It's important to remember, turnover of rental property is expensive and can be considered more expensive if you welcomed a resident into your property that doesn't care for your asset over time.
While this lesson 8 works well with listening to lesson 4 a second time, it is so important to reiterate that the strength of your property management systems rests heavily on your ability to screen your tenant applicants well and making sure that you are obtaining a qualified resident who understands the basics of home maintenance.
This starts with qualifying your tenant-applicant prior to them even seeing the vacancy. These prequalification questions include:
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Are they looking to move within the next 45 days?
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Do they have pets?
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What does their credit situation look like? Good, fair, poor?
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What is the total family NET monthly income?
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Is there any criminal background?
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Are there any judgments or evictions to be considered with?
Asking this set of questions prior to move in, will assist you in understanding whether you should even consider showing the property to the prospective resident.
After following the lesson 4 gameplan in showing your property, your tenant-applicant may apply for your rental property. You will need to make sure your rental application process will adhere to Fair Housing guidelines. Then, you may discriminate your applicants based upon the following:
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Income levels.
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Credit score.
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Criminal background (depending upon State and local municipality).
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Eviction history (depending upon State and local municipality).
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Pets.
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Smoking.
While these are most common when it comes to qualifying or disqualifying a resident, here is our general list of written qualifications for our residents:
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Net income of 3x the rent amount.
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Credit score of 625+ as a Transunion score.
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Felonies of 3rd, 2nd, or 1st degree require court paperwork before consideration.
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No evictions on record.
Pets and smoking depend upon the property, and the type of tenant you would like to attract. Now, after you have assessed the resident applicant and have a fully signed lease, it's time to set expectations as previously discussed.
So much of creating a magical resident experience over the occupancy is judged upon how responsive your property management systems are to the resident and how your systems are perceived. Are they slow and invasive for the resident? Are you requesting feedback from the resident regarding what can be done to improve the property or tenant experience?
Thus, surveys are fantastic, but should not be considered required or be conducted more than 1-2 times per year. The endgoal is to maintain occupancy, have property maintained properly, and to create resident that raves about your property management systems to their friends and family.
So, when you get that positive tenant experience, have a template email setup that directs the resident to leave your business a positive review on the websites you find the most effective. Try to obtain a video testimonial that the resident can email to you and can be added to your website. The point is...positive resident experiences should be documented and celebrated to build your reputation in your local community.
If you obtain negative feedback, this is a wonderful opportunity to assess why this feedback was received and what needs to be changed in your property management systems that can be improved. It's this feedback that holds your systems accountable and should be reflected upon continuously as a source of improvement and not pure criticism.
This concludes lesson 8. In our final lesson 9, we will discuss using your property management systems to fulfill your exit strategy.
