You may have heard the old adage that taking care of your tenants is taking care of your property, and if so, then you’d be right. While you do have rental property, you can only make money while your tenants are living there, which means that you have to treat them and your property right. In addition, taking care of your tenants means that they are more likely to value your property, so that you will have fewer damages to repair when they do move out. While you don’t have to worry about any of this if you have a good Bellevue property management company handling your needs, you should, otherwise consider making sure that you take the following steps with your tenants.
Handle Repairs and Maintenance Properly
While you probably wish that problems would just fix themselves, they don’t. While you also probably wish that you could manage to handle all of the repairs yourself to save money, that also isn’t always possible. Instead, try doing what professional property managers do and make a deal with a maintenance company that will come in and fix issues whenever you need them. Badly fixing, or slowly fixing issues can lead to dissent, and even a complaint against your rental property. It also reduces the quality of life for the tenants, which is never ideal. If you’re great with DIY then there is no harm in fixing a few small things, but make sure that everything looks professional and works at 100% when you’re done.
Reply Promptly
One very important thing to keep up with is replying and communicating with your tenants. Unfortunately, the more you ignore them, the more likely they are to contact you about every little thing because they feel that you should handle things more quickly. Landlords with multiple units sometimes set up a separate pay as you go phone and a separate email to handle all tenant communication so that it doesn’t become lost in your everyday business. If you only have one or two units, this might not be quite as cost effective, but is still worth a consideration if you frequently get busy. When you get texts or calls from your tenants, replying to them as quickly as possible and working to solve issues will definitely help your relationship.
Get a Property Manager If You Need One
If you’re constantly busy and never have any time for yourself or your tenants, it may be time to hire a Woodinville property management company. The vast majority of property investors are employed outside of their real estate investments and many even have their own business. If that sounds like you, you might not actually have the time to take care of your tenants. In this case, hiring a property manager to do it for you is the next best thing. Importantly, this step also saves you time because you won’t have to worry about anything except getting your rent from the property manager.