It is bound to happen: A noise complaint. Because people share walls and live in close proximity to one another in townhomes, duplexes, and apartment, they will inevitably hear one another. On occasion, this will turn into an excessive noise complaint. How you handle it as a property manager will make all the difference in the outcome. The guide below will help you curb any issues that arise due to perceived excessive noise.

First off, there will always be tenants who are especially sensitive to noise. A neighbor could have his windows open on a hot summer day with the television blaring. Of course, this will make a lot of noise and will cause those around him some discomfort.

Whether you are a seasoned property management veteran or a neophyte, entering the real estate management business for the first time, you need to be aware of common landlord mistakes to avoid. Heed the information about to be revealed to you with caution and ensure that you take the proper steps to avoid making these same common mistakes.

Using a generic lease

One of the age-old mysteries of business is determining how much to charge for the goods and services you offer. Every business owner quarrels with this issue and it is doubtful that the “perfect price” has ever been set. There are as many methods for determining price as there are people, too, which does not make the pricing determination any easier.

The most basic of pricing strategies is to take your cost and add a percentage to it. If your cost of one apartment unit is $1,000 to maintain (for both short- and long-term), you could simply add 25 percent to that figure to arrive at $1,250 per month for each rental unit.

Being a successful landlord is just like being successful in any other profession. You need to be a shrewd business person, have high ethical standards, listen and understand your tenants, and be willing to compromise in order to serve the greater good.

First and foremost, commercial and residential real estate property management requires a landlord with good business sense. While you do not necessarily need to have an MBA, you do need to have strong analytical skills, a love of numbers, and sound business knowledge under your belt. You have to be a go-getter and be very proactive with situations that could have major ramifications on the profitability of your rental property.

As a landlord or property manager, you will find it extremely common to have to modify leases and rental agreements to accommodate your tenants. Sometimes, you are asked to remove a tenant because she has to move away; other times, you may need to add on a tenant.

You will find that this happens very frequently in so-called “college towns.” The in- and outflow of students can be a bit overwhelming at times. However, it is a fact of life and a part of the business. Roommates who grew up together and have been friends for decades may find that they cannot live together. They may argue loudly and bother your other tenants or they may have physical altercations that put other tenants at risk of bodily injury.

When you and a tenant sign a rental agreement or lease, you both are bound to the terms of the contract. Most times, however, it will be the tenant who initiates the early termination of a lease, either intentionally or unintentionally. It is rare that a landlord or property owner breaks a lease. Of course, it does happen; it is just a very infrequent occurrence.

As a landlord or property manager, you will have to deal with lease or rental agreement renewals on occasion. Every lease or rental agreement has a fixed term. The most common fixed terms are monthly (rental agreements) and annually (leases). Many leases begin as an annual agreement that turns into a month-to-month agreement if the annual lease is not renewed.

Either party to a lease, the renter or the landlord, can initiate a renewal. Of course, after 12 months, a lease renewal is pretty automatic: It either kicks off another annual lease or it turns month to month. Generally speaking, if all went well, leases are renewed with both parties happy to extend the relationship. Occasionally, a renter may need to move to another area at the expiration of a lease or she may want to move to a place where the rent is cheaper. But for the most part, most rental agreements are renewed.

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Tenant screening is a popular topic on the World Wide Web and elsewhere. More and more companies are providing tenant screening services of increasing sophistication, and we advise our readers to use them. In doing so, however, the landlord subjects himself to the strictures of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. This act is comprised of 24 sections of the United States Code, most of which have nothing to do with the landlord if he utilizes tenant screening reports. This article is an effort to cull those requirements that affect the landlord who uses screening services or credit reports and explore what they entail. This column is not an attempt to report upon the privacy and credit laws which may exist in particular states or localities. These are too numerous to deal with in one place.

A tenant screening report is undoubtedly a consumer report subject to the Act. The definition of “consumer report” is at 15 USC Sec. 1681(a)(d) and reads as follows:

Question

When screening possible tenants, I am not sure what to do in regards to their criminal records, and when it is ok to reject an applicant due to their record.

Answer

The rent-collecting process begins even before the resident moves in. When giving a new tenant final instructions about moving in, make sure they understand the contract that was made between them and the property. Their part of the contract is to pay their rent on or before the 1^st of every month, and in exchange, their apartment will be well maintained.

A. The easiest thing to do is to keep rent current, and stay on top of tenants who are late in making their payments. The following guidelines will make your job of collecting rent, and knowing who is late, much easier: