Top Tips for Landlords from the Pros

One of the most popular and most lucrative ways to make passive income is to rent property. It requires an initial investment that you can handle on your own or by taking out a loan. Many feel that after that initial investment, there’s not that much work to be done if you’re a landlord.

It’s a mistake to think so. Landlords need to stay active and to work on managing their property with the needs of their tenants in mind. It’s also a business like any other and you’ll need to think about the financial side of it as well.

Keep up with the rules

There are a lot of rules and regulations guiding this industry. That’s done to make your tenants safe both in terms of physical and financial safety.  It’s imperative for the landlords to be familiar with this process.

Partly, this is about knowing what the rules are and making sure you know what kind of obligations you need to keep up with. At the same time you’ll have to prepare yourself of the complexity of the process. That means that you’ll have to have some delays and some time wasted and there’s nothing you can do.

Cash flow

There are day to day expenses you’ll need to cover as a landlord. Not all of them can be predicted and prepared for in advance. This is why the cash flow is such an important feature of renting finances. Cash flow refers to the money coming in and going out of your company.

It’s more important to always know where your next payment is coming from and where it should go, than to have money saved in the bank. Taking the money out of your bank account can’t last forever, and a steady cash flow proves that your renting business is self-sustaining.

Repair work

If you have more than one tenant and more than one property chances are that there will always be something to repair at one of them. This is just the cost of doing business. Burdening these costs should be a part of the plan and factored into the rent.

What you can’t afford however, is to have the tenants complaining about these repairs. They need to be handled quickly and by professionals. That’s why you need to have an emergency electrician on the call, as well as other maintenance professionals.

Taxation

It may seem like renting real estate is just another side project and something that you do on your own time. However, from the stand point of the government, it’s a business and it’s taxed as one. Taxation will take a big bite out of your income and you need to prepare for it.

The best way of doing so is to hire a professional accountant to handle the job for you. It may seem like that’s too much additional expenses for such a small venture, but a good accountant might end up saving you money in the end.

Choosing tenants

In the end, the job is first and foremost about tenants and choosing the right person to use your property is the key to being successful. You should put up a few ground rules that are public and that tenants should abide by. These are mostly about proving that they don’t have a criminal record and that they have a steady stream of income.

Second part of the process doesn’t have to be public. It’s up to you to choose who you’ll accept in your property and this can needs to be done via an interview. Exercise common sense and you’ll do well.

Marketing

Landlords often overlook the importance of professional marketing for their business. Many decide to rally on word of mouth and local advertising to find new tenants. Taking the time to advertise this business in a more professional fashion, may end up being lucrative.

The key to accomplishing this is to find and showcase the benefit your property can provide that no one else could mimic.

Renting out real estate is one of the best ways to make passive income. It’s a job like any other and you should treat it with seriousness and with clear goals in mind.

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