Landlording for maximum profitability and Financial Independence
Entry level term you should know to get started
This article will likely offend a few people, but since I have never been one to limit my posts to only the non-offensive topics, here goes. If you have rentals, you will likely have a problem with domestic violence at one time or another. Especially if you take in low credit score tenants. Here is how to deal with domestic violence effectively as a landlord.
Continue reading “Dealing with Domestic Violence in a Rental”
There comes a time in most landlord’s life, when you have to evict a tenant. It’s not a fun thing to do, but neither is paying someone else’s rent, which is what you do when you let a tenant skip a rent payment. It is not fun to see a new TV in the living room of your tenant, and wonder why your rent is not paid. Maybe you see a new hair style, or manicure, and no rent paid. Maybe it is a trip to Disney Land, Baja, or Cancun and no rent paid. You need to learn when to evict a tenant. Here is what I go by.
Continue reading “When Should You Evict a Tenant?”
Should You Allow a Co-signer for a Tenant?Risky tenants need co-signers. You are considering whether or not to allow a co-signer for a tenant. Should you?
Is the tenant a marginal tenant in terms of income, credit score or rental history? Or criminal record? Generally, a lower income person might want or need a co-signer to prove that they can pay. I understand the tenant needs help, but are you willing to take the risk? If the tenant is too high of a risk by themselves, can you mitigate the risk with a co-signer?
Here are a few of my thoughts on allowing a co-signer for a tenant.
Continue reading “Should I Allow a Co-signer for a Tenant?”
More and more people are renting properties these days instead of buying. The reason behind this is the increasing cost of real estate properties. If you are thinking of renting an apartment or a condo, you are on the right track.
When making a budget, include premium for renters insurance. In case you don’t know what renters insurance is, it’s a type of insurance that provides coverage for a renter’s belongings.
Continue reading “How Renters Insurance Can Offer Protection for Your Personal Stuff”
In an earlier post, we talked about using the good cop/bad cop method to resolve tenant disputes. But if you own and manage the property by yourself, that doesn’t really work. If you fully commit to the split personality, you might be sent to a mental institution. So if you’re flying solo, you have to take a different approach.
This post is compliments of Amy aka “YETInvesting”.
Continue reading “How to Handle Tenant Disputes: Part II”
This post is compliments of Amy aka “YETInvesting”.
If you’re a new rental property owner/manager, or if you’re just not comfortable handling tenant disputes or confrontations, then you might get panicky just thinking about having to confront tenants about issues that arise.
My boyfriend has this problem. Apart from his current rental which began just a year ago, he has no prior landlord experience, and watching him learn how to handle issues has reminded me of how terrified I was when I first started. When I had to handle my first tenant complaint over the phone, I remember my hands shaking because I was so nervous. I’m an introverted person, so I hate talking to strangers anyway. But this was going to be even worse: I wasn’t just introducing myself to someone I didn’t know, I was going to be fighting with them over money! Yikes! Maybe most people are braver than I am from the get-go, but I felt like I was going to throw up. Good way to start a phone call, right?
Continue reading “How to Handle Tenant Disputes: Part I”
This post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus”.
If you have thought about being a landlord, you have thought about the possibility of getting rid of a bad tenant. The first two rules of being a landlord are (1) collect all of your rents, ON TIME, and (2) keep your rentals full. But that’s not the end of the story: it is equally important to get (and keep) good tenants in your rentals. If you have multiple rental units near each other, such as a duplex, fourplex, or even an apartment building, a bad tenant can spoil the whole bunch.
Tenant screening is critical. It’s important to run income and credit checks on your prospective tenants, and to meet all of the people who will be living in your rental, and maybe even their pets (photos can be deceiving in terms of size and personality). But what if someone makes it through your screening process, and turns out to be a bad apple anyway?
Continue reading “Getting Rid of a Bad Tenant”
This post is compliments of Amy aka “Yetisaurus” who has been an owner and manager of rental property in California since 2003. She’s an attorney by day and a landlord on nights and weekends. Her goal is to acquire more property and develop a strong passive income stream so she can retire early (and enjoy it!).
One of the most important weapons in a landlord’s armory—and one of the most neglected—is the rental agreement. It sounds simple enough. All you need is a basic piece of paper that identifies your tenant, identifies the address, and sets forth the monthly amount of rent, the due date, and the amount of the security deposit, right? Well, that’s a start.
Continue reading “HOA Rules—Are they Incorporated Into Your Rental Agreement?”
I get emails and other correspondence quite often asking me how to begin investing in real estate. When you are trying to find your first real estate deal, real estate investing seems very complicated. It’s not that difficult, but you have to understand that deals are not on every corner, at least not at the sellers price. It takes diligence, looking at many potential deals, in order to find ‘the one’. Then you have to find the next deal. Professional investors are everywhere, and they make a living in every city. You can do it too, but you need patience, persistence and determination. And some seed capital. Here is how to do it…
Continue reading “How to Begin Investing in Real Estate – 6 Steps to Finding Amazing Deals”
Are you maximizing revenue from your real estate investments? If you have rental property, there are literally hundreds of ways to make extra money. I often thought if I had 20 properties to take care of that it would be a full-time job for someone, possibly me. In addition to the rental income, at a time I was running a small lawn care company, trying to generate enough money to live on. That mowing, plowing and miscellaneous maintenance also generated capital to kick-start my seed money for real estate investing. Never underestimate the power of saving money, or the ability of a side gig to create a lot of extra capital. Every hour you spend making money for yourself, is an hour less you have to work for someone else.
Now that I have my rentals, I always look to save money or generate new revenue streams from my tenants. I am not looking to gouge them, but for ways to leverage my skills and their money.
Here are a few tips that I have either done, or have thought about doing. Actually I have implemented all but one of them, although not every one on every tenant. Most are common and not rocket science, some are not.
If you have ever wanted to quit your full-time job, and wondered how it would be possible with only a few rentals, this could be a way to help with your ticket out of the drudgery of working for a boss.
