How to Save Money with Do It Yourself Property Management

  

If you’re a landlord looking collect rent online and to increase your return on your property, why not consider managing the property yourself? Yes, it involves additional time, but you can make substantially more on your investment with do-it-yourself property management. Now, if you’re okay with hiring a management company, and giving a portion of your profits for this service – by all means, go ahead. But, we’re here to share a few key ways you can make more money as a landlord by being handy, and using a few simple and inexpensive tools.

Okay, you’ve made the decision to try managing your rental property on your own, what’s next?

1.                 Finding and screening tenants. Don’t you need a broad-spectrum software tool to do this? Isn’t this costly? Not necessarily. It’s easy and free to upload high-quality photos of your property to Zillow Rental Manager or Craigslist.Add an enticing description, including important details about the location, size, features, and expenses. This saves you time in taking calls or emails from potential renters who don’t have enough details from your on-line advertisement.

2.                 Tenant Applications.When a potential tenant applies to rent your property, screening the application is also something you can do yourself. Some sites offer pay per applicant criminal history checks. With a variety of options, you can pay for the level of screening you need. Many landlords charge an application fee to cover the cost of screening their tenants, making the cost transferrable to the applicant.  To reduce the expense involved for potential applicants, you can ask them to provide their own credit report, versus paying for this service. This saves the tenant money, and saves you time.

3.                 Rent Payments. By far, the easiest and quickest way for you to manage tenant payments is to use landlord software to collect rent online. This is a huge time saver for do-it-yourself landlords. By using landlord software, such as Schedule My Rent, for electronic rent collection, you save time in receiving, depositing, and tracking paper checks. No driving to the PO box to pick up mail, then to the bank to deposit checks or money orders. Rent payments are automatically deposited into your account on the date of your choice. Tenants also love this! They feel confident that their payments are on time, and they even receive a confirmation of payment. Schedule My Rent provides other time saving options, such as splitting rent between roommates, rent payment reminders and fees for late rent payments.  With Schedule My Rent, you are able to easily and automatically communicate with your tenants for all payment transactions.https://www.schedulemyrent.com

 

4.                 Do-It-Yourself Repairs. Many home or apartment repairs are minor. These include unclogging a toilet, sealing a bathtub or repairing a window screen. When you get a call from a tenant to repair something at your property, consider fixing it yourself. Especially as some service calls for just coming to your property, may set you back $75 or more. If it turns out the repair is minor, you may wish you had tried to fix it yourself.  Many online sources exist to show you how to make minor repairs, such as HomeRepairTutor.com or YouTube. However, if you find the repair is substantial, it may be time to call in the experts.

5.                 Showing Optimally. With most leases, tenants are required to provide 30 days notice prior to vacating their house or apartment. In order to minimize the time the apartment is vacant, and therefore, not making you money, build a clause into your lease to allow you to show the apartment before the current tenant has moved out.  With this agreement in place, and with prior notice to your current tenant, showing the property while occupied can work in your favor.

While employing a property management company can save you time, this will eat into your profit margin. Property managers typically charge up to 10% monthly fees for their services. Alternatively, by managing your property yourself, you can save money in several areas – allowing you to pocket the additional income. You can also save money with do-it-yourself repairs and with time saving tools such as Schedule My Rent.