Avoid Trashed Rental Units

No landlord ever wants to have to deal with a wrecked rental unit.  It’s expensive and downright depressing.  If you lease property of any kind, though, there are things you can do to protect yourself.

1. Find good tenants

One of the best ways to ensure that you avoid the trauma of seeing your rental units trashed is to make sure that you locate tenants  who will treat the home, apartment or condominium you’re leasing as though they owned it. That means interviewing each person who looks at your property and then running careful background and credit checks on them.

2. Collect security deposits

The state of Texas has no set rate or formula to help you determine how much security deposit you should collect from a tenant. A good rule of thumb is typically one to two months’ rent or whatever it might cost you to do things like repaint walls, reinstall carpet and/or repair fixtures and appliances in the event of damage.

3. Keep a regular maintenance schedule

When you provide regular upkeep for your rental units, you not only ensure that your property looks and functions as it should, you also get a chance to see for yourself how your tenant is measuring up. If what he or she is doing–or not–poses a threat to health and safety or if there’s damage that could decrease the value of your property, then you can begin eviction proceedings.

At Herman Boswell, we understand that being a good landlord can be a time-consuming. That’s why we provide property management services you can count on. Our team of certified DFW real estate experts can help you take care of your investments so that they can take care of you. Let us be your partner in landlording success!