Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Recruit Neighbors To Watch Over Your Investment Property

Sometimes even the most attentive landlord isn’t around his or her property all the time. Unless you live right next-door, chances are a lot of your tenants’ behavior — and possible trouble — will go unnoticed by you unless someone tells you directly.

There’s no need to wait until the police call you to tell you about an arrest or other issue that happened at your property. The best observers of a tenant’s activity are that tenant’s neighbors, whether they also are your tenants or not.

Get to know the property owners who live near your rental property, and give them more than one way to contact you if something is amiss on your property. They have a vested interest in keeping their neighborhood safe and clean — and property values up — so they will be more than happy to send you an email or call you if they see or suspect trouble. Retired residents and stay-at-home moms are particularly helpful, because they’re home more than most and are fairly observant of their surroundings.

Increasing the number of eyes and ears on your property means you’re more likely to be alerted if there is a domestic violence issue, problems with people (or pets) that might not be on the lease, noise complaints, or another symptom of a problem tenant that didn’t show up on an instant tenant report or background check.

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