So, let me set the background. The Section 8 tenant, let’s call her Tina, has been renting a nice 4 bed/2 bath home from us in Tampa. She has been with us about 4 months.

1) Do Not Say the Neighborhood is Safe or a Low Crime Area Our Tampa property management company cannot guarantee the neighborhood is safe or low on crime, no one can do this. If something terrible happens to the tenant, they could sue you and hold you liable for making false claims.

Tenant retention provides a huge advantage to any Tampa property management company whom devotes the time and energy. You save your property owner’s a ton of money by eliminating expensive costs getting the unit rent ready again. Painting, cleaning, yard work, and minor carpentry repairs can easily run $1000-$2000 everytime a tenant moves out.

Tenants do not suddenly become “tenants from hell” to a property management company. There is a pattern of behavior over their entire adult life that will show up in a thorough background check. A Tampa Property Management company just has to be able to identify the signs of a potential “dead-beat tenant” and disqualify their application. Having the skill to recognize this type of tenant is perhaps one of the most important a property manager will ever develop.

Setting up meetings with potential renters can be an aggravating experience. They are often late; sometimes they don’t bother to come at all. How many beautiful weekends have you wasted waiting for Prospective Tenants, who never bothered to show up?

There comes a time in Tampa property management when enough is enough, and you have to file an eviction on a tenant. The tenant might owe you 1 or 2 months worth of rent. You have called repeatedly, given a 3 day notice, and even talked to them in person on several occasions. Sometimes, a tenant is simply unable or unwilling to pay no matter what they promise or tell you. It is important to not let this tug of war stretch on for months.

1) Clean the rental from top to bottom. A Tampa property management company must ensure each rental looks sparkling clean especially in the kitchen and bathrooms. Women typically decide to rent a place or not based on cleanliness and these areas are extremely important to them. Make sure the stove pans are new, there is no grime inside the cabinets, and the inside of the refrigerator is spotless. You are trying to make a strong first impression.

Learning how to properly manage rental properties takes study, practice, and trial an error. In the beginning there will be a lot of “error.” However, here is a quick and dirty list of things you need to have done to get started.

You can buy these Walk-Through Checklists online or through companies that service the Tampa property management industry. This particular checklist gives tenants peace of mind when they move into your rental property. If there are scratches on the kitchen countertop or chipped linoleum in the bathroom, the tenant can write this down on the checklist. Therefore when they move-out, they know they will not be charged for those items.

In our Tampa property management company, we typically test out 3 to 4 different tradesmen to find one who is reliable and does the job right. The question is, how do you find the right vendor?