When It’s Time to Hire a Property Manager

I came across this article recently by Sabine Ghali titled 6 Signs It’s Time To Hire A Property Management Company, I think it’s worth your time to read. I’ve always been a proponent of people managing their own properties. However, you have to see your rental as a business, because that is what it is. You wouldn’t open a restaurant unless you first knew the in’s and the out’s of running a restaurant. If you didn’t know the in’s and out’s of running a restaurant, it doesn’t mean you can’t buy a restaurant, it just means you need to hire someone to manage for you. So if you want to manage your own rental then you should take the time to learn what you are doing. If you don’t to spend the time to learn how to do it well, you are better off hiring property management. The cost of having professional management will be a net gain verses making mistakes doing it yourself which can be costly. Here is Ghali’s article:

Almost everyone knows that owning an investment property is one of the safest and best long-term investments a person can make. Not only is an investment property an excellent way to create a regular passive income, but you’ll also be able to benefit from the property’s long-term appreciation, while also paying down your mortgage.

However, that doesn’t mean that owning a rental property doesn’t have its own set of drawbacks. In fact, managing a property can be a rather stressful and time-consuming job, not to mention the added stresses of having to find good long-term tenants and taking care of all the odds and ends around the property.

Fortunately, property management companies can take on a lot of the extra work that comes with owning an investment property.

Still, many people are left wondering if it’s worth hiring a management company to help them out.

Below, we’ve come up with 6 sure-fire signs that will tell you when it’s time to hire a property management company. So, you might want to hire a property manager if:

 

• Managing Your Property Is Consuming Your Life

 

To begin with, if taking care of your rental property is consuming your life and you just don’t want to have to deal with it any longer, it’s probably a good idea to hire a property management company.

By hiring one, you’re almost guaranteed to notice a significant increase in the amount of free time you have, which in turn, can lead to an overall improvement to the quality of your business.

You’ll also have more peace of mind at the end of the day since tasks such as screening tenants, writing up lease contracts, and maintaining the property will all be taken care of for you.

Property management companies are meant to take care of all the tedious jobs that used to consume your life. Month after month, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that everything is being taken care of for you.

 

 

• You Live Far Away From Your Rental

 

For those who don’t live near their investment property, hiring a property management company in the area can drastically improve your situation.

You’ll no longer have to make frequent trips to go and check on how your property is holding up and you won’t have to visit the property to take care of small jobs such as picking up your rent checks.

By hiring a local company to manage your property, you’ll be able to hand over most of the responsibility and simply rely on their skills and assets to take care of all the necessary tasks, which will keep things running smoothly no matter where you are.

 

• You Own More Than One Rental Property or Unit

 

As one person, it can be a complete nightmare to try and manage more than one rental property, especially if you own properties with more than one unit.

In fact, most landlords find out that taking care of just a few rental units can quickly turn into a full-time job. If this is the case, hiring a property management company can be extremely beneficial and it is an excellent way to lighten your workload of dealing with multiple properties.

The management company will likely assign a manager or superintendent to each one of your properties, which ensures that everything from monthly maintenance checks and care through to the advertising and marketing of vacant units will be taken care of properly.

 

• You’re Short On Time

 

Not all landlords will have the time to be able to take care of everything properly. And because of this, many landlords end up cutting corners when it comes to proper property management procedures.

In some cases, this can lead to maintenance jobs not being performed properly due to their lack of time, which could end up costing a lot of extra money in the long run. For example, not screening your tenants properly could have dire consequences if they turn out to be bad renters who never pay their rent on time.

However, by hiring a property management company, you’ll benefit from having much more free time and you won’t have to worry about a thing when it comes to your rental property.

 

 

• Property Management Just Isn’t Your Thing

 

It should be easy to understand how managing a property can be a stressful job. You have to spend time dealing with tenant complaints and screening new tenant applications; every now and then, you’ll have to negotiate with contractors when work needs to be done to your property.

So, if this doesn’t sound ideal to you and you’re looking for more of a “hands-off” type of approach to your investment, then you might want to seriously consider hiring a property management company to help you out.

 

• You Don’t Want The Legal Liability That Comes With Renting

 

It’s no secret that renting out your property comes with a whole lot of legal responsibilities. And if you’re not on top of your local landlord and tenant laws, you could easily wind up in a whole lot of legal trouble, which, of course, you don’t want or need.

However, when you hire a property management company, you’ll have someone who knows the ins and outs of your local laws working on your side. This can provide you with some much needed and extremely valuable legal protection.

Are You Renting Out Your Property?

If you’re already renting or have been thinking about renting out your property, it might be a good idea to consider hiring a property management company to help you out.

Not only will this take a lot of the work out of the job for you, but it will also provide you with a significant amount of peace of mind when it comes to having your property rented out.

So, if you find yourself in any of the situations mentioned above, it might be time to hire a property management company.