Essential Roles and Responsibilities of Property Management Companies
You’re probably planning to take a vacation and you’re wondering what will happen to your property while you’re gone. The simple solution to your worries is a property manager or property management company. Yes, the service isn’t cheap, but not using a property manager costs you even more.
You may want to know what homeowners are enjoying from Earnest Homes and other notable property managers. We have discussed the responsibilities of rental property managers below. Go through them and you’ll understand why all property owners need property managers.
Responsibilities of Property Management Companies
Property Marketing
Property managers understand the rental market better and will help you get tenants for your vacant apartments relatively faster. Remember, the longer your apartments stay vacant, the more money you lose. With their wider network, they’ll help to reach a wider audience and get tenants into your property sooner than you’ll do.
Preparation of Lease Agreements
Do you know that there are illegal clauses in lease and rental agreements? Do you know the illegal clauses? Probably not. That’s why you should let professionals prepare your lease agreements. Property managers know the illegalities and will avoid them like landmines while preparing their agreements.
If you already have rental and lease agreements in place, your property manager will check them for illegal clauses. And if any wrong clause is found, the entire agreement will be reviewed and reworked quickly.
Tenant Screening
At Earnest Homes, one of our specialties is tenant screening. Generally, property managers can smell bad tenants a thousand miles away. As a landlord, you may not be able to identify prospective tenants that are potential headaches for you, but we can sniff it far away.
Even if you foresee trouble with some prospective tenants, do you know how to decline their rental request without getting on the wrong side of discrimination laws? You probably don’t. That’s why you should let professionals manage your properties.
Higher ROI
When you raise your rent too high, you’ll be chasing renters away. It will take you longer periods to get people into your apartment if you ever do. At the same time, if you fix your rent too low, you’ll also lose money. We know the appropriate rent range in several locations across the state.
Even if property managers don’t know the average rent in a particular city, they can easily find out. By fixing the appropriate rent and by attracting tenants fast, property managers help to raise the revenues from properties. Furthermore, in the long run, property managers are likely to raise the revenue from your properties by an amount that’s far higher than their fees.
Avoidance of Lawsuits
Do you know all your responsibilities as a landlord or property owner? Do you know that defaulting on only one of these landlord responsibilities could earn you a lawsuit that might plunge you into a huge debt? This is what your property manager will help you avert. They know all the responsibilities and will ensure your building isn’t found wanting in any of the necessary provisions.
Here’s a big challenge most landlords face. If you’re not living on your property, you may not be aware when certain facilities pack up. And this could lead to bigger trouble. For instance, an electrical fault could cause a fire and put you in trouble if not fixed quickly. How would you know if you don’t live on the property?
This is an area your property manager can handle quite easily. Regular property inspection is a part of a property maintenance routine. With regular inspection, damaged facilities and potential issues are discovered and quickly fixed or averted.
Smooth Eviction Process
Evicting a delinquent tenant is one of the most difficult tasks for landlords. Unfortunately, if a tenant begins to default on his or her rent, you have little or no choice but to initiate an eviction process against the tenant. This is a tightrope you don’t want to walk because it has numerous legal landmines.
You must follow the legal steps all the way. Your tenant is likely to capitalize on a little legal error to fight back and probably stay on your property longer.
Continuous Rental Income
Your property manager will go after tenants whose rents are due and will use legal ways to collect your rent. In fact, they’ll always remind you even before your rents fall due. In other words, property management companies will ensure the smooth inflow of your rental income from all your tenants as and when due.
If you have a full-time job, you probably won’t have time for this. That’s why your property manager will be glad to take the responsibility off your shoulders.
Property Investment Advice
If you have a plan to expand your real estate by purchasing more properties, your property manager will likely point you in the right direction toward properties that are likely to yield higher returns. Remember, information is power.
For ease of property maintenance, many property owners do not purchase properties that are far away from where they live. What if the properties that are far away can yield more returns than the ones around? Your property manager should be able to fill the void.
Since they’ll be in charge of the management of your properties, it doesn’t matter whether you live around or not. You could even buy properties in different cities. For instance, Earnest Homes manages residential homes in Westside, San Fernando Valley, and Los Angeles. With that property management company, you can purchase properties in any of the three cities regardless of your home city.
Peace of Mind
All the advantages of hiring a property manager boil down to one bigger benefit – Peace of mind. Once your properties are in the hands of managers, you have nothing to worry about because they’ll pull tenants into the apartments, inspect and maintain the properties, get your rent for you, and even evict delinquent tenants. All these will give you peace of mind and allow you to focus on your main job.