Auburn

1. Make sure your leases are legal.  If you make a mistake on the lease, you will find it more difficult to litigate if a tenant violates the terms.

2.  Screen your tenants with credit checks, criminal/civil background checks, prior unlawful detainers (evictions), and take the time to call references. It is better to take the time to investigate these items rather than rushing to get someone to fill the vacancy.  It can cause more time, money and problems later trying to get them out.  There are companies that will do this for you, but the ultimate decision is still yours.  For example, you may be able to overlook some things if they have good explanations, for example, for poor credit.  Some prospective tenants may have had to leave their homes recently due to not being able to afford their higher prior house payment.

3.  Be available to show the property to prospective tenants. In order to rent a place quickly, you must live nearby so that you can show it at the caller’s request. Show it to them as soon as possible within a day or two at the latest, since normally they need to secure a place within a week or so, and they need to make a decision as soon as possible.  Good renters will have no problem finding another place to rent, and will move on.

4.  Utilize free advertising.  Craigslist is very popular and is free advertising.  Prospective renters search by price and location, and in you ad you should list neighboring areas and parks to which your rental is near in order to expand your number of hits on your ad.

5.  If you are unable or do not want to do the above items yourself, hire a property management company to do the work for you.

Posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Questions and Answers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.