Manage Strategically
One of the best decisions you can make as a landlord is to upgrade your property’s value. There are a number of different advantages that can result from upgrading properties you own. For one, if you have to sell—or when you sell—you’re more likely to see a higher profit. Another reason is better tenants.
Your tenants make your property a PIG, or Passive Income Generator. Tenants can also wreck your property if you aren’t careful. You’ve got to screen them very carefully, but that’s not enough either. Even the best tenant can stumble into a rough patch in life and start punching holes in the walls.
Additionally, you need to look at apartment interiors, or rooms that are being rented. Sometimes tenants aren’t going to be interested in that sort of thing, but if you include such inspections in the lease you’ve got certain leeway.
It will depend on the state you’re in, though. If you’ve got bad tenants in California, even if you seek legal help you evict them, it could—and likely will—take a year or more to get them off the premises. Courts aren’t fast. You’ve got to think ahead if you can.
Maintenance Intel
One strategy to simultaneously ensure your tenants are keeping up their property, and ensure the property’s baseline value is retained, is to send maintenance experts through units on a regular basis. They’re going to be needed anyway; entropy is natural when it comes to property. The key here is, you want the right the maintenance experts. To that end, PlumbingFix is a plumbing service who specialize in residential plumbing repairs and replacements as well as video inspection.
You might even be totally open about this. Spin it as a positive. Put as a section in your lease agreement that once every six months, maintenance personnel will come to do a check-up on your premises. A lot of tenants deal with lackluster landlords who don’t really care about the units they rent out. Many new renters will find regular utilities inspections as a positive.
This way you get to have your cake and eat it, too. You get to ensure your assets are being protected, and tenants feel as though you’re very studious when it comes to managing their residence.
Winning From All Angles
If you apply a strategy like that in conjunction with legitimate upgrades, your property will continue to appreciate. The fact is you can expect depreciation over time, but certain assets depreciate faster than others. Well-constructed buildings in good areas of town tend to retain value longer than prefabricated units on the outskirts. You can also consider low-cost amentities, such providing free parking or secure internet access through a VPN router.
Also consider sustainable energy solutions. If you can switch your apartments from grid-based energy to solar energy, wind energy, water energy (should there be a stream running through the backyard of the premises or something), or another sustainable solution, you’ll likely get a tax break from your state while simultaneously saving yourself and tenants money.
