You may think it’s only the tenant who has a hard time paying the mortgage, but as a real estate investor or landlord, there may be times when it’s hard to pay the mortgage on your end as well. Here are some things you can do to avoid facing difficulty in paying your mortgage each month.
Keep your properties full. While it may sound overly simplified, this is the most obvious method for ensuring you’ve got rent money coming in each month to cover your property mortgage payments. Don’t allow yourself to get slack on advertising for new tenants. And don’t put off screening applicants or filling your properties because you get busy or overworked. Recognize filling your vacancies as a major aspect of your REI business success and deal with it quickly and efficiently every time.
Do your best to find quality tenants. While you want to keep your properties full, finding good quality tenants is key. By “good” it means they pay their rent on time, keep the property maintained and don’t abuse the lease. By using background and credit checks, you can find the best tenants available and thereby do what’s possible to keep your rental fees coming in regularly, which will help you pay the mortgage when it comes due.
Look for longterm tenants. Don’t assume that quality tenants will necessarily be longterm ones. Some good renters may know they can’t stay over a few months at most. They may be students or working a temporary job. They may just be living in an area waiting to move or retire somewhere else. Whatever the situation, opt for longterm renters when the choice is available. Doing so will make filling a vacancy at least a more infrequent possibility.
Keep the property well maintained. If you want good tenants, longterm tenants and tenants who pay their rent on time, do your part to keep them. Deal with maintenance issues quickly. Make repairs as necessary. Upgrade appliances or at least ensure the ones you provide are in good working order. Respond to your tenants’ calls quickly, or if you can’t be sure they know you’ll be unavailable for awhile.
Being a good landlord will go a long in way in developing lasting relationships with your tenants, which will in turn, help you keep them in your property longer. Often a tenant and landlord relationship can turn an average tenant into a great one simply because they want to keep that relationship intact.
In a tough economy, it’s important to do all you can to avoid facing the difficulty of paying the mortgage. That applies just as much to an REI professional as it does to the average renter. These simple tips can help as you work to develop lasting, longterm, rent paying tenants to keep your properties bringing in the income you need every month.
Is there help out there for people who have no credit and have a criminal record… How can a person like that find a place to live when 99% of all landlords require you to pass the background check?????
Absolutely! We aren’t all perfect. Everyone deserves housing and a second chance. Most of the time the best option here is for owner-financing. This is when the seller of a house finances the asking price rather than using a traditional bank loan. Most are properly underwritten and require income verification (or a signed statement from the buyer saying they can afford it), but credit isn’t as big a factor and criminal history isn’t a factor at all. Many people who earn wages under the table use this option because their tax returns don’t show a very high income.
It usually requires a significant down payment and carries a little higher interest rate. But, it’s a lot better than paying rent and never seeing that money again! The buyer builds instant equity and has a sense of ownership. And, the best part is that it will help build credit back and put the buyer on their way to securing a traditional loan in the future.