Dealing With Good & Bad Tenants
I’ve mentioned this previously, and you may have heard part of this before if you’ve been following me for a while, but good tenants are incredibly valuable to a landlord.
They make your job so much easier it’s like having an assistant to take the workload off of you. Hopefully you’ve experienced this already, but if you haven’t these are the tenants who call immediately when there is a problem with an appliance, something with the property or if there is any type of issue.
They don’t call to complain, they call to make you aware, That can be a very distinguishing factor. They don’t make demands and often they have already dealt with the issue, they just wanted to make sure you were aware.
An example I have of this is a tenant who called me after the fact to tell me the smoke detector quit working. They tried changing the battery, but it still didn’t work right, so they simply went and bought another one and replaced it and then told me about it. They didn’t demand money for the smoke detector, they didn’t demand I run up and change the battery, they didn’t even imply I should pay for the smoke detector, but I did!
Good tenants like that need to be rewarded and if it involves covering costs, even when they don’t request it, it’s worth it in the long run. But that’s not where it ends. I go over a few other options you can do to keep a great relationship in the following video.
I also go over the issue of bad tenants and how they can drag you into what I call the eviction spiral, so hopefully you get some value out of the information. As always, please leave me a comment if you can, I love to hear your feedback, answer your questions and it also is an incredible incentive to me to know people are actually watching them! Enjoy!
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Bill,
I am looking at closing on my first property at the end of the month. I have been reading and watching your videos in preparation for life as a landlord! They are great! Thank you for putting them together!
Hey Matt,
Congrats on closing on your first property, it’s a fun and exciting time!
I applaud you for preparing in advance there are so many landlords that jump in blindly and then pay for it dearly later.
If I can suggest anything to get you started it would be to make sure you have a solid lease, you understand any local rental rules that may affect you (priority being security deposits, basics of evictions) that you are up on screening tenants as it’s always easier to let a bad tenant in than it is to get a bad tenant out and that you start creating systems you can duplicate later (or fine tune later) so that your job as a landlord gets easier and easier!
Hope that gets you off on the right foot along with all the other videos and articles.
Bill
Hi Bill,
You made the last eviction we just had less painful , thank you so much your advice armed us with things we needed to know to be professional and effectively get rid of bad tenants
Irene
Glad to hear it all worked out Irene, never as well as we hope when it comes to evicting a tenant, but you’re definitely more educated now, the hard way!
Bill
I wish I’d heard of you over past 17 yrs I’ve been ‘LL. Very hard expensive lessons. Have 5 rentals. And no free time. Can’t afford management co not would I trust them. One lesson is you can’t afford to b nice when they don’t pay. Thank you, I hope to learn from you.
Hi Lin,
Thanks for finding me!! Hopefully you’ve signed up with your email on the right side of the page or in the pop up so you can start getting more information from me!
Bill
I have just begun reading and watching you. I am very impressed that you give such valuable information.
I now rent 5 rooms in my home. I have followed no guide lines up to now. I am looking for a simple way to do things the right way. I I will be taking a computer class all of next month. I will be checking out your Website very soon to learn. Thank you for all that your doing.
Maureen
Hi Maureen,
Thanks for the feedback, glad you’re finding the information valuable!
Bill
Thanks, Bill! Our second set of tenants were ideal!! Alas, they wanted to move to B.C…Now we are on the fourth set since September 2010, and while no cheques have bounced, I just have an uneasy feeling. Hopefully it will be fine, but I am being watchful!!
Hi Kelly,
It’s always hard losing good tenants! With the new ones it’s definitely worthwhile being very watchful and not allowing them any room to slip up. It’s a thin line between to protective of your property and not, but it can also be an expensive mistake not to be protective. hopefully it all works out.
Bill