The ideal investment business is one that can generate a high return without creating burnout. Real estate holds this potential, but it’s not guaranteed. The nature of the business is intense, and if you don’t actively take care, burnout could become your reality.
With that said, here are some tried-and-true methods for investing in real estate without becoming exhausted and overworked.
Outsource as much as possible
If you own more than one small residential property, outsourcing your responsibilities is the only way to stay profitable without exhausting yourself. It’s also the only way to stay profitable. If you try to play the role of the landlord, you won’t have time to be an investor.
The first thing you need to do is connect with a property management company to take over your landlord duties and manage your property upkeep. All top-level, highly profitable real estate investors do this.
For instance, many investors in Houston, Texas hire Green Residential for their Houston property management needs because they value their time and energy. When the pros handle mundane tasks for you, you have more freedom to seek new investments and look for ways to increase profitability for your existing investments.
Here’s a list of the tasks you’ll want to outsource:
- Marketing vacant properties
- Staging and taking photos of properties for rent
- Handling tenant emergencies
- Arranging for repairs and maintenance
- Filing your taxes
- Serving tenants official notices like lease amendments and eviction notices
- Collecting rent
- Reviewing applications
- Showing available units
- Credit and background checks
- Landscaping
A professional property management company will take care of most, if not all of these things for you. If you hire an individual, you won’t get the same benefit because they won’t be able to do everything on their own.
The less work you have to do, the easier it will be to increase your portfolio and net worth.
Prop tech is on your side
In addition to outsourcing tasks to other humans, you can also rely on technology to haul some of your workload. You might be surprised what using a few prop tech apps can do to free up your time.
Some of the best tech for real estate investors includes:
- Apps that tell you where to find new properties. Now you don’t need to drive around looking for investment opportunities.
- Check property values. Whether it’s a property you own or a potential investment, there are apps that will do the legwork for you.
- Smart home integration apps. If you offer smart rentals, these apps will streamline all your gadgets.
These are just the most popular apps in real estate. As prop tech advances, mobile apps will play even more roles in shaping the future of real estate investing.
Know relevant federal, state, and local laws
One of the most important aspects about being a real estate investor is knowing federal, state, and local laws. The last thing you want is to be dragged to court where you’ll have to spend time, money, and energy to fight your case. Having a basic understanding of the law will go a long way in preventing misunderstandings and ensuring you don’t make the kind of mistakes that give bad tenants the impetus to sue.
For example, say you have a tenant who is violating the lease by allowing their significant other to live permanently in the unit. Your first course of action should be to give them notice to quit or vacate, and then file an eviction lawsuit if they refuse to leave. However, if you don’t serve that initial notice properly, your eviction lawsuit will likely be thrown out.
You can start over and serve the first notice correctly, but if you make any further mistakes, your tenant might sue you for wrongful eviction and either win a monetary judgment or the right to remain in the unit. For instance, if they try to retaliate against your eviction lawsuit by racking up the energy bill and you shut off the power, they can sue you for that and are likely to win since that is considered a self-help eviction, which is illegal.
Knowing federal, state, and local landlord-tenant laws will protect you against making the mistakes that can lead to an expensive lawsuit down the road. It also helps you maintain peace with your tenants because when you do things by the book, there is transparency and everything can be clearly spelled out.
Don’t forget to rest
While you’re busy outsourcing your landlord duties and using applications to make your workload lighter, don’t forget to rest and take care of yourself – it’s the best way to prevent overwhelm and burnout.
