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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
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