Living full time in your rental with your tenants can be an excellent way to save money and build your portfolio. Here are 5 tips for people who are living in their Orange County rental with their tenant.
FHA Live-In Loan
If you are just starting out in real estate investing, living with your tenant is an excellent move. You could qualify for an FHA live-in loan which is good for multi-family housing with up to 4 units. A few stipulations of this loan is that the owner must live in the property for at least one year, the property must meet FHA standards and pass appraisal. For more information about this opportunity, give us a call at 949-625-4533.
Reliable Monthly Income
Your rental property will create reliable income that you can use to cover the loan payments and insurance and other expenses. You can start saving the leftover funds to purchase your next rental property or make improvements to your current rental property. Make sure you enforce your due dates and implement late fees if you need to. This will keep your cash flow reliable by making sure you receive the rents on time. You may also want to look into ways tenants can pay rent online, this will save you time and energy because, with these systems, rent is usually directly deposited into your account. It will also help you keep track of who has paid rent and you will be able to pull rental payment history a lot faster than trying to use your bank deposits.
Find a Good Tenant
In order to have a reliable monthly income, you will also have to secure reliable tenants. Make sure to complete your due diligence with all possible tenants; run background checks, credit checks, verify income and employment and call all references they provide. You don’t have to turn into Sherlock Holmes, but you will want to get a good idea of who your candidates are and make sure there are no inconsistencies.
You will also want to set house rules and boundaries with your tenants so they understand when they can contact you and when quiet hours are. Communication and rule enforcement will lead to a great tenant-landlord relationship. Just make sure not to violate any of the Orange County or CA laws.
Use 3rd Parties
Another great tip for people who are living in their Orange County rental with their tenant is to use third-party handymen or contractor companies. It might be easier if you are repair inclined, however, you need to establish that boundary between your tenants that if something goes wrong, they aren’t banging on your door in the middle of the night because their toilet is running. This will also help establish boundaries because they know you will hire someone to fix their problems. This is also a good move because their work is usually under warranty, so if something still isn’t right, they will come back and fix it.
We Will Help
At H&M Realty Group, we will help you with all of these tips. We can help you navigate the FHA Live-in loan process, we will help you find a great property so you can optimize your real estate investment efforts. We are experienced in finding properties with great potential as rentals and as additional real estate investments. We can help you come up with your rules and set boundaries with your tenants. We can also help you find the best third party repairmen for any residential problem.