After searching for weeks with the help of your real estate agent and finding the perfect property for a rental unit, you are ready to begin the rental process. To help you out, here are some questions you can ask yourself when you are ready to start the rental process as a landlord and take on this responsibility.
Do You Need a Property Manager?
After buying a rental house, you can start advertising for your property as a rental and showing it to prospective tenants. At this point, you may be spending all your free time in the evening and on the weekends handling the rental property, and taking calls from potential renters all hours of the day. When you already work a full-time job or already have a busy schedule with your own family, often the demands of a rental property can be too much to handle. As an option, you can hire a property manager to handle all these tasks for you.
A rental property manager will handle all the basics for you and even arrange for repairs to the property. You can set a spending limit with them so they call you if any expenses go over a certain amount or when repairs are needed on the property. Your manager will also make sure they collect rent and deliver a notice of late rent or handle an eviction if necessary. To help you prevent an eviction your rental property manager can thoroughly screen any new tenants before letting them move into your property. This is the best type of prevention to keep your rental property in a positive cash flow situation.
Do You Need a Business License?
Another question you need to answer when you are going into business as a rental property owner is if you need a business license to legally provide housing in the area. Depending on the location of your property and the city or parish it is located in, you may need to apply for and renew each year a valid business license.
You can apply for a business license at the local clerk's office and pay the associated fee. Some counties provide a landlord training class for a discount on your business license fee, so check with your local court office to find out. If you are not sure if a business license is a requirement in your area, check with the local courthouse. You might also ask your realtor who assisted you in its search and purchase. Often a real estate agent will have some experience in the rental market or have their own rental properties and will know the answer and exactly where you need to go to get one. If you need a business license and do not have one, you can get into some legal trouble and have to pay a large fine.
Share2 February 2020
Apartment living can be a trial sometimes. Even the best apartment complexes can have problems, such as noisy neighbors. I experienced this firsthand with my newest neighbors. Between their partying and trashy existence, I was ready to go crazy. Late one night when they were being particularly noisy, I started researching my rights as a tenant. I found out I did not have to live with their inconsiderate behavior. As a public service, I decided to help others through this blog with their neighbor problems. Whether you are dealing with a landlord that will not do any repairs or bad neighbors, I can help.