March 19, 2024

5 Ways To Make The Most Out of Your Rental Properties

The conventional real estate investment strategy
The conventional real estate investment strategy is to buy and hold. However, rather than continually acquiring more and more properties, it is time for you to take a step back and think about smarter ways to make more money.

Often, this is by focusing on what you already have in your investment portfolio.

By making the most of what you have, you are maximizing returns for all the investments you own, using them to work to their full potential.

1. Decrease Vacancy

In the rental market, such as house for rent in Seremban, it is ideal if you have a long-term tenant to minimize turnover. Not only does this help you build a good rapport with your tenant, it also helps decrease the stress you will face when having to deal and screen new prospective tenants.

In any event of a vacancy in your rental property, be proactive and look for new tenants. As long as there is demand in your area, there will usually be immediate interest in your property. You can thus line up a new tenant to move in on the coattails of the old one.

Post new advertisements the minute you learn that your tenant does not wish to continue the lease. There is usually a 1-month clause where your tenant needs inform you of their intention to continue the lease. This gives you at least a month’s timeframe to find a replacement tenant.

You might think that an area with lower demand will face a shortage of tenants. That may be true, but every property in any area will have a solid demand as long as it is appropriate for the price.

If your rental property has consistently high vacancies, you might be the cause of it yourself, in which case you will need to rethink your price points.

Each month of vacancy will cost you potential revenue, so in essence you will be better off renting at a lower price point, rather than waiting for a tenant to pay for your original price point.

If the property itself does not possess any characteristic or trait that sets it apart from everything else in the area, such as a prime location or a state-of- the-art kitchen, you can only give it more appeal by providing the best value in terms of price point for the property.

2. Minimize Turnover

Tenant Turnover

Tenant turnover will cost money, period. Costs associated with turnover include advertising costs, repair and maintenance costs, and vacancy. One of your goals should thus be to keep quality tenants when you find them. Tenants that take care of your property and pay consistently are hard to find.

Do what you can to keep these tenants when you find them. It may be a bit counterintuitive, but sometimes lowering the rent maybe your trump card in keeping quality tenants happy and increasing revenue.

Nothing is worse than losing your best tenant to a landlord in the surrounding area and having to deal with the expenses of acquiring a new tenant, not to mention the lost revenue caused by the vacancy.

Of course, rental price is not the only factor that plays a part in tenant retention. Other aspects matter too. Things such as customer service also play a key role. It doesn’t matter if you manage your properties personally or have a property manager to do it for you, make sure you have a good personal rapport with your tenant.

Make sure their matters and concerns are heard and dealt with urgently with the interest of both parties in mind. Sometimes, a good tenant/landlord relationship is the key factor that keeps tenants staying where they are.

If you have a property manager, make sure to assess whether they are performing with good tenant/landlord relationships in mind. You can utilize a number of sneaky methods, such as sending holiday cards soliciting feedback from your tenants.

This way, you assure them that their opinion is valued and that they can contact you directly if any dissatisfaction with the property manager arises.

3. Increase rent strategically

While it is true that lowering rental prices can lead to higher returns and revenue, you are advised to increase the amount of rent you collect from your long-term tenants. This is really not a contradiction of ideas at all.

Tenants may be more loyal if your rental property offers the best price, but this is not a reason you should never raise the rents, especially if there is sound reasoning behind raised rent prices.

If you intend to increase rent prices, make sure to survey rents of comparables in the area. As long as the rental price you offer is competitive, and tenants can’t find lower rent elsewhere, factoring in the cost of moving, you will still have the upper hand.

Many and tactics can be employed to increase rents strategically. For example, communicate an offset to new costs, such as increased maintenance fees which cover facilities and amenities they enjoy.

Have this information coincide with an upgrade to the rental. Also, you can plan on carrying out upgrades to the property but schedule the work to coincide with lease renewal. This way, the tenant will feel that they are getting something in return for the increase rental fees.

You can even go the extra mile and ask your tenants if there is anything that would appreciated in terms of upgrades and select items from their list. This will not only help justify raises in rental prices, but it will add value to your property.

In short, make due improvements to your home that will give your home added value, but remember to play this card to your favor.

What you need is a delicate balance in execution that properly exploits knowledge of your property’s value relative to your competitors and relative to your tenant’s conception of value and worth.

4. Be diligent on late rental

Rental Agreement

While it is important to build a good rapport and relationship with your tenants, this does not mean you need to be a pushover when it comes to timely rent collection. A house for rent in seremban is still a house for rent in seremban, regardless of the relationship between tenants and landlords.

Make sure that your tenants know that you are treating this as a business, that they have signed a contract and are liable to complete the transaction. This is essential for your rental property to be a profitable business.

