4 Post-COVID considerations for prospective Landlords guide, Home renting tips, Property rental advice

4 Post-COVID Considerations For Prospective Landlords

15 Apr 2021

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If you’re thinking about becoming a landlord, this is a reasonable time to get started. Property prices and rental rates remain strong despite the turmoil of the pandemic era, and the world is finally making some decent progress in the effort to move past COVID-19. All the job losses of the last year have highlighted the fundamental uncertainty of conventional employment.

If you can afford to become a landlord, then, you can significantly improve your financial stability. But that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect option. There are risks involved with becoming a landlord, and challenges to overcome along the way. If you intend to make it work, you need to think ahead and focus your attention where it’s needed. So where is it needed the most?

In this post, we’re going to look at four key considerations for landlord life in the post-COVID world. Think carefully about each of these matters as you plan your new business venture, and you should be able to make better progress. Let’s get to them.

Insurance

Now that we all know how quickly things can change, it’s more important than ever to use insurance sensibly — and that goes for landlords just as much as it goes for renters. This is where property management insurance companies become extremely useful. Working with a property management insurance company like Duuo will allow you to protect your biggest investment, ensuring that you’re covered if renters are irresponsible and raising the value of your property through the provision of hyper-convenient renter insurance options.

Location

If you haven’t yet purchased the property you intend to rent out, you have much more interesting options than you would have had just a couple of years ago. This is due to the rise of remote working. No longer needing to live within commuting distance of their offices, workers are swiftly coming to appreciate that they can move around and live where they want to live. You can take advantage of this when looking at property.

For instance, if you can find a small town somewhere that has solid internet infrastructure and isn’t incredibly far from a big city, that might be a better option than the big city itself. You could buy a much larger house, in all likelihood (while prices will fully catch up with changing demand, there are still people who can’t or won’t work remotely, so this will be a solid option for a while).

Showings

Even if vaccination efforts manage to largely nullify the threat of COVID-19, plenty of people will still be reluctant to go back to how things were before. This holds significance when thinking about property showings. The best way to accommodate this is to make all property showings as safe as you can (requiring masks, providing hand sanitizer, etc.) and provide the most comprehensive virtual showings you can (offering 360-degree video tours online, for instance: a 360-video producer like EyeSpy360 can generate tours from regular panoramas).

Layout

Now that working from home is so popular, home offices are becoming key investments, and renters will be looking for places that can accommodate them. If you want people to choose to rent from you, you need to ensure that your properties are configured accordingly. Think about everything a good home office should have: a practical desk, a supportive chair, good lighting options (including light blockers like blinds or curtains), a stable temperature, etc.

Yes, you can leave your rooms empty and expect renters to provide their own furniture — but that isn’t the way to go if you want to attract people who want to draw upon their newfound professional freedom by moving around. Fully-equipped home offices will bring in many more short-term renters (and won’t prevent the interest of long-term renters).

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