Earning a passive income by investing in rental properties is not always easy. There are always some difficulties landlords deal with. Property management takes a lot of strength and planning. There are a lot of occurrences that could complicate your job.
The process of property management is complicated further by tenant turnovers. Often property owners need to evict their tenants, but more often than that renters move out on their own, it’s unlikely for tenants to stay in a rental forever. This creates complications and forces the property owners to conduct tenant turnover processes.
Once your tenant decides they are ready to move to their own home, no property upgrade and property management service is going to make them change their mind. Therefore, the best thing you can do is handle tenant turnover properly.
Complete a move-out checklist with the current tenant
When your tenant moves out you need to ensure that everything is left in its place. If you rented out the property fully furnished, you need to ensure that no piece of furniture gets mixed up.
Let’s say the property had a bed and a couch before the tenant moved in, but they bought new chairs and decorative items. It’s essential that you and the tenant differentiate between what’s yours and what they brought with them.
You need to ensure that the property is left in the condition it was before the tenant moved in. A checklist will help you determine what has changed and if there are any issues to be dealt with before the tenant moves.
Come up with a good marketing plan
Once your rental is back on the market, you need to see if anything has changed on property rental platforms since you last marketed a property. The industry is ever-changing and there may be new values that will get your property easily rented out.
According to these Los Angeles property managers, finding new tenants might be difficult if you don’t have a smart marketing strategy. You could increase the property value by redecorating and taking good pictures. You need to find the most popular property marketing website so a lot of people can review your rental property. Use keywords and phrases in the advertisement and ensure that it looks presentable.
Conduct tenant screening process
It’s also crucial to go through a tenant screening process before you choose the applicant. You should avoid letting a tenant who can’t pay the rent or is negligent move in. This should be the step right after marketing your property. Not every applicant is trustworthy.
Send the new tenant a welcome letter
You can establish a good and positive relationship with your future tenant from the start. Sending a welcome letter will do the job. This way you will show the new tenant that you are greeting them with positive and healthy energy and that you are a productive and welcoming landlord. The letter can also be very informative. You can let your tenant know all about the rent payment due date and policies.
The informative welcome letter should allow your tenant to know all about the utilities, renters insurance, maintenance, laundry, and the neighborhood beforehand. Providing all of this information in advance will give you an upper hand as you and the tenant will be able to save a lot of valuable time.
Prepare the unit
Although your tenant may have left a perfectly clean property, conducting a thorough cleaning is still important. You need to get to every corner and every edge to ensure that your new tenant is met with a pristine environment. You need to ensure that you have come up with the best possible cleaning method for your property.
If you want to renovate your property after the last tenant moved out, you need to arrange the time of your next tenant moving in. Ensure that you have enough time for the whole remodeling process to be done before the next tenant moves in.
When you greet the new tenant on your property, ensure that they get familiar with the community. Walk them through key factors, and let them know about your neighborhood’s HOA - if there is one.
Receive the first month’s rent
After you are done with the key factors of the turnover process, ensure that you receive the first month’s rent in advance as well as the security deposit. You must ensure that your new tenant has the means to pay the rent on time each month. It will be easier for you to stop a tenant from moving in than to go through the process of eviction.
You can collect rent by transaction or cash to stay safe. Collecting rent by taking a check might be risky. Ensure that you are familiar with your state’s law as a security deposit and rent are two different things and you might have to put them in different accounts.
