4 Must-Know Tips For New Landlords

Renting out your apartment or a section of your home can bring in much needed extra money, whether you offer your property for a short-term rental or a long lease. But like any business, the rental market also has its ups and downs. If you want to become a landlord who can stay in business for the long run, you’ll want to do your research ahead of time.

Here are four steps that will get you going in the right direction:

Understand the responsibilities involved

The first thing you need to do is determine whether being a landlord is an obligation that you can handle. There are many benefits to renting out a place, such as the ability to generate income that covers your bills and the potential to deter vandalism that often plagues an empty home. However, being a landlord is also one more responsibility you’ll need to fit into your life, and it’s safe to assume that things won’t always run smoothly. You need to stay on top of repairs, maintenance, collect rent, and try to avoid your property from being damaged by keeping an eye on your tenant’s housekeeping skills.

Prepare your home for renters

As soon as you’ve taken all the responsibilities on board and you feel like you’re ready for the next step, it’s time to straighten out the home you’ll be renting out. You have to bear in mind that tenants can be very choosy when it comes to looking for a rental. According to Business Tech, tenants have an oversupply of vacant properties to choose from on the market at the moment, which puts them in a strong position to shop around for better deals. This is something to bear in mind when preparing the rental space.

A great way to make sure everything is ready for the new space is to offer a furnished property – you can rent all the things you need for it, so you don’t have to fork out a huge amount of money to buy the items. By way of example: Teljoy allows you to pay for everything from furniture, electronics and appliances on a subscription model. In other words, you pay a small monthly amount and, after you’ve done that for a certain number of months, everything is yours. Or even better, you could upgrade the items you originally signed up for when newer versions become available on the website.

Market your home

Once the house has been straightened out, develop a list describing what makes it appealing so you can put it on the market. Take note of those commonly desirable features such as including a washing machine, a tumble dryer, air conditioning and a garage. Be sure to add all of these features to the rental agreements in case anything goes missing.

Screen tenants carefully

When choosing a tenant, you have to be very careful. You have to be able to depend on this person not only to pay rent on time but also to keep your home in a good condition. Also, if the person is someone you may be cohabitating with, learn their habits as soon as you can so you won’t run into any nasty surprises in the long run. It’s also important to do a background check on the tenants; after all, this person is a stranger. Once you’ve found the right tenant, ask for a reasonable security deposit and arrange an appropriate payment schedule.

The path to becoming a landlord may seem as overwhelming as it does exciting. If you do your research, plan carefully, and use a consistent process for finding suitable tenants, you give yourself the greatest chance of seeing long-term gains and making rental property a successful venture.