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5 Issues Every Landlord Needs To Plan For

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Becoming a landlord|5 Issues Every Landlord Needs To Plan ForAre you considering starting a property business? Becoming a landlord can be a hugely successful strategy to secure a long-term secondary income source. Every landlord understands the importance of finding:

  • a great location
  • a great rental setting
  • great facilities

However, landlords need to think outside the box to plan proactively against some of the challenges they might face. Here are the top 5 issues you must prepare for to maintain your property business.

Protect your home against second losses

Over time, a property can develop faults and damage by no fault of your own. Even responsible and trustworthy tenants can cause accidental damage to the furniture or the structure. To preserve the property and your income, you need to invest in dedicated landlord insurance. Ultimately, the landlord cover protects both the property, like home insurance coverage, but also your income in case tenants can’t pay for any reason.

Consider natural disasters

Natural disasters are becoming unpleasantly frequent. Flooding and heavy rain are some of the more frequent occurrences. You might assume that your landlord insurance can provide protection against extreme damage. Unfortunately, most insurers will recommend taking additional cover to ensure the landlord doesn’t have to pay for a water damage restoration company out of their own pocket. It’s a good idea to review the recent extreme weather events in your local area to figure out which protection is best suited for your home.

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Tenant screening is a must

Tenant screening is a no-brainer when you start your real estate side hustle. However, most landlords are unsure about how to organize the screening process. Many choose to interview tenants to build a first impression. In reality, the screening process should include running credit checks and criminal background checks, confirming employment, and verifying prior residence history. It can be beneficial for landlords to rely on a professional screening tool to ensure they can use the most relevant and accurate data.

Sudden changes in the local community

A rental needs to maintain access to public transport and local amenities. However, when the local community changes, making your rental attractive to new tenants can be tricky. For example, if the local medical practitioner moves into a new place further away from the rental, future tenants may consider the rental location less suitable.
Ideally, landlords need to keep track of all infrastructure and business plans and projects in the local area to make sure they can market their property accordingly. A rental in the vicinity of business areas should target professional adults in age of working rather than seniors.

The no-pet policy needs to change

Should a landlord allow pets on the property? Almost 7 in 10 households have a pet. So, if a landlord doesn’t authorize pets, they could lose approximately 70% of the tenant market. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that pet owners tend to be responsible tenants who take care of the space and rent on time. They are more conscientious and loyal, ensuring long-term rental lease agreements and frequent renewals.

Are you ready to bring your rental to the next level? Smart decisions regarding your tenants can make it easier to attract reliable individuals through tenant screening and a policy allowing pets. Landlords must consider multiple cover solutions to protect their properties, as the typical home insurance is not suitable. Finally, the more involved a landlord is with the local communities, the better they can market their rental.

Services Your Business Should Be Using

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Services|Services Your Business Should Be UsingRunning a business isn’t easy. Especially during times like these. Right now, companies are doing everything they can to stay afloat and keep their head above the water. Of course, when we first start out in business, we tend to run everything ourselves. We bear the bulk of the weight of business operations on our own shoulders and take care of operations independently. But as time goes on, chances are, you’ll find that you need a little help to keep expanding and advancing and to provide the best products, services and customer support as possible. Generally, this means taking on part time or full time employed staff. Of course, this isn’t where things end though. The vast majority of businesses need a little extra help from third party or outsourced services that can make all the difference to their operations. The perks of these services is that you don’t necessarily have to create an in-house team, which means more financial commitment and responsibility. Instead, you can often just use these independent parties as and when you need them. Here are just a few that you might want to take into consideration!

Consulting Services

No matter what industry you are operating in and no matter what products or services you’re selling, chances are, you can benefit from consulting services operating in your area of expertise. You can find business expansion consultants, financial consultants, a CARF Consultant, customer experience consultants, market research consultants and all other sorts of consultants. Make sure to use their services. They can give you the insight you need to make sure that your business is always running as it should be. This can also give you confidence in your actions too!

Property Maintenance

First, let’s focus on maintaining your commercial premises. Whether you run a traditional brick and mortar store or an office space, you’re going to have to invest in maintaining this space on a regular basis. Why? Well, if you rent the space, you don’t want it to become run down, as you can lose your deposit when you eventually decide to move out of it. If you own the space, you want to maintain its value. On top of this, you need to make sure that the space is clean, safe and pleasant fro your staff to spend time in. This can improve happiness levels, ensure that you are running everything in a compliant manner and maximise productivity. This is where a property management company can come in pretty handy. These individuals tend to cover every area of your business’ operations, ensuring everything runs as smoothly as possible.

