Lior Babazara Shares Tips to Be a Successful Real Estate Rental Investor
It’s surely a great idea if you want to own a property and rent it out later to have a steady stream of monthly income. However, there are certain things that you have to be careful about, which a lot of new landlords completely forget. Lior Babazara, a seasoned investor of the real estate industry, says that such mistakes land new landlords in a situation where their rental properties start generating loss for them.
How can you generate income from a property and still be in loss? Lior Babazara has the right answers, as he believes there are certain mistakes that must be avoided to become a successful landlord. Here are his tips.
Don’t Ignore Maintenance Issues
As soon as you are reported a maintenance issue, you have to make sure you start working on it. Don’t delay your action because it is going to cost you more than you could imagine. Firstly, if it is a plumbing or wiring issue, it will only get worse with time. In a few months, you will be spending thousands of dollars on an issue that you could have had fixed within a few hundred dollars. The bigger issue is that when you don’t pay attention to such issues, your tenants start having second thoughts. If it’s a structural problem, your tenants aren’t supposed pay for it.
You have to be the one to step forward and make sure that you get everything fixed. Don’t forget that plumbing and wiring issues can be detrimental. A pipeline leakage in the walls could result in mold and mildew buildup, which can result in deteriorating health issues for your tenants. In other words, you will lose the tenant and your monthly income.
Screen Every Tenant Beforehand
“You hear people say that you can’t judge a book by its cover. That’s true, but in both ways. You don’t form a negative opinion of someone based on their looks just as you don’t form a positive opinion. In other words, you have to make sure that you screen every tenant,” explains Lior Babazara. According to him, most landlords make the mistake of letting tenants in without proper check because they just want their property to be occupied as soon as possible. In other words, they want to make money and asking for screening sounds like a reason for a tenant to consider other options.
Well, if your potential renter is considering other options only because you asked for screening, what message does that send you? Doesn’t that make you feel uncomfortable about them? You can’t let your house to someone who starts performing illegal activities on your premises. You have to know how their relationship has been with past landlords. You also have to know their creditworthiness in addition to the status of their current job.
Don’t Forget about Vacancies
You built a beautiful house with multiple units and it was instantly occupied. You were happy that you got the tenants sooner than you wanted. Now, you are depending on this income to pay mortgage on the house, for your insurance, and may other expenses. Well, did you think about tenants leaving the house? Do you think your tenants will keep living in the house forever? That’s not true and that’s where the problem starts.
You have to know that tenants will keep coming and going with time. When your property isn’t occupied, guess who will have to bear the insurance and mortgage costs? According to Lior Babazara, you must have some backup with the assumption that your property will be vacant 3 months every year.
Final Thoughts
It sounds great when you think about having multiple units generating you a great monthly income. However, if you don’t pay attention to issues like these, your investment isn’t going to give you the results that you expect. So, make sure you hear the advice of the experts and become a responsible landlord from the day one of your investment.