Your rental property becomes more than just an investment when you rent it out. It is now a home to your tenants, which makes it a bigger responsibility for you. Part of managing a rental unit means delivering safety to your renters and having safety measures set up to protect your tenants.
No tenants will want to live in a unit where they feel their safety is compromised.
That’s why it’s best to protect your rental home and investment. Safety should always be your priority.
The following preventive steps can help minimize the criminal activities around your unit and make your property a safer place.
Choose High-Quality Tenants and Educate Them
Sometimes, criminals aren’t strangers who try to break into your property. Tenants can just as easily commit crimes in and around your property if you don’t have a thorough tenant screening process in place that empowers you to pick high-quality tenants.
Once you’ve found a good tenant, tell them the importance of locking doors every night, turning exterior lights on, and taking other measures to prevent crime.
To protect yourself if one of your tenants commits a crime, require renter’s insurance and ensure you include a crime-free addendum in the lease and explain it to the tenant thoroughly. The addendum should clearly state that tenants are prohibited from engaging in illegal activity in or near your property. That way, you can legally evict anyone who commits a crime in your property.
Check For Security Issues
The first thing you can do to protect your property is check if there are any security issues in the house. You can take a short tour around your home and identify the concerns with door latches, windows locks, deadbolts, backyard, and parking area, and resolve it on priority.
While securing the front yard of your home is essential, it is also crucial to make your backyard, garage, and shed, if any, more secure. Fix the broken doors and windows, use chains to lock your belongings, or keep them out of sight. Consider fencing your property off. It creates a barrier for criminals.
Improve The Lighting of Your Property
A fully lit place is an instant theft deterrent. It will be difficult for thieves to sneak in if you have motion sensing flood lights in your porch and driveway. You can add focus lamps or sensor lights around the boundaries of your property, such as the main entrance, backyard, parking area, and garden.
Install outdoor lights to cover sidewalks leading to your door, decks, patio, and stairs. Many owners and tenants tend to switch the lights off during the night. However, this increases the chances of a criminal intrusion. The best practice is to keep the lights on when it’s dark outside. You can install energy-saving lamps if you’re concerned about the electricity bill costs.
Trim Tall Bushes
Burglars or vandals can easily hide among tall bushes and sneak into your house. It is, therefore, essential to regularly trim tall bushes and hedges that grow along walkways. Don’t let it cover windows and doorways. You should be able to see the outdoor area by sitting inside. You can cut the grass yourself if you have gardening tools or hire a professional landscaper to trim the unnecessary shrubs grown in your area.
Install Home Security Gadgets
One of the most effective options to safeguard your house is to install advanced security gadgets. Install digital door locks and CCTV cameras so that you can keep an eye on visitors and secure the main entrance of your house. Add an alarm system in the front and the backyard for security alerts.
If installing home security gadgets is too expensive, you can also paste home security stickers on the doors and windows of your house, to reduce the odds of a criminal breaking in.
Educate Your Tenants About Best Practices to Keep the Home Secure
You can educate your tenants about the best practices to secure your home and add those to the lease agreement as well. Prepare your tenants for the worst situations and educate them about handling digital security systems, maintaining landscaping, locking doors and windows at night. Also, provide an emergency contact number. You should also motivate them to call the police and the neighbors for action when they notice a serious threat or an evidently unusual activity on the property.
Perform Regular Property Inspections
If you avoid inspecting your property, you can’t stay informed about security issues in and around the premises, so schedule multiple inspections per year.
Make sure you inform tenants ahead of time when you plan to enter the property.
Reduce Crime With Property Management
Owning rental properties comes with several responsibilities. First, having a safe and secure property is important, and choose tenants who care for it just as you would. Additionally, you’ll want to put forth measures to prevent crime at your rental property.
If you struggle to place high-quality tenants in your rentals and have dealt with criminal activity as a result, consider partnering with Overland Management. Our tenant screening process allows us to find the best tenants for your properties, and we can even help you evict a tenant who is causing problems.