Finding a good tenant for your rental property may seem like a challenge. However, it doesn’t have to be. With the right tools and techniques, you can find and keep the best tenants that will want to stay at your property for years to come. Luckily, there are some steps that you can take to make sure you find and keep the tenants you want.
Market Your Property Properly
The best way to find tenants is to make sure you get your rental property in front of as many eyes as possible. Make sure to put your rental property on at least one online real estate marketplace so that you can inform prospective renters about your property and what it takes to be accepted.
You should also utilize social media to the best of your ability to ensure that new tenants can find you online. If you don’t have a social media presence, it could make first-time renters think that you aren’t a reputable company.
Do the Necessary Background Checks
As a rental property owner, you know that it’s much easier to keep the tenants that you have than find new ones every couple of months to fill vacancies. Keeping your current tenants should be just as important, if not more important, than finding new ones. While the reason why a tenant might move out after a one-year lease could be beyond your control, there are things that you can do to ensure you’re finding the right tenants that will stay with you for years.
One thing you can do is run an eviction background check. Evicting someone is costly because it means you won’t be generating money for a certain unit anymore and may have to spend money advertising the property again or lose money by not having it filled.
You can find your tenants through a number of avenues, like posting an ad on Craigslist, but you must learn about them to make sure they’re an ideal tenant so that you can avoid eviction. Tenants who have been evicted once may not be repeat offenders, but being evicted multiple times is a huge red flag.
Be Insured
While some renters only care about their own insurance, others want to ensure that you have landlord insurance in case something happens that’s not the fault of the renter. For example, if a renter ever sues you, you can use your insurance to pay for attorney’s fees and the like, but it also means that your tenants are protected because you can afford to fix things like water damage due to a neighbor not taking proper care of their pipes properly.
Having landlord insurance shows your prospective tenants that you’re reputable and respectable. Remember, they’re not only applying to live in your rental property; they want to make sure that you’re the right landlord for them.
Provide High-Quality Appliances and Amenities
Part of finding the best tenants is making sure your rental property offers the high-quality appliances and amenities that they’re looking for. Depending on the cost of rent, you can upgrade apartment appliances to make the kitchen and bathroom more appealing. One thing you can do to find quality tenants is liven up the bathroom with a new bathtub.
Similarly, one thing that can take apartments from drab to premium is the kitchen cabinets. Quality tenants are willing to pay more for beautiful and functional features, like upgraded kitchen cabinets.
Amenities are also an important piece of the puzzle. If you have a gym that tenants can use or a pool, those are both major selling features that you can use to lure and keep good tenants. At the same time, allowing pets can help you find quality tenants that are willing to pay for a nice home that they can share with their cat or dog.
The key to finding and keeping the best tenants is to stay competitive. They have a lot of options out there when it comes to rentals, so make sure that you can stick out from the crowd with your offerings.