Hi, I'm Damon Thompson, I've been a landlord for over ten years and I have five multi unit
buildings. This is how to be a good landlord. The first step in being a good landlord is
knowing your rights legally. So what you need to do is speak with an attorney, you want
to find out what your state and local regulations and tenants rights are so you want to make
sure that you protect yourself properly and you protect your property. The next thing
you're going to want to do is draft a lease. You want to make sure that this lease can,
is complete and has everything involved. The next thing you want to do is draft a clear
lease outlining everything. You want to make sure that everything is involved, the property,
what's involved, what you expect from your tenants, what you in turn the services you're
going to give to your tenants in terms of maintenance and upkeep, you want to make sure
that all of this is spelled out clearly and concisely in your lease agreement. After you
have this lease agreement filled out, you want to make sure your attorneys looked at
that too in case there's something that you might have missed, you want to make sure that
that lease or rental agreement is very clear. The next thing you want to do with your new
tenant is make sure you keep the lines of communication open. You want to make sure
you have a good way of your tenants reaching you in case of any problems or any concerns
and vice-versa. You want to make sure you have a clear way of contacting them in case
you have any concerns or you need to contact them regarding something, say you're going
into the property to do some type of maintenance, you want to make sure that they know what's
going on. The lines of communication need to be open. The next thing you need to do
to make, to be a good landlord is maintain the property. You want to make sure the upkeep,
you want to make sure that it is safe, you have smoke detectors, fire extinguishers,
whatever the codes are you want to make sure that the house is up to code, you maintain
the property and the final thing is, you want to make sure you have a safe and organized
collection policy, rent collection policy. You want to make sure if they're mailing it
on the first of the month, if you have a PO Box, or if you're going to be picking it up,
you want to make sure that whatever it is you understand and or more importantly that
your tenant understands and you guys do the same thing every month. It needs to be consistent.
I'm Damon Thompson and that's how to be a good landlord.