybe even providing additional best practices and questions to ask references and former landlords?

How about if it also showed you where and how to get credit checks and criminal checks and then even told you how to read them?

How much time would that save you and how much easier would it make your life?

Well tada, I’ve done this for you!

It’s part of my How To Screen Tenants Like An Educated Landlord Course and I feel the information it contains should be mandatory for landlords to know.

It’s based on the actual systems and processes I’ve used over my career as a successful landlord and includes the best way to screen tenants that I know of.

The art of screening tenants is one of the important skills a landlord can possibly have. Choosing the wrong tenant can range from being a minor headache to costing you months of lost rent and excessive legal fees in order to evict a bad tenant.

With the average eviction costing a landlord over $3,000 in lost rent, lost time and vacancies this $47 investment saves you money the first time you use it.

How To Purchase The Educated Landlord Screening Course

If you’re interested in the course so you too can avoid choosing the wrong tenants or simply tenants who will be a poor fit for your property you can purchase this online training through the following link.

How To Screen Tenants Like an Educated Landlord

If you’re still not convinced you need this course, let me ask you a few questions.

What would learning how to write an ad that fills your property faster saving you extended vacancies be worth to you? With average rents around $1,000 one month of additional vacancy costs you at least $1,000 not including any utilities you cover out of pocket along with other costs. That’s why I include ad writing as part 1 of the course.

How much does your time cost if you go to show your vacant unit to someone who will never take it? With an average showing taking 30 minutes to show the property plus driving time every “wasted showing” costs you an hour of time. What’s your hour worth? What if this happens three or four times or even more? That’s why lesson two goes into detail about the 7 Questions and how you can use them to avoid showing the property to time wasters saving you multiple hours of your precious time.

Do you know the most common scam tenants use to get good references handed out? I do, which is why in lesson four I explain what to do to avoid those scams, how to verify their information and why their current landlord may be the worst reference possible! Knowing this can help you avoid soem of the worst possible tenants, the professional tenants who use their knowledge of the systems and laws to get into your property for months at a time without having to pay any rent.

What do you do if you can’t find a qualified tenant? The wrong answer is to settle and the second wrong answer is to tell the applicants who didn’t qualify that they aren’t qualified! In section five I break down what to do if you don’t find qualified tenants and how to let the unsuccessful applicants down easy and so they don’t come after you for discrimination charges which is extremely important!

Finally, do you know where to get credit or criminal checks done and how to read them? Many landlords don’t know where to start with this and then even if they do they have no idea how to read or understand the reports once they get them. I explain a couple places to get credit checks done along with explaining what to look for and how to read them.

The best way to screen tenants - the Educated Landlord Screening Course

If you’d like to learn all the right steps to screen tenants along with what to watch out for to avoid the wrong tenants you’ll want to sign up today and get educated.

Again here’s that link, How To Screen Tenants Like an Educated Landlord

Remember, it’s all online with multiple downloads you even if you’re fully rented right now you can sign up, take the course at your own pace and be ready and primed for your next vacancy. You’ll even have all the skills to pre-write your ad for your next vacancy!

 

Know other landlords who have recently had problem tenants? Forward this article to them so they can avoid future problems!

Landlord Lessons

You Really Need A Written Lease For Your Rentals

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Why A Written Lease?

Written leaseIt’s astounding how many landlords I talk to that don’t have a written lease. They’ve either inherited tenants with a property and the previous owners never had a lease, or they simply haven’t bothered getting one as verbal is so much easier.

Now, guess when I usually end up talking to these landlords?

If you guessed when they are having problems with a tenant you win a prize.

Here’s why you need a written lease. It takes away the gray areas!!

Verbal agreements are open for interpretation. Written agreements (unless they are poorly worded) close up the gray areas and lay out the rules, the resolutions and the repercussions that accompany the agreement.

Payments, Pets and Pot

Late payments, pets that tenants “acquire” and marijuana smoking seem to be the three big issues that landlords talk to me about. Having specific clauses or sections within your lease that explain these can make a huge difference in how these issues play out versus a vague verbal agreement.

For rent payments you should have specifics about when rent is due, possibly methods it can be paid via (cash, e-transfer, post dated check) and any repercussions if rent is paid late. This could range from fines or penalties to warning notices all the way to evictions.

Different jurisdictions require different wordings for fines and penalties. Some areas don’t allow penalties, some have prescribed penalty amounts for late payments and others leave it wide open. The important part is YOU need to know what your local rules allow and then you need to make sure your written lease includes the correct wording allowing you to enforce and collect any penalties or fines!!

For pets, depending on your policies and local rules, you need to include specifics about what is or isn’t allowed. If you’re rental unit is part of a Home Owner’s Association or Condo Association there may be restrictions on size or type of pet that you have to carry over to your lease.

You may have personal restrictions for a suited property due to allergies of current or future tenants (once you become pet friendly it is an expensive proposition to remove pet dander and fur to return it to a state that a person with allergies can comfortably live in).

You may have had bad experiences in the past that you simply wish to avoid repeating. Whatever your personal situation with your rental, your lease needs to reflect this as well and have it explained thoroughly!

Again, rules and regulations vary widely. Some regions don’t allow landlords to dictate pet polices and others have strict definitions. You need to be familiar with local legislation or you need to have a lease designed specifically for your area.

Pot, or marijuana oh my.

This has become a huge topic of controversy with landlords on one side of the debate and pot enthusiasts on the other. and unfortunately since it is a moving target right now there is no one answer anywhere it seems.

My personal thoughts are if marijuana helps you with pain, sleeping or other health concerns then all the power to you. I do draw the line though if it affects me and my property by adding risk or costs to my life. If you own your own property go for it. If you are renting, you need to fit in the guidelines established by the landlord, or you need to find a landlord that will work with you.

These risks or costs I’m referring to involve potential insurance issues with tenants legally allowed to grow their own product, renovation costs to repaint or repair burns that seem to accompany smoking of any products.

If you’ve been following The Educated Landlord on FaceBook I’ve posted several articles about marijuana, insurance issues and legislation changes recently along with other landlord articles from other sites on a nearly daily basis. If you haven’t liked us on FaceBook yet and want to keep up visit us at https://www.facebook.com/TheEducatedLandlord/ 

Marijuana legislation will be a moving target so it’s important you keep up with the regional rules and changes to rules that come into play as the rules become more relaxed federally, statewide and provincially depending on where you live.

The important message to take away from this is you may have to add additional wording to reinforce non-smoking policies in your property. If it specifies cigarette smoking isn’t allowed it may require a simple rewording not allowing smoking of any kind in the rental property. And if it’s written and follows your local Residential Tenancy rules it can be enforceable.

Where To Find A Written Lease

Depending on where you live there can be multiple different places or resources you can find to acquire a proper written lease for your rental property.

One of the first resources I recommend to landlords are local landlord or rental property associations. Many organizations, either as part of their membership or for a reasonable cost, can provide appropriate rental forms that are usually well used, well tested and that stand up to the local rules.

They often have additional forms you can use as well such as move in/move out checklists, applications and more that can be handy.

Another resource is your lawyer. If you already have a lawyer who you use and who has a good understanding of the rental laws for your area they can create (or acquire from other lawyers they know) a good dependable and legally binding rental agreement.

The caveats here are not all lawyers are created equal and not all properties are the same. By this I mean that some lawyers rarely deal in rental laws and they may be poorly suited to create a quality lease for you. Residential Tenancy Acts often have subtleties and loopholes in them that someone experienced with the specifics can tailor to work best for you and your property.

This can also vary with the property. Most specifically when it comes to condo boards and rules within leases as often condo or home owner association rules take precedence over Residential Tenancy rules. A proper lease must take both sets of rules into consideration and may need to be very specialized for you and for a specific property.

This can involve additional costs, but the long term protection it provides you are well worth that cost especially when you factor it over multiple years which should be your goal with a rental property anyway.

Another option, which I don’t really endorse, is off the shelf rental packages you can pick up in stationary stores. While far better than verbal agreements they are often very generic and if you’re new to rental properties they often end up lacking in several key areas (like smoking, pets and pot as mentioned earlier).

You can typically take these leases and use them as a starting point, but you may want to take it to your lawyer to get it tuned up so it works best for you rather than the generic masses. And if you’re doing this, why didn’t you just start with a a lawyer?

The final resource I’ll mention are the online legal document resources. These would would be through a company such as LegalNature who provide a wide range of legal documents that include not just leases, but everything from Wills to incorporation documents to bankruptcy forms..

To be entirely transparent I will receive a referral fee if you use one of the links in this article to register with them or to purchase a Residential Lease Agreement or other landlord document. If you’re vehemently opposed to me doing that, but still want documents you can simply Google them to go directly there.

I’ve talked to several of the guys over there and they have a very thorough and in-depth system in place that allows you to create a custom lease (or other various Real Estate forms) that you can save for future use (with their ongoing membership program) or download and use (with their one time purchase program).

Their leases are US based only currently and are customized depending on the state with the most current information regarding Residential Tenancy Laws for the particular state and region you’re creating the document for. They are also quite long as they cover so many details!!!

In my conversations with Ben and Trevor of LegalNature, their default Residential Lease Agreement will run between 14-18 pages which isn’t an issue you should regard as overwhelming, but rather as details that will protect you as much as possible!

Some landlords believe simpler leases are better, yet given the choice having a detailed lease covering almost every situation will benefit you much more over the long run.

Rules and laws regarding landlord, tenants and rental properties often change or evolve over time. If you’ve been using the same lease for more than a few years it may well be worth  research to determine if any information in your older lease is outdated, un-enforceable or simply in need of updating.

