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4 Rental Problems All Condo Landlords Will Eventually Face

October 22, 2019 By Zee J 1 Comment

Rental Problems

Being a landlord can be very satisfying, and it can provide some consistent income for you, but it can also be time-consuming and stressful having rental problems. Many things can come up that require your attention as the landlord, and you’ll need to be ready for anything on any given day.

Many landlords hire a condo property management company to look after their rental, and it alleviates them of the things that require a lot of work. With the experts looking after everything inside the building, the property owner can sit back and cash the cheques.

Here are some problems a condo owner will eventually face if they rent out their property and don’t hire a condo property management company to look after everything:

  1. Tenant Turnover

Tenant turnover is one of the most time-consuming aspects of owning and maintaining a rental property. It takes up a lot of time to go through the screening process, and it can be tough to decide what applicants are the best fit, so you don’t get someone who isn’t a good tenant.

The property owner is making no money while the condo is unoccupied, so it’s essential to move the process along quickly without rushing it. Someone inexperienced in screening tenants might struggle through this process, and many times, the wrong type of tenant is accepted.

Condo property management companies have gone through the tenant screening process many times and know what to look for so they can fill your property with someone who fits and will stay for a long while.

Don’t face the issue of tenant turnover alone; hire a condo property management company to help.

  1. Late Payments

Receiving late payments from your tenants can be frustrating for property owners and is something many condo owners have to deal with. It might not be an issue if it happens only once or twice, but it can quickly become a significant issue if it happens every month.

New property owners may be inexperienced with collecting rent payments and might not know how to address this issue. Still, experienced owners and condo property management companies will know how to make sure it doesn’t happen regularly.

Earning money is the reason why a condo owner rents out their property. Late payments are a frustration you don’t want to deal with at the start of every month.

  1. Knowing the Legalities

There are various legal rules and laws you need to follow when you turn your condo into a rental property. The tenant has rights you need to be aware of, and the condo building has specific rules and bylaws you need to follow.

New property owners might not be sure of how to obtain business licenses and how to legally evict a tenant living in your condo. If you do something against the law and rules, you can face severe backlash and may have to pay fines or other forms of compensation.

Condo owners need to know the legalities surrounding their rental property, or they could get in major trouble. New owners might struggle with this, but condo property management companies know these rules inside and out.

  1. Maintenance and Repairs

When you rent out your property, you will run into regular maintenance and repairs. Something could break on a weekend, and you will need to move quickly to get it repaired.

Condo property management companies have their handymen on staff and can quickly move forward in managing and repairing your property, while condo owners who are maintaining the rental on their own will have to find someone to hire. This process could take much longer than having someone on hand, and it could also be much more expensive.

Regular maintenance is essential to take care of, and repairs will come up, even if the tenant is perfect. You’ll be thankful that you hired a condo property management company when something breaks, and you need someone quickly.

Avoid These Issues By Hiring a Condo Property Management Company

Landlords will face these issues at some point in their venture of owning a rental property. They happen regularly for condo rentals and can take up lots of time while eating away at your earnings.

When a condo property management company is hired to run your property, they will handle everything with their extensive expertise and knowledge, making it easy for you to sit back and earn money. The property management fees you pay will be well worth it for the peace of mind you’ll receive from having them run your condo rental the right way.

If you’re ready to put your condo in the hands of experienced professionals, then get in touch with Del Condominium Rentals today. We have worked with property owners in Toronto for over 30 years to simplify the management process by turning your condo into an income-generating property.

Contact Del Condominium Rentals at 647-952-3644 or email sales@delrentals.com to learn more about how we can help you avoid the common problems a landlord will eventually face when renting out their property.

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Filed Under: Condo Rentals Featured Story Tagged With: avoid issues, condo property management, late payments, Late Rent Payments, maintenance, Rental Problems, Renting Condo, Renting Investment Property, repairs, tenant turnover

Preparing Your Condo for Spring: A Quick Guide – Spring Cleaning

February 25, 2016 By Zee J Leave a Comment

Spring Cleaning

It’s closer than we think: butterflies, patios, open jackets, and fresh air.  And spring means, inevitably, spring cleaning.

Spring cleaning isn’t just an old-timey ritual.  Changes in the weather mean changes in our living space as the temperature rises, and that gap between winter and solidly warm weather is our chance to get on top of those changes, stop seasonal issues before they start, and prep our home for maximum enjoyment through the summer.

So with that in mind, here are five tips to get your condo ready for spring.

Clean everything

Yes, everything: the corners of your closets, the gaps between your air vent slats, your furniture, your door knobs and light switches, your walls (with a lightly damp cloth), your washer and dryer, the backs of your appliances, your carpets, your pillows.  Everything.

Winter—and the way it crams everyone indoors—means germs have a happy fun time in your house and dust bunnies frolic in your vents.  Wiping down everything means making sure that you’re not still bringing last month’s TTC into your condo every time you touch the light switches.

