When many people buy their first rental property, they do it with the intention of eventually creating a passive income source. It's even a plausible investment strategy. People require homes and many of them aren't in a position to buy one yet.
Plus, individual owners make up the majority share of rental property owners in the U.S. Of course, generating any kind of revenue requires that you get a tenant or many tenants into your property. In other words, you need tenant placement services that work and work well.
Not sure how to maximize the value of your tenant placement services? Read on for some tips and ideas.
Fine Tune Your Marketing
Part of the reality of tenant placement is that you can only lease to people who actually apply for the units. If only a handful of people show up or apply, you largely get what you get in terms of tenants. You aren't picking the best options, so much as they're picking your unit.
You need a finely-tuned marketing process that gets the word out about your property to the right target market. If you mostly cater to middle-class tenants, you want your unit on major real estate sites. If you cater to college students, you'll likely target things like student newspapers or college housing sites.
Get Your Tenant Screening Pinned Down
A lot of red flags can pop up when you do tenant screening. Things you might encounter include:
- Prior evictions
- Criminal convictions
- Money problems
Make sure that you get permission from applicants to do things like run credit or criminal background checks. Also, ensure that you know what the laws are regarding tenant screening where you live. State laws can vary a lot, which may trip you up if you start investing in a new state.
Check References
No one with basic sense will use a reference that will talk bad about them. What you may discover, however, is that an applicant simply made up their references. A lot of places never check references, so it's a calculated risk.
Checking the references can serve as a basic honesty test if nothing else.
Property Management
One way that some property owners deal with the tenant placement problem is by simply handing it off to a property management company. These companies typically have processes in place to deal with tenant placement.
They have marketing strategies for a variety of property types, know the laws, and will carry out basic tasks like reference checks.
Tenant Placement Services and You
The term tenant placement services is really a shorthand for a handful of related processes. It includes the work of marketing your rental property to prospective tenants.
It also encompasses tasks like tenant screening and reference checking. While you can and likely will handle all of these tasks yourself in the early days, many property owners ultimately find a property management service to deal with these issues.
Blue Line Property Management offers residential and commercial property management services in the California Bay area. For questions or more information, contact Blue Line today.
