When you own a rental property, you’re responsible for finding tenants, maintaining the home, and much more. While managing one rental may be feasible, it can quickly become overwhelming with several properties. If you’re looking for ways to manage stress and avoid burnout as a landlord, read along while we go over some helpful tips.
Contents of This Article:
- Is Property Management the Right Career for You?
- Signs of Stress and Burnout for Landlords
- How to Leverage Tools to Make Your Job Easier
- 5 Tips to Manage Stress as a Landlord
- Relieve Stress With Property Management
Is Property Management the Right Career for You?
Managing rental properties can be extremely rewarding and an excellent career path for anyone who wants to put in the time. Companies like Bay Property Management Group specializing in Baltimore property management, work hard to ensure your rentals are taken care of 24/7.
However, managing rental properties isn’t right for everyone. While you may own rental properties, managing them can quickly become stressful. Compared to a typical 9-5 office job, managing rental properties includes some of the following differences.
- Responsibility- Landlords have a significant amount of responsibility. After all, you have to care for properties outside your primary residence and ensure a safe space for the tenants that live there.
- Availability- At a typical 9-5 job, you can generally leave your worries at work when you’re done for the day. However, landlords must be available at all hours of the day to take care of emergency repairs or tenant concerns.
- Liability- Landlords have several legal obligations. Without fully understanding landlord-tenant laws, you could face financial or legal penalties.
Signs of Stress and Burnout for Landlords
Stress can significantly affect your overall health, causing burnout, exhaustion, insomnia, and more. Unfortunately, it’s easy to become overwhelmed while managing several rental properties.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed as a landlord, you may experience some of these common signs of stress:
- Exhaustion
- Procrastination
- Anxiety
- Memory Issues
- Nervous Habits
- Changes in Appetite
- Headaches
- Nervousness
- Insomnia
- Irritation
Landlords often experience some of the symptoms mentioned above. However, if you feel like stress is taking over or affecting your day-to-day life, you’ll want to find ways to manage it. Next, we’ll go over some tools for landlords to make property management more effortless.
How to Leverage Tools to Make Your Job Easier
One way to make your job easier as a landlord is by utilizing tools and technology. There are several systems and software to streamline property management tasks. For instance, if you want to find potential rental properties quickly, you may use resources to analyze current market information.
Some of the most helpful tools for finding properties include Zillow, Realtor.com, HotPads, and more. Each of these sources can help landlords find and evaluate the profitability of any rental market or property.
On the other hand, if you have too many properties to manage yourself, there are tools to help manage finances, find tenants, and store documents. For example, instead of keeping physical records of payments, lease agreements, and maintenance requests, it’s easier to manage when they’re stored online.
Stress can still get the best of you even if you’re using tools to streamline tasks. Next, we’ll go over five ways to manage stress as a landlord.
5 Tips to Manage Stress as a Landlord
Dealing with stress can be debilitating and hard on your physical and mental health. As such, it’s important to manage stress and use best practices to avoid burnout as a landlord. Here are some of the best ways to reduce stress and run a top-notch rental business.
- Screen Tenants Thoroughly
- Automate When Possible
- Have an Emergency Fund
- Know Which Laws Apply to You
- Outsource Management Tasks
Screen Tenants Thoroughly
One of the most important parts of owning rental properties is conducting thorough tenant screening. After all, high-quality tenants have fewer missed rent payments, less damage, and longer retention. However, if you don’t ask the right questions or verify a tenant’s employment, you could end up with a lot more stress than you bargained for.
Although it’s tempting to speed up the screening process, you’ll want to verify a prospective tenant’s full name, income, creditworthiness, criminal background, eviction history, and more. Additionally, it’s best to ask for references from previous landlords to understand better what they’ll be like as tenants.
Automate When Possible
Automation is highly beneficial if you want to spend less time on property management tasks. Automating communication and rental documents can ensure accuracy and help build your reputation as a landlord. Additionally, automation comes in several forms.
For instance, one of the most time-consuming tasks for landlords is accounting and data entry, which you can easily automate with software. Additionally, collecting rent online is a great way to track payments, remind tenants, and apply late fees automatically. Finally, online contracts and signatures can reduce the need for new lease generation and physical document storage.
Have an Emergency Fund
Whether you manage all of your rentals yourself or hire a property manager, having an emergency fund can relieve a ton of stress. For landlords, unexpected expenses pop up all the time, and it’s easier to budget for small maintenance costs.
However, whether you have a problem tenant that damages your property or an emergency maintenance issue, spending thousands of dollars out of pocket can be a significant stressor. As such, saving up for an emergency fund can ensure one major setback doesn’t diminish your cash flow.
Know Which Laws Apply to You
Knowing and understanding landlord-tenant laws is stressful in and of itself. After all, the last thing you want to deal with is a lawsuit or legal penalties. Not only can it cause immense stress, but it can also damage your reputation as a rental business owner.
As such, you must learn all the laws that apply to you and your tenants. Some of the most important laws to pay attention to are Fair Housing Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act. These laws prohibit discrimination and dictate how a landlord can use a tenant’s credit history.
More crucial laws to know include those regarding the following:
- Legal Lease Documents
- Required Disclosures
- Safe and Habitable Housing
- Laws About Making Repairs
- Security Deposit Laws
- Tenant Right to Privacy
- Eviction Laws and Processes
Outsource Management Tasks
Most landlords don’t realize the time and work it takes to manage one or more properties. While there are several ways to automate and make these tasks more manageable, they can still get overwhelming at times.
Although it can be challenging to ask for help, outsourcing the most strenuous tasks is one of the best ways to relieve or manage stress. When you hire someone to perform maintenance, handle accounting, or screen potential tenants, you give yourself more free time and less stress.
Relieve Stress With Property Management
Hiring a great property manager is one of the best ways to manage stress and avoid burnout. A solid management team on your side can relieve you of the strenuous day-to-day tasks of owning rentals. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to outsource property management.
Although it’ll cost a percentage of your rental income, hiring property management is worth less stress and more free time.
Bay Property Management Group offers comprehensive services, including tenant screening, maintenance, rent collection, and more. To learn more about our services in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, contact BMG today.