Tidy up—so your building can do the work

The great thing about living in a condo is that a lot of the year-to-year maintenance that most homeowners do themselves is done for you: duct cleaning, filter changing, carbon monoxide alarm testing, common area painting, and more.  Since you’re free of those particular burdens, making sure your panels, vents, and alarms are accessible—and your space uncluttered—is just the considerate thing to do.

Spring and fall are when most buildings will send their maintenance staff around for a check on the essentials.  Do your proverbial spring cleaning—and move any obstacles to your vents and panels—before you get the notice of entry, and you’ll make maintenance day that much easier for both you and your condo’s staff.

Keep that gorgeous view clean

Is it a bird?  A plane?  Or just that dead bug from last winter?  With so many Toronto condos boasting big, floor-to-ceiling windows, the dirt buildup that winter leaves behind on outdoor glass is pretty noticeable once spring hits, subtly but substantially getting in the way of all that natural light.

Most condo buildings will take care of inaccessible external windows, but the ones on the balcony are all yours.  Invest in or borrow an extendable cleaner—if it’s tough enough, your Swiffer will probably do—and give your outside windows a good scrubbing.

Air quality in the City of Toronto has improved massively in the last two decades—we hit our first smog-free summer in 2014—but you’ll still want to come prepared for a fight.  Invest in some heavy-duty paper towel or a handful of sturdy cleaning rags to wipe your windows down after a cleaning solution or vinegar-and-water mop.

Get at the grout

We all sweep, and we all mop, but frequently, we don’t get out a brush and scrub down every inch of bathroom grout.  And there’s a reason: It’s time-consuming, it’s meticulous, and it’s a pain in the knees as well as the more proverbial places.

Bathroom and kitchen grout, though, is one of the more porous surfaces in rooms that see a lot of heat and dampness—which means it’s a great place for germs and mold to get started.  And once the weather warms up and the ambient temperature of your condo goes from drier and colder to warm and damp, mold, mildew, and bacteria can expand out from there to create bigger problems.

A hydrogen peroxide and water solution or baking soda and vinegar are your winners when cleaning grout: they’re effective without containing chemicals harsh enough to damage your tiles.  Turn up the radio, promise yourself a great dinner reward, and hit your bathroom and kitchen grout with a fine, stiff brush before the weather turns.  It will suck.  You will be glad you did it.

Seal, caulk, and repair

Even with a relatively mild winter behind us, temperature takes its toll on the things our homes are made of: glass, plastic, steel, brick, concrete, wood.  Cold and dry weather causes materials to shrink, and if you’ve had any incipient cracks around your windows, at your baseboards, or anywhere else, it’s possible they’ve widened during the winter.

Spring is a great time to do a careful inspection of your condo for gaps, cracks, and wear, and ask your landlord to reseal windows or caulk around any gaps.  It means a day or two of disruption and a bit of smell—keep the windows open—but those cracks and gaps create points of entry for bugs, as well as making your heat or air conditioning work harder by letting outside air in.  Put in two days of sealing and upkeep now, and you’ll spend less time this summer fiddling with the thermostat or clearing out fruit flies.

Filed Under: Condo Rentals Featured Story Tagged With: appliance cleaning, clean, cleaning, condo cleaning, maintenance, spring

Kitchen Appliance Cleaning Tips: A Quick Guide

January 18, 2016 By Zee J 2 Comments

Keeping your rental condo in great shape is part of your job as a tenant: floors, walls, bathrooms, and, yes, the appliances in your kitchen.  If you’re moving from your parents’ house or university residence to the first place that’s your own, it’s entirely probable you’ve never hit the finer points of keeping a dishwasher in good shape—and it’s worthwhile to keep that dishwasher in good shape.

So here are some Appliance Cleaning Tips to keeping your major kitchen appliances clean and working—and make sure both you and your landlord stay happy.

The fridge

It’s one of the places that can get the dirtiest—after all, most of the food you have passes through there sooner or later.  What’s more, a clean fridge works better at keeping your food fresh, so half an hour every month will do wonders for your grocery bill.

First off, empty it out—and take the opportunity to ditch anything that’s unfortunate, sentient, or just past its expiry date.  Wipe down what’s left with a damp cloth right off the bat: There’s no point in taking all your jars, Tupperware, and containers out if they’re dripping and will just move mess back in.

If you’re into keeping things non-toxic—and that’s a good idea when talking about your fridge—a solution of vinegar and water can be enough to wipe any germs or messes out of there.  Dish soap and water is also a good bet, especially if your shelves or drawers are removable and can just be popped in the sink for a scrub.  But either way, a simple solution and a cloth are all you need to get the bulk of your fridge clean.  Wipe down every surface—walls, seals, and ceiling—and take care of the outside while any nasty spots soak.  That includes running a Swiffer or broom underneath the bottom to catch any dust or crumbs that have snuck their way down there.

