Learning Center
3 Cardinal Rules of Effective Property Management
Friday, March 30, 2018
Deciding that you want to buy a home and rent it is a huge decision. Not only is home buying itself incredibly complicated, but the ongoing management of investment properties comes with its own set of challenges. Done well, investment properties are well worth the investment. Thanks to a growing economy and a stable housing market, investors have created a $100 billion industry around single-family rental properties.
Once you find a property that fits all of your investment needs, it's time to think about property management. Residential property management can be a difficult job, even for experienced landlords. Home rental property management takes a lot of hard work. Fortunately, there are proven strategies to follow when fulfilling your property rental management duties. Here are three cardinal rules of effective residential property management, courtesy of Landlordology.
Easy Payment Is a Win-Win
You want to make paying the rent for your property as easy as possible. In general, you want to make it as easy as humanly possible for tenants to give you money each month. That often includes providing an online payment option for your tenants. You can even mention in your lease that online payment is highly encouraged, or even mandatory, so that your potential renters know up front how payment will work. Not only can online payment result in faster payment each month, but it offers a high level of convenience for tenants.
Rock Solid Leases
Every lease should be very clear, easy to follow, and fair. Landlordology writes that the most important aspect of any lease is to put everything in writing. This might seem obvious, but there should be no handshake deals when managing a rental property. When people are looking for houses for rent, they want to know what they're getting into. Likewise, you need to ensure that your tenants are perfectly clear on your own rules. Make it easy on them and yourself by having a solid lease that explains everything the tenant needs to know.
Build Tenant Trust
No matter what kind of business you're running, building customer relationships based on trust and quality is key to success. The same holds true for managing any type of rental property. Whether you're managing one building or five, you should operate on the basis of being kind, being honest, and making timely repairs for your tenants. If a tenant knows they can confide in and rely on their property manager, they're more likely to stay in that space. It really is as simple as that.
Property management can be seriously stressful. However, follow these three simple rules to help your job become a breeze.
If you have any questions about property management services please give us a call at 407-261-5610
Challenges You Will Face as a Property Manager
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Becoming a property manager comes with a lot of benefits. You get to meet a lot of people, make money, and strengthen your management skills. These are all things that can definitely help make someone more marketable and teach them how to handle difficult situations.
While there are a lot of benefits to becoming a property manager, there are also many challenges. These challenges may seem overwhelming at times, but they will actually make you a better property manager. Let's take a look at a few of them!
Staffing
Property management services can't run on their own! As a property manager, you're going to have to hire help. However, the staff that you hire can either help or harm your organization. Since property management services require employees to know a lot about houses for rent and home rental property management, the employees must be specially trained and have a wide range of skills. You also have to make sure that the people that you hire are there for the right reason -- to help your business succeed.
Maintenance
As a property manager, you will be expected to handle anything that comes your way. Solving potential issues with the property, like repairs and other maintenance duties, is required whenever wherever. Tenants will likely reach out to you if their sink is clogged, if their toilet keeps running, or if their bathtub isn't draining. These little things are easy to be fixed but can impact your day to day routines.
Time Management
Time management is one of the biggest challenges you will face as a property manager. Unfortunately, there are just not enough hours in the day. Because of this, it's so important to make sure that each day's necessary tasks are always completed on time and well. You're going to have to learn how to prioritize certain things over others and how to make split-second decisions. If you aren't able to stay organized and keep on top of things, your day might start to go downhill pretty quickly.
Property rental management is a great field to get into. In fact, a Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate survey says 94% of current real estate investors are interested in further investment opportunities of this nature. It gives you a chance to meet new people, try new things, and learned a lot about yourself, however, it's extremely important to be aware of the challenges you will face. While these challenges may seem overwhelming at first and at the time, there are definitely going to help you become a better property manager in the future.
If you have any questions about property management services please give us a call at 407-261-5610
