In part one of our "tips to becoming a better landlord in Central Florida" series we talked about the nitty gritty details to getting an investment property move-in-ready in order to find the right tenant. Now that you’ve got the home primed and ready for showing to the hordes of people looking to rent, you’ll need to qualify the prospective Tenant. 

There are numerous programs out there that will help you in doing a check of your prospective Tenant. When weighing your options, be sure to let the firm handling the background/credit check know your criteria. For the background check, it will be your decision to determine what you’re willing to accept and decline. Is an unpaid parking ticket okay? How about a DUI? These are ultimately decisions that you are going to have to make. Are you looking for a certain credit score? Keep in mind that if you are looking for that perfect score, it’s not likely to happen. Most people these days are recovering from the market crash that happened a few years back and are still trying to rebuild their credit scores and history back up. A little flexibility on your part might be needed now and perhaps not so much a few more years down the line.

Just about every Investor has had to deal with tenants that keep them in one of two situations: a) scrambling to find new ones or b) trying their best to keep the ones they have living in the investment property, FOREVER. What you, the investor, can do to find the right tenant starts with you, the landlord. In this series, we hope to give you tips to becoming a better landlord in Central Florida. And just maybe, they will leave you in the latter of the two situations mentioned above.

When purchasing your next home, some land or a business, it’s always good to have an idea about the zoning codes, laws and ordinances within your county and city. Specific parcels can appear to be the prime place for usage but looks can sometimes be deceiving.   

Each jurisdiction at the city and county level will have established zoning regulations to help regulate the development and growth of their community’s needs in different areas. Each area may not be contiguously zoned and will more than likely vary in size. Within these zoning codes are a mix of alphabet and number code abbreviations to explain zoning maps. Each locality will have specific designations for zoning categories that don’t necessarily mean the same thing in the next county over so be sure you ask your local REALTOR® for help before proceeding.    

Read the following scenarios to see how “in the zone” you are and how a knowledgeable REALTOR® could have helped: