How to Be a Good Landlord

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Damon Thompson, I've been a landlord for over ten years and I have five multi unit buildings. This is how to be a good landlord. The first step in being a good landlord is knowing your rights legally. So what you need to do is speak with an attorney, you want to find out what your state and local regulations and tenants rights are so you want to make sure that you protect yourself properly and you protect your property. The next thing you're going to want to do is draft a lease. You want to make sure that this lease can, is complete and has everything involved. The next thing you want to do is draft a clear lease outlining everything. You want to make sure that everything is involved, the property, what's involved, what you expect from your tenants, what you in turn the services you're going to give to your tenants in terms of maintenance and upkeep, you want to make sure that all of this is spelled out clearly and concisely in your lease agreement. After you have this lease agreement filled out, you want to make sure your attorneys looked at that too in case there's something that you might have missed, you want to make sure that that lease or rental agreement is very clear. The next thing you want to do with your new tenant is make sure you keep the lines of communication open. You want to make sure you have a good way of your tenants reaching you in case of any problems or any concerns and vice-versa. You want to make sure you have a clear way of contacting them in case you have any concerns or you need to contact them regarding something, say you're going into the property to do some type of maintenance, you want to make sure that they know what's going on. The lines of communication need to be open. The next thing you need to do to make, to be a good landlord is maintain the property. You want to make sure the upkeep, you want to make sure that it is safe, you have smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, whatever the codes are you want to make sure that the house is up to code, you maintain the property and the final thing is, you want to make sure you have a safe and organized collection policy, rent collection policy. You want to make sure if they're mailing it on the first of the month, if you have a PO Box, or if you're going to be picking it up, you want to make sure that whatever it is you understand and or more importantly that your tenant understands and you guys do the same thing every month. It needs to be consistent. I'm Damon Thompson and that's how to be a good landlord."