Whoever referred to rental properties as “passive income” never owned a rental property. Maintaining attractive real estate and managing relationships with your tenants takes time and effort. When you lapse in your duties, word has a way of travelling fast about bad landlords. As the responsibilities of owning property pile up, the stress can become overwhelming—so much so that some embattled landlords wonder whether they should just cash out to the big management firm and leave the business altogether. While there’s still nothing passive about these tips, here are some simple ways landlords can reduce their stress and stay in the game.

Online Bill Pay

Knocking at the door to collect the rent: no one wants to do it, and no one wants to hear it. Rent collection is one of the few instances where a face-to-face connection doesn’t seem to improve a business relationship. By setting up an online portal for paying rent, you can keep payments discreet and low-key, and cut down on writing checks. The less you have to hound your tenants for rent, the less stress you’ll experience.

Know When To Outsource

Being a landlord can mean being a manager and a custodian all in one. Fiddling with HVAC, plumbing, and electricity is enough to give even the most stoic landlord the shakes—not a good quality when the job calls for a steady hand. If your investment skills are much greater than your plumbing skills, it’s a good idea to consider retaining outside firms and tradesmen to do what you can’t do. Anything less may invite disaster.

Clean Professionally

One instance of outsourcing deserves a mention of its own. First impressions are hard to overcome. If new tenants come into a rental unit and find it’s not in immaculate condition, good luck getting them to leave it remotely close to how they found it. Getting it in immaculate condition yourself may be harder than you think—your own cleaning abilities may not match up to your mind’s eye. Here’s a simple way landlords can reduce their stress: give your new tenants a clean slate and high expectations by scheduling a deep cleaning from the pros. The pros will get not only the big stuff but the smaller details people miss when they’re carrying out their usual weekly chores, or that landlords miss when they try to do everything themselves. For property owners in the Twin Cities region, Professional Home Cleaning, LLC offers professional apartment cleaning services as part of its portfolio. Readers who are outstate or live outside the North Star State altogether should search for the most thorough cleaning service in their respective localities.

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