Landlords face many difficulties, including property damage claims, illegal subleases, high turnover rates, late rent payments, liability disputes, and more. If landlords cannot handle their responsibilities properly, they can find themselves stressed, dealing with lawsuits, or facing financial issues, all of which you should avoid in your retirement. Discussed below are five crucial tips for senior landlords.
1. Automate submeter billing and reading
Eliminating manual record-keeping in spreadsheets and clipboards enables you to concentrate on more critical tasks to ensure your tenants’ best service and accurate invoices. You can automate submeter billing and reading to help eliminate manual processes that have resulted in past inefficiencies and take the guesswork out of your system. When you collaborate with reliable submetering solution providers, they analyze your existing submeter billing spreadsheets to find errors that cause you to overbill or underbill your tenants.
Manual submeter reading is prone to human error. Automating billing and generating invoices depending on your building management system’s multipliers and complex formulas prevents avoidable mistakes that may cause revenue loss or disputes with tenants. This streamlines your processes, maintains an audit trail, and instantly validates readings.
2. Screen tenants
Troublesome tenants may cause problems with other renters and costly evictions should they refuse to pay rent. Screening your tenants beforehand can help avoid such ugly situations. While you may not want your rentals to remain vacant for long, ignoring tenant quality may result in expensive, time-consuming problems in the future. Consider establishing a thorough tenant screening process, including criminal background checks, credit reports, and eviction history.
This helps you determine your potential tenant’s financial situation and the likelihood of paying rent on time. Thorough tenant screening helps safeguard your property and neighborhood from criminals, avoid costly future evictions, and gives you peace of mind. It also enables you to make more informed decisions regarding the applicants’ reliability.
3. Create a lease agreement
A lease agreement is a contract that the landlord and a tenant sign when the tenant rents a commercial or residential property and is legally binding. It outlines tenancy terms and conditions, including the rights and obligations of the tenant and the landlord. A signed lease agreement can help resolve any issues that may arise. Failure to use a rental lease agreement may result in losing rental income, being held accountable for any illegal activities your tenants engage in on your property, paying penalties for unpaid utility costs, and spending a lot of money and other resources on property damage repairs.
4. Familiarize yourself with the Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination by direct housing providers such as landlords whose discriminatory practices make housing unavailable to persons due to color or race, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. Familiarizing yourself with these laws and complying with them safeguards your reputation and prevents future legal problems.
5. Collect security deposits
A security deposit is an amount a new tenant pays before moving in. Local and state laws dictate how much you should charge, when to return it and when you can keep it. A security deposit protects you against losses, including property damage beyond normal wear and tear, unpaid rent and bills, and breaking lease terms. When using the security deposit, know the state laws, document your property’s condition, and don’t let tenants use it as last month’s rent.
Endnote
Being a senior landlord comes with many duties, responsibilities, and challenges. Consider using these tips to overcome your challenges and ease your burden.
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Troublesome tenants may cause problems with other renters and costly evictions should they refuse to pay rent. Screening your tenants beforehand can help avoid such ugly situations. While you may not want your rentals to remain vacant for long, ignoring tenant quality may result in expensive, time-consuming problems in the future. Consider establishing a thorough tenant screening process, including criminal background checks, credit reports, and eviction history.
