We current manage about 8 duplexes located on a small dead-in street. The challenge develops because of people cutting through our property, walking behind the buildings into a vacate lot that ends at the next street over. There is a steady stream of undesirable people using this route as a way to save time getting to the next street.
Professional workers typically pay the rent on time, have decent credit, and take care of your rental property with greater pride than the other groups. You will also find they can be fairly demanding about repairs. However, they do tend to stay put for awhile and make fairly good tenants. You do not have to be on their case all the time about past due rent or picking up trash in the yard.
Blue collar tenants are your bread and butter working class folks. They work in construction, retail, and industries of all shapes and sizes. They are usually high school graduates with little or no college experience. Often they work with their hands and are in the field as opposed to behind a desk
Low Income/Section 8 Tenants are without a doubt the most time consuming and frustrating of the three tenant groups. These people are broke and are always struggling to make ends meet. Collecting rent is a hassle. If you are dealing with 10 Lower Income Tenants, you will be chasing money from 7 of them. This does not mean you will not receive your rent. It just usually means that most of them will pay late.
When competing for tenants in your rental market, your Tampa property management company should aggressively pursue different marketing strategies. An excellent strategy is offering a no application fee for all applicants.
This tip will help a Tampa property management company rent houses 30-50% faster. Once you have completed the application process and approved a tenant, you now need to get the security deposit and lease signed. This presents an opportunity if you move fast.
The single biggest mistake a new person makes at a Tampa property management company is skipping the application process for a prospective tenant. First of all, you must keep extra application forms in your glove box in case you run out. Second you should put a stack of applications in every vacant rental. Place half of them in the kitchen cabinets because some new applicants will steal the ones on the countertop so no one else will rent the house. Put the other half on the kitchen counter tops. You should also save your application to your computer in a format that you can easily email to prospects.
Okay, when the inevitable eviction arises, you should make a point of checking your rental to make sure the tenant is still living there. Hopefully, you have given the proper 3 day notice, as the property manager, the day after the rent was due. After the three day notice, you should be calling your tenant to find out why they haven’t paid rent. Make sure you do not just make one call and stop. If people are late with rent, they are usually embarrassed and reluctant to call back. Be polite and firm and leave 3 messages over a few days. If they normally are late, I often extend the eviction date to the 15th of the month or later
Believe or not, half the tenants will pay you rent to keep the eviction from going through. Difficult tenant are like children and often must test you before they believe you’re serious about what you say. You simply have to file an eviction before they get the point that rent is due and must be paid on time (or at least paid reasonably late with a late fee). Nothing makes your point stronger than having the sheriff post the eviction notice on their door.
Owners of the rental properties we manage are always concerned about our company inspecting their houses to make sure everything is okay and ensuring the tenants are not trashing it. By tackling this concern head on, we convince more new owners to choose us as their Tampa property management company. Not to mention, this helps us retain existing clients.
