A 0% Vacancy Rate is Possible (In Your Duplex)

Almost every landlord out there is in search of a 0% vacancy rate. Turnover can be expensive, and adding even a two or three month vacancy to go along with that expense can be difficult to recover from.

But is it even possible to avoid vacancies as a landlord?

Yes! Read on to learn more about how this is possible.

Build Relationships

Many duplex owners make an immediate and significant mistake when attempting to manage their tenants – they assume that they should assert their authority.

While the property does indeed belong to you, the best landlords are able to let tenants take a little bit of ownership over the property as well. Let them feel like they’re at home and that you have their best interests in mind. If tenants are afraid of assuming blame any time something goes wrong, they may not even report it to you at all.

Tenants that build great relationships with their landlords are the most likely to stick around. And when it does come time to leave, they’re also likely to give you ample notice and be more agreeable with the move out process.

Do not make the mistake of saying “I own this property and you just live here.” That kind of thought process will not help you in building relationships, and mistreated tenants are likely to move on to somewhere else.

Vet Your Tenants

One of the best ways to end up with a vacancy is by having a bad tenant. What’s one of the worst kinds of tenants?

The one that doesn’t pay their rent.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who will be regularly short on rent or completely out of money when it comes time to pay up. They may mean the best (or they may not) but either way, you don’t want to be the one trying to sort out a tenant’s financial woes.

Should you ever be forced to evict a tenant like this, you’re almost sure to end up with a vacancy.

So how do you avoid it? By vetting your tenants properly. You might be a great judge of character, but we’d still encourage you to require criminal background and credit checks. Some of the most well-meaning people really struggle with money. If you end up with one of those people in your property, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

To avoid that, do these checks so that you’re protected. Otherwise, the biggest abusers and payment skippers will prey on you – the one that doesn’t do these industry standard checks.

Set an Open House

Creating a vacancy is easy when you’re arranging showing after showing and waiting for the right tenant to drop by. Instead of doing this, just set up a single open house with pre-vetted attendees (if possible) that occurs on just one single weekend.

Instead of drawing out the process of showing the property for weeks, you should be able to have a tenant set up after just one day of showing the property.

This will save you money big time by helping you to avoid or reduce a vacancy. And not to mention, your current tenant will be much happier to help clean the place up and cooperate for one showing as opposed to 10 or 20.

Conclusion

Considering buying or selling a duplex? Get in touch with our team of licensed realtors. We specialize in multi-family properties and can help you to score a great deal (or get the best possible price for your property.)

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