Managing properties is at the heart of any real estate business.
If you own a few investment properties, you probably know what it’s like to be a landlord. And it’s not always fun.
At some point, you’ll need to consider hiring a property manager if you want to scale your business as much as possible.
Sure, you could continue managing properties on your own, but eventually outsourcing property management will actually save you more time and money in the long run.
Property managers charge anywhere from 8 to 12% of the monthly rent you take in. But the tasks they take off your hands can be well worth it.
Tasks That Property Managers Handle
Property managers handle most if not all of the following tasks:
Marketing the Property
Marketing your property can be a long process. It involves taking photos, writing listing descriptions, advertising, facilitating showings, and more.
A good property manager will be familiar with the entire sales process. They likely already have systems in place from working with other clients that can help streamline your marketing.
Finding Good Tenants
With so many people looking for housing these days, you’re sure to get a lot of rental applications. But sorting through them and deciding which applicants are best can be a pain. From performing background checks to verifying employment, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to find your perfect match.
Again, property managers can help. They know from experience where to look for good tenants, and they can screen them for you with the help of efficient tools and software.
Collecting Rent
That said, you can’t always avoid getting a few bad apples. And nothing’s more frustrating than dealing with late payments or tenants who stop paying all together. In such situations, collecting rent is uncomfortable, not to mention tedious.
But by hiring a property manager to collect rent for you, you put a convenient buffer between you and the tenant. You save yourself the work and stress. And you can make your rental income truly passive by not having to collect it yourself.
Managing Tenant Requests
Managing tenants is a constant job. Hiring a property manager to take tenant calls for you can relieve you of a lot of headaches.
Let the property manager handle complaints and emergency maintenance requests. That way, you’re not bothered in the middle of the night to get up and fix a broken stove or help tenants who’ve locked themselves out. You can rest assured that the property manager will take care of it.
If you don’t hire a property manager, you essentially agree to always be on call.
Performing Routine Inspections
Of course, some maintenance issues slip under the radar unless you perform occasional inspections. Plus, if your tenants start to misuse your property in any way, you’ll want to know about it as soon as possible.
A good property manager will keep a close eye on all your units and inform you if anything goes wrong. That way, you stay on top of things with minimal effort on your part.
Managing Relationship with Contractors
Finding and managing contractors is a whole job in and of itself. But an experienced property manager will already have a whole team of reliable contractors for you to choose from, and usually at reasonable prices.
Take advantage of these quality connections to get the people you need: plumbers, roofers, painters, electricians, you name it! You’ll know they do good work if you trust your property manager. After all, if they trust them, you should be able to as well.
Other Benefits Of Hiring a Property Manager
Maximize Your ROI
By taking the above tasks off your hands, property managers allow you to spend more time doing what you do best. They free up your time to focus on higher level decisions like deals and acquisitions.
After all, managing contracts, rents, maintenance requests, repairs, evictions, and so on takes valuable time. If you really want to maximize your ROI, don’t try saving money in these time-consuming areas when your time is worth more elsewhere.
Benefit From Expertise
Property managers are experts in their field. So not only can they save you time but they can save you money on things they are more efficient at than you anyway.
For example, they have a bigger pool of both contractors and tenants to choose from. So they are more likely to find you better deals.
Property managers also tend to have more market knowledge, so they can help you set good rental rates and know when to raise them.
Invest in Distant Properties
With a property manager, you no longer have to be on-site. You can own remote properties and hire local property managers to run them for you.
This also means you can invest in a larger scope of properties. Live in California but want to invest in the Houston, TX area? No problem. Just hire a property manager in Houston.
With the right property manager, you don’t have to stick close to your assets.
Follow Housing Laws and Regulations
A good property manager also knows all the local housing laws and regulations. So they can help make sure you follow them.
For example, they know how to navigate anti-discrimination rules in the applicant screening process and how to handle evictions properly. They can even represent you in court if needed.
This way, you can rest assured that you’re always in compliance with the law, and you won’t get into any legal trouble.
Keep a Buffer Between You and Your Tenants
Sometimes, managing tenants gets more personal than you’d like. It’s hard not to sympathize with someone who can’t pay rent because they lost their job or a loved one, for example.
But at the end of the day, you’re running a business. And if you give someone a free pass, you’ll only give precedent for others to ask for the same.
So it’s best to keep a professional distance between you and your tenants to make sure you avoid foolish business decisions.
Final Thoughts
Whether or not to hire a property manager is ultimately up to you. If you’re a handyman and all your properties are local, it might be worth managing your own.
But if you want to take your real estate business to the next level, you’ll need to hire a property manager eventually. There’s simply no way to scale without one. In the long term, hiring one is the best way to go.
