What do you do when you run into a hard time paying the mortgage? I know firsthand that as a real estate investor or landlord, there may be times when it’s hard to pay the mortgage on your end as well. Here are some things you can do to avoid facing difficulty in paying your mortgage each month if the situation arises.
Keep Your Properties Full
This might sound like a no-brainer, but this is the most obvious method for ensuring you’ve got rent money coming in each month to cover your property mortgage payments. Don’t allow yourself to get slack on advertising for new tenants, and make sure you don’t choose a tenant without first screening them.
Yes, it’s easy to slack off when we are busy, overworked, or even sick. Recognize that filling your vacancies is a major aspect of your REI business success and deal with it quickly and efficiently every time.
Get Quality Tenants
While you want to keep your properties full, finding good quality tenants is key. By “good” it means they pay their rent on time, keep the property maintained, and don’t abuse the lease. Do not settle for a less than quality tenant… it’s not worth to risk and cost.
By using background and credit checks, you can find the best tenants available and thereby do what’s possible to keep your rental fees coming in regularly, which will help you pay the mortgage when it comes due.
Look For Long Term Tenants
Although we hope so, you can’t necessarily assume your quality tenants will be longterm ones. Some good renters may know they can’t stay over a few months at most. They may be students or working a temporary job.
They may just be living in an area waiting to move or retire somewhere else. This is where you need to practice asking good questions. Whatever the situation, opt for longterm renters when the choice is available. Long term tenants make for fewer vacancies and can save you a bunch of money at the end of the year.
Keep the property well maintained. If you want good tenants, longterm tenants and tenants who pay their rent on time, do your part to keep them. Deal with maintenance issues quickly. Make repairs as necessary. Upgrade appliances or at least ensure the ones you provide are in good working order. Respond to your tenants’ calls quickly, or if you can’t be sure they know you’ll be unavailable for awhile.
Being a good landlord will go a long in way in developing lasting relationships with your tenants, which will in turn, help you keep them in your property longer. Often a tenant and landlord relationship can turn an average tenant into a great one simply because they want to keep that relationship intact.
In a tough economy, it’s important to do all you can to avoid facing the difficulty of paying the mortgage. That applies just as much to an REI professional as it does to the average renter. These simple tips can help as you work to develop lasting, longterm, rent paying tenants to keep your properties bringing in the income you need every month.