A property management company is a good investment

Why hiring a property management company is a good investment

Are you thinking of purchasing your first investment property but aren’t sure you have the time (or desire) to deal with tenants and potential problems? Or, maybe you already own a few properties and are feeling a little overwhelmed with the work involved in maintaining them. Then you might want to consider hiring a property management company.

“A property management company has the personnel and material resources readily available to market your property and do proper ongoing maintenance,” says Trish Montag, owner of K-W Property Management Corp. “Your stress level will be a lot lower when you know that a professional organization is constantly looking over your properties.”

Trish Montag has provided a list of reasons why hiring a property management company makes good sense:

• Tenant screening is long and painstaking. Anyone who has ever had a problem with a tenant knows how valuable tenant screening truly is. Taking the time to look at job history, payment history, credit scores, and other factors can help you identify who’s likely to pay rent on time and cause few disruptions, and who may compromise your entire operation. Unfortunately, doing the work yourself is both tedious and involved, and you might stress yourself out reviewing candidate after candidate in the hopes of finding someone worthwhile. A property management firm usually handles this process from beginning to end.

• There’s too much to keep track of. There’s a lot of paperwork and documentation involved in being a landlord. You’ll need to keep track of all of it if you want to be successful. That means you’ll need copies of the lease agreements, a working knowledge of your tenants, documentation of any incidents, and of course, a way to track your ongoing expenses and income. A property management service will take care of most of this tracking for you.

• The landlord is no longer in the area. Most new property managers invest in the city in which they live—or somewhere within driving distance. That way, they can easily drive to handle any problems that may come up. But if you’re forced to move, you’ll need someone in the area to take care of the property—and that’s where property management services come in. With these scenarios, they’re a practical necessity.

• Maintenance is annoying. Some properties are newer and better built than others, but almost all properties will require maintenance on an ongoing basis. This may include routine fixes, such as repairs to the roof or damage to the plumbing, but may also include more superficial maintenance requirements like maintaining the yard. Depending on the property, this could take many hours per week—so it’s naturally appealing to have someone else take care of it for you.

• Evictions are a hassle. For landlords, they’re a last resort when a tenant has not paid for several months or is actively damaging the property, but it takes weeks to months of work and legal battling to resolve the issue. Most management services step in to handle the eviction process for you when things get rough, sparing you the stress of doing it all yourself.

• Ongoing communication is unpredictable. As a landlord, you’ll be responsible for a number of ongoing communications, some of which can be awkward. Tenants may be angry, accusatory, or flat-out hard to deal with; that’s why the communication angle of management services is appealing.

• Marketing and advertising are confusing or stressful. Vacancies are your biggest threat to profitability, so you need to fill your empty unit as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, most landlords aren’t well acquainted with marketing and advertising, and find the process of marketing the rental unit to be confusing—or at the very least stressful.

• Rent is difficult to coordinate. Most modern landlords, especially if they’re working solo or are new to the game, still collect rent through old-fashioned means—a check in the mail. However, property management services may be able to better coordinate and automate rent payments, offering tenants the ability to pay online (and thereby having a better system to track payments). This is convenient and touchless for the property manager, but remember, it’s also beneficial for your tenants.

• There simply isn’t enough time. As you navigate the world of rental property management, you may find that you simply don’t have enough time to keep up with all the requirements. Most of your effort will be upfront work, fixing the property, finding a good tenant, and so on, but the daily and weekly tasks can add up quickly to be a burden. When you find yourself overworked, management services are your best option.

• Setting Rental Rates – Partnering with a property management company will pay big dividends when it comes to setting the right rental rates. Landlords who go it alone and do not set the right monthly rent amount on their rental properties end up leaving a lot of money on the table and often see their rental home sit vacant for months at a time.

• Vendor Relationships – Hiring a property management company allows you to tap into the relationships that they have established with vendors in the area including the best plumbers, contractors, electricians and HVAC professionals. The relationships a property manager develops over the years with these vendors helps landlords get the highest-quality work for the best price.

• Expertise in Today’s Rental Marketing Strategies – Today’s rental marketing landscape changes almost daily due to advances in technology. Hiring a property management company will give you the edge over landlords who try to market and advertise using outdated methods.

• Compliance with Laws – Another major reason to hire a property management company is to help you avoid costly missteps and make sure that you fully comply with laws and regulations. The right company will help you avoid discrimination in tenant screening process or the mishandling of private information. They will also ensure that your property is up-to-date and ready for tenants.

For more information, check out K-W Property Management Co. at kwproperty.com or contact Trish Montag at 519-954-8082 or [email protected].