Property maintenance companies can often provide cleaners to ensure that your business is clean. They can provide removal services if any animals die on the property’s land. They can grit your carparks in the winter. They can provide electrical maintenance, plumbing maintenance and other professionals who can generally ensure that everything is running as it should be. Make sure to browse a variety of options in your local area and to select the one with the most positive reviews and recommendations.

PAC Testing

Another extremely important service you need to be using is PAC testing services. Nowadays, it’s highly likely that a significant proportion of your staff are using technology and gadgets to get on with their work. The most popular tend to include computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. When these are used as part of their day to day work, it becomes of the utmost importance that you have all of this equipment and these electrics tested regularly. This will make sure that they aren’t a risk to your staff and that nobody becomes hurt as a result of their use. The best way to do this is generally through a PAC test, which will ensure that everything is safe and ready to use. These tests should be carried out regularly by qualified testers.

IT Services

IT support is one of the most important services your business needs to make use of nowadays. Why? Well, as we briefly highlighted above, the vast majority of businesses nowadays are online. They have websites online. They take sales online. They process orders online. They communicate with customers online. Plus, business operations such as emailing, video calls and other internal communications take place online too. The problem? Cybercriminals are aware of this and are seeing many small businesses as easy targets for infiltration. Sure, major companies may have more money or data to lose. But they also have some of the best cybersecurity in the world. Smaller businesses or often not so well set up to defend themselves against attack, so cybercriminals tend to have more success with them. You need to make sure that you avoid data breaches to maintain your reputation and to comply with data compliance laws. You also need to avoid infiltration wherever possible to maintain operations and maximise productivity. This is where IT services come in. The vaedt majority of businesses use IT services to help maintain their tech and keep everything up and running in the safest and most effective way possible. Having an IT company at hand can also ensure that if your team ever have any problems with their software or hardware, they can simply get in touch with the IT services you’ve signed up for and get all the advice they need to resolve their problems and to get back to work. when they experience any issues and the IT company can quickly resolve them, getting employees back to work and productive as quickly as possible. IT services can also provide protection against hackers, helping your business to avoid security breaches.

These are just a few suggestions that can make all the difference when it comes to running your business. Each of the above services can really help your business to tick over smoothly safely and in a compliant and profitable way. Invest in them to benefit from them sooner rather than later!

How to Become a Successful Property Developer

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Property Developer|How to Become a Successful Property DeveloperProperty development is an exciting way to start your business. Thanks to popular TV shows, developing property is often seen as a get-rich-quick scheme. However, making money from property is demanding and may take more time than expected.

It takes a bit of risk and lots of hard work to break even in the real estate market. But the good news is that starting a property development business can be relatively exciting. It offers flexible working hours, and no formal qualifications are needed.

If being a property developer appeals to you, then this article will help you. We have outlined tips on how to become a developer with a decent income.

1. Choose Your Path

Property development comes in all shapes and sizes. Hence, you must choose the route you want to take. You may have plans to grow in the future, but you must have a place to start.

Do you want to develop residential or commercial properties? Will the final project be for rent or sale? Or do you want to renovate run-down properties and give them a new resale value?

Knowing what you want helps you in making strategic decisions. You can also understand the kind of loans to take or where to get funds.

2. Develop a Plan

After choosing your path, come up with a business plan. The plan will help you get the funding for the success of your business. It also helps break down finances, potential income, and costs.

Creating a business plan gives you a map of how to start your business and its growth projection.

There are several business plan templates you can download based on your goals and business type.

3. Get Your Finances in Order

Developing properties, whether from scratch or renovating old houses, is a hefty investment from the start. To get a sufficient amount, you need to assess how extensive the project is, the costs involved, how long it will take to complete it, and the projected income.

Due to uncertainties, create the best and worst-case scenarios and set aside at least 30% contingency if the cost spirals.
You may choose to get a mortgage based on your property plan. Buy-to-let mortgages are easy to get, though you’ll have to deposit 25% or more. When seeking finances, research the local market and pay attention to inflation, interest rates, and employment rate in the area.

4. Choose the Right Location

When it comes to property development, location plays a crucial role. Look for an upcoming community as the property will be cheaper with a great potential to deliver good ROI. You may hire a general contractor to advise you on what to avoid when developing property in a specific area.

Some places might need more work on ground leveling. The type of soil will also determine the location of developing a property.

5. Don’t Get Personal

Remember, this project is for a property and not your home. You should develop a property that suits the market and not your taste.

The Bottom Line

Property development is a lucrative business for both long and short term goals. Approach it with care and a good strategy, and you’ll thank yourself for starting it.