5 Tips for First Time Landlords
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December 6, 2021A lot goes into being a good landlord. If you are new to rental real estate, a little landlord advice can help make the process of owning and managing a rental property a little bit easier. Below are some important tips every landlord should know.
Must-Know Tips for New Landlords
Here is a list of things that every first-time landlord should know about and how to take care of them.
· Take Care of Your Rental Property
· Keep Rent Prices Market Competitive
· Carefully Look for and Screen Your Tenants
· Have Proper Knowledge of Rental Laws and Agreements
· Know About Eviction Laws and Your Rights As a Landlord
Take Care of Your Rental Property
A rental property becomes a source of regular income for its owner, which is why it needs to be regularly maintained and taken care of. In fact, you should treat it as a business. The more you invest in it, the greater the results will be.
Make sure you are complying with the local construction bylaws and are not making any additional changes apart from the approved map. If you need to get your property rented at a good price, you should keep it in good shape all the time.
Regular maintenance of your rental property can prevent bigger and more troublesome problems from occurring. Make sure to take care of all the plumbing fixtures and electrical wiring in your rental property before they are completely worn out.
Keep Rent Prices Market Competitive
If you really want to attract renters, you should try to keep rent prices as market competitive as possible. So, how could you get an idea about the value of your property in the rental real estate market? Well, the answer is very simple. All you need to do is to go through the rental property listings. Make sure that you have filtered out properties according to your location.
Also, try to contact a few property agents for a second opinion of the ongoing rental rates in your area and ask them about any major fluctuations that could have recently happened in your targeted rental market.
In this way, you can set a fair rent for your property. This is one of the best tips for new landlords as it helps your property to attract a wider audience of renters.
Be Very Careful When Finding and Screening Tenants
How do you find a good tenant? Well, this is probably one of the biggest and most concerning questions for all the first-time landlords out there. The relationship between a landlord and a tenant can be very tricky. Things become even more complicated when you have problematic tenants to deal with.
In order to find a good tenant, you can ask them about their reason for moving or if they have ever broken a rental agreement. It is better to know about your tenant history before you get into any kind.
It is also important for you to run a background check to make sure that your potential tenant does not have any criminal records. You can consult your local police station to fetch information in this regard. It is always good to be too careful when dealing with such matters.
Have Proper Knowledge of Rental Laws and Agreement
Having proper knowledge of the local rental laws is one of the most important tips for new landlords. A rental agreement is based on tenancy laws and regulations. You should always know about your rights and obligations.
Do thorough researches about the clauses that you can add or revise in your tenancy agreement, which can help you, develop good terms with the renters of your property. You can even take help from the local property experts on this matter.
Meanwhile, if you did not have a good experience as a first-time landlord and your tenant is causing you trouble, then in the next section of this blog, we have talked about different situations in which a landlord can rightfully evict a tenant.
Know About Eviction Laws and Your Rights as a Landlord
According to the local tenancy laws, there are many situations where the landlord has the right to evict the tenant. This makes it very important for you to know about the eviction laws and how to use them in your favor if need be.
Having differences of opinion on a particular issue can easily lead to misunderstandings and confrontation, affecting the relationship between landlords and their tenants. If things go out of hand and you fail to come up with a settlement on a particular issue with your renter, then you have no choice but to issue an eviction notice. If you are facing one of the following situations, you can legally evict the tenant.
· If your tenant is violating the property rules, which have been defined in the rental agreement.
· The tenant of your property is using it for illegal means.
· If your tenant is recklessly using your property and their notorious living habits are causing severe damage to your property.
· In case the tenant is not willing to pay the agreed rent amount. In some cases, tenants may even refuse to comply with the legal rent increase.
Hence, in all these scenarios, landlords can rightfully evict their tenants.
These were some of the best tips for first-time landlords. We hope this information will help you to swiftly handle all important landlord and tenant matters.
About the Author
Abdul Moqeet
Assistant Manager, Real EstateTreadstone Associates
1 (844) 900 1070
