Have you been thinking about investing in Portland Oregon Rental Properties but you’re not sure if they are recession-proof or not?
Yes, long term rental properties can be considered to be recession-proof because of the simple fact that people will always need a place to live, so there will always be a demand for them.
You can ensure that your rentals will always be occupied with great tenants if you follow these tips.
Tip #1 – Write A Great Rental Ad
The first way to ensure that your rental property is occupied with a stable tenant during a recession is to write a great rental ad.
During the process of writing your rental ad, you should set the expectation for what you’re looking for in a tenant by stating it in the rental advertisement by including things like:
• No smoking
• No pets
• No drugs
Once you set the expectation for what you’re looking for in a tenant, this will eliminate people who will potentially waste your time and ensure that you’re only going to be speaking with people who meet your criteria.
Tip #2 – Tenant Screening – A Key To Success With Owning Rental Properties
One of the first ways that you can make sure that your rental properties are always occupied during a recession with great tenants is by focusing on tenant screening.
Tenant screening involves the following process:
• Request an application from the prospective tenant and verify that they fill out the entire application.
• Run a credit check. This can easily be done online.
• Do a complete background check.
• Contact the applicant’s current employer.
• Get in touch with former landlords.
• Interview the applicant.
During the process of tenant screening, it’s important to remember that applicants can easily add a phone friend’s phone number on the application so that the friend can pose as a former landlord or current employer.
The key to success with calling references is to verify that they are the correct person by going a reverse lookup of their phone number or searching for that person on Google so that you can confirm their identity.
Questions to ask a former landlord:
• Does the tenant owe any outstanding debts?
• Did they have any history of late payments?
• Was there any damage that the tenant left behind in the rental unit?
• Did you have any problems with the tenant like disruptions or noise complaints from other tenants?
• Would you rent to them again in the future?
After doing screening the tenant, the next step should be to have an interview with them. This should be the final step before you move forward with offering them the rental property or not.
Questions to ask during a tenant interview:
What’s your schedule like? Do you work days, nights, weekends, or have different hours?
Do you have friends or relatives who may be spending the night regularly in your home?
If the tenant’s rental application has rental references which show that they lived in certain properties for 6 months or less. You should also ask them to explain why they lived in those places for short periods since you don’t want to rent to them for 12 months only to find out that they are moving after 6 months.
Tip #3 – Focus on Tenant Retention
After you rent to a great tenant this doesn’t mean that they are going to stay with you beyond 12 months because, with the economy in recession, it’s likely that there will be other landlords out there who are offering lower rents to attract tenants.
To keep your tenants happy during the long term so that they stay with you beyond 12 months, you should be focusing on tenant retention. This means doing things to show your tenants that you value their business and want them to be around for a long time.
Tips for boosting tenant retention:
• Improve responsiveness – Your goal should be to respond to your tenant’s calls, texts, or emails as soon as possible instead of waiting hours to contact them.
• Ask your tenants about their desired upgrades – If one of your rental properties needs work, you should ask your tenant about the upgrades that they want to see done because complying with their desired upgrades will help them to feel like they have a say in what’s done to the rental property.
• 24-hour notice to enter – Before entering your rental property, always post a 24-hour notice to enter, this is the law and also a smart thing to do because you want to give your tenant time to prepare for your arrival.
• Send out a holiday card with gift cards – During the holiday season, you should consider sending your tenants a holidays card with a gift card. This will show them that you care about them and don’t just see them as a source of income.
• Implements a “friend to neighbor” program – Want to get more great tenants in your rental properties? Try asking your tenant if they have any friends that may be looking for rentals. This is a good way to get in contact with potential future tenants who may have similar personalities as your current tenant.
Contact Rent Portland Homes
Owning rental properties in Portland Oregon is a great way to generate stable, recession-proof income but self-managing rentals can take a lot of time. This is why you want to hire a qualified property management company like Rent Portland Homes to manage your rentals.
Our company has decades of combined experience with managing rental properties and we will save you the time, money, and hassle of managing your rentals yourself.
To learn more about the property management services we can offer you, contact us today by clicking here.
