As a landlord, you should see your property or properties as a business or investment. As with any business, the more time, effort and attention you put into it the more successful it will ultimately be – but what can you do to get the best return?
Here we look at just five ways to maximise your return on your rental property:
1. Maintain the Property
Maintaining the standard of your property is absolutely vital. Failure to do so will result in the likelihood of your tenants leaving and a struggle to find replacements.
Decorate it every couple of years to make sure it looks fresh and fix or replace anything that’s broken. If you haven’t got your own team of maintenance workers then make sure you have connections with reliable traders so any problems can be sorted quickly and efficiently.
2. Get Insurance
Make sure you have landlord insurance in order to cover against any losses accrued by damages. Although landlord insurance isn’t legally obligatory like motor insurance or liability insurance, it’d be unwise to invest money into your property without protecting it.
You’ll want a policy which protects the structure of the building as well as any fixtures or fittings which you provide whilst also seeking security against lapse rent payments and other tenant-related issues.
3. Choose the Right Tenants
Although it’s tempting to get tenants in straight away, it’s better to delay your selection process for a couple of weeks in order to select the best one(s). All potential tenants should be thoroughly checked with references sought.
4. Communicate with your Tenants
Happy tenants are basically a guaranteed source of revenue, so listen to any issues they’ve got and try to act on them. When they first move in, ensure they’ve got the means to contact you and pay them the occasional visit to see how they’re finding the property and also how they’re treating the place.
Make sure you give them the appropriate notice prior to visiting though, as this is a legal obligation stated in your tenancy agreement.
5. Offer Rewards
A great way to keep your tenants happy, and in turn increase the chance of them remaining at your property, is to reward them based on how long they’ve leased your property.
An example of this is installing new lights or organising a carpet clean once they’ve been in the property for a year. Remember, happy tenants are not only great financial investment but they’ll generally treat your property better and cause less problems.
