Are You Ready To Make The Jump To Becoming A Landlord?
Posted on: 13 July 2018
If you have been thinking of becoming a landlord to earn money, there are so many things you should be prepared for and make sure you consider. Assume for the sake of this article that you will be starting out with a single property and read the information here to make sure you're ready to begin dealing with actual tenants.
Have you come up with a business plan?
You want to approach being a landlord the same way you would any other type of business. This means having a business plan that models how you plan on handling the venture. Included in the plan should be whether you will be managing the property yourself or having a management company do it for you, how you will pay the mortgage, insurance, taxes and other fees until you turn profit. Projecting how long before you can expect to turn profit is a crucial detail that you need to keep in mind and planning ahead can make or break your plans.
Are you mentally and financially ready for the venture?
While being a landlord can seem like an easy way to sit back and collect profit each month, it is anything but easy. You need to be prepared for just about anything, emotionally and financially. You can get lucky and get some great tenants in the house that stay for years and take great care of it. Or, you can end up getting new tenants after new tenants that don't pay rent, need to be evicted and destroy things in the house along the way that need to be fixed before you can rent it out again. No mater which way things go, you need to be fully prepared to deal with them. Many established landlords have connections with services like plumbing or HVAC and you should know how you will address issues as they are certain to arise throughout the tenure of your tenants.
Is the property ready for renters?
Unless you are going to be renting your property as a 'luxury' property, then you may want to remodel it, so you are protecting your investment. For example, you want carpet that won't cost you a lot to replace if damaged, but that's also somewhat hardy. You also want to paint the walls in a glossy paint, so dirt will be much easier to clean off them. Protect the property, and your renters, by making sure you have smoke alarms installed as well as any other fire-safety amenities. Have plastic faucets and other fixtures replaced with metal ones, or you are more than likely going to be coming out to replace them shortly.
After considering these things, you will need to also make sure that your property is listed and accessible to possible tenants. Using real estate services and local search function can really help get the word out for your property.
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