If you often give tenants leeway in paying late without any extra late fee charges, you are losing money. While this may be fine once or twice, your tenants may try to get away with it and take advantage of your kindness and respect.

Steel yourself firmly and politely and respectfully explain to your tenants that fees must be paid on time, otherwise late fees will be charged pursuant to your lease and contract. Be firm with them that a late payment without the late fees is not considered paid in full, and that you will not accept this payment until all fees are paid.

If you are firm with your stance, they will know that you cannot be easily taken advantage of, will most likely comply in the end.

5. Add revenue streams

The rental fee does not have to be your only source of revenue from the rental property. Always keep an eye out for opportunities to add services, such as extra house cleaning and landscaping services to single-family homes, and coin-operated laundry and dryers to multi-family properties.

Offer these extra services when they sign the ease and they may be happy to pay you extra to avoid responsibilities that they would otherwise be forced to take on.

In conclusion, you can reach your goals of long-term wealth not just through buying and holding multiple properties, but by putting your properties to work more intelligently.

Bro Framestone

Travel, Tech, Parenting dan Lifestyle Blogger di Malaysia sejak tahun 2006. 12 tahun berpengalaman sebagai Social Media Consultant. Mempunyai seorang isteri dan 2 orang anak (belum plan nak tambah lagi)

View all posts by Bro Framestone →

20 thoughts on “5 Ways To Make The Most Out of Your Rental Properties

  1. wahh perkongsian yang cukup bermanfaat ni bro! tak adalah property untuk disewakan lagi tapi sebagai penyewa pun bagus juga membaca ni. supaya boleh reflect dan adapt. thank you bro for sharing this!

  2. One challenge about managing rental properties is Tenant. If you get the bad Tenant. It will be like a nightmare all year long. But if you have that ‘know how’ this can make you feel like heaven and you will end up invest more on this. Especially at this market down turn year.

  3. Sebagai penyewa SA sedikit sebanyak info ini sangat-sangat membantu..selalunya SA berdepan masalah ngan owner..pening wo..adakala owner sgt ok..adakala dpt yg x ok..itu yg pening..la ni kalau menyewa even bilik sekali pun SA sgt menitik beratkan agreement..senang utk kedua pihak

  4. Kita memang tak pandai dan tak faham kalau bab-bab investment dan property ni. Bila fikit nak invest rumah, mestilah nak kena ada duit juga beli rumah. Hahaha. Ramai juga kawan yang invest rumah sewa. Memang mengguntungkan. Baguslah siapa boleh gain profit dari cara ni.

  5. well, many people nowadays really love to invest on housing and of course, making out of money with renting it out… however some having some issue due to over charging on rental. Of course we need to be alert and smart on the market [rice for the particular area… thanks for sharing all this tips ya,,

  6. Sis dulu ada rumah kat Sban then sewakan..berapa bulan tak bayor last2 depa lari..sakit jiwa walaupun pakai agent, Terus jual sb jauh n tak blh nak manage. Now alhamdulillah sewakan umah kat sini x ada masalah n on time penyewa bayar walaupun x pakai agen

  7. setuju dengan artikel di atas. Kalau uzu nak cari rumah sewa mesti nak cari dikawasan yang stratergik dan harga murah! murah tu takde lah murah sangat tapi ikut harga market. kurang sikit lah dari harga market. Uzu tahan dengan tuan rumah sebab dia boleh setelkan masalah mengenai rumah dengan cekap ! tuan rumah mcm ni lah kita sayang. tapi kena tegas lah. Kalau bayar lambat sewa tu mmg tak bleh nak ampunkanlah kan

  8. Thanks for sharing. Memang penting semua info dalam artikel ni. especially agreement tu. supaya secure urusan sewa dan elakkan masalah masa hadapan

  9. Thanks for the great tips, this is really useful for house owners, it was a good read, I am actually planning to increase the rent of my place and this has given me some ideas.

  10. wah thanks for the tips bro…

    selalu bro menaip bahasa melayu kali ni english..

    property memang bagus untuk investment..

    tapi harga dia Ya Ampun je la untuk wanita yang tak bekerja macam I ni..

    hihihi..

  11. Perkongsian yang sangat bagus. Tapi tu lah. Bukan senang nak cari penyewa yang bagus. Ada yang sampai rumah rosak and tak bayar sewa berbulan macam kes kakak saya. Kalau dapat penyewa uang bagus tu, memang luck lah.

  12. Maintain a good rapport between tenant and owner is important to ensure the house that rent out been taking care. Then owner has the lesser worry their house condition after take back for staying.

  13. Yes property is one of a good and long term investment not only it increase in value over the years but also we get to collect rent monthly. Thanks for the tips and will try to abide it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *