How Do I Ensure That I Get And Keep Good Tenants?
If you are not able to get the right tenants into your property, then you can find yourself having to cope with a multitude of different problems. These can include late payment of rent, neglected gardens, excessive wear and tear to fixtures and fittings, and a general lack of commitment to the upkeep of the property.
Even if you do secure good tenants for your property, they may only be looking for a short-term let. Tenants who are happy to stay in your property for a longer period of time give you far greater security. Provided your tenants are looking after your property and paying their rent on time, you have a guaranteed monthly income and peace of mind.
Minimising periods of time where your property is standing empty is always going to be the aim when you are purchasing investment real estate. The rent that your tenants provide pays the mortgage on your property or gives you a valuable income stream that you don’t want to be without.
The Three Elements To Success
Getting and keeping good tenants requires three elements—a great house, a great landlord, and a great property manager. If you get all three of these elements working together, then you give yourself the best chance of success.
What should I be looking for?
The ideal scenario is to have a tenant who keeps renewing their lease over and over. I have even known of circumstances where the tenants were so happy that they stayed in the house for five or six years over two different owners.
They treated the house like their own. They would go above and beyond to keep the house very well-maintained. The only reason why they eventually left is that they had saved a deposit to buy their own home.
These are the ideal tenants, and one of the main reasons they were happy to stay for so long is that they had great landlords. If you treat your tenants with respect and if they treat your home with respect, then both parties will get the best from the situation.
Ensuring Great Relationships
As a landlord, there are a number of things that you can do to ensure that you have a great relationship with your tenants. The first of these is to make sure you have a specialist property manager actively working with you to maximise your investment.
Good property managers will help to secure good tenants. Your property manager will carry out thorough reference checks and credit checks to ensure the tenants’ job status and financial viability. Once your tenants are in, a good property manager will treat them like people and not just numbers.
Property management can be a difficult job, and overloaded property managers will always deal with the biggest problems first. Many agents do a good enough job in the beginning. However, once the tenants are settled in and there are no urgent matters that need addressing, they can easily forget about your property.
If a property manager is overstretched, they will tend to place their focus on managing the problem properties in their portfolio. The more properties they manage and the greater the number of large-scale problems they have to deal with, the less time they have to service the other properties in their portfolio.
There may be a number of little niggling problems that cause frustration for your tenants. If you go with a cheap property management company where they have no time to deal with anything but the most urgent problems, then you and your tenants won't get great service.
To your success,
Tony Myers
Australia’s Authority On Real Estate Investment For Busy Professionals