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Less Than 1% Eviction Rate
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How to Recognize and Handle Landlord Stress

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Being a property owner comes with a lot of stress. In addition to managing your rental property, as a property owner you must balance your work with everything else in your life.

This includes family and friend obligations, other work commitments, and free time. Not to mention, property related tasks such as rent collections, routine inspections, maintenance and repair requests, eviction procedures, and so much more.

Talk about a lot of things to handle at once!

If you own rental property in Takoma Park, and feel you may be falling victim to the stress that comes with being a landlord, keep reading to find out how to recognize and handle this issue.

Not only will these tips help you succeed in your rental property business, they will help you manage your work in a way that allows you to maintain a balanced and healthy life.

 

Are You a Stressed Out Landlord?

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Before we discuss how to manage the stress that comes with being a property owner, let’s first take a look at whether you are actually stressed.

What exactly is stress?

Stress is your body’s way of responding to a threat. This threat may be purely physical, or may cloak itself in the form of high demands that life regularly places on you.

In any case, as a way of protecting you, your body will begin to act differently in response to these threats.

However, if you remain stressed for too long, your health may begin to suffer and your body will not be able to protect you anymore.

Here are some of the most common signs you are a stressed out landlord:

  • Headaches
  • Memory issues
  • Aches and pains
  • Frequent colds or flus
  • Anxiety and irritation
  • Moodiness
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Eating more or less
  • Disrupted sleep patterns
  • Nervous habits (g. nail biting)

If you feel any of the above-mentioned symptoms on a regular basis, chances are you might be a stressed out landlord.

Unfortunately, denial often also comes with being overly stressed, thus making it difficult to recognize that changes in our behavior or moods are stress-related.

Also unfortunate is that it is sometimes considered a weakness to take a step back from the high demands of life and take a break due to increased stress.

In addition, we all have responsibilities that must be handled, and sometimes stress is not reason enough to forgo these responsibilities.

This is why learning how to manage landlord stress is a good tactic for staying the course without making yourself physically ill, or bailing on obligations.

 

How to Handle the Stress of Being a Takoma Park Property Owner

There are many ways you can handle the stress of being a landlord. And truthfully, what works for you may not work for another, and vice versa.

That said, here are some of the top ways to relieve the stress of being a landlord.

1. Make a To-do List…and Stick to it

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There are a lot of things you need to do when it comes to managing your Takoma Park rental property.

Even if you have an incredible memory, you are bound to forget something at one point or another. In fact, trying to remember everything you need to handle can become a stressor in itself.

One of the best solutions for this type of stress is to keep a to-do list.

With a to-do list, you can easily write down the things you need to take care of, prioritize them accordingly, and mark them off as you complete them, so you know that everything has been taken care of.

2. Handle Repairs Immediately

No property owner wants to jump right in and handle every maintenance and repair request made by their Prince George’s County tenant.

However, the longer you put those requests off, the worse the situation will become.

First of all, ignoring a tenant’s request will only anger them. They pay to lease from you, and expect all maintenance and repairs to be handled promptly by you, or your property management company.

In addition, a repair that you put off may turn into a bigger problem and end up costing you more time and money to fix. That alone can become the source of a great amount of stress.

Luckily, preventing this is easy, so long as you handle issues right away.

 

3. Have an Emergency Fund

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In line with efficiently handling all maintenance and repair requests is the idea that you should have a sizeable emergency fund on hand to handle such emergencies.

Money can be the source of stress in all areas of life. It is no different in the rental property business.

If you have ever encountered a major repair in your rental property, one that you did not have the money to repair right away, think about how that made you feel.

Stressed, right?

Avoid the stress of having to dip into your personal bank account to pay for rental repairs by building up and maintaining an emergency fund to be used specifically for your rental properties.

 

4. Become Educated About the Business of Owning Rental Properties

Sometimes you may become very stressed when a situation with your rental arises that you do not know how to handle legally.

If you want to avoid things such as housing discrimination and improper eviction procedures, consider educating yourself on the federal, state, and local rental property laws.

Take advantage of the wealth of free resources aimed directly at property managers, and learn from others’ past mistakes.

Educating yourself on how to save time, energy, and money in the rental property business can make you feel more confident as a landlord, and less stressed when a problem pops up.

 

5. Employ a Property Management Company

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One of the best things anyone with stress can do is to ask for help.

It is okay to admit that you are a stressed out property owner.

In addition, it is okay to ask for help from a professional that is experienced in managing rental properties.

By hiring a Prince George’s County property management team, you will save yourself time and money.

Best of all, you will lessen the stress that is placed on your shoulders when trying to self-manage a rental property, and will be able to attain that work/life balance.

A quality property management company can do the following for you:

  • Advertise your rental immediately upon vacancy
  • Screen potential tenants and weed out problem tenants
  • Draft legally compliant lease agreements that address everything you want
  • Routinely inspect your property to ensure maintenance
  • Handle all maintenance and request calls, no matter the day or time
  • Properly evict a tenant, if necessary
  • Back you in the case of a landlord-tenant dispute that lands in court
  • Provide affordable management fee prices so that you can afford help

If you are in the market for an exceptional property management company to help you manage your Takoma Park rental property, contact Bay Management Group now. Not only can we handle everything listed above, we can take away the stress of being a landlord from you.

In the end, we believe that you should not take on the bulk of the stress that comes with being a property owner; rather, we should.

You should focus on enjoying the benefits of owning Takoma Park property, collecting monthly rent payments, and working your way towards a happy, and healthy life, free from stress.