4 Tips for Running a Rental Property

4 Tips for Running a Rental Property

Turning your home into a rental property is a great way to make money off your home without selling it, but it can also be a hassle if you aren’t prepared for the venture you’re embarking on.

If you think that all you have to do is put an ad in the paper, wait for tenants to answer the ad and move in, and collect rent, you have no idea what it takes to be a property manager. You’re responsible for everything from maintenance to finding responsible tenets. If you’re a newbie landlord wondering how to get the most out of your rental properties, continue reading.

Think like a marketer.

If this is your first rental property, your top priority should be coming up with ways to attract tenants. You need to take pictures of your property and place them, along with a detailed description of your home and the area, on property and rental listings sites.

Social media is also a great way to list your rental property. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become more than virtual hangouts. Now, they’re all viable marketplaces on top of being social media sites. The moment you know you’re going to turn your home into a rental property, you should start posting pictures, specs, and prices to your social media profiles.

If you have various properties that you’re looking to rent out or sell, you should create a social media profile solely for your real estate venture. However, don’t stop at just posting pictures. Create content that displays your knowledge of the housing market and property management.

Amenities are everything.

One thing you’re going to learn fast about managing property is that people are willing to pay more for certain amenities. People love convenience, and the closer your property comes to luxury, the more potential tenants you’ll have clamoring for it.

If your rental property is one you used to live in and get special at-your-door services, you could pass those services on to your tenants. You could include things like the daily paper or direct-delivery water products without ever noticing the cost to you because they’re costs you’ve been paying anyway. And, those may seem like small tokens to you, but to the person who doesn’t have to buy bottled water as long as they live in your house, it’s a tiny miracle.

If your rental property is on a large piece of land, maximize the space.

Now that you’re a rental property owner, you have to think like an entrepreneur instead of a homeowner. If you have excess land that your tenants aren’t using or isn’t included in the lease, it’s incumbent upon you to see if you can profit from it some other way.

One way to use the vacant land on your property is to lease it out for gardening. Many small restaurants are going for the farm-to-fork touch, and if there are some in your area, they may be willing to pay a pretty penny for the rights to grow their produce on your land. Remember, all land has value, but it’s a matter of tapping into it. When you look at your rental property, don’t see it as a piece of property—see it as a business.

Diversify your investment portfolio.

Owning and running a rental property is a great way to make passive income. However, if you only have one property and one tenant, you can’t expect that to be enough for you to live on.

If you really want to be a full-time investor, you need to diversify your investment profile. One property isn’t going to cut it. Since you’re already into alternative investments, it would be worthwhile for you to check out the Yieldstreet alternative investment platform. They offer insights into what investments are trending and much more. Check out a Yieldstreet review online to see what other investors are saying about it.