Investment Owner Resolutions for the New Year

How is your list of new year’s resolutions coming? The new year is an excellent opportunity to look to the future and consider ways to improve your rental business. Here are a few areas to focus on while enhancing your operation in 2023.

Stay on Top of New Rules and Legislation

Landlords across the country had to contend with a wave of pandemic-related legislation over the past few years. Though many of those requirements have loosened, the legal landscape for property managers will always have its obstacles. In the new year, landlords should remain committed to staying educated and updated on rental property legislation.

Use More Social Media

In our personal lives, we rarely need to aim to spend more time on social media. But when it comes to your business, social media can often feel like a tiresome slog. Maintaining a brand presence takes a lot of work, especially as platforms continue to change–with the upheaval on Twitter, it’s hard to say whether the majority of companies will migrate to a different platform. Sites such as Instagram and TikTok are great ways to promote your rental properties, but they also take a lot of work to get quality photos and videos. At the end of the day, social media is a valuable tool to give people a free and appealing insight into your rental properties–but you have to put in the effort to make it worthwhile.

Continue to Embrace Cutting-Edge Technologies

In addition to new legislation, the pandemic also created a dramatic shift in many of the technologies that prospective tenants come to expect when looking for a new rental. Video and online tours became hugely popular due to social distancing, but property managers quickly realized that they’re a convenient tool for people who live out of state or don’t have the time to tour a unit in person. Other automated property management tools for bill paying and maintenance requests make things easier for landlords and tenants. If you aren’t already utilizing some of these tools, make a New Year’s resolution to start. 

Aim to Increase Your ROI

Your property’s return on investment, or ROI, is one of the most important considerations for any landlord. Having a detailed accounting of your properties’ income and expenses is the first crucial step to ensuring your finances are on track. Once you’ve calculated your ROI for the previous year, you’ll want to look at the ways in which you can improve that number for the year to come. The key to increasing your ROI over the next year is to create a detailed plan. If your ROI is less than eight percent, your rental may be struggling. 

Keep up With Regular Maintenance

Maintenance can quickly become the bane of any DIY landlord, but it’s also one of the most critical aspects of property management. Taking care of your tenants’ maintenance requests as quickly as possible is key to ensuring that your tenants stay happy. Aiming to address their requests within 48 hours is a great standard. In addition, staying on top of seasonal maintenance will ensure that you don’t end up with any nasty surprises or expensive repairs resulting from a downed tree limb or a flooded basement. Finding the right vendors to work with on both regular and large-scale maintenance is a significant step to take this new year.

Avoid Tenant Turnover

Turnover and vacancies can take a considerable toll on a rental business. Every day that your rental is vacant is a day when you aren’t making an income off that property. In addition, the effort of listing, advertising, and sprucing up a rental between tenants is time-consuming and costly. That’s why it’s far better to make an effort to retain your tenants for as long as possible. If you’re struggling to find quality long-term tenants, it may be worthwhile to look at a list of what tenants are looking for in their rental properties and work on better meeting those needs. 

Take Some Time for Yourself

Managing a rental property can be challenging. It’s far too easy to sink all your free time into your rental business and forget to leave any extra for yourself and your family. Most people who start a rental business do so with the intent of making some additional income on the side, rather than letting it become the main focus of their daily schedule. It’s essential to make sure you’re balancing the needs of your rental business with your own personal time. Consider taking some time just for yourself to relax and stop worrying about running your rental. And if you feel like you need a more extended break from the duties of running a rental, a property manager like Rent Portland Homes by Darla Andrew can help.

A Property Manager Makes Owning a Rental Easy

We know that managing a rental is a tough job. With the recent ups and downs of the rental market, it’s hard to know what the future will bring. As a landlord in the Portland area, you don’t want to spend all your time worrying about legislation, maintenance, and finding the best tenants; ideally, you just want your rental to run smoothly with as little fuss as possible. Rent Portland Homes by Darla Andrew is proud to make that dream a reality for many Portland landlords.

We help property owners in our area manage their rentals at the highest standard. From making solid, actionable plans to improve your ROI and ensuring that your tenants never have to wait to get their maintenance requests fulfilled, we make sure that both our clients and our tenants are happy with our services. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you make the most of your rental property while you get some time to relax, call or text at (503) 515-3170 any time or reach out through our website’s contact form.