Did you know that renters should pay 30% of their monthly income on housing? This is just one insight that professional property management services can offer when you hire them to help you manage renters. Whether you’re renting an office building or looking for new family tenants, you need to hire a property management service.
Not only is managing rental properties stressful, but it can take time away from your personal life and cause problems when trying to chase delayed payments. Investors can delegate the communications and organization of their properties to a management service to ensure rent is paid on time.
Plus, you’ll have more time for other aspects of your business, like networking or finding other properties.
Here is a guide to finding the best options for property management services.
How to Hire a Property Management Service
Learning how to hire a property management service means doing your research and reading online reviews. This is the first step to finding a reliable company and getting trustworthy support with rental property maintenance. Luckily, it’s quick and easy to find a few companies online.
It’s a good idea to write down a list of the top results or recommendations and start working through the reviews. Even if one client loved a company, they might not offer the services you need. You’ll want to save time contacting customer service by checking they have the right skills for your properties.
Check the Reviews
Reviews are there to help potential clients make a final decision and offer transparency about a service. The reviews will either be on a separate page on the website or on their social media sites. Take your time to find the information and read over the details. It’s also important to look for red flags like delayed communication and not showing up for work.
But, other subtle red flags are not clarifying the additional maintenance and rental collection costs. So, it’s essential that you slowly read the fine print and take into consideration previous client experiences.
If you want to find a good company quickly, another option is to ask your friends and colleagues for referrals. Sometimes, people in your close circle will have the best referrals, and it stops you from spending hours looking for potential management teams. Post on your social media or message your contacts to see if there’s a recommended company locally.
The Number Five Rule
Picking the first company you come across is not a good idea when hiring a property management service because you don’t know about the other choices. One company could offer a better deal for a lower price, and you’ll miss out. As a general rule, you should pick at least five recommended services.
Five is the perfect number, as it allows you to start comparing property management costs and weigh up the types of services. After you have the top five companies, contact each business for a consultation call. This is an excellent opportunity to get to know more about their work culture and ask key questions.
To give you some suggestions, here are common questions to ask during a consultation call:
What is the management fee?
How many people are on the management team?
Can I see previous reviews?
Do you have experience with legal issues?
Is there a 24/7 customer service option?
Depending on your properties, you can also ask about the property maintenance schedule. This will give you an overview of what to expect when hiring the team. During the conversation, it’s crucial that you listen to your instincts and examine how the colleague interacts over the phone.
It’s vital that you have open communication with the team, so don’t be afraid to ask important questions about budget and customer reviews.
Discuss The Financial and Maintenance Processes
As a client, it’s your responsibility to be clear about your standards before hiring a property management team. Outline your expectations about the services and timeline for completing specific tasks. For example, do you require monthly maintenance checks? Then, discuss it with the team before signing a contract.
Typically, companies that manage several clients have more time pressure, so allocating weekly tasks like marketing the property might be tricky. So, double-check with the company about their current work schedule to see if they have the time to commit to your management requirements.
The other important services to ask about are tenant screening processes, rent collection, moving schedules, and eviction procedures. Once you’ve covered the basics, you need to finalize the payment dates and who controls finances. Ideally, the company will put you in contact with the finance employee so you can go over the contract in detail.
If you’re happy with the contract, you can sign the paperwork and outsource your management. The hardest part is narrowing down your options so you find the perfect match.
Are Property Management Services Important?
Renting your properties to tenants can be daunting if you’re new to investing or want to ensure that your buildings don’t suffer permanent damage. Hiring a professional to look over the maintenance and upkeep of buildings will give you peace of mind when owning several properties.
But property management services also help you deal with potential legal issues like evictions and failure to pay rent. In these cases, having an experienced professional to guide you through the process is good. These services are there to make your life easier and organize your properties so everything runs smoothly.
The tips in this article will help you hire a property management service that ticks all the boxes. If you want to save time scrolling, our website already has all the details you need to make an informed decision.
Learn more about making the most of property management services on our blog, and get ready to take your business to the next level.
Property managers will help you find the best tenants and keep your properties high quality. You won’t regret hiring property managers this year.
