Sometimes the landlord/tenant relationship can be a difficult one. But it does not have to be that way, and it certainly does not have to start out that way. As landlords, we try to get this relationship off to a good start and keep it that way by taking care of our properties and tenant concerns.

But some tenants, perhaps due to past experiences, prepare for the worst and thus approach the relationship ready for a fight. Maybe they have never had a decent landlord. Maybe some just do not know how to act. Whatever the reason, here are 14 tips to tenants everywhere for a decent landlord/tenant relationship!

1. Pay your bills on time. Seems fairly obvious, I know, but many tenants believe they can pay every other bill before they pay the rent. Want to stay on our good side? Please pay your rent on time.
2. Always try to be polite. I will, too. Being polite and calm really does go a long way. You would not like it if I left you snarky or angry screaming messages on your voicemail. I know sometimes issues can seem to linger on and on, but we really are doing our best to get things resolved.
3. Listen to our instructions. We tell you things for a reason. If we show you how to trip a breaker or turn a gas valve off, listen. It may just save your butt. If we tell you there will be a hard freeze tonight and to please let your faucet drip, don’t call us the next day and complain that your pipes have frozen and you need to do laundry. I can’t control the weather, so you will just have to wait until it warms up.
4. Help us. We try to take care of our properties, but we can’t be everywhere all the time. Is there something we need to know about? Tell us. Is something broken? Let us know. Help us by being our eyes and ears.
5. Tell the truth. Did you or your kid flush something down the toilet and stop it up? Then tell us the truth so we can get the problem resolved as quickly as possible. After a dozen years in this business, we can almost always determine the culprit anyway.
6. Please just leave me a message. If we do not answer your call, do not hang up and call over and over again. There are times we simply cannot take your call. How do you think we are going to feel when we finally answer you after you have called five times in a row? It had better be a matter of life or death.
7. Understand that we have a lot going on. Sometimes other tenant’s issues may take priority. We know about your issue, and we will get to it just as soon as we can. We might for example need to make sure everyone has heat before taking care of your dripping bathroom sink.
8. If you get in a bind, talk to us. Communication is key! Tell us what is going on. Did you lose your job? Has your roommate gone off the deep end? We have been there before, and we know what it is like. But if you do not talk to us, there is no way we can help you. Please do not put your head in the sand and hope whatever problem you are having will go away. It will not, and things will only get worse.
9. Treat my property and the people who do work for me with respect. You would not believe how many people are just plain rude to the people we send over to try and fix their problems. Plus, how do you think we are going to react if we see that your place is a mess or that you are causing damage? Disrespecting our properties or our help is a sure way to create an adversarial relationship.
10. Work with me. We know you have a busy schedule. So do we, and trust us, we want your issue resolved as quickly as possible too because we have a dozen or so more to deal with. It all goes much easier if you work with us on times and arrangements. You might have to put up your dog for a day or allow us into your apartment on your day off. We hate to disturb you, but we will be done and out of your hair just as soon as we can.
11. Trust me. We are not going to steal your stuff or try and stiff you. Yes, we know some landlords might, but not us. If we say we need to get into your home, it is for a legitimate reason.
12. Follow the rules. They are there for a reason. They were explained to you when you moved in, and you agreed to follow them. It just makes life harder for all of us if you choose to ignore them. If you could not live with the rules, then you should not have moved in.
13. Respect your neighbors. Would you appreciate a loud party the night before you need to make a major presentation at work or before your final exams? No, you would not. Remember that you live in an apartment building, and you have neighbors — sometimes very close neighbors. Think about how your actions might affect them. I’m not saying do not have any fun; just try to be considerate.
14. Hide your weed. Just please do this. It is technically against your lease, and you really never know when there will be an emergency and who will need to access your place.

A lot of the above is just common courtesy and common sense. But for those few — and you know who you are — please review and follow the above and let’s make your stay with us as pleasant as possible.

VacancyFillers.com is a Baltimore based tenant placement company that helps landlords who are losing money from their vacancies, and being distracted from their families/careers while trying to find tenants. 

Original Article: http://time.com/money/3697636/landlord-tenant-renters-tips-advice/
Author: Kevin Perk

Here is some advice from experts to keep your rental money flowing in the right direction!!!

