What does a property manager do, and why should you consider hiring one? Let’s face it: While managing a rental property can be an extremely lucrative endeavor, it will take up most of your time and energy. This can be extremely limiting, especially if you are planning to expand your income property or are currently running other businesses.
So, unless you live near your property, have ample experience under your belt, and enough time on your hands to devote to running the business, you will definitely need some help. And not just from anyone, but from someone who knows what they’re doing – preferably, an experienced property manager.
What Do Property Managers Do?
The short answer: a lot! Specifically, a property management company will take care of day-to-day tasks from collecting the rent to paying bills related to property costs and everything else in between, allowing you to devote most of your time and precious energy into other more important things like expanding your business or spending quality time with your family.
Rent Collection
A professional property management company takes care of the tedious and sometimes awkward task of collecting rent payments from your tenants on time. Late payments and partial payments are difficult to handle, so having someone to take care of these things can save you a lot of trouble.
Many experienced property managers have their own systems in place so you can expect a regular, healthy cash flow every single month. They will also deposit the rental income to your account like clockwork.
What else does a property management company do? Aside from rent collection, they can also help you set the right rental rates by doing a market survey for similar properties in the area. Determining the ideal rental price for your property is crucial, since it can ensure a low vacancy rate and allow you to maximize your potential income.
Property Preparation
Good property managers know all the applicable property laws and housing regulations and will make sure that your property is in compliance with all these rules and ready to receive tenants. The last thing you need is a lawsuit – something an experienced property management company can help you avoid.
Marketing
A property manager knows exactly where to market your rental property, which media creatives work for your target market, and how to find the right tenants in the shortest time possible. To eliminate or reduce the risk of having delinquent tenants in your rental, they will screen potential tenants by doing thorough background and security checks, run credit reports, verify employment details, and secure references from previous landlords.
Lease Enforcement
A property manager’s job does not end with finding the ideal tenant. That’s just the beginning! The manager is responsible for ensuring that the tenants abide by the stipulations written in the contract and handles the eviction process in the event there is a grave violation in the terms of the rental agreement.
Maintenance Oversight
By hiring a property manager, you won’t have to deal with any maintenance service issues such as HVAC repairs, fixing broken doors and locks, plumbing woes, and garbage disposal issues, to name a few.
Typically, property managers can keep up with all these routine and other emergency issues by maintaining relationships with qualified, insured, and licensed vendors (maintenance workers, contractors, suppliers, etc.), allowing you to get top-notch work for the best price. And you don’t even have to lift a finger or oversee the work. Your property manager will take care of it for you.
Accounting and Bookkeeping
What does a property manager do to help you understand the performance of your investment? To keep you in the loop, your property manager will send you monthly and annual statements and regular performance reviews so you can keep track of how your investment property is doing.
At Tenant Planet, Inc., we also provide our clients with a completed IRS 1099 Form, cashflow statements, expense registers, and itemized invoice copies, to further simplify and take the stress out of the tax preparation process.
Finance Management
On top of all these, property managers are also usually responsible for paying your property’s maintenance or utility bills, property taxes, mortgage, and HOA bills. Wouldn’t this make your life easier?
Do You Really Need a Property Manager?
While it can be an added expense, hiring a property management company makes a lot of sense, especially if you:
- Have multiple rental properties;
- Don’t live near your rental property;
- Are not prepared or equipped to handle the day-to-day management of the business;
- Don’t have enough time to devote to the business;
- Are planning to expand your operations and need all the help you can get;
- Participate in an affordable housing program wherein you need to comply with a complicated set of rules to continue receiving financial assistance (grant, low-interest loans, tax credits, etc.);
- Need help running your rental properties but don’t want to be burdened with the duties and responsibilities of being an employer.
As lucrative as it may seem, property management is not an easy business and is definitely not for the faint at heart. In this business, you will most likely come face-to-face with high-risk situations with potentially serious outcomes. Are you ready to deal with it?
Are You Ready to Work with a Property Management Company?
Now, if you’re really serious about property management and would like to explore the potentials, but you don’t want to deal with the tedious tasks or you feel that you are not properly equipped with the right set of skills and experience to do the job, consider working with a first-rate property management company that you can trust. Consider working with Tenant Planet, Inc.
At Tenant Planet, Inc., we’ll take care of everything regarding your rental property, so you can just concentrate on planning for future expansions (should you want to) and watch the money come in like clockwork. We don’t use the outdated fee model, so you won’t be charged for services that you don’t use or be charged higher as the rental fee increases.
We want to see you succeed – and we’ll do everything we can to make sure you do.
Interested in what we have to offer? If you want to learn more about us and what we can do to help you on your project, please feel free to Request a Proposal. Or if you just have questions or comments, email us at parker@tenantplanet.com.