Propertydo.com Logo



Home
Landlord Blog
Buy Rental Property
Financing Properties
First Time Landlord
Types of Tenancy
Finding Tenants
Tenant Screening
Landlord Credit Check
Managing Tenants
Difficult Tenants
Rental Repairs
Breaking a Lease
Landlords Rights
Rental Property Law
Section 8 Landlord
Accounting for Leases
Rental Property Tax
Landlord Insurance
Hiring Property Guys
Property Managers
Free Landlord Forms
Landlord Software
Landlord Resource
Site Map

[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines





 

Should You be Hiring a Property Manager?
Property Management for Landlords PART 1

When it comes to property management for landlords, should you handle yourself or pay a property manager to do it for you? Find out the answer and how to hire a property manager with our guide to property management for landlords.

Should You Manage Rental Properties by Yourself or Hire a Property Manager?

Some landlords are highly successful in managing their own tenants and rental properties while other have failed miserably. Why are the major factors that separate these rental property owners?

Some landlords have the ideal skills (people skills, accounting know-how, handy with tools) and experience for property management. On top of that, their rental situations may be more favourable such as having less properties to manage or living near their real estate.

So when should you hire property managers? You should consider hiring one if:
  • You own rental properties overseas or far away from your home - If you need to travel hours just to collect rent or replace a light bulb, it will save you a lot of time, money and energy to let someone else handle your property management chores.
  • You have many rental properties or own sizable properties with many households - Unless you have considerable experience or is dedicated to manage your properties full time, it may be better to rely on the expertise of a reliable property manager to do the job.
  • You can afford and is willing to pay others to do your property management jobs - As a landlord, you have to decide if hiring property managers is worth the extra costs. Most property managers will charge about 5 to 10% of the monthly rent to handle property management for landlords depending of the range of their services.
  • You lack the time or passion for managing rental properties - You will definitely need to invest time and energy to tackle property management for landlords. Otherwise you will probably end up with a lot of headaches and costly mistakes especially when it comes to property repairs and difficult tenants.
In short if you have passion, time and easy access to your rental property, managing your own property can be a good way to save money. Otherwise we recommend that you hire a property manager for a hands-free approach to property management for landlords.

What are the Important Things that a Property Manager is Able to Help You with?

If you are still deciding if you should be hiring property managers, the following are the list of property management tasks that they can help you with:
  • Advertise and help you look for new tenants if your property is unoccupied
  • Interview, screen and choose your ideal tenants
  • Collect rent from your tenants every month and chase them for late payments if there are any
  • Help your tenants settle any complaints and issues that they have. If your tenants causes any problems or trouble, your property manager will have to handle them as well
  • Repair any damages to your property, fixtures, furniture and appliances so that you can maintain the condition of your property according to the housing health and safety standards of your area
  • Evict any bad tenant who does not pay rent or breaks the terms of your rental agreement
You should insist on having the right to handle any of the above issues if you think you can do a better and cheaper job. For example, you can request that all repairs be made by this licensed contractor who you trust and charges you less fees.

To save even more on your property management fees, it's highly recommended that you have a cheap and solid landlord software such as Buildium which allows you to collect rent from tenants online, mail letters to them and update your accounting automatically.

Now that you have decided whether you should hire a property manager, find out how to choose the perfect manager to handle your rental properties:




Return from this Property Management for Landlords page to our Managing Rental Property guide


Search Propertydo

footer for propertydo

contact us disclaimer privacy policy