How can a Property Management Company help homeowners?
It is not debatable that owning a rental property is an awesome source of earning additional income. Having said that it becomes quite a task for the NRI homeowners to oversee property upkeep, maintenance and letting and marketing. This is where you can explore the benefits of hiring a property management company.
Professional and experienced property managers can add significant value to your property. This is the reason why many leading real estate investors recommend homeowners to use property management services.
Here are a few ways that a good property management company earns their keep:
1. Tenant Screening
Screening of tenants is like having a drawbridge and moat around your property. Although a good real estate property manager can help you evict a bad tenant of your property. But, not renting or leasing your property to a bad tenant is much more convenient and hassle-free.
By hiring a tenant through proper screening you make complete arrangements fora tenants who:
- Pays rent on time
- Stays longer
- Put less wear and tear on your property
- Creates/causes lesser issues
An experienced and professional property management services provider company screens thousands of applications on a regular basis. Therefore, they have the aptitude to quickly dig for the real facts about candidates and analyze the information for warning signs. Thereby, avoiding bad tenants, possibility of scams and lawsuits.
2. Less vacancy
Next in the benefits of hiring a property management company is to keep your property vacant for very less time. A professional rental management company knows how to get your home rented and keep it rented for long.
The company will handle everything right from determining the best rental price, preparing your property for rent, thorough marketing, tenant screening, rent management etc. to keep your property occupied for a longer time.
3. Longer Term Tenants
Every landlord wishes to rent their property to good tenants who’d stay for longer term.
Short-term tenants costs more than just money to the NRI homeowners who are looking for more return on investment. Some of the major disadvantages of renting your property to short-term tenants are:
- lost rent,
- cleaning expenses,
- replacing locks,
- repainting interiors,
- making small repairs and last but not the least
- advertising and tenant screening process costs.
Hence, it is quite evident that both time and money are saved with long-term tenants.
The best property managers plan and execute a good tenant retention policy. This is because they understand that an unhappy tenant is more likely to vacate a property sooner.
Hence, a good property management company puts in efforts and takes initiatives to make a tenant happy by keeping good communication, fast response to their issues and making quick repairs.
4. Act as the point of contact for tenant concerns
As an NRI landlord and otherwise also, it is not possible and convenient to answer all the concerns of your tenant over phone or by making personal visits. Hence, a property management company manages it for you.
A tenant can directly contact the dedicated property manager for any concerns related to the property. Therefore, the homeowner can breathe easy knowing that the property manager is there to attend all the issues of the tenant.
5. Market your rental
Property managers are proficient at rental marketing. They have experience in writing crisp rental ads and taking and posting high-quality photos on various sites (online and offline) .
In fact they also have local real estate understanding and which will help in setting up a fair rental price for your property. Hiring a property manager with marketing experience is an added advantage to help fill your property sooner and reduce the vacancy time.
6. Ensure rent is paid on time
Property management companies understand that consistent and timely rent collection is very crucial for homeowners who give their property on rent.
A property management company gives special attention to the rent cycle and also implement lease policies if the tenant is not paying the rents on time. Moreover, if a tenant consistently fails to pay their rent on time (or at all), a property manager will deal with the situation in the best capacity, and/or will issue an eviction notice if necessary.
7. Avoiding Legal Problems
If your property management company helps you avoid just one lawsuit, then it more than pays for the hiring cost.
You must be aware of the situations where one bad tenant raises severe legal and financial concerns. This is the reason why most of the experienced real estate consultants recommend hiring a property manager.
Because of the experience and also because it’s a part of a property manager’s job, they are more likely to know the laws much better than the NRI homeowners.
8. Save you money on maintenance and repair costs
Property managers are more likely to get discounts for regular maintenance services because they routinely work with a local service provider. Moreover, some property management companies employ an in-house maintenance staff to avoid the hassle of vendor availability.
Additionally, since the property managers make regular visits to the property for inspections, they can identify any maintenance issue which needs attention and fix it before it becomes big. This way the cost of emergency repair comes down by big numbers.
9. Distance between tenant and owner
At times tenants put the landlords in a situation where in the owner is expected to make decisions based on emotions. This is not ideal, because the tenant might just be making an excuse to not pay the rent. This can result in monetary loss for the homeowners.
However, a property management company is considered and treated as a professional entity. Therefore, tenants refrain from making fake excuses and pay the rent on time.
10. Enjoying the benefits of rental property ownership without giving up personal freedom
Majority of people invest in real estate for a passive source of income or as a source of funding for a relaxed retirement.
With a reputable property management company, owners need not stress about their rental property’s maintenance or rent collection or any other concern. Hence, the owners can spend more time with their family or engage in any activity they were not able to explore due to added responsibility of managing the rental property.
11. Increasing property value
As they say prevention is better than cure, so is with the health of a property. Preventative maintenance can increase the value of your property.
By attending to the maintenance and potential repairing problems early on prevents breakdowns which may lead to bigger and expensive repairs or even replacements.
A property manager ensures regular maintenance checks and inspections to make certain that everything works just as the way it should.
12. Assistance with taxes
Systematic record keeping allows efficient tracking of tax deductible expenses causing lower taxation.
A property management company can assist you in understanding the tax structure, so that you can claim the cash deductions and arrange for the necessary forms and documentation required to make those claims.
13. Handling Evictions
Property managers are well equipped with experience to handle tenant evictions. If required they even hire professional and experienced real estate lawyers to carry out the legal proceedings of tenant evictions.
What next?
Ready to take advantage of property management services? Get in touch with us to experience all the above benefits of hiring a property management company.