When to Hire a Rental Property Manager
If you’ve ever owned a rental property, you probably know that it isn’t as easy on you as many people who haven’t gone through the process think it to be. Moreover, things get a lot more complex when you own multiple properties.
Hiring a rental property manager might sound like a dispensable expenditure. Sometimes it is, but there are instances when you miss out on a lot, financially and experientially, just because you’re not sure whether or not you should go for a helping hand.
Here are five instances when you should seriously think about getting your self a rental property manager.
Managing Tenants Isn’t Your Craft
If you don’t have a great track record negotiating with tenants, get help!
Not every one of us is a master negotiator, neither do we all have necessarily the best people skills. But that should not stop anyone from investing. Investment does require negotiation at every stage of the process but the cost of missing out is considerably greater than the cost of hiring someone to negotiate on your behalf.
If you are one of those people who always fall short of getting the best deal only because of your suboptimal negotiation skills, you might get the best value out of a property manager. Let him be the vanguard while you call the shots from the rear.
Your Property is Remote
Someone who can cater to the needs of your renters in person is always a plus.
Some real estate properties, especially those inherited from the family, are not in close proximity to the owner. In many instances, they could be hundreds of miles away. This makes it very difficult to keep a check on the property and maintain a relationship with the tenants.
What’s more difficult is going through the process of getting new tenants if your property is vacant. It requires meeting the potential candidates, property visits and negotiations. You couldn’t possibly do all of that remotely, and that’s where your rental property manager comes in.
A professional who can be there for your property as well as the tenants and cater to the needs and concerns of both is probably your best bet.
You Aren’t Well Organized
Managing a property is like managing a business, even if it’s just a single rental unit.
People who haven’t yet dipped their toes in rental property investments think of it as a simple process where you invest your money once and get monthly returns straight into your bank account. However, the experienced investors couldn’t agree less.
Managing a property is much like managing a business. You have to maintain it, keep it attractive and desirable, maintain positive relationships with the tenants and do your best to expand. However, it becomes an arduous drill once you acquire more than one property and is certainly backbreaking if you’re working a full-time job.
If you own multiple properties with positive cash-flow and you work a job as well, there isn’t any good reason not to hire a property manager. You might think that it’s an unnecessary cost but on the contrary it’s an investment in and of itself. The time you save by avoiding the trivialities can then be invested in other productive activities.
You’re Unfamiliar with Property Laws
Maybe you just don’t want the legal sword hanging over your head.
If you’re not a Law major, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to know any laws. In fact, a sound knowledge of the legal issues surrounding your business niche is a must. The same goes for real estate.
As a real estate investor, you must have some know-how of laws and legal procedures about properties, rentals, taxes, contracts etc. But you don’t need to play the lawyer yourself either. You keep working on what’s important i.e. running and expanding your properties and hire a property manager to take care of the legal procedures.
You Lack the Time to Play Landlord
A property manager allows you to offload tasks so you can scale your investing business.
The principle that the jack of all trades is a master of none goes a long way, and this is the most important thing that you need to internalize when it comes to real estate investment as well. Never bite off more than you can chew.
Even if you are a full-time real estate investor with multiple rental properties, you might fall prey to the temptation of doing it all yourself. But this will halt your growth just as much as anything else.
If you’re always busy with trivial things, you will not have enough time to learn about investment and growing your business. The best investment is the time you invest in yourself.
Every good investor knows that it’s beyond important to aside an hour or a couple every day just for your own learning. Read books, analyze case studies, listen to the veterans – just do anything that makes you a better investor than you were yesterday. That is what’s going to make you successful.