I’ve been doing this for a year now and although it’s a little better now, I still feel like my back is up against the wall a lot of the time, dealing with people lying to me and other nonsense. Is there a point (# of years doing this, # of units) where it isn’t such a big deal?
We’re coming up on 4 yrs of LL’ing. I feel like we’re very experienced from having several units to manage. As you get more units, you spread your risk (and pain) among the properties. We’ve had a few tenants who were pretty horrible to deal with. I’ve heard most of the stories/lies by this point and know how to handle most things. I’m generally good to the tenants, but I’ll absolutely treat them like children if they deserve it.
The thing that pisses me off the most is that most of these people wouldn’t go into Wal-Mart and walk out with a bunch of stuff without paying, but they think they can stiff us or tell us stories about why they don’t have the money.
We always seem to have 2 or 3 tenants at any given time that are a pain in our butt, but overall it’s ok. Not sure I want to do this forever, but I at least want to hold on to the properties until the rent has paid them all off.
I try not to get too bent about when things go wrong now…the experience has helped with that.
I have found reading a couple of books on the subject, in addition to experiencing being a landlord, has made me pretty good at it. No its not the easiest job in the world - even after doing it for a couple years - but the more you do it the easier it gets.
When you get to a point where you have a corporate style business system in place, e.g. say where all late paying tenants get three day pay or quit notices hand delivered on the fourth, and you never listen to anyone’s sob story anymore…that’s definitely when its best.
Well now I have a quality applicant, although I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched. It’s nice to deal with someone normal who isn’t trying to bargain on the security deposit, doesn’t have a criminal record, etc etc.
Good deal. A truly perfect tenant is hard to find. Most renters, even middle income ones, tend to have imperfect credit (though most have a good rental history) so it seems.
I felt competent from Day 1.
If you don’t like challenges and feel like you were destined to do this, you should get out and try another aspect of real estate like commercial or wholesaling because things won’t change. It is what it is.
Real estate is easy, people is hard. Dealing with people you need to remember that people don’t change. The guy was never a model tenant and once he moved into you place he started kicking holes in the wall. He was always kicking holes in walls. Do background checks and always believe what they say not what the person says.
Hi,
When I no longer felt emotional when dealing with tenants, vacancies, or anything associated withthe properties.
In terms of time, it took about 2 years, but I’m still learning how to be a smarter landlord…never will stop!
Screen your tenants harder.
Charge an application fee.
If they don’t want to pay that, then they are disqualified.
Run a background check.
No criminals. No deadbeats. Rent 1/3 or less than income.
Deadbeat= broken leases or evictions
Security Deposit upfront, no arguement or their disqualified immediately.
Keep them to the terms of the lease.
Make sure you have a great product at the right price and you should have your pick of good tenants.
I’d say when you spend less than a few days a month worrying about your rentals, its a safe bet you’ve gotten the hang of things. Problems are always going to come up with the property whether its a roof issue, plumbing leak or simply landscaping to be done but its the management of the tenants that counts.
In terms of experience, I’d say it depends heavily on how involved you are in the mgmt process as well as how many rentals you have. Keep in mind, the more problems you deal with month after month, the more experience you are gaining and the less likely you will have those recurring issues as you will have learned from them and may be able to prevent them in the future (or at least plan for them).
And you can always hire a property mgr to help with the rent collections, etc if needed.
Property mgmt. is expensive to the tune of 20%. I have been renting for almost 1 yr myself and have had a great experience thus far. Call me lucky I guess but I have model tenants, they always pay on time, they don’t damage the property, they’re not loud, and haven’t had any major issues or complaints. In fact, we’ve actually become pretty friendly as we’ll go out on occasion and get a beer or two.
I required access to their credit scores and told them I was gonna run background checks but I didn’t do this. I simply talked with their current/former landlords and managers at work. I did sift through a lot of interested parties before settling on them though and maybe thats is key, not jumping on the first applicant that you meet.
I agree with Pete, stiff requirements will lead to better tenants. Though my tenants have been awesome I do plan to screen them harder in the future to ensure I continue getting good tenants.
I am just looking forward to the day I have enough rental income to hire a landscaping crew and eventually a maintenance man. A local investor told me when he got to 10 properties he could afford a full-time maintenance person.
good luck