Category: Property Management Tips

If you own rental properties, you know that being a landlord can be a lot of work. While investing in real estate is a great way to make money and secure your family’s financial future, maintaining your income properties on your own may become unrealistic as your real estate portfolio grows. Hiring a property manager to help oversee your properties can then be critical in helping to make things easier for you. Furthermore, a good property manager can actually help to maximize your profits by helping fill vacancies, reduce turnover rates, and determine fair rent rates for your properties. Yet, if you have decided that it is time to let a property management company take care of your rental properties, you may find yourself wondering how you should go about choosing a qualified candidate. To help get you started as you make this important decision, here is a look at just a few of the qualifications you should look for in a property manager.

Experience

When researching local property management companies, you will need to take the time to learn about each firm’s experience. The fact is that property management can be complex, and you want to partner with a property manager who has experience managing local properties. Working with a local property manager will help to ensure that they are familiar with local and state laws, and that they know what goes into managing properties in your area. You want to ensure that any property manager you are considering hiring is knowledgeable about, and stays up-to-date on, the latest federal and state real estate laws, as these are constantly changing.

It is also critical that you look for a property manager that has experience working with your particular property type. For instance, managing a commercial property requires a completely different skill set than managing residential property, so you will need to find someone with the right experience to meet your needs. In fact, there is even a difference between managing single-family homes vs large apartment complexes, which is why it is important that you ask a prospective property manager what types of properties they have worked within the past.

A Good Reputation

You should also take the time to research a property manager’s reputation, as a company’s reputation can say a lot about their experience and service quality. A great place to start is with Yelp and Google reviews, as this can give you an overview of what tenants and landlords have to say about a property manager. You should also look up prospective property managers on the Better Business Bureau’s website. The BBB’s website can give you a lot of helpful information such as how long a property manager has been in business, what their rating is, and what kind of complaints they’ve had filed against them. Looking at customer complaints and how a property manager responded to them can give you great insight into their customer service skills.

Quality References

As you begin talking to property managers, make sure to ask for references from current and former tenants and landlords. An experienced property manager should have this information ready and will be more than willing to provide it upon request. You should be leery of a property manager who does not have or is unwilling to provide, references, as this could mean that they do not have a good track record, or that they are new to property management.

Make sure that you take the time to actually follow through and talk to these references, as this can give you great insight into the quality of a property manager’s work and what it would be like to work with them. Make sure that you ask references how easy it was to work with a property manager. Do they respond to questions promptly? Are they proactive when it comes to maintenance? Are repair requests addressed quickly? Do they keep tenants happy? Asking the right questions can be critical in helping you to narrow down your options as you search for the most qualified property manager.

Strong People Skills

Much of a property manager’s time is spent dealing with people whether they be showing units to prospecting tenants, meeting and communicating with contractors, responding to tenant requests, or keeping the property owner updated on what is happening at their property. Thusly, in order to ensure that you and your tenants are happy, a good property manager needs to have excellent communication and customer service skills. Essentially, they need to be experts at dealing with people.

A property manager should be friendly, professional, and skilled in both written and oral communication. This will help to ensure that everything at your properties runs smoothly, reducing your stress. The fact is that a property manager with strong people skills could mean the difference between happy tenants who stick around for many years and unhappy tenants who constantly leave.

Good Organization and Time Management

Being a property manager often means juggling a lot of responsibilities at once, as a property manager may need to show the property to prospective tenants, market the property, oversee renovations, collect rent, and manage eviction proceedings all on the same day. A good property manager must then have strong organization and time management skills. They need to be able to prioritize duties, keep records, and maintain a tight calendar that ensures all of their duties are completed on time. When interviewing prospective property managers, you should then take the time to ask them how they stay organized and manage their time. Find out how they prioritize tasks and what their plan would be for ensuring that your properties are properly maintained, and your tenants are looked after, at all times.

Maintenance Capabilities

It is also important that you ask prospective property managers about their maintenance capabilities. How will they ensure that your property is properly maintained, and emergencies are seen to in a timely manner? A good property manager should have a plan ready for maintaining a property. Due to their industry experience, they will know what maintenance needs to be done when and they will schedule repairs accordingly, which can help cut down on tenant complaints and costly problems down the road. Should problems with your property arise, they should also have a network of skilled contractors at their disposal, ensuring that repairs are seen to in a timely, cost-effective manner.

In order to ensure that you find an experienced property manager, it is important that you take the time to research your options and interview prospective property managers about their qualifications. Feel free to contact us to learn more about the things you should look for in a property management company.

