As a real estate investor, you can manage your properties either as a do-it-yourself (DIY) landlord or hire a property management service to take care of them. If you choose to go with the former, you’ll be responsible for everything from finding tenants to answering calls about broken dishwashers to staying on top of the city, state, and federal regulations. A property manager not only performs these functions on your behalf but also does everything required to protect your investment.
In this guide, we’ll take you through what to expect from a property management service:
Advertising Your Property
Every landlord is determined to reduce the amount of idle time for their properties so that they remain a source of income for them. Among the most critical responsibilities of a property manager is to ensure that your property remains occupied at all times.
To minimize the potential loss of idle properties, they will keep your property rent-ready, use images and video walk-throughs to aggressively market it on popular rental sites.
When a lease term is about to end, your property management company will proactively try to renew the lease or begin advertising your property as soon as the existing tenant gives notice. The best property management companies such as Sensible Home Management will have approved applicants even before the current tenant vacates your property.
Tenant Screening and Selection
This property management service involves performing rigorous background checks to verify the applicant’s credit history, income details, rental history, identity, and so on. The service then ranks the applicants based on pre-set criteria to find the most qualified tenants. Ensuring compliance with the Fair Housing Laws, your property manager will get you a tenant that will be most likely pay rent on time, take good care of your property, and strictly follow the lease terms.
Tenant Move-In
This process encompasses preparing the lease agreements, review of lease terms such as those related to property maintenance and rent amount, coordinating move-in schedules, requiring the tenant to verify the condition of the property before they move in, collecting the security deposit and the first month’s rent, and so on.
Routine and Emergency Maintenance
Maintenance requests are often the biggest headache for landlords. No matter how great your tenants are, systems will wear out, appliances will break, and your property will need ongoing maintenance. No or slow response to tenants’ maintenance requests will only increase the tenant turnover.
Thankfully, your property management company will proactively handle all requests and complaints without violating any applicable codes.
An Efficient Online Platform
The best property management services also come with a secure online platform that allows tenants to make rent payments, submit service requests, view account balances, and more. As a landlord, you can access all the bills, statements, other documents related to your property.
Conclusion
By now, you should have obtained an in-depth idea about what to expect from a property management service. For efficient and effective property management services, contact Sensible Home Management today!
