As a property manager, your biggest task is to improve tenant satisfaction without hiking operating costs.

That is the only way your business will be profitable.

But with the many maintenance needs, utility bills to pay, taxes, and other bills, reducing operating costs isn’t as easy as many would imagine.

However, with the following 5 strategies, you can lower costs in your rental without compromising tenant satisfaction.

1. Regular maintenance

The first culprit when it comes to costly maintenance is the roof. If you allow leaves and debris to build upon the roof and cause leaks, you can easily lose thousands of dollars in repair costs.

The same case goes to the gutters. If a leak isn’t noticed early enough, it can damage the ceiling, interior walls, and the siding, necessitating more pricey repairs.

Therefore, always keep the roof in good condition if you want to save yourself pricey renovations. Roof upkeep and maintenance can be done yourself. Only call in repair experts after noticing a leak. You can also perform low-maintenance landscaping, minor painting jobs, and other handyman’s tasks around the property.

2. Reduce water bills

Reduce water wastage at your rental property to reduce water bills. Start by ensuring that showerheads, toilets, pipes, and faucets have no drips or leaks. Fixing a small leak can save you up to 10 percent in monthly bills.

Another way of reducing water wastage is by installing low flow showerheads. Such shower heads have a maximum water flow rate of fewer than 2.5 gallons per minute, compared to traditional showerheads whose rates exceed 5 gallons per minute. Dual flush toilets will also save you at least 3 gallons of water for every flash.

3. Go green

Most vacation rentals in Florida have gone green. Many homeowners have gone green. Clearly, there is a reason why the world is gravitating towards green energy.

That reason is its significant increase in energy efficiency and reduction of household energy consumption.

To help, some of our apartments are smart apartments. What this means is you can control your home (lights, thermostat, door, and more) from wherever you are. Say you are on your way to work and you remember that you lift the air running and a light on, rather than turning around, you can open our Norhart smart app and turn both the thermostat and light off. This saves you time, energy, and money.

Going green means:

· Improving natural lighting in your rental property.
· Replacing incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs.
· Installing energy-efficient washing machines, thermostats, and other appliances.
· Improve the property’s insulation.

4. Lower rent to minimize turnover

This sounds counterproductive, but you will be surprised at how effective it is in keeping the cash flowing. Lowering rent for your tenants relative to competing rental properties in your neighborhood will mean that your property will never be empty provided it is in good shape.

One hundred percent occupancy rate means zero listing and advertisement costs. It also means having to keep going to the apartment to meet potential renters; that’s time and money wasted.

Besides, if an apartment stays vacant for months, you earn nothing from it, yet you have to pay taxes and other monthly standing charges. And because tenants are always skeptical about houses with high rates of tenant turnover, you need to be very careful not to give potential tenants a reason to bypass your property.

However, you must be careful not to lower the rent too much to the point of losing more than you are gaining from 100% occupancy. Do your homework to ensure that whatever you are charging isn’t too low from what others are charging.

5. Hire a tax appeal expert

If you are experienced in property management, then you understand how expensive property taxes can be. But did you know that you can appeal your property taxes? Well, with the help of an expert, you can!

Sometimes taxes will rise dramatically which is against the rules and regulations that govern taxation in the real estate industry. Before you pay more than you actually should, hire a tax appeal expert to balance the numbers and appeal for tax reduction on your behalf.

Most importantly, they can find loopholes in your property assessment, depending on the local market as well as your property age and size, so you only end up paying a small fraction of the tax amount you pay currently.

Conclusion

As alluring as rental income seems, it isn’t always guaranteed. You have to find ways of keeping your expenses at a minimum otherwise you will be running on losses. Note that the 5 strategies above aren’t enough; you have to find other strategies that work for your case. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all after all.

If you are interested in a smart apartment, visit:

Gateway Green Apartments - https://www.norhart.com/forest-lake/gateway-green-apartments
Emberwood Apartments - https://www.norhart.com/blaine/emberwood-apartments
Encore Apartments - https://www.norhart.com/forest-lake/encore-apartments