6 Demerits of Being a Landlord of Multiple Properties

“Being a landlord might be a prideful factor but it isn’t easy and absolutely a hellish experience if you’re holding multiple real estate units in your grasp at the same time.”

Owning Dubai real estate and property investment in income-producing units definitely, has its benefits. There’s amazing cash flow, equity appreciation, high returns, a shield against inflation, pride of ownership so on. Still, being a sovereign landlord, especially of multiple units can be a nightmare than a dream come true and here’re some definite reasons you simply couldn’t deny.

1. Time commitment

If you’re about to self-manage a rental property portfolio, go ahead and bid farewell to your quality time. It comes at the cost of vacations, weekends, other commitments and compromises your sleep. Be ready to answer the phone from tenants and clients almost 24/7/365.

2. Too much to master & manage

As a real estate manager, you’re required to manage a huge team and see if everyone’s doing their job in the right way:

• Customer service representative
• Bookkeeping agents
• Repairs and maintenance team
• Marketing team
• Real estate inspector and manager

As more and more revenue flows in, it comes with more problems, especially when having multiple people living on the property. This is because they belong to different cultures, languages and characteristics which eventually leads to various everyday living problems related to shared portions and maintenance such as the pool, greenhouse, driveway, courtyard and more, depends on the extent of the property.

People have children who can playfully trigger the fire alarm, certain annoying relatives who might choke the toilet and rowdy individuals disturbing the entire neighborhood. Besides all this, unmanaged properties also raise hygiene issues which leads to pest infestation such as mice, roaches and other creepy critters.

Although careful and thorough screening can prevent inconsiderate applications from becoming your tenants, no screening standards are that perfect. The more the number of units in your grasp, greater are the chances that you’ll end up with renters who look clean and considerate only on the paper but will rain down hell when the time comes.

3. Brain drain

To be busy is a good thing but there’s a thin line between being busy 24/7/365 and dealing with a lot of stress at the same time. It doesn’t matter how superb are your properties or how competent a landlord you are but it’s dealing with tenants who can be a real pain in the neck. Putting aside aggressive renters, there’re those habitual drama characters always coming up with stories of not paying the rent or against unmanaged units. In the end, you’ll have your brain completely exhausted and unable to focus clearly.

4. No objectivity

When too close to select property investments, looking after rehabs and improvements, accepting or rejecting tenants and managing units altogether, it has to be without any personal emotions or objections. When emotions come in between the decision to buy, lease, manage, renovate or sell, there’s always a risk of losing finances. Rely on the numbers and don’t cling emotionally to the property.

5. High maintenance costs

Items like flooring, doors and fixtures, hot water heaters and essential home accessories are routinely used by multiple family members. It means necessary repairs and replacements are crucial to ensure optimum performance which is obviously costly. The initial investment in premium-grade and quality goods would avoid frequent and unwanted expenditures but weigh the cost against rent especially when yours are multiple units. It has got to be way too expensive!

6. And it’s risky

Real estate risk comes in many forms other than money such as onsite management, dealing with troublesome tenants, rental collection, pet management, necessary repairs, and renovations so on. Indeed, being a DIY landlord can be downright risky.

Conclusion

When it comes to property management, it’s better to have a professional team than solely looking after everything for it raises the risks in almost every way.