Being a landlord requires a significant investment of your time, energy, and money. It’s hard work meeting your tenants’ needs and taking care of property maintenance and repairs. You have to make yourself available 24/7 to your tenants for emergencies, and jump into action on little to no notice. This can be a burden if you don’t enjoy running around all the time.
If being a landlord gets overwhelming at times, here are some of the best tried-and-true ways to reduce your workload without skipping out on your responsibilities.
- Hire a property manager
Working with a professional property manager is the best thing you can do for your business if you’re overwhelmed. When you hire out all your landlord duties, you take the most stressful obligations off your plate. You won’t have to answer calls at 3:00 in the morning or deal with unexpected repairs while you’re busy spending time with your kids.
For example, Green Residential, a San Marcos property management company, handles everything for their clients from top to bottom. They make sure landlords in Texas who want a hands-off investment business don’t have to do much of anything. From screening tenants and collecting rent to managing large renovation projects, a property manager will make your life easier.
You only have so many hours in the day to devote to your business. If you don’t currently have enough time to expand your investment portfolio, take care of your current investments, and spend time with your family, you need a property manager.
- Sell problematic properties
Not all properties turn out to be a good investment, and you can’t always know ahead of time. If you’ve purchased an investment property that has turned out to be a problematic money pit, it’s probably time to sell it and reinvest your money into something better. The more time, energy, and resources you waste trying to manage problems, the bigger your workload will get.
For example, if you bought a property that had several hidden, unpermitted additions, and you need to get them permitted or tear down the work, you’re looking at a huge task. Even if you have the money to fix it, do you really want to waste your time? You have to really love a property to be okay with that, and if you’re not into fixing up properties, it’s going to bog you down.
- Hire a secretary
At the very least, consider hiring someone to screen your calls, listen to your voicemails, return your calls, answer basic questions, provide tenants with simple resources, and book your appointments. These tasks are so simple that they don’t require your input right away, and your secretary can inform you about anything they can’t handle on your behalf.
- Hire a small staff
If you’re profitable enough to hire a couple of people, it’s worth the investment to reduce your workload because you’ll have more time to continue building your business. If you can rent an office and hire just a few people to work, even part-time, you will free up more of your time to spend however you wish.
For example, your secretary can work M-F during normal business hours, and you can hire an accountant to come in once a week and do the books. You might also want to hire someone to manage your social media accounts and paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google.
- Start using technology
Technology will make your life so much easier. Whether you download apps to track your finances, or get your tenants connected to an online portal, making use of tech will take plenty off your plate. For example, a tenant portal will make it simple and easy for your tenants to pay rent online, report repair and maintenance needs, and email you with non-emergency questions.
- Get help from an attorney
One of the biggest sources of wasted time and energy will come from not having proper legal documents. You don’t want to try to evict someone and find out that the terms of your lease agreement are invalid or you didn’t start the eviction process properly. Starting over will be a nightmare. The best way to avoid this type of situation is to consult with an attorney to get all of your legal notices drafted, as well as your lease agreements.
Reducing your workload can make you more profitable
The more tasks you take off your plate, the more time you’ll have to grow your business or tend to other projects on the side, and that’s one of the keys to becoming a more profitable property investor.
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