How To Manage Property Remotely As A Long Distance Landlord

Being a landlord means being in a career that everybody and their grandmother has a strong opinion about. While these opinionated and well-meaning folks may not have any experience actually renting out properties, nearly everyone has an idea of what it means to be a landlord and how to do the job properly.

When thinking about how to manage property remotely in order to keep your family home, rent out a vacation property, or otherwise diversify your life, you have to consider whether or not you truly want to become a long distance landlord.

Even for those that have years of experience in the real estate industry, dealing with the challenges of being a landlord from a distance can make them even more complex. Today, we'll discuss some of the problems you may have to solve while managing rental property long distance so you can approach them armed with the proper knowledge and foresight needed to solve them efficiently.

When Is Long Distance Management The Right Choice?

Before we delve into the deeper details of how to manage your property remotely, you need to decide if you truly want to become a long distance landlord or not.

There are a few common situations that lead someone to consider becoming a long distance landlord. But is becoming a landlord the right choice in all of these cases? Let's discuss the situations that might lead to long distance management becoming a necessity.

1. Temporary Move

Sometimes, you need to relocate to a new city for a few years, but you don't want to give up your property back at home. Becoming a landlord at a distance for this temporary period of time is a good way to manage properties in two different locations.

2. Inherited Property

Often, long distance landlords get their start when they inherit property from a relative that passed in another part of the state or country. Rather than try to sell the property and be done with it, many see the potential to make additional income and choose to become a landlord instead. Your success in this situation depends largely on the property condition, size, and location.

3. Vacation Rental

Sometimes, people buy vacation homes with the intent to rent it out when they are not vacationing. This effectively makes them into long distance landlords, and is another good reason to start renting out a property.

4. Investment Potential

Finally, some people get into the business of managing properties from a distance specifically for the investment potential. If you are someone with a strict attention to detail who can plan thoroughly, this is a great way to make money from the hottest realty markets around the world.

Ultimately, whether or not managing long distance properties is right for you will depend on the specific situation you are dealing with. Managing properties isn't for everyone, so you want to be sure that you seriously consider the pros and cons of your situation to ensure that you are making the right choice before you commit to this line of work.

Screening Tenants From Afar

The main thing that landlords who will be managing properties from far away need to remember is that their choice of tenant is the key to their success. If you choose tenants who are less than ideal or will not respect your property, you are going to lose money in the long run. If you choose tenants that aren't going to pay rent at all or on time, you are going to lose money. When you are giving up local control of a property to another party, you need to become quite picky with your screening process to thoroughly protect your investment.

However, choosing the right tenants isn't always easy. Even though there are many common warning signs that you can look out for when you are looking through rental applications, you may not always notice these risks.

The best way to ensure you are getting the right tenants for your property is to use a high-quality tenant screening service to help you find the perfect tenant for each of your properties. With the help of a screening service, you can easily find applicants that match your very specific requirements with ease.

Great, trustworthy tenants are more likely to take good care of your property and report any potential problems to you quickly, so take all the time you need to find the best of the best tenants out there to rent to.

Warning!

Even though you want to make sure you are thoroughly screening all rental applicants, be sure that you do not violate any part of the Fair Housing Act laws when choosing your tenants. It is illegal to consider religion, race, familial status, nationality, and a number of other factors when choosing tenants, so make sure that they are not part of your selection criteria. Be sure to check state and local laws, as well, for any additional protected classes.

Tips About Long Distance Management

If you're already a landlord, becoming a long distance landlord means that you will simply need to adapt your current management tactics to function properly and smoothly while you are not in the immediate area. These tips can help you do just that.

If you have never been a landlord before, these tips will help you start to shape a more complete vision of what it means to be a landlord, from a distance or locally.

1: Have Someone Nearby On Call

Whether you choose to hire a local property management service to check up on the property or you have a dependable friend in the area that can do the occasional drive by, you will want to have someone that you trust nearby the property on call in case of emergency situations. They can give you peace of mind regarding the property's status, at the very least externally.

2: Lock Down Your Lease

The lease is one of the most important parts of the rental process no matter where you are renting your property. In long distance situations, an iron-clad lease will help prevent any back-and-forth that can be compounded by the communication issues associated with long distance relationships. A solid lease, with clearly defined rules and stipulations along with a fair security deposit will do wonders for keeping your property properly maintained from far away.

3: Automate Payments

To make the process of collecting payments more simple than ever before, utilize a service such as CreditLink to set up a system that tenants can log in to in order to pay their rent each month. With this type of system, you will not need to worry about snail mail or bounced checks any longer. Property Management software often allows you to send automatic rent reminders and set up late fees for your tenants, ensuring that you will always have your rent on time.

You Can Manage From Afar

No matter where in the country you want to become a landlord, you are capable of doing it. Even if you don't plan to live in the area, there are many ways to go about managing rental properties long distance. The key is that you are very thorough and complete in all of your management tasks.

Focus on:

1. Choosing the right tenants through thorough and fair screening
2. Solidifying your lease
3. Getting local help when necessary
4. Setting up automatic payments

You'll be able to have a very successful business managing long distance rental properties from coast to coast!