Avoid the Stress of Managing Rental Property

Benefits of Hiring a Property Manager

There are several benefits to hiring a professional property management company to care for your rental property. If you own rental property, you know how time consuming it can be.  If you are just getting into the landlord business, you may be inclined to try it yourself first; nothing wrong with that, but many of our clients are first-time landlords who have come to the decision that it’s cheaper to hire a professional manager than to bear the full burden of managing a rental property yourself.  Today, we are discussing the most important considerations when you are trying to decide whether to hire a property management company.

Tenant Screening

Screening for a good tenant is extremely important because it’s much better to have an empty house than a bad tenant placed in your house. So, the screening process has to be thorough and it should involve looking at credit, employment history, criminal background checks and other information that will tell you what you need to know about a potential tenant to safeguard your property. Any good property manager will make sure the screening process protects you against bad tenants.

Tenant Relations

You can avoid frequent phone calls when you use a property manager. It’s common for property owners to start out managing the tenants and the property themselves, but then the ongoing phone calls at dinner time and during all hours of the day and night become a hassle. This is why we are here.   It’s our job to field those phone calls and help you avoid being on call 24 hours a day.

Interfacing directly with a tenant can also be complicated for property owners. You will get some stories and people are going to tell you that work is slow or they’re going through a hardship or paying next month’s rent on time is going to be tough. A lot of owners are really uncomfortable with these conversations and they have a hard time saying no. They want to be compassionate, which is understandable. It’s much easier for us to simply say no and follow the procedures we have in place as a company. At that point, it can be out of your hands as an owner.

Maintenance Oversight

Taking care of maintenance and repairs means more than just managing the calls from tenants. There is a lot of work that goes into finding someone who will do the required work and making sure that the professional is trustworthy, affordable and competent. You want to make sure the job is done right and the issue is resolved. A big reason leave a home is that they are unhappy with the way maintenance has been handled and with how long they have had to wait to get things taken care of. This is a huge benefit of having a property manager. Most of us have a large list of approved vendors. We know their work and we use them on a regular basis, so we are comfortable with what they are going to do and the price they are going to charge.

Rent Collection

If your rent is not coming in, you are not making any money on your rental property. It can be time consuming and difficult to be the person chasing down tenants for rent. When you have a property manager, you don’t have to worry about collecting rent. Your property managers can handle the headache of making sure rent is paid on time. If the tenant defaults and has to be evicted, we will also handle the eviction for you.

Privacy

If you own rental property and manage it yourself, you’re guaranteed to be the person receiving the late-night emergency repairs.  If you perform maintenance at your rental property yourself, you’ll probably find out that when you go to make one repair, the tenant hits you with a honey-do list for other things that you weren’t prepared for, resulting in return visits.  When you deal with the tenant directly, there’s no way for you to escape them when you need a break or go on vacation.  If they know you, they won’t hesitate to contact you or even “bother you” at the most inconvenient times possible.  Having a property manager to handle these things for you allows you to have your privacy and live your life in peace without having to deal with tenants directly.

Peace of Mind

When you have a responsible property manager handling your property, you can relax and take your mind off the hassles and headaches involved with owning rental property.  You should trust your manager to take care of repairs as soon as they come up, quickly and affordably.  You can trust that your manager will properly account for all expenses and income so that you have accurate records when it comes time to file your taxes.  Your property manager is experienced in screening tenants and selecting the right renter for your property.

If you have any questions about why a property manager might be good for your rental home, please contact us at Management 1 Tri-Cities Realty & Property Management for more information about managing your rental property.

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