You may think it’s only the tenant who has a hard time paying the mortgage, but as a real estate investor or landlord, there may be times when it’s hard or difficult to pay the mortgage on your end as well. Take the last couple of years with an up-and-down economy and inflation at an all-time high. Here are some things you can do to avoid facing difficulty in paying the mortgage each month.
Paying the Mortgage – Tips to Ponder
Keep your properties full. While this might sound simple and easy, this is the most obvious method for ensuring you’ll receive rents coming in each month to cover your property mortgage payments. Don’t allow yourself to get slack on advertising for new tenants. And don’t put off screening applicants or filling your properties because you get busy or overworked. Recognize filling your vacancies as a major aspect of your REI business success and deal with it quickly and efficiently every time. Be prepared for emergencies. Along with vacancies, there are other reasons you might need to borrow money from the bank or have a good reserve account set aside for each property.
Do your best to find quality tenants. While you want to keep your properties full, finding good quality tenants is key. By “good” it means they pay their rent on time, keep the property maintained and don’t abuse the lease. By using background and credit checks, you can find the best tenants available and thereby do what’s possible to keep your rental fees coming in regularly, which will help you pay the mortgage when it comes due.
Keep in mind, even when rent deferrals are happening over the long run you may come out ahead. Just keep paying the mortgage, if you can.
Look for longterm tenants. Don’t assume that quality tenants will necessarily be long-term ones. Some good renters may know they can’t stay over a few months at most. They may be students or working a temporary job. They may just be living in an area waiting to move or retire somewhere else. Whatever the situation, opt for long-term renters when the choice is available. Doing so will make filling a vacancy at least a more infrequent possibility.
Remember that the market can change quickly. When the housing supply is tight, it’s easy to find qualified tenants who can pay. But when more homes go up, it’s harder to find renters for them.
Keep the property well maintained. If you want good tenants, long-term tenants, and tenants who pay their rent on time, do your part to keep them. Deal with maintenance issues quickly. Make repairs as necessary. Upgrade appliances or at least ensure the ones you provide are in good working order. Respond to your tenants’ calls quickly, or if you can’t be sure they know you’ll be unavailable for a while. Don’t be a slumlord. Slumlords are defined as landlords who don’t maintain their property or make it so inconveniently difficult to live there that the tenants don’t want to stay.
Being a Good Landlord – Longterm growth
Being a good landlord will go a long way in developing lasting relationships with your tenants, which will, in turn, help you keep them in your property longer and you get to keep paying the mortgage. Often a tenant and landlord relationship can turn an average tenant into a great one simply because they want to keep that relationship intact. Just be sure to provide a great living environment for your tenants, and they will be more than happy to keep you around. In the end, it’s all about good communication and a sense of mutual respect between landlord and tenant.
In a tough economy, it’s important to do all you can to avoid facing the difficulty of paying the mortgage. That applies just as much to an REI professional as it does to the average renter. These simple tips can help as you work to develop lasting, long-term, rent-paying tenants to keep your properties bringing in the income you need every month.
Why Rent Your Home?
As tough as it can be at times to be a landlord, even with all the seemingly daily changing rules. There can be several benefits to renting out your property.
Some of these include the following:
- Rental Income: Renting is a great way to generate extra income for you and your family.
- Tax Benefits: You can write off your mortgage interest and property taxes on your federal income tax return.
- Cash Flow: Renting can be a great way to generate cash flow for you and your family.
Tired & Time to Sell
We here at Bridgetown Home Buyers completely understand land lording and managing tenants may not be for all. Maybe it was a journey you had to take to find out you need some peace of mind, and you are just ready to move on to your next adventure. If that’s the case, see the form below – leave some quick and easy info and we will get back to asap to see how we may help.
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