Things You Can Do To Speed Up Hires

One of the wisest ways to supplement your income is to invest in a rental property you can count on as a monthly source of revenue. But increasing the rent isn’t the only way to maximize your investment; cutting expenses proves just as essential. These top ways to save money as a landlord can add up to substantial profits.

Make Your Own Repairs

Are you handy around your own home? Put those instincts to use on your other property and you can avoid paying for service visits. Even if you’re not confident in your plumbing and electrical abilities, there’s no harm in googling a topic. Taking ten minutes to watch a YouTube tutorial should tell you if a problem is easy to fix—or something you’re likely to screw up even more.

Keep up on Maintenance

Conducting yearly checkups on your water heater and air conditioning systems proves less expensive than having to replace them. You can extend the life of your unit’s assets with preventive maintenance that can catch small repairs before they turn into pricey issues. Leave this one to the professionals, though—they know what to look for.

Haggle on Landlord Insurance

Ask your insurance agent if you can get a better deal. Then, shop around and ask again. You might save money by:

• Taking advantage of a new customer discount.
• Finding out if you can get a package deal with the company that insures your home.
• Discovering discounts for security systems or smoke detectors.
• Asking organizations if they will help qualify you for a discount.

Hire a Property Manager

Landlords have to ask themselves one key question: how much is their time worth? That will tell you if you should manage your own property or hire a company to do it for you. If you enjoy all the little duties and minutiae of day-to-day tasks, you’ll save significant money in the long run. But if you could spend those hours on your career or looking for another property, it can prove a considerable loss. Remember that you can write some property management fees off your taxes, too.

Improve Your Mortgage Rate

It might be a hassle to get all the paperwork together, but one of the top ways to save money as a landlord is to get that interest rate as low as possible. One percentage point may not sound impressive to you, but it can translate to thousands of dollars. Refinancing is also an opportunity to take out some equity and use it to make improvements on the property. Then, you can raise the rent—and increase the value of your property at the same time.