Do you own a rental property in San Antonio? Do you have a property that you are thinking about turning into a rental property? Make sure you know the surprising truth of being a landlord in San Antonio because it’s not always what you think it’s going to be…
Owning a rental property seems like a great idea. You find a good deal on a house, you find a tenant, and then you profit from the rental income while you manage the property… how hard could it be?
There are positives to being a landlord and owning rental property. Many times that is all that everyone focuses on and sets a scene that is all rosy and wonderful.
Problem is, it’s often much harder than people realize and you may find (as many landlords do) the surprising truth of being a landlord in San Antonio: You give up your time – and you add on some headaches. There is no “set-it and forget-it”… there can be benefits but it will interrupt your life.
There’s the work required to be a Landlord
Owning a rental will keep you busy. There’s the work required to find the property, then to fix it up, then to find a tenant, then to answer the phone from them every time they call.
Even if they call late at night because the toilet is overflowing, you have to take their call and deal with it.
Tenants don’t care if you’re on vacation. They have a problem and they want it fixed. You will want to fix it too…delayed maintanance can turn little problems into big problems that end up costing you big in the future.
No property is perfect and no tenant is perfect. No…not yours either…So, things will break and fixing them requires work, even if you hire out the work. If you hire out the work, you need to manage your contractors, and managing contractors is its own special kind of headache.
You have to actively manage your tenants. Did they pay on time? Are they taking care of the property? Not staying on top of your rental property can be a recipe for disaster!
Being a Landlord takes time
Some landlords try to own a rental property while they have another job but many discover that it’s just as time-consuming… it’s like having a second full-time job!
You have to treat it like a job if you want to be successful, but most people don’t want another job so they either don’t put in the necessary time or they do and they hate it.
Between chasing down your tenants to fixing things around the house, it’s one thing after another and all that time can easily start to interfere with your other job… and that’s with ONE rental property. Landlords who own two or more are even busier.
I hate paperwork…think about all the paperwork that you have now, and start adding to it, proper documentation and records a critical when becoming a landlord and all that stuff takes time.
Listings, screening tenants, repairs, turnover, management all take time. You need to be able to commit that time on top of your current schedule.
Costs of Being A Landlord
Rental properties aren’t cheap. There are many costs to properly maintain a rental property.
Repairs will happen and some of them can be very expensive. But you have to also factor in things like vacancy costs and turnover costs.
Yes, you get some rental income from the tenant but you also have to take care of the property, fix it up, make upgrades, and repair it if the tenants trash it when they leave.
Have you factored in the costs for things like property taxes and rental property insurance? In other words, the costs add up and the financial rewards of owning a rental property may not be there for you. If you add up all of the costs associated with rental property and then factor in your time, you have to honestly ask yourself if it’s worth it in the end.
Landlord Property Management
Why not just hire a property management company to handle everything. Well…I’ve hired a few…and if you think you won’t need to manage your property manager, you are in for a surprise.
Property management companies are in the business to make money. So, oftentimes you will find that they are charging you extra fees for everything they do. Many of them also add a fee for coordinating repairs to your property…wait, isn’t that what their original fee was for?
Are they taking the first tenant that comes along or are they making sure that they find you a top-quality applicant? What are they doing to make sure that you never say “My tenant trashed my rental property“?
No one will look after your property like you will because they are not the owner. Managing property managers takes time and energy that they were supposed to give back to you.
Landlord Stress
When you add up all of those things we have discussed, it equals STRESS! You’ve got so much to juggle when you have rental property. You are going to worry about if it’s being taken care of and are your tenants going to pay.
And eventually, you will end up with a problem tenant…troublesome tenants will stress out even the most seasoned landlord. There will be times when you are going to lose sleep thinking about your investment. After all, you’ve got a lot of money on the line.
How much money are you actually making? Is it really worth it to keep being a landlord? Would you be happier if you could just cash out and move on?
Do you really want to be a landlord? Or would you be better is you could spend your time and money on something else?
If you own a rental property and want to get rid of it, we can help. We buy properties (even frustrating rental properties that have damage or bad tenants you can’t get rid of).
If you would like an offer for your rental property or if you would just like to ask us some questions about your situation and see if we can help, give us a call or fill out the form below and we would be happy to try and help you out.