1,Keep your goals in mind. Investors need to know why they are in the rental market and what they want to accomplish financially, says Wendell De Guzman, chief executive of the real estate investment firm, PCI in Chicago.
If the goal is to live passively off the rental income, then investors should know how much income they'll need. The tax rate changes as income becomes passive, says De Guzman, and "your tax rate can be zero percent" because you can deduct the depreciation from your taxable income.
For example, an investor who pays $275,000 for a house would divide it by 27.5 (years) for depreciation and shield $10,000 in income annually.
2. Put your financial house in order. Knowing your income and expenses will help you get loans and, subsequently, buy more property, De Guzman says. Don't forget to include taxes, insurance, maintenance, management, utilities and the reserves for major repairs, like a new roof.
It also pays to learn financing and talk with mortgage brokers to find programs to buy the property with as little money down as possible. First-time homeowners might buy a four-unit apartment building, get an Federal Housing Administration loan with a 3.5-percent down payment, collect the security deposit and, if you close early enough in the month, use the first month's prorated rent toward the down payment, De Guzman says.
3. Learn your market's vacancy rates and property ratings. There are areas rated A through F, and they all sell and rent for different rates. Keep your vacancy rate to 5 percent or less, De Guzman says, so you won't be stuck with an unrented property for months at a time.
If you don't want to be a property babysitter, avoid the areas with the lesser ratings. Areas with F ratings often have the most violent crimes in the neighborhood. "It's tough being there. You have to watch your investment like a hawk," he says.
A-rated areas often mean higher sales prices but lead to higher rents and more regular tenants. "You'll have fewer headaches if you're dealing with renters who can afford a more expensive rent. You don't want to be dealing with the bottom-of-the-barrel (properties) if you plan on being an absentee landlord," Novotny says.
4. Look for real estate with great potential. Properties that tend to do well are near schools, expanding retail or trendy points of interest, local transportation, or surrounding malls, says Daniel Sanchez, commercial associate partner of Partners Trust Commercial in Beverly Hills, California.
Once it's yours, maintain the exterior and keep your costs down with desert landscaping, low-flow toilets and tankless water heaters, he says.
5. Keep your options open. Consider smaller markets within secondary markets, how well the house was built and how much people are paying rent in the neighborhood. "I want to be in the $800-to-$900 range in the secondary market," says Yariv Bensira, owner of Hyde Capital in Memphis, Tennessee, who came to the country to attend college and now who owns and handles 4,000 units with a private investment fund in Israel.
Before buying, he checks how well the house was framed, who the tenants would be and what he can add to the property to reasonably increase the rent. "You're not going to change the demographic or bring in completely new people. The question is whether the existing tenants can pay a little more for a better product," he says.
6. Don't be lured by low interest rates. If a property is already 30 years old and would cost the same to build it, then don't buy it, Bensira says. Make sure your home has enough value to get the returns you want when you eventually sell the property.
7. Renovate the kitchen and bathrooms to get higher rent. Quality granite in the kitchen could save you resurfacing costs, and bring in an extra $50 to $90 per month, Bensira says. Be sure to know how much renovations cost so that you know if you're getting a fair bid.
8. Screen the tenants. Have an application process and use a service such as National Tenant Network to look for civil and criminal lawsuits, recent collection activity and credit scores above 600, says De Guzman. "Look for people who were down financially, but now are on their way up with a good job and some savings, who have been paying their bills for the past four years," he says.

Here are some often-overlooked tax tips that can help you manage the tax side of your rental property.

Renting out a residential property can be a solid investment, but there are many tax rules that must be followed in order to claim income and expenses properly. Tracking and organizing your rental receipts is the first step in managing the tax side of your rental property, but there are a number of other important — and often-overlooked — tax tips for landlords.

1. Claim your home office
You may not consider your rental income to be a regular business with an office, but it is. You have to record your income and expenses somewhere, and that is likely to be a desk or room in your home. If you use a room or other dedicated space in your home exclusively for your rental activities, you can claim a portion of your house expenses as a deduction against your rental revenues.

Your business portion can be based on either the office's square footage divided by the square footage of the entire house or by how many rooms it encompasses versus the total number of rooms in the house. Calculate it both ways and use the percentage that gives you the largest deduction.

Beginning with 2013 tax returns (filed in 2014), the IRS has begun a simplified option for claiming the deduction. This new method uses a prescribed rate multiplied the allowable square footage used in the home. For 2015 the prescribed rate is $5 per square foot with a maximum of 300 square feet. The space must still be dedicated to the business activity as described above.

2. Repairs versus improvements
Maintaining a rental property includes fixing the building up over time. Some of these costs are repairs, and some are improvements. The basic definition of a repair is anything that puts the property back into the same condition it was in originally.

For example, if you paint the walls, fix a broken window, or change the locks on the doors, you are simply restoring it the way it was in the beginning. An improvement, on the other hand, increases the value or the longevity of the property over what it had been originally. For example, if you build a room in the basement, put a new roof on the structure, install a solar electric array for the first time, or put in a new outdoor pool, the value of the property increases or it will last longer.

The reason it is important to differentiate between the two types of costs is that repairs and maintenance costs can be expensed in the year incurred, whereas improvements must be capitalized and the expense taken over a period of years through depreciation.

3. Track your mileage
If you have to use your personal vehicle for rental activities — such as buying supplies, picking up rent checks, or showing the property to potential renters — the proportion of the vehicle usage related to business purposes is deductible against rental revenue.

You can choose one of two methods to calculate your allowable deduction. The first requires that you track the percentage of your mileage you are using for business versus the total mileage of the vehicle. Apply this percentage to your total vehicle expenses for the year including gas, insurance, repairs and maintenance, and loan interest or lease cost. A more simplified method allows you to apply a per-mile rate to your total business miles for the year. These rates change once or twice a year and can be found on the IRS website (irs.gov).

4. Watch out for recapture
The tax code allows you to expense the cost of purchasing your rental property building and improvements (but not the land) over a number of years, through depreciation. This can provide you with a hefty annual expense to lower your taxable rental income each year. However, if you sell the property for more than the depreciated value, you may have to add some or all of the depreciation you have taken over the years back into your taxable income. This is called "recaptured depreciation," or "recapture" for short. It can be a nasty and expensive surprise in the year you sell the house.

Plan ahead for recapture if your property is in an area with increasing property values.

5. Legal and professional fees
You can deduct the cost of hiring a lawyer or an accountant to provide services related to your rental property. For example, if you have a lawyer draft your rental contracts, or engage an accountant to file your personal taxes that include your rental income, the rental-related portion of the expense is considered business-related, and you can deduct it against rental revenues.



​Original Article:  https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Investments-and-Taxes/Tax-Tips-for-Landlords/INF22649.html
Author: TurboTax