Using a thorough screening process helps property investors minimize the potential of placing bad residents in your rentals, but sometimes difficult residents happen anyway. What can property owners do when a challenging resident threatens to ruin your idea of passive rental property income?
Owning Rent Estate™ is an excellent way to build your long-term wealth—but you can't do it without renters! Unfortunately, you won't get along with everyone who lives in your Virginia Beach property. Whether it's a personality conflict, they have some quirks that "irk" you, or they can't seem to follow all of the rules in your lease agreement, a professional approach to dealing with your more troublesome residents helps boost your income—and protects your business from lawsuits!
Our Rent Estate™ Advisors have dealt with plenty of challenging renters in our years of managing rental properties! Here are some of our best tips as an expert in property management Virginia Beach investors can use to deal with difficult residents.
Foreword: While we are experts in Virginia Beach property management, this blog is not legal counsel. If you need live support, get in touch with the Rent Estate™ Advisors at Renters Warehouse Hampton Roads!
Take a Deep Breathe and Stay Calm
One of the worst things you can do is lose your cool when dealing with difficult renters. Even if they frustrate you with every interaction, it's critical to leave emotions out of your communications and procedures when managing residents.
Before responding or reaching out to work through an issue:
- Stay calm, and take a deep breath
- Listen to what your resident has to say
- Refer to the lease to guide your conversations and actions
- Think through what you need to say in your email or phone call as a response.
Most residents will not respond well when you assess a penalty for late rental payments or other lease violations. Stay firm and stick to the procedures outlined in the lease, but don't engage in back and forth that strays from the necessary points of the conversation or action. Anything that can be interpreted as escalation can turn into a hostile situation and lead to further challenges.
If you find that you're struggling to distance yourself professionally, bringing in property management, Virginia Beach investors, can provide you with the buffer you need to keep your cool in tense situations.
Be Friendly, but Not "Friends"
It's essential to maintain a friendly—yet professional—relationship with your residents. However, pursuing friendships with residents (or renting to family or friends) can lead to difficult resident interactions and situations. Successful property investors can effectively balance between positive interactions without slipping into trying to be friends with renters.
- Rule enforcement is more effective when you have a good rapport with residents while maintaining a professional distance of owner-resident relationships.
- When residents see you as their "friend," they can take advantage of you and the rules of your property. Remember: you are the property owner! You're not their friend.
- Keep professional boundaries to help maintain your role and avoid any confusion with residents.
Document Everything
Running an efficient (and profitable) rental property business requires excellent documentation. When you have a record of communications and requests from renters, you also have the backup you need when dealing with challenging renters.
Keeping good records helps property investors:
- Have a ledger of rental payments and fee collections
- Document the timing of a maintenance request and your efforts to resolve the issue
- Gives you evidence of communications and efforts to remind renters of late payments or rule violations.
If you have more than one property and multiple residents, you can't afford not to have a good tracking and documentation system for your business. Using a ticketing system makes it easy to track maintenance requests and mark them complete when finished.
Know There Will Always Be Bad Renters
We hate to be the bearer of bad news. However, as professional providers of property management, Virginia Beach investors, we can tell you that there will always be bad renters. Some people are simply difficult to deal with in general. In other cases, so-called "Serial Squatters" purposely look for trouble and cause problems with property owners.
There's no way to get around managing residents if you want a successful rental property business. However, as the property owner, you don't have to be the one to deal with residents—good or bad!
- Hiring a property manager means you never have to deal with your renters.
- The best full-service property management handles everything, from the leasing process to lease enforcement and managing renters.
- Choosing property management gives you the distance from the "people" part of your properties while you still collect the income!
- Let a property manager be your buffer while you enjoy the returns from your investments.
Renters Warehouse Handles All of Your Residents
The good, the bad, and the "somewhere-in-between" residents are not your responsibility when you work with the professionals at Renters Warehouse Hampton Roads! We build expert working relationships with your renters to make sure you get the most out of your investments.
Our Professional Landlords have a goal with every good resident to build lasting relationships that encourages renewals. When we deal with difficult residents, we apply our professional experience to maintain a positive situation while enforcing the rules in the lease agreement. No matter the resident, we protect the bottom lines for our Virginia Beach property investors!
Now that you realize the importance of a property management partner, you're probably wondering who might be the best fit for your portfolio. Thankfully, we provide free resources for investors to help them on their journey to financial freedom! Start by downloading our Guide to Finding the Best Property Manager in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to get tips on how to find your ideal property management provider!
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