Tips on Managing Property

Tips on Managing Property

It is highly important to properly manage the rental property to avoid or at least minimize problems. Having a rental property to manage is quite exhausting, not to mention some legal issues that will occur in managing your properties. We have a saying, "prevention is better than cure". So we listed down some tips on managing your rental property to avoid legal issues in the future. 

Tip #1: Do not discriminate

Fair Housing Act is a law that prohibits discrimination in the renting, buying or financing of housing. It protects people from discrimination when they are renting. Landlords can't reject a prospective tenant from renting just because of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identification, source of income and presence of children. Smart Housing is the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Housing Opportunity compliant. We make sure and require that every landlords and property managers follow the Equal Housing Opportunity and Fair Housing Act.

Tip #2: Having a Landlord/Tenant written agreement

Always have a landlord/tenant agreement in writing. It is one of the most important aspects of managing your rental property. In this way you can state all the rules and regulations that you want to have and be observed by your prospective tenants, so just in case your tenant/s happen to forget or disobey one of your rules, you can easily show them the proof that you have a written agreement with them and that they must strictly follow it, just make sure they signed on it. Smart Lease, one of the products of Smart Housing can help you with that. Just put all the rules and regulations that you're implementing on Smart Lease and never worry of misplacing your contract as it is all in the web, so in case your residents misbehave, you can present to them the written agreement that they signed on.

Tip #3: Maintenance request

Everyone has the right to a safe and comfortable habitable place. When tenants ask for a maintenance request, because of the need to repair something, the landlord needs to comply, failure to do so, and an injury occurs because the landlord did not respond or act to the maintenance request, the landlord can be sued for compensation. With Smart Housing, we have the maintenance request tab in every landlords and property managers dashboard, so they can easily see all the maintenance requests that their residents/tenants have. Once there is a request, it will pop to their 'maintenance' tab, and they can address the issues immediately.

Tip #4: Regular Inspection of the Property

Inspection of the property on a regular basis can help make it on a tip-top condition and more likely to avoid some unwanted incidents. Smart Housing can help you with that. We use inspections to look for lease violations, and ensure there isn’t any deferred damage threatening the condition of your investment. We schedule inspections twice a year, drive by your property regularly, we also offer additional inspections if you request it.

Tip #5: Notify your tenant

Always, at all times notify your tenant first, before you enter a rental unit. Some states have guidelines when it comes to entering a rental unit. A landlord can only enter without prior notice from the tenant/s if it's an emergency, but if not, they should have a written or verbal notice when entering. Resident Portal is one of the features of Smart Housing. Through this, landlords and property managers can inform and notify their tenant prior to entering their rented unit.