7 Usual Landlord Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
We, at Real Property Management Associates, understand that being a property owner can sometimes get confusing. With keeping track of rental payments, maintaining your property, ensuring a good and healthy tenant-landlord relationship; it gets a bit overwhelming. Our services ensure the highest quality management of all such tasks bannered under property management. Our Cape Cod property management service makes the entire process and procedures hassle-free and convenient for you.
Here’s a list of the most common pitfalls landlords fall into, as well as a solution on how to avoid them:
Relying on Doubtful Tenant Referencing
The first and foremost mistake that most landowners make is irregular, doubtful tenant referencing. Before you hand over the keys to your property, always ensure that you have done a thorough background check on the prospective tenants. Within this credible checklist for referencing, you may ask for their employer’s reference, previous landlord’s reference, and rental guarantor. An additional precaution can be taken to visit their current property to see how well they maintain it.
Not Creating a Tailormade Lease Agreement
Another mistake commonly made by landlords is downloading a ready-to-use lease agreement from the internet, or using someone else’s lease agreement in place of an original lease agreement. You should always invest in a tailor-made lease agreement which is customized to your property, needs and expectations. Since every property and every tenant is different, it is advised to always present a lease agreement which is specific to you. A standard one might work initially, but it is bound to create complications and loopholes which may not always work in your favor.
Not Paying Much Heed to Safety and Health
As a best practice, Real Property Management Associates always ensures that their clients, both landlords and tenants, are provided with the utmost quality and standard of safety and health. Any issues or hazards present within your property have to be cleared out before the tenants move in. Furthermore, the assurance that your property remains a healthy, safe zone during the entirety of the agreement falls under your responsibilities. As a preemptive measure, double-check on all necessary and probable repairs.
Noncompliance to Federal Fair Housing Act
It is alright to screen tenants to get a hold on ones that fit your criteria and needs perfectly. However, you need to be careful when screening as you may be in violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act. This act helps in protecting tenants from discrimination based on religion, color, sex, race, national origin, family status and disability. There is a very fine line to tread here, otherwise a harmless rejection on your part may cost you a lot in a legal battle, especially one that you did not even intend to initiate and fight.
Not Verifying Additional Legal Clauses
Trailing off from the earlier pitfall of using a standard lease agreement, we also want to warn you about adding too many or too detailed clauses in the lease agreement. Always seek legal advice on any additional clause you may wish to add into the agreement. Sometimes, agreements add in illegal clauses which go unnoticed until they are challenged in court. Keep in mind that your agreement will only be legally binding if all the clauses present within are also legal.
Ineffective Handling of Difficult Tenants
As with any other contracts, there are bound to be tenants that become too difficult to handle over time. They may not be happy with the paintjob, they may make unreasonable demands every now and then, they may bicker on about a faulty faucet; whatever the case may be, you, as a landlord, will always have to be patient, respectful but firm. Any escalated situation will go against you. Deal with the tenants effectively and sort out all possible issues as soon as they arise. If this is too stressful for you, you can always hire our services for property management in Braintree, Quincy, Milton, Weymouth, etc.
Ignoring Timely Property Maintenance
No matter who leases the property, it will always be your property at the end of the day. Hence, it becomes imperative that you conduct regular, timely property maintenance which includes repairs, paintjobs, servicing, cleaning, restoration, etc. Many landlords fall victim to unwilling/shy tenants who keep on postponing regular maintenance checkups. In the beginning of the agreement, ensure that you make it very clear that any and all repairs that need to be done should be informed as soon as possible. Some damages, if prolonged, may even start to affect the structure and overall aesthetics of your property. Such a case will only deprive you of future good and long-term tenants.
For property management in Quincy, Cape Cod and other service areas of Massachusetts, get in touch with us at (508) 509-4485. Real Property Management Associates will take care of your Seasonal and Year-Round Property needs.
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We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
