Richmond Landlord & Rental Property Blog

What Maintenance Problems Should Richmond Renters Report Promptly?

Most maintenance problems are easier to handle when you start with what you can actually observe. You do not need to determine what failed, what trade is involved, or what repair may be needed.For ordinary maintenance problems, start with the PMI James River Resident Maintenance ...

Smart Devices in Your Richmond Rental: What to Know Before You Need Them

The worst time to learn how a device in your rental works is when it is sounding an alarm, refusing to unlock, reporting a leak, or displaying a warning you have never seen before.If your Richmond rental includes smart or electronic equipment, spend a few minutes familiarizing yo...

What Should a Landlord Do After a Sewer Backup in a Richmond Rental?

When sewage comes up through a toilet, tub, shower, floor drain, or other drain in a rental property, owners may call it sewage backflow, a sewer backup, or a drain backup. Whatever the label, the first job is the same: stop the event from getting worse, keep people away from con...

How to write a pet policy for rental properties

Most landlords think a pet policy is just a line in the lease that says "no pets" or "pets okay." It's not. A real pet policy is a legal document, a financial instrument, and a liability shield all rolled into one — and when it's written poorly, ...

Skip the Neighborhood Average and Price Your Richmond Rental Right

A landlord in Richmond's Museum District spent weeks wondering why a nearly identical rental two streets over kept beating hers to lease, until she realized the other owner had actually priced from the property's specific features rather than a citywide average. Her unit ...

Month-to-month vs. fixed-term lease: which is better for landlords

Most landlords assume month-to-month leases give them more control. We'd push back on that pretty hard.The reality is more complicated, and the wrong call can cost you several thousand dollars in a single vacancy cycle. If you're trying to decide how to structure your nex...

Are New-Construction Homes Good Rental Investments in Ashland?

Yes. Ashland can support a new-construction rental investment, but it deserves its own underwriting because the Town of Ashland adds a separate real-estate levy on top of Hanover County taxation and the current new-home search spans an unusually wide range of property types and p...

Are New-Construction Homes Good Rental Investments in Mechanicsville?

Yes, but Mechanicsville's current new-build rental math often requires discipline because many new homes carry a materially higher acquisition basis than the local townhome rental set. The market has enough active new construction and rental inventory to analyze directly rath...

Are New-Construction Homes Good Rental Investments in Midlothian?

Yes. Midlothian has enough current new-construction supply and rental depth to support a dedicated new-build investment strategy, but it is not one uniform market. A buyer can move among materially different attached and detached products while staying under the Midlothian name.P...

Are New-Construction Homes Good Rental Investments in Chesterfield County?

Yes. Chesterfield County can be a strong place to buy a new-construction rental, but the county's 2026 housing pipeline is too large and too varied for a single new-build rule. The investment case changes between Midlothian, Moseley, Chester, and other parts of the county bec...