Whether you are self-managing your residential rental property, or you are hiring a property management company to do the hands-on work, your focus should be on increasing your cash flow.
There are really only two ways to improve your investment property cash flow;
Here are the top 5 ways to decrease your rental property expenses. Our earlier post about how to increase your revenues can be found here.
1. Eliminate tenant turnover. Turnover can cost thousands of dollars, particularly in a high vacancy market such as Alberta right now, and should be avoided at all costs…Unless of course the market is shooting up like in Vancouver at the moment. When a unit turns over it can require new paint, flooring, cleaning, repairs, etc, all of which add up quickly. Add a month or two of vacancy to that and the bottom line starts looking pretty ugly.
2. Minimize wear and tear on your rental unit. Install vinyl plank flooring instead carpet as it’s virtually indestructible. Use high gloss paint instead of flat paint so that it wipes down easily. Make sure that the sinks and tubs are sealed properly so that no water can damage your unit.
3. Do the work yourself! Self manage your rental property instead of hiring a property manager. Learn how to do minor plumbing repairs and get handy with the hammer. Doing the work yourself will take time and energy, but will most certainly help decrease your costs.
4. Build up a network of contractors that can take care of all the maintenance issues that can arise from property management.
5. Find the right tenant for your rental property! This is probably the single most important thing as a bad tenant can absolutely wreak havoc on your place and cost you thousands! Check references and then double check them again!
Looking to boost your cash flow by deceasing your expenses? Contact our Vancouver based property management company to see how we can help you with that.
Chris Stepchuk
July 1, 2017
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