4 Ways to Increase Your Rental Profit

May 20, 2015

In order to increase your rental profit, you have to be a great landlord. While having great tenant plays a major role in your rental profit, there are things that you, as a landlord, can do too. With a great tenant and a great plan you can get a lot out of your rental properties. Today I’m going to cover four different ways you can start decreasing your outgo and increasing your income to increase your rental profit!

Decrease Vacancy

Vacancy is the number one killer of profit on rental properties. Every day that you don’t have a tenant in your rental you are losing money. Decreasing your vacancy is the fastest way to increase your rental profit. There are two easy ways to see this through.

Decrease your vacancy by rehabbing your rentals the right way. Just like when flipping and selling a house, always have the best house on the market. Take the extra time to make sure that your house has all of the features included in other houses in the same market, and then add a few more. Whether it is extra tiling or central air, take the time to set your house apart from the competition.

Customer service is something that is valued very highly in today’s society. As a landlord, make yourself as available as possible for your tenants. If you can’t be as available as you want, have a plan in place to provide your tenants with above and beyond customer service. Consider hiring a property manager or having a repair crew contact list available for your tenants.

Increase Turnover Speed

As a landlord, you have to look at the status of your properties on a day to day basis. Tenants come and go. It’s the reality of being a landlord. Your ability to quickly increase your turnover speed can greatly increase your rental profit by eliminating vacancy. The minute you have a tenant move out of your property, you need to have a rehab plan in place. Walk your property a week in advance of your tenants leaving. This will give you more than enough time to get your rehab team in place and get your house rent ready in the following days.

Start your marketing early. The earlier you can get exposure to your rental property the faster you can start screening tenants. Put out ads that have the date that the rental will be available. The goal is to have a new tenant ready to move in by the time your rental rehab is done.

Always Charge Late Fees

Never wave late fees. This is especially important when you first begin renting to a new tenant. If you wave a late fee one time, chances are it’ll be expected of you the next time the rent is late. You literally cannot afford to be taken advantage of. Collect your late fees and see your rental profit increase.

Systematically Increase Rent

You should always be looking at increasing your rent. Increasing your rent is part of being a profitable landlord. Times change, and your rent should change to show that. Look at increasing your rent on a yearly basis. Do a little research on the economy in the areas that you rent in and figure out what a fair price would be.

Of course you’ll probably run into situations where you have a long time tenant who lives in your property from year to year. If you want to increase your rental profit, you have to raise your rent. You can be a little more flexible with reliable tenants, but always increase your rent.