Grow Your Real Estate Investment Portfolio

You can qualify as a good investor if you already have real estate in your investment portfolio. But, you can get better by understanding the nitty-gritty of the real estate investment market. If you see real estate investment simply as the process of buying some rental units, filling all of them with potential tenants and then cashing the rent checks then you might need to take an early exit from the market.

Read the 5 tips that can make you the perfect player in the real estate investment market.

1. Marketing – Real estate investment is not like equity or bond investment; it requires marketing. Even if you have the world’s most beautiful rental flat at a very nominal rent the prospective tenants won’t know if you don’t advertise. Nowadays for each and every need, people tend to search the web, and housing units are no exception. So, list your rental property on free online listing directories such as Craigslist. You can also opt for Facebook ads.  Be sure to start your marketing even before the unit is fully ready to live after the renovation. Because each unoccupied day of your property is a day lost for you.
2. Maintenance – Like any other business customer satisfaction is the key to growth in the real estate business too. When you keep your tenants satisfied you won’t have to deal with vacated properties and bad reviews on online forums. Make it your priority to address tenants’ request for cleaning of clogged pipes, broken appliances, toilet leaks etc. You should also proactively indulge in management activities like getting water heaters, smoke detectors, HVAC units checked and maintained regularly. If it seems a daunting task to take care of so many housing units hire a manager but don’t leave your properties unmaintained.
3. Collections – Not every tenant likes to pay the rent on the prescribed schedule. If, given a chance, many of them would like never to pay the rent. When you act like a good owner by keeping your property maintained and keeping all your promises you increase your chance to be treated fairly by the tenants. But, there’s no guarantee to this. So, be wary while choosing the tenant for your rental property. Check the rental payment history to see what type of candidate has applied to your house. You can take data from Credit bureaus to see the punctuality of the tenant in paying the previous rents.
4. Communication – Like any other relations tenants to landlord relation too needs a good communication. Any type of communication gap can prove havoc for your business. If, you have only a handful of tenants keep in touch with them using any messaging or texting app. And if you are a big player in the real estate market then you should use some web-based technologies to stay connected to your tenants. The main motto of this communication is simple – if a tenant is finding an issue with the property or a conflict with other tenants of the property they should easily contact you. Every tenant needs to be heard. If you are not available to them you are missing the very important part of a business – public relation. Even the high return real estate properties by the virtue of their location, need the landlord to communicate effectively with the tenants to keep the return at its peak level.
5. Tenants’ Expectations – This is similar to the ‘know your customer’ rituals in every other business. You must know what the expectations of your potential customers are. Without this knowledge, you cannot lure them in renting your property. At this point in time, most of the renters you’ll get will be the millennial kids who are no more a kid! These fresh grads in their 20s have seen an entirely different world than you. So, their expectations are different than what you expected in your 20s. You might still like to feel that physical rent cheque with your hands but your tenants find it easy to pay the rent online. So, update yourself to match their level and fulfill their expectations. Your tenants would most likely be driving bike so they will expect a proper place to park their bike.

Understanding the portion of the property is much easier than understanding the portion of dealing with tenants. They are the factor that can make or break your career in real estate business. So, before jumping into the business make sure you understand everything from the tenant’s perspective. Once you master the art of attracting and maintaining relations with tenants no one can hinder your real estate business growth.