Top 5 risks of managing your own property
Being a do it yourself landlord can be a great way to save money, but that doesn’t mean that you will be saving yourself from some major headaches. Here are the top five things that can go sideways, if you decide to self manage.
- The tenants stop paying rent- Now what? You have a property where you need money coming in and you have people living in your home and not paying rent. Knowing how to handle an eviction, giving proper notice to the tenants and how to properly file court documents is a must
- The Tenants call you constantly – This is the biggest complaint that I have heard from do it yourselfers. Tenants can be a prickly bunch, they may be demanding of you and your time. They may threaten to report you for not fixing something fast enough or withhold rent if you don’t concede to their demands.
- Maintenance Requests – You are on Christmas vacation, and now your tenant has just called you saying that the water heater burst and wants something done, right this second. Bye- Bye vacation and hello major headache. As the landlord you have to respond quickly, and effectively to maintenance issues that your tenants encounter at your property.
- Neighbor Issues – So the tenants are calling you constantly, and now so are your neighbors. The tenants play their music too loud, they park on the grass and they are just not great people to live around. Instead of having a property manager to defer to you have to play referee with your tenants and neighbors, often times enduring a major headache.
- The unforeseen and unknown- Managing a property yourself may mean that you are more likely to let things go, an illegal pet in the property, someone who starts smoking indoors. You may not visit the property regularly and realize that the tenants have pawned your appliances until after move out and now the deposit doesn’t even come close to covering that. There are so many items that take time and attention. Many more than I could even begin to list.
Let us know if you think anything should be added.
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