9 Tips to Managing a Rental for First-Time Landlords

Knowing how to be a good landlord requires extensive knowledge of renting, as well as the right tools to make the process easier. But if you’re a first-time landlord, managing both a rental property and tenants can easily be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start.

To help you become a successful landlord, we share expert tips on landlording to help you manage your first property, as well as resources to take advantage of right away.

9 Landlord Tips for First-Time Landlords

As a first-time landlord, it’s important to know the basics of managing a rental property for an overall positive experience. From tools to have on hand to best practices to keep in mind, we outline nine tips to consider when being a landlord for the first time:

1. Utilize a Property Management Software Platform

Managing a rental comes with tons of responsibilities, all of which can be time-consuming without a property manager. Luckily for you, property management software platforms have streamlined the process of advertising your rental, finding quality tenants, screening them, collecting rent, and more.

Avail (part of Realtor.com®) offers free rental property management software that helps landlords easily manage their rental online, hassle-free. You can create a free landlord account to set up your tenants, collect rent online, track rental property accounting, as well as explore an extensive library of educational content on landlording. Avail is free for unlimited units, but you have the option to upgrade to Unlimited Plus for $7/unit per month to create custom leases or a website for your rental business.

Plus, you can earn up to $500 in account credit with the Avail Referral Program by inviting 10 fellow landlords to Avail to create an account. Get started today by creating a free account in less than five minutes. 

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2. Determine a Fair Rent Price

Your rent price will determine whether or not a tenant will be interested in renting your property. Although protecting your investment is the first priority, it’s important to determine a fair market rent based on other rentals in your designated area. This ensures you find tenants that can afford to rent your apartment and reduces the chance of long vacancy periods.

To complete this step, you can research local properties with similar features for their rent price or invest in an Avail Rent Analysis report that shows how your rental compares to similar properties in your area, as well as rental benchmarks from the lowest to the highest rent. 

Once you’ve established a rent price that you’re comfortable with, then you can begin advertising your rental property online to find potential tenants.

3. Find Quality Tenants

In order to find quality tenants, you’ll need to advertise your rental property across various websites to generate rental leads. Since most tenants search for their next apartment online, it’s important to find landlord software that syndicates your rental listing across more than one site to get your property in front of tenants. 

When advertising your rental listing on Avail, your listing is syndicated out to Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Zumper, Apartments.com, Realtor.com®, PadMapper, Apartment List, Walk Score, and Doorsteps all at once. You can also manage any generated leads directly through your landlord dashboard for less back-and-forth communication.

You’ll want to describe the unit in a few sentences with the address and set rent price, as well as take accurate and eye-catching pictures of the property.

4. Screen Potential Tenants

Once enough qualified leads have been generated, you’ll want to begin the tenant screening process. In addition to having tenants complete an online rental application, it’s best practice to include credit, background, and eviction checks to get factual information on who they are. However, some states put limitations on how much landlords can screen potential tenants, so you’ll want to do some research on local landlord-tenant laws before adding this to your application.

An Avail online rental application allows landlords to include custom questions, as well as advanced reporting such as a TransUnion credit report and background check for a one-time fee. Instead of paying out-of-pocket for the cost of screening a tenant, the cost can be offset to the applicant.  

5. Create an Online Rental Lease

As a first-time landlord, it’s important to put together a rental lease agreement that complies with local ordinances and is reviewed by a lawyer before sharing with tenants. Not only does this ensure it’s a legally-binding agreement, but protects all the parties involved. 

The lease agreement should include the monthly rent amount, security deposit amount, terms of lease, and clauses that protect both the landlord and tenant. Many of these clauses and disclosures will be dictated by the standard lease within your city, but it is a good idea to make sure the lease fits the needs of your rental, as well. 

With Avail, landlords can easily create a lawyer-approved lease agreement for free or upgrade to Unlimited Plus to create a customized lease that can be cloned for later use. The lease agreement can be signed online for free and is stored in each parties’ dashboard to reference in the future. 

6. Share a Move-In Checklist

Your rental property should be habitable and clean before moving in new tenants. To help document the condition of your property before and after they move in, you can use a downloadable move-in checklist to access on any device. 

Tenants should be notified on how garbage, laundry, and newspaper delivery work in the area, along with any other amenities that the building or property provides. The more thorough you are with explaining the starting conditions of your unit, the less surprises you’ll have at the end of the lease. 

7. Contract Your Contractors

If you’re not a handyman yourself, you’re going to need help handling maintenance at some point. If you don’t know of any good contractors in the area, try to find local contractors that can quickly and efficiently handle repairs for you. .

Talk to friends and family about finding a contractor, and look up contractors in your area online. Compare and contrast different options when hiring a contractor as this could become a good long-term relationship, so don’t be afraid to spend some time looking around. 

Make sure to get referrals, proof that the contractor is insured, and a guarantee on the work. Allow your tenants to submit maintenance tickets online, so you can record issues, store photos, and communicate with your tenant online.

8. Manage Your Rental Income 

Being a landlord is equivalent to owning your own business, even if you’re only managing one unit. If you treat it as a business, you’ll have the right frame of mind when making decisions.

As a first-time landlord, it’s advised to manage any income you’re generating from the rental in a separate bank account than your personal account. Not only will you need to store a tenant’s security deposit separately, but you’ll need a platform that can help you collect rent online and manage any other fees tenants are responsible for covering. Avail allows you to easily track payments for all your properties online, which can later be accessed during tax season. 

9. Invest in Landlord Insurance

Just like tenants have renters insurance to protect their belongings, it’s important to invest in landlord insurance to protect you from property damage, loss of income, and liability. Landlord insurance premiums can cost anywhere from $800 to $1,200 annually, depending on the type of coverage you want.

Manage Your Rental With Avail

Becoming a first-time landlord is an exciting venture to take on and is less daunting than you think. Now that you know how to be a landlord with the tips we’ve shared, the next step is managing your rental with confidence by using landlord software like Avail.

Create an account or log in to begin the process of managing your rental property like a seasoned professional.