As a landlord, adding properties to your portfolio means increasing your revenues and the equity in your business. At the same time, it also means spending more time on site managing your properties. Here are four tips for landlords who manage multiple properties that will take some of the hassle out of building your portfolio.
Hire a Single Lawn Care Company
Having the lawn cared for at all of your properties will definitely cost some money, but you may be able to get a break if you hire one lawn service to handle all of them. By giving the service bulk business, you might be able to negotiate a lower rate per property. Alternatively, you can offer your tenants a small discount on rent if they’re willing to do the yard work on your behalf. Regardless, it’s important that you don’t cut corners on this cost as you will likely end up paying for it more down the road.
Try to Keep Your Properties Close Together
When you’re first building your real estate holdings, it’s a good idea to keep your properties close together. This saves you driving time between properties and makes it easier for you to keep an eye on the houses you own. Ideally, you should be able to visit all of the properties you own in a single day without having to commute for an unreasonably long time. The closer together your properties are, the more you can utilize the same company services for each property like lawn care, plumbers, electricians, etc.
Find a Good Property Manager
At some point, you’re going to end up with too many properties to manage on your own. When that happens, it’s time to find a reliable property manager to help you collect rents, arrange maintenance, find new tenants, and other basic tasks. Property management is an essential service to successful landlords, so try to find someone who you can trust to handle your affairs. Also be sure that the property manager you select has the capacity to handle future growth, since you’ll want to partner with the same person on future property purchases. It may be a good idea to ask for references for your potential property manager to see how fellow landlords like working with them.
Think About Multi-Family Properties
While single-family homes are great for landlords, you can make maintenance a bit easier by buying a multi-family property. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to acquire an apartment complex, though. A basic duplex, triplex or fourplex is a good way to get started with multi-family real estate. Multiple units will also allow you to increase your revenue, making them a good addition to your portfolio.
With these tips, you can scale up your real estate business without overwhelming yourself as the sole landlord or property manager. At the end of the day, the size and nature of your portfolio will determine what steps you need to take. For most landlords, though, these tips will help to make managing several properties much easier and could even give you the opportunity to make additional purchases in the near future.
