It doesn’t matter if you’ve owned Portland Oregon Rental Property for years, or you’re just getting started and have purchased your first rental property, there are common pitfalls that every property owner will face in the years to come.
In this article, we will share with you some of the pitfalls that property owners face so we can save you the time, money and hassle of having to deal with them yourself.
Not Inspecting the Portland Oregon Rental Property
One of the first mistakes that both new and experienced property owners make is when they don’t take the time to have a potential rental property thoroughly inspected before they purchase it.
An inspection will save every property owner the time, money and hassle of purchasing a rental property that’s going to need a tremendous amount of work before it can be classified as being habitable.
Besides doing a thorough inspection before submitting an offer on a potential rental property, every property owner should also analyze the location where the rental property is located and ask themselves the following questions:
- What is the vacancy rate in the area?
- Is the location considered to be desirable?
- How long do people stay in rentals in this area?
- Is the area considered to be walkable? (Close to schools, stores and employment?)
- Are there other sources of transportation nearby including the bus, train, and shuttles.
Not Staying On Top Of Property Maintenance
After purchasing a Portland Oregon Rental Property every property owner should make long-term maintenance an absolute priority because failing to keep a rental property maintained may result in that property sitting vacant for months at a time when there’s work that needs to be done.
To stay on top of rental property maintenance, every landlord should consider doing the following:
- Schedule quarterly or annual maintenance checkups at the rental property.
- Use a calendar program or reminder service so that maintenance isn’t something that’s easily forgotten about.
- Encourage every tenant to report maintenance issues, even if they think that the maintenance issue is minor, because a small problem could be a bigger problem down the road and it’s best to fix maintenance problems when they occur.
- Make small upgrades to the rental property including new flooring, painting, cabinetry and roofing each time renters move out because, making small upgrades annually will save every property owner the time, money and hassle of having to make big upgrades at once.
Not Renting To the Right Tenants
Another pitfall that every landlord faces is not renting to the right tenants.
There’s no denying that the long-term success of a Portland Oregon rental property all relates to all the tenants that a landlord rents to and every landlord can make sure that they rent to the right tenants by following these simple tips.
Tip #1 – Never “go with your gut” and rent to a tenant based on your feelings about them. You should always do a background check on a tenant because, background checks will enable you to thoroughly verify that someone would be the right tenant for you to rent to and save you time, money and hassle of renting to someone who could be a potential headache.
Tip #2 – Run a credit check on a potential tenant before you decide to rent to them. This tip is important because credit checks will enable you to see an individual’s payment history and give you a good idea if they would pay rent on time or not.
Tip #3 – Once you find the right tenant that you want to rent to make sure that you lay out rules for when rent is due and the consequences for not paying rent on time before you decide to rent them. Doing this will save you the hassle of having to deal with tenants who don’t pay on time and make excuses for why they are unable to pay their rent when it’s due.
Not Rewarding the Right Tenants
One common pitfall that we see many property owners in Portland Oregon, and across the United States make over the years is not rewarding the right tenants.
To reward tenants for paying their rent on time you should offer them things like gift cards and gift certificates to local stores, free Wi-Fi, and other incentives so they will want to continue paying their rent when it’s due.
Showing your tenants that you care is easy to do especially when you use the right online or offline tools to remind yourself to stay on top of communication with your tenants.
Not Keeping Your Promises
As someone who is building their portfolio of Portland Oregon Rental Properties, you should always focus on keeping your promises to your tenants when you make them because one broken promise can damage your relationship with your tenants and make it difficult for them to trust you to keep your word.
The landlord-tenant relationship is the key to success with owning rental properties and one thing you can do to make sure that your relationship with your tenants remains strong is to always document conversations with tenants in writing and use a calendar program to remind yourself of maintenance or issues at your rental properties that need to be fixed as those problems occur.
Not Offering Good Service and Support
Last of all, but most important, one of the main areas that we’ve seen property owners have over the years have is not offering good service and support to their tenants.
Many property owners get overwhelmed with the responsibilities of owning multiple rental properties and if this has happened to you it’s time for you to consider outsourcing your property management to a qualified property management company in the local area.
When you hire a property management professional you will have confidence that every aspect of your rental property portfolio will be professionally managed including customer service, maintenance, and rent collection so you can focus on building your portfolio of rental properties without the headaches or hassles that can come from owning multiple rentals.
Get Portland Oregon Property Management
To learn more about our team of Portland Oregon Property Management professionals contact Property Management Systems today by calling us at (503) 515-3170 or click here to connect with us online.