Make sure your shelves and drawers are dry before popping them back in, and fill ‘er right back up.

If you’ve got a smell in your fridge that you’d rather not keep, a bit of baking soda on a tray will soak that up handily.  In the absence of baking soda, fresh coffee grounds also do the trick, and the coffee smell doesn’t last.

  • Get into the habit of wiping up spills as they happen. Without a chance to dry or harden, cleaning your fridge is light work.
  • Stainless steel or brushed chrome fridges might need a special cleaner for the outside surfaces. Check into it; you don’t want to ruin the finish.
  • A box of baking soda in the fridge door keeps smells from starting. Replace it every three months, though, or it’ll stop working when you need it most.

The stove

Your cooktop is pretty easy to keep tidy: It’s all about prevention.  The more you do, bit by bit, every day or week, the less work it’ll be when you take that sucker apart and attack it with sponges.

First off, check out what kind of stove you have.  If you’ve got the more traditional coil-element stove, you’ll need to score some burner liners from your local grocery or dollar store to keep food bits and debris from falling through into your stove’s insides.  When it comes time for Cleaning Day, take out your elements, wipe them down lightly with a vinegar and water solution—which won’t smoke if there’s still a spot left on your element later—and recycle your aluminum liners.  The metal drip pans underneath can be cleaned by soaking them in a dish soap solution in your sink.  Reassemble your drip pans, new liners, and elements, making sure everything’s entirely dry.

If you have a electric glass stovetop, you’re in luck: They’re amazingly easy to maintain.  Just wipe it down with warm, soapy water and a soft cloth every week or so, and put a little elbow grease in to get rid of the regular grease.

Overall, though, the day-to-day maintenance is everything.  Wipe down any spills or smudges on your stovetop after cooking every meal, especially if your stove is a glass-top.  What doesn’t stay on your stove doesn’t get a chance to build up.

The oven

Lots of ovens, especially the modern models you’ll find in rental condos, have a self-cleaning mode, but because they functionally scorch the dirt off your oven with high heat for you to wipe up later, it’s important to run the vent—and keep an eye on your smoke detector—while using them.

If you’re an avid baker or cook, though, the best cure is still elbow grease—and a little bit of regular attention.

Most oven cleaners are seriously caustic.  It’s important to read the directions on your oven cleaner carefully, wear gloves while using it, and make sure you keep any cleaner off the pilot light or electrical connections of your oven.  There are no shortcuts when handling oven-cleaning chemicals: take them seriously and you won’t damage your oven, breathe things you don’t want to breathe, or end up burning your fingers on chemical cleaners.

You can also clean your oven with the magic combo that is baking soda and vinegar.  First, take off the racks and coat your oven walls—but not the heating elements—thickly with a paste made out of baking soda and water.  Leave that on overnight; in the meantime, you can clean your oven racks in the bathtub with this handy tutorial.

In the morning, wipe the dried baking soda off with a damp dishtowel and a spatula, if you need it, and finish the job with a few light spray-and-wipes of white vinegar.  You’ll know you’re done when the vinegar spray stops producing happy baking soda foam.

The dishwasher

Yes, your dishwasher is an appliance for washing, but your dishwasher can still get dirty: Down in the bottom there’s a filter that keeps food bits and other random debris from getting in your drain pipes, and if you don’t clean it regularly, all that stuff and soap gunk is still there.  Lurking.  Waiting.

Cleaning your dishwasher grate is pretty easy.  Find the grate where all that gunk has collected, get all those bits of food out of there, and wipe it down with warm, soapy water.  Next, find out if your dishwasher model has a filter—you don’t want to take anything apart without some solid Googling—and if so, how to remove it.  Pop that out, scrub it down with a soft toothbrush and some hot water, and then put it back together once it’s clean.

If you’ve got hard water—and lots of places in the west end do—finish off by running an empty dishwasher cycle with two cups of vinegar in the bottom.  It’ll get the scaling and stains off, and leave your dishwasher good as new.

Best of luck!

Filed Under: Condo Rentals Featured Story Tagged With: appliance cleaning, appliances, dishwasher, fridge, kitchen appliance, maintenance, oven, stove

How to reset your breaker panel!

October 16, 2015 By Zee J Leave a Comment

If you’ve lost power in your condo, or you have appliances or lamps that aren’t working, the problem could be a tripped breaker. Please follow steps in this video to reset your breaker panel!

This Maintenance Minute video from Tridel explains  what to do.

Maintenance Minutes is a weekly video series that answers the everyday questions Tridel gets from condo owners.

 

Filed Under: Condo Rentals Featured Story Tagged With: breaker panel, maintenance

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About Del Condominium Rentals

Del Condominium Rentals (DCR) is a full service rental management company. For more information about our program and how to have your suite professionally managed, please contact our Head Office at 416-296-7368 or email us at info@delrentals.com

Recent Condo Rentals Post

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  • 4 Rental Problems All Condo Landlords Will Eventually Face

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