Owning rental properties can be a great way to earn money while investing in your family’s financial future. However, if you own multiple-income properties, you may quickly become overwhelmed if you attempt to manage these properties on your own, and you may find yourself wondering if it is time to hire a property management company to assist you. While hiring a property management company may seem like an unnecessary expense to some landlords, you may be surprised by how much of an asset a property management company can be, as they can help you to get the most out of your rental properties. If you currently manage your income properties yourself and are unsure whether hiring a property manager is right for you, continue reading for a look at a few of the signs that you would benefit from working with a property management company.

 

Your Time is Limited

Unless you have made being a landlord your full-time job, it is likely that your time is limited. If you work a regular job while also trying to maintain your rental properties, you may quickly find yourself spread thin trying to take care of all of your responsibilities, and you may find that you no longer have time to do the things you love like spending time with friends and family. This problem will only worsen as you begin to take on more properties. In fact, many landlords find that the most properties they can manage on their own is two or three if they also work full-time. If you feel like you are making major sacrifices in your personal and professional life because you are spending so much time managing your rental properties, this is a clear sign that you should consider hiring a property manager. They will be able to remove a great burden from your shoulders by handling much of the day-to-day property management, allowing you to get back to doing the things that you love.

 

You’re Not Passionate About Being a Landlord

Let’s face it, not many people are passionate about being a landlord. Property management can be extremely stressful and time-consuming, and if you see rental property ownership merely as an investment, then you may not have a desire to handle the day-to-day struggles that come with being a landlord. Fortunately, you do not have to be a hands-on landlord to be a successful real estate investor. If you are tired of the 3 a.m. wake-up calls from disgruntled tenants, and you want to take a more hands-off approach to rental property ownership, then it may be time to consider hiring a property management company. An experienced property manager will do the hard work for you, allowing you to step back from the downsides that can come with owning income properties.

 

You Have Multiple Properties

As we previously mentioned, there is a limited number of properties you will be able to manage on your own before you become overwhelmed. After a certain point, it will become nearly impossible for you to keep track of all of your properties on your own, as taking care of property maintenance, filling vacancies, handling tenant complaints, and collecting rent can quickly become overwhelming if you have more than a couple of properties. However, if your goal is to continue to grow your real estate portfolio, you will likely reach a threshold fairly quickly where you find yourself unable to manage your properties on your own. This is when it is critical that you bring in an experienced property management company. By hiring a property manager, you will have a peace-of-mind knowing that your properties and tenants are in good hands, even as you continue to expand your real estate portfolio.

 

Your Property is Part of an Affordable Housing Program

It is particularly important that you hire a property management company if you own, or plan on purchasing, a property that is part of an affordable housing program, as this can make property management even more complicated. With many of these programs, the landlord receives financial assistance, often in the form of grants, low-interest loans, or tax credits, in return for renting at least a part of their property to tenants earning below a certain income level. However, when you are part of one of these programs, you must abide by a complex set of rules and regulations that can leave even a seasoned landlord vulnerable to making a critical mistake. Fortunately, a property management company will have experience handling affordable housing programs, and they will be able to help ensure that you adhere to proper procedures.

 

You’re Tired of Dealing With Tenants

Over time, you may find yourself growing exceedingly tired of dealing with tenants. This is particularly true if you own multiple properties, as you may find yourself tired of constantly fielding phone calls from tenants, handling maintenance tasks, and handling emergency repairs. Dealing with tenants can be particularly troubling if you seem to constantly have problem tenants who are irresponsible and/or who do not pay their rent on time. This is where hiring a property manager can be particularly useful.

Not only will your property manager handle tenant complaints for you, and oversee property maintenance and repairs, but they can also help you handle problem tenants. A skilled property manager will make sure that rent is collected on time, and, if it comes to it, they can also oversee the process of evicting bad tenants while following proper eviction protocols. Even better, property managers are great at screening tenants, which can help ensure that you do not take on any problem tenants in the first place.

 

You Have High Vacancies

As a property owner, if you do not have tenants, you don’t make money. High vacancies and/or turnover rates can then reduce your profits by leaving you with empty units. If this is a problem that you have been struggling with lately, then you’d likely benefit from hiring a professional property manager. Property management companies have the marketing experience to help you fill vacancies at your properties quickly. They also know what it takes to keep tenants happy, which can go a long way in helping to reduce turnover rates.

As you can see, there are many situations in which property owners stand to benefit by hiring a property management company. In fact, unless you plan on making property management your full-time job, and you are passionate about being a landlord, most property owners would benefit from working with a property management company from day one.

 

Feel free to contact us to learn more about how you will know if you should consider hiring a property manager for your rental properties