Dealing with difficult tenants truly put home rental and property management to the test, especially when you have only recently encountered it. One wrong move can easily put you out of the property renting business and tag you as a bad landlord. To prevent this, take some time to learn from the experts, property management companies.
So what can you learn from the top rental companies to avoid any of this from happening?
This article compiles a variety of tenant insights and the best practices to deal with them. If you are a lone landlord doing business in the Indianapolis area, swear by these tips and tricks and consider their tried-and-true methods.
Best Practices for Dealing With Tenants
Before dealing with any difficult tenant in the first place, top rental companies have determined the following best practices to make sure that you can either prevent dealing with them entirely or have sufficient solutions to avoid any further stresses:
- Conduct Pre-Tenant Screening: Home rental and property management companies who have been in the Indianapolis area know that this is standard practice. Whether you meet the tenant during a luncheon or know them as friends, it’s important to conduct an initial screening before they move in. Validating their financial capabilities to pay rent and ensuring they have a clean record will save you time and money from dealing with any shady characters.
- Collecting Deposits: Having a security deposit for your tenants is necessary to ensure that there is easy access to paying off any property damage caused by their negligence or wrongdoing. Plus, you won’t have to deal with any future excuses that they suddenly cannot pay or a common tenant excuse: “That was there before we even moved in.”
- Schedule Property Visits: Conducting property inspections and wellbeing visits help you check on your property and determine whether your own tenants are behaving in their environment. Make sure to be thorough and ask questions to keep tabs on your tenants.
- Document the In and Out: Whether they are forgetful tenants or tenants that choose to forget, the in and out dates that they were on your property allows you to cross-check for any damages, track their rent payments, and other legal accountabilities when it comes to filing lawsuits against them, especially when they become extra testy.
- Keeping Receipts: Standard home rental and property management means being financially accountable towards your tenants, so that they too can likewise be. Issue them receipts for all kinds of payments and keep a copy for yourself to cross-check it.
Useful Tools Against Difficult Tenants
If you have done all of the above and yet a difficult tenant slips through the cracks, you have the following tools that will aid you during these difficult situations:
- Collection Company: Having a dedicated team managing all the necessary legalities and obligations towards collecting money from your tenants is necessary, especially when it’s been a long time coming. Consider the help of a collection company to properly and thoroughly collect on all past dues.
- Serving a 45-Day Letter: In the Indianapolis area, this letter can prove useful in a legal situation concerning the security deposit. if there are multiple house damages caused by the tenant to your property, simply provide an itemized list that outlines the extent. Be careful because withholding a tenant’s security deposit without good reason can cause you to incur penalties.
- A Property Management Company: To avoid ever dealing with difficult tenants, hiring a property management company is the best decision you can make. Additionally, it allows you to focus on growing your property business and saves you a lot of time and money from doing all the home rental and property management obligations yourself. The flexibility and freedom that it offers is a landlord’s heaven sent!
Conclusion
Dealing with tenants is front and center in any kind of property rental business, so it’s important to either address it from the ground up or to approach relevant services to take the burden off.
Consider these tips and tricks to keep you on top of the Indianapolis housing market and gain sufficient profits for growing your property business!
Are you in need of a property management company in Indianapolis? Polaris Manage is committed to taking care of your property as you simply watch your rent profits grow. Rent out your property with us!
