Absentee landlords are those who buy a property and own it but are not present on the site of the property. Absentee landlordism has bonuses and minuses for both the tenants and the landlords themselves. In this article, Dc Fawcett, a real estate entrepreneur and mentor gives tips for absentee landlords.

Guidelines for absentee landlords

You should get to know the locals

You should get to know some locals in the neighborhood of your home. These locals will help out during times of crisis and help you to keep a check on the property and the tenant. For instance: if the tenant is involved in a lock in, then the neighbor who has the key will help out. Also, he can give you information on what happens with the house, how the tenant is maintaining the house and how he behaves with the neighbors and so on.

You should hire a property manager

Property management companies take care of your responsibilities as a landlord and you should hire one as you don’t have the comfort of staying near your property. Before you hire a property management company, you should do some research. Check out track records, reviews and take references from friends and kith and kin. This is really important for you as you cannot supervise their activities. A property management company charges for their services. It will cost 10% of your rental income and make sure that you have profits. The general responsibilities of a project management company includes

• Choosing tenants
• Interacting with them
• Organizing home showings
• Marketing the home
• Preventing your home from sitting for a long time in the market
• Take care of emergency situations
• Takes care of repairs

Personality development

As an absentee landlord, you should have certain characteristics. If you don’t have those, at least develop them.

• You must be able to devote time to the job: You must have the ability to balance your personal life and your job. You must be able to manage all this from offsite. You must keep cool and practice great time management. You have to treat it like a full time job.
• Don’t procrastinate and work hard and smart: Since you are your own boss, you should ensure that you don’t postpone the work. If you choose to waste time by idling, leisure activities or partying, you can never do good work and will hardly make any profits.
• Positive attitude: you should have a positive attitude and you should be really self motivated.

Have a strong network of people

You should have a powerful network of people and friends. It is very important for an absentee landlord.

Conclusion

These are tips given by Dc Fawcett, a real estate investor and an expert in that field for absentee landlords. It takes a great deal of effort, courage, time and cost to be an absentee landlord. It involves risks as well as bonuses. For more on pros and cons of absentee landlords, read the articles by Dc Fawcett on the same.