Finding a Great Tenant

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Great tenants can be hard to come by. While every renter is likely to complain at some point and everyone occasionally makes a mistake, some tenants are far better than others are. One of the marks of a good tenant is that they are a generally well organized person. Another sign that you are dealing with someone worth renting your property to is that they are calm and quiet. While this can indicate a maniac, it can also indicate a solid person who keeps to themselves.

A great tenant tends to be a secure person, and most judge their security based on external factors. For this type of individual, making sure their living space is in good condition and that the lawn is mowed is an important part of being secure and having their ducks in a row. While this might not be the ideal for self-actualizing one’s dreams, it is a good way to ensure they will take care of your property and pay their rent on time on a consistent basis.

Tenants of that nature are good to have, and you should treat them well. However, another trend beyond merely being secure that you should seek in your tenants is for them to be quiet and calm. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being the type of person who is a little hyper, people like that tend to be less stable than more laid back types. While a laid back person may just sit around all day, a more hyper person has a higher likelihood of breaking walls in a random fit or doing other randomly destructive things.

 

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To Rent, or to Lease?

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Whether you own an apartment building, a town home or a single family house, you have to make a lot of decisions regarding putting the right people into it when you want to make a profit. While owning something is all well and good, you won’t make money if it isn’t rented. However, sometimes the language you use is as important as any other part of the process. It can actually come down to the difference between two words.

When it comes down to your signage in the window or front yard, you have to decide whether to mark the property for rent or for lease. While the two words technically describe the same activity and state of possession, they are not always the same in a potential tenant’s mind. As well, the law may also designate a difference, such as in states where lease agreements are not common. In some neighborhoods, the tenants will see “for rent” as being more welcoming than they will see “for lease.”

For poorer people, the world is a different place. The entire nature of poverty is to feel victimized, and escapism is often the only chance many people see for coping with their situation. To a mind used to smaller words and very little stability, the notion of signing a lease for an entire year can seem almost scary. While most people wouldn’t admit to being afraid of something as harmless as a lease, it can actually be seen to retard interest in a property within certain neighborhoods. If your property is in a less affluent area, you must choose your words carefully.

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The Best Colors for Your Rental

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There is a lot of talk about the financial and the location-related aspects of rental properties. For a lot of people it never really gets past that stage. For them, tossing on a coat of cheap white paint and berber carpet is as deeply as they get into the notion of “decorating” one of their rental properties. However, this leads to a problem because it tends to attract the wrong kinds of tenants.

Typically, the law of attraction comes into play. What you expect is what you get, and how you are is what you are going to get in your tenants. The type of tenant you are likely to attract with ugly berber carpet and grungy white walls is the type of tenant who will treat the place like it isn’t worth anything. A nightmare tenant is often attracted to the type of rental unit where an owner doesn’t care enough to make the place look reasonably good. While tastes are bound to vary between people, the better you make your property look the more people are likely to respect it.

Naturally, doing a background check and employment verification are always crucial. But when your tenant sees that you chose a light blue for the walls and coordinated it with a mauve or sandstone tile, they will at least know you care about the place’s condition. Whether they are going to respect it or not is unfortunately impossible to guarantee. But if you cared until they got there, the likelihood is you will continue to care later on. However, a better looking home tends to attract people with some self-respect.

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Do Colors Really Matter?

Tenants are as unpredictable as the stains you’ll find in a kid’s room and the contents of a freezer when you go in to clean up the place. However, there are some things that people do regardless of where they are or how much money they make. For one thing, people will naturally and emotionally respond to the colors of the home you put up for rent. It might seem as if aesthetic details wouldn’t matter, but they do.

Granted, a horrible tenant is going to be that way by nature. There is no getting around the nature of some people. However, the colors of your rental unit matter, from the first thing a potential tenant sees when they drive by all the way to the walls in which they might prospectively live. An owner who fails to realize this is an owner who is asking for trouble from every possible angle. A tenant who doesn’t respect the property is only one of the possible problems. Another is that in some cases, a property could even be too ridiculous for any sane person to want to rent.

While many neighborhoods are so industrious that a potential tenant might be willing to rent anything for a reasonable price, other neighborhoods tend to attract more discerning individuals into their midst. For the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, the color of where they live is an expression of who they are. For some of these individuals, living in a cherry red house would be as completely unacceptable as walking their dog on a barbed wire collar. Boring walls within are stifling, but white on the outside looks more inviting.

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