Investing in real estate is a long-term wealth strategy—but without the right protections, your long-game strategy could get cut short. We’ve talked about protecting your investments with the right types of insurance coverage. Investors must also protect their properties from the inside out!
Choosing the right people to live in your Alamo Heights rentals is a critical way to keep your properties and income safe. While an empty property can be a costly short-term problem, the wrong residents can often become a more expensive, lengthy issue to resolve.
Do you have a successful renter screening process? Without one, investors can’t know if the next new resident is a good choice—or a problem waiting to happen. To protect your investments from bad renters, follow this advice from the experts in Alamo Heights property management!
A quick foreword: This article is not intended as a substitute for legal advice. If you’re facing a challenge that requires a competent attorney or expert property management skills, Reach out to Real Property Management Campanas!
Bad Residents Damage Your Income
To be a successful property investor, you need (at least) two critical ingredients: a well-maintained property and excellent residents.
Bad renters are never better than an empty property! A poorly-maintained property won’t attract the right renters, and dealing with bad renters can perpetuate the issue of a property in need of better upkeep. In tough times—or when dealing with an ongoing vacancy—it’s tempting to settle for an “ok” renter. However, settling for a renter that doesn’t meet your criteria or pass a background screening is a significant risk.
Choosing anything other than a top-quality resident is equal to (literally) placing problems in your Alamo Heights property! Bad renters:
- Cause property damage
- Don’t pay the rent
- Are difficult to remove after they move in.
Property investors lose money when renters don’t pay the rent and damage rentals. Plus, the eviction process can be a lengthy, expensive process. If you’re not sure that you’re choosing the best residents, professional Alamo Heights property management can help take the mystery out of your renter selection process.
Screening Protects Your Investments
The only way to identify risky renters versus your best residents is to maintain a thorough screening process with every applicant.
- “Serial Squatters” know how to manipulate their way into your property.
- They understand what to put on an application to makes them seem like a good choice as your next renter.
- Without digging beneath the information on an application, you could unknowingly place a bad renter—even though they look good on paper.
Screening helps property owners choose residents who pay the rent (on time) and take good care of your Alamo Heights rental properties. When investors don’t have to spend time chasing down rental payments or spend money on repairs due to malicious damage, they make more money!
Screening Protects Your Business From Lawsuits
Choosing better residents is only one of the ways investors can protect their investments with a thorough screening process. Following a legal process also helps keep you safe from lawsuits and fair housing law violations. Selecting your residents must follow the law or property investors risk losing their right to operate a rental property business.
What does it mean to follow the law? In general terms:
- Property owners can be choosy about who they place in their rental properties.
- However, owners cannot exclude a potential renter based on race, religion, sex, disability, or other criteria.
Understanding the law can be tricky—and keeping up with changes to the law can become overwhelming for property investors who want to find better quality residents to protect properties and income.
Property Management Is THE Best Property Protection!
It’s not enough to “hope” you choose good renters. Successful property investors need to know their rentals are in good hands with the best residents and property management.
Insurance protects your investments if something goes wrong, and it’s critical to have the right coverage. However, preventing a loss of rental income and property damage by choosing the best renters is also essential to building a successful, long-term investment wealth strategy.
When you choose professional Alamo Heights property management services, you put your rentals in expert hands for the best protection against anything that could go wrong. Your property manager:
- Helps you set the legal criteria for your ideal residents
- Has a thorough, legal screening process to find the best renters
- Is an expert at minimizing vacancies and loss of rental income
- Follows the laws when choosing your next renter
- Handles problem residents to legally remove them if needed.
While an excellent screening process and a professional property manager are the best ways to prevent problem renters from living in your properties, sometimes, bad renters happen. When you choose the right property manager, a bad resident won’t have a lasting impact on your investments!
Choose Alamo Heights Property Management
Minimizing risk helps you make more money! With the right Alamo Heights property partner, you have an excellent screening process to protect your investments from bad residents.
Real Property Management Campanas is the best choice for investors in Alamo Heights. With our local experience and years of industry expertise, we help property owners find the best residents while protecting their investment property business. If you’re ready to minimize the risk to your investments, we’re here for you!
If you are interested in having your property managed by Real Property Management Campanas, have more questions, or just want to speak to one of our team members, then contact us online or call us directly at (210) 314-1039 today!