Landlord stress was never higher than during the Covid pandemic, leaving many property investors wondering if the stress was worth the money.
Coming out of the pandemic, landlords have gained more control over their properties. Stress is still a big part of the job, however, so it's important to find new ways to manage it.
In today's post, we'll tell you how to manage landlord stress with a few crucial tips. If you need relief from the daily grind of owning a rental property, keep reading and we'll help you find it.
Screen Your Tenants
Between October 2022 and November 2023, there were over 136,000 eviction filings in Virginia. Delinquent tenants are easily the biggest source of stress for landlords. If you've got a tenant who can't pay rent on time or actively damages your investment, it takes a major toll on your mental health.
The best way to deal with poor tenants is to take preventative measures so that you don't have them. Tenant screening is an important piece of the landlord puzzle.
It involves having potential tenants fill out applications, and then looking into their criminal and financial background. You may also speak with former landlords to understand how an applicant might act while living on your property. The result is that you'll have the best possible tenant in your unit.
Automate Everything
Whether you have great tenants or poor ones, maintaining positive tenant relations is a lot of work. You've got to collect rent from them each month and respond to their requests when they have concerns about your property.
This can get stressful, especially if you're not organized about tenant management. By using property management software, you can automate most of your landlord duties. For example, a tenant portal gives you and your tenant one place to communicate and send/collect rent.
Proactive Maintenance
Another very stressful part of being a landlord is dealing with unforeseen maintenance. It could be a broken appliance or new roof tiles. Whatever it is, if you aren't prepared to have it dealt with, you'll completely throw your property budget off.
The best way to avoid costly emergency repairs is to perform regular proactive maintenance on your property. Inspect your rentals regularly and make sure your tenants let you know when something's wrong in the unit.
Preventative maintenance greatly reduces the cost of being a property owner. Instead of paying a huge sum to cover an unforeseen cost, you can pay smaller amounts to have little issues dealt with as they arise.
Property Management for Landlords
These are a few tips that can help landlords avoid the most difficult sources of stress. There's nothing easy about being a landlord, but the less organized and proactive you are, the more stressful it'll be.
If you really want to avoid landlord stress, hiring a property manager is the answer. At PMI Loudon, we're Northern Virginia's top property management company, offering all of the services discussed here and more. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you avoid stress in the future.