Your Requirements For A Written Lease

You need a written leaseBig picture, it doesn’t matter where you get your lease from, you simply need to make sure it protects you and your rights as a landlord and property owner, that it includes any particular wording or phrasing required under local rules to make it legal and that you understand it.

You need to understand it as you will likely need to explain it to future tenants as part of the lease signing process.

You can expedite part of this by emailing the lease in advance to your prospective tenants, once you’ve narrowed it down to one set of tenants, so they can review it and have any questions prepared in advance. However you’ll still want to go through any and all important sections in person with them during the signing though, just to reinforce their understanding and to ensure there is no miscommunication.

What may be abundantly clear to you (No pets, Landlords permission required for renovations and many other items that seemed clear to you), may not come across clearly unless you point it out during that lease review!!

As I mentioned right near the start of this article, you want to remove the gray areas, you want to avoid gaps in understanding and you want to have the most control possible with your documents so make sure you get a written lease that works for you.

If you’re still using an old lease or worse yet a verbal lease take note of the information in this resource so you can get that remedied and put some control back in your life as a landlord. I know I continually harp on this, but only because it’s important. You need to treat your landlording like a business, so make a smart business decision and get a solid written lease in your pocket!

Why You Need A Custom Rent Increase Letter For Your Tenant

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Rent increase letter for raising your rentIf you plan on sending a rent increase letter to a tenant you need to understand how this can play out.

If you have a standard form letter announcing a rent increase you may get your monthly bump in cash flow, but at the expense of creating a long term relationship.  And long term relationships are one of the secrets of stress free landlording!

Think about it, when you get a form letter in the mail does it bring a smile to your face, or is it so impersonal you simply ignore it or worse build up negative feelings. I’m guessing even if you do ignore it deep down your subconscious is still feeling like you’re just another number in the system.

What if instead of a form letter you instead received a personalized letter. One that addresses you, your potential concerns and perhaps doesn’t have your name in a different font! How would that make you feel?

Well that’s the reason for creating a customized rent increase letter for any tenants facing a potential rent increase. But it’s not just a matter of customizing it.

You also need to position it! Now I go much more in depth about positioning in a previous article about raising rents and you can go check it out here, Raising Your Rents Without Raising The Roof (I also provide a sample rent increase letter you can look at).

The quick lesson about positioning is you have to make sure your tenants know you value them and that you’re not just randomly raising rents, but rather that you have expenses to cover as well.

Expenses like ever increasing property taxes, skyrocketing insurance rates and bank fee after bank fee. While they’re not a huge deal if they trickle in, after a couple years they can put a significant dent in your cash flow, and you’re already taking the risk of being a landlord so these costs need to be passed onto the tenants.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about doubling your rents either. There is a fair and positive way to increase your rents and you need to understand that it starts with your rent increase letter.

If you haven’t gone to take a look at that earlier article yet I’d suggest you go take a look and get started on your rent increase letter sooner rather than later.

One last thing, make sure you understand local rules about rent increases. This can include how much you may be allowed to raise rents, how often you can raise rents and how much notice is required for a rent increase.

If you have any questions or feedback, leave me a comment below!

 

Mold Remediation – A Guide To Dealing With Mold in Your Rental Property

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There’s an expression about not making a mountain out of a molehill — it refers to there being no need to overreact to situations for which there is a simple solution. But a MOLD hill … that’s something different entirely. Any hill, patch or clump of mold of any size deserves your immediate attention if you are a landlord, because depending on what caused the mold to grow, liability can fall upon you if a tenant becomes ill.

Moisture is a key contributor to the growth of mold in buildings. Mold also requires high relative humidity, and an organic food source, which is provided by many building materials. Eliminating moisture is the easiest way to control mold growth, and a landlord who fails to address a moisture or water issue after being notified about it might be held liable. The situations in which a landlord could be expected to take steps to eliminate the water source include (but are not limited to):

  • A leaky roof
  • Leaky pipes
  • A musty smell
  • Broken windows
  • Damaged siding
  • A broken humidifier

Many people are sensitive to molds and can have severe reactions. While causation of a severe illness can be difficult to prove, any litigation that results from a mold issue could tie you up in court and lead to tenant loss.

There are a number of steps to take to minimize the damage from mold after a water “event” such as flooding or a burst pipe. Most important to know is that action must be taken within 24 to 48 hours, and a mold remediation company can help. Other basics include:

  • Make repairs/eliminate the water source ASAP
  • Temporarily move the tenant if necessary.
  • Wear protective clothing when confronting mold.
  • Meet EPA guidelines in carrying out remediation efforts.
  • Document all remediation efforts in case there is litigation

The accompanying infographic outlines these steps and more. It also includes tips to help landlords prevent mold issues from occurring in the first place. Awareness about mold issues can help eliminate an uphill battle — one with a much steeper climb than a molehill.

American Apartment Owners Association is the largest landlord association in the country. They offer a large range of services including credit checks, rental applications, landlord forms, and tenant screening. AAOA’s mission is to provide superior property management services that will equip landlords to better manage their investment properties.