Owning a rental property is one of the best ways to make a good passive income. Once you have attracted tenants, you can be guaranteed a fixed income. After several years of receiving the same fixed amount, you may feel it’s time to increase the rent.
However, increasing the rent may result in a higher tenant turnover rate that will be counterproductive to growing your investment. So, how do you increase your income without raising the rent?
In this article, we offer some alternative ways on how to increase your income without raising the rent for your rental property.
Enforce Penalties for Late Payment
Late payment fees are typically a standard item in current leasing agreements. However, these fees may not always be enforced. This provides a great way to increase your income, by enforcing what is legally yours. Furthermore, by a keeping record of the payment dates, it will be easier to enforce the collection of late payment fees.
Property management companies are a great solution to enforcing these fees. They can help you keep track of your tenant’s payment records, collect the fees owed to you, and deal with your tenants directly, leaving you with more free time and money in your pocket.
Impose Pet Fees on Your Tenants
In Alberta, it is up to you as the landlord to decide if you want to allow pets in the building. Allowing pets in the property can potentially lead to higher repair costs after the tenant and their pet has left the unit.
Charging pet fees can be a great way to having these payments covered. Thus, putting more money in your pocket. Pet fees are a one-time deposit separate from security deposits in Alberta and must be enforced on the tenant for a genuine reason. Being able to research and determine a proper pet fee can be an essential need when trying to save for future repair costs.
A professional service such as a property management company could be an asset in helping you determine a proper and fair pet fee, while also saving on repair costs. They can also help collect the pet fee from your tenants for you.
Build Relationships With Local Businesses
As a property owner, building repairs are an unavoidable task. Whether it is for plumbing, landscaping or daily maintenance, repairs need to get done. These can be costly.
Maintaining and keeping a solid business relationship with local service providers can help save costs in the long term through personal discounts and being a returning client.
Hiring a property management company may also prove to be a great asset in reducing maintenance costs. These companies will already have strong relationships with reliable local businesses to quickly resolve maintenance issues on your building for a reduced cost.
By dealing with these companies for you, they can also help ensure the quality of the workmanship needed to take care of your properties. This can save you the time from building these relationships, and get you the savings where they matter most- your bank account!
Offer More Storage Spaces
Anyone can appreciate having more storage space. You can use this opportunity to make some extra money. You can charge more from your tenants for access to storage spaces such as in basements, attics or sheds.
This can be especially profitable for multifamily and urban properties since most of them would appreciate additional storage space. If you have more than enough space you can let out the storage to neighboring tenants.
Rent Out Parking Spaces
If you have limited parking space for your tenants, you can look for additional parking spaces for your tenants. You can use this as a means to make more money where you charge them for parking in these spaces. This can be particularly useful for properties in urban locations.
Conclusion
The tips above are just some of the many ways you can make an extra income from your property. However, just as with any other investment it is important to research before putting an idea into action.
This research can be time-consuming and require you to be familiar with legal boundaries. This is why a property management company may be the right solution for helping you diversify your investment in a safe and reliable way.
For more sound and professional advice on your property needs, reach out to Real Canadian Property Management Solutions. Our team is always ready and willing to discuss all things property with you. We have helped hundreds of landlords and property investors in the past and can do the same for your investment in Alberta real estate.