4 - Your Place and setting boundaries.
Your primary boundaries are in this order:
- Time.
- Use of space.
- Getting paid within a specific time for a specific space.
- Always avoid any grey areas to all of these boundaries.
By consistently communicating from Day 1, (lease signing) how you do your business, a potential problem person, (or 3rd party who is not on the lease) can be aware of your non-tolerance for nonsense. Tolerate and stretch when something breaks…unless it is above the norm for what breaks.
Time: The most valuable resource to you as a landlord is your time. The fallacy that a lot of renters have is that you should be accessible to them 24/7. That is both unrealistic and unsustainable.
Over the years, I have noticed that certain tenants will always wait until Friday evenings, weekends or after 5 pm the day after the rent is due to complain about a problem. We as humans are creatures of habit. Once you respond to a tenant “after hours” they will always expect you to do so.
Your job as a landlord is to manage this chaos by having strict guidelines that say: Office hours are from “x to X”. If an emergency occurs after hours (unless it is a life threatening), it can wait until the following weekday to be addressed.
Do not allow the shift of responsibility to fall on you when it does not belong to you.
As a landlord you take control of the situation, don’t let the situation, accompanying emotions of others manage your business for you. If said problem is a result of something you did then it becomes your responsibility. Things will happen…they are neither good nor bad, they are just part of being a landlord.