Whether you’re new to property investment or looking for someone to help oversee your many properties, a diligent property manager can help you to expand your services. Read on to learn what you should look for in a stand-out property management service.
Communication is Key
Transparency, efficiency, and accessibility are all important foundations for a responsible partnership between a property manager and owner. Here’s how you know a property manager takes pride in the best standards for each star quality.
Transparency
- Money: Your property manager should keep you regularly informed of market trends such as rental costs and vacancy rates. Ask for monthly reports so you’ll know you’re getting your best return and when to expect it.
- Laws: Your property manager should stay on top of regulations at the local, state, and federal level. This might include rent caps, updates in discrimination law, and similar legislation. Shared industry knowledge ensures all proceedings involved in property rental are legal. Ask for any certifications they can provide proving their diligence.
- Upkeep: Your property manager should notify you when maintenance and repairs are underway and over with at your property, whether they’re routine or unscheduled. You and your tenants can rest easy knowing that safety is everyone’s priority when your property manager is swift and honest in responding to property damages. The most efficient property managers will offer a portal for you to check in on these types of occurrences.
Efficiency
- Tech: Property managers should have access to the latest software so they’re able to be on top of everything all at once. Their use of automation and tracking should be a given, so ask for a walk-through. Look for easy online payments and round-the-clock access to vital information (i.e. text alerts on routine maintenance or missed payments) that will make tenant relationships more convenient and responsive than ever. With a diligent property manager, you and your tenants both get back time in your day, which eases stress for everyone.
- Scheduling: Your property manager should provide a tight outline of how they will run your property before, during, and after a tenant’s stay. This should include setting specific times to screen new tenants and collect rent, as well as when they plan to conduct routine property inspections for maintenance. This schedule will help to improve clarity for you and your tenants.
- Security: The best offense is a good defense. Your defense is a property manager who demonstrates no lack of effort in taking care of your tenants and documents every interaction to prove as much. This should include every application, withdrawal, repair request, and an eviction notice. In the event of a lawsuit, all of your bases will be covered.
Accessibility
- Hours: A diligent property manager offers much more accessibility than you can as a landlord, especially when you’re splitting time between a day job, remote location, or multiple properties. Look for use of online portals for submitting everything from rental applications to work requests. They should be able to streamline the entire tenant relationship while ensuring you don’t answer midnight maintenance calls. This approachable alternative is likely to encourage your tenants to come forward with problems sooner and to take advantage of an easy renewal process. This translates to lots of savings for you.
- Friendliness: A property manager’s number one priorities should be your property and your tenants. They should work to preserve a constant impression of a first-rate experience, so you don’t have to worry about building a positive rapport.
- Staff: Property managers should have longstanding relationships with licensed, trustworthy maintenance professionals. The coordination of a repair should be faster and cheaper under their watch, so ask for a list of their vendors and read reviews of those vendors.
Hiring a property manager is the fastest, easiest way to establish or reinforce a stellar reputation as a landlord. Our team at Real Property Management Champion prioritizes communication, organization, and security. If you’re looking to get the most out of your return or to continue growing your number of properties, contact us for our property management services today.