
1. Be Upfront With Your Student Tenants at Fanshawe and Western
If you are from out of town, let them know that. That way they will not expect you within 10 minutes if there is no hot water running. When sitting the tenants down to sign the lease, go through each line out loud and give examples of you operate. For example, if all the light bulbs work and the lease states if any bulbs go out they have to replace them, then they call you for more bulbs you need to remind them of this conversation. Being upfront and transparent goes a long way
2. Try To Have You Student Tenants Pay Their Own Utilities
If the student rental tenants are paying their own utilities, you have three less things to worry about: London Hydro bill, Union Gas bill, and probably a hot water rental. With the tenants paying the utilities, they will be much more responsible with the bills and with your property in general taking care of it because they are obligated to care more than the “all you can eat buffet” which is renting all inclusive.
3. Sign Joint Leases With Groups of Tenants
Signing groups of tenants to rent your entire property is the best way to go about renting your property because you will get the London, ON Landlord License, you will sign on a group of friends who know each other, and the tenants will be jointly liable to pay the full amount of rent. When tenants are jointly liable and obligated to pay the rent, there is a much greater chance of none of your student rental cheques bouncing.
4. Buy a Townhouse to Rent
When purchasing a student rental property, some of the “headache” comes from cutting the grass, cutting branches, raking leaves, cleaning snow, changing windows/doors, replacing the roof, etc. which can all be taken care of if you pay a monthly condo fee and buy a townhouse to rent to students to Fanshawe and Western University students.
5. Hire a Property Management Company That Has Experience in Managing Western University and Fanshawe College Properties
To make most of your headaches going away, sometimes the only way is to outsource it to a local, London Ontario based company that has a rich history in providing Landlords when a great service. Some Landlords of student rental properties don’t appreciate text messages at 9 PM on a Sunday evening asking “what is the postal code of the house?” from their tenants. The little things definitely add up, and if you haven’t utilized a combination of the above recommendations to minimize your headaches, you are better off hiring a company to manage and rent your property to local Western and Fanshawe students.