The reason why most people don’t invest in real estate and then rent it out is due to the fact that they might’ve have heard about all the disadvantages that are attached to being a landlord. Although there are lots of reasons why you shouldn’t try to become a landlord, you must also bear in mind that most of what you hear are many of the things that you hear are strongly amplified.
One of the biggest downfalls of becoming a landlord is that you’ll be responsible for the maintenance of all of the units that you decide to rent out. This might be a large problem if you are renting an older property, which is barely passing code. But the finest way to stay away from this is by only investing in properties that won’t cause you a lot of problems. Although you can’t avoid every issue that arises, you can at least reduce them by renting out a high quality property that won’t require often fixing.
Another disadvantage to becoming a landlord is that many people are afraid of not getting paid in time. Don’t forget that a lot of landlord rely on incoming rent checks in order to get by each month. If they don’t show up on time, or worse if they don’t show up at all, you will be in a bad situation. Along with this, becoming a landlord also entails that you will have to turn into a collector.
This implies that at anytime somebody is late with their rent, you will need to find them and keep contacting them to try and get the money that is owed to you. Sometimes this will be as easy as a phone call, but in other cases it may take you weeks or even months to get your due.
Being a landlord also means that you are responsible for your tenant’s safety. This doesn’t mean that you have to watch what they do 24/7, but it does mean that you will be responsible if an accident occurs due to negligence on your part. This is the reason why it is essential to have good knowledge of what you need to do as a landlord, and follow the rules exactly as they are outlined.
There are many drawbacks to becoming a landlord; which have never been debated. However, a lot of the myths that surround this industry make the landlord function more complicated than it really seems.
The best thing you should do if you want to become a landlord is to have knowledge of what you are getting yourself into. This can be done by researching the industry, and talking to others informed people.
Wendy Pritchard is a contributing editor at RealEstatePropertyArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.