How to Manage Residential Properties, the Right Way

If you currently own a piece or collection of residential properties that you rent out to tenants, you likely already know how much energy, work, and time that goes into successfully managing your collection of real estate. At some point, you need to begin asking yourself if you should outsource the management of your residential real estate. Our answer to that is, yes, you should consider hiring a property manager who is qualified and able to help you successfully manage and capitalize each and every one of your residential real estate properties. In the sections below, we are going to share with you a few reasons in which you might want to consider hiring a property manager which can help you increase the success of your residential real estate business.

#1: No matter the location of your real estate property you will almost always be dealing with real estate competitors who are also trying to lease their properties in the same general area. That’s why it is extremely important that you take the time to research which rental rates are working best for the areas your real estate properties are located. While looking through the classifieds to see what other landlords are charging for similar properties is a fine way to ballpark your rent price, a good property management company will conduct a thorough market study in order to set a rental price for your property, ensuring that you achieve the perfect balance between maximizing monthly income and maintaining a low vacancy rate.

#2: The biggest risk while investing into any type of real estate is finding the tenants who are terrible at paying their monthly rent on time. Furthermore, you are going to often times find it difficult to handle the eviction cases if someone refuses to pay their rent after a period of time. Property management companies have efficient, tried-and-true systems in place to effectively collect rent and maintain on-time payments. You'll find this particularly important if you have a limited number of properties, and collecting payments on time is crucial to maintaining your cash flow.

#3: Lastly, marketing and advertising your properties can prove to be painful, especially if you are operating in a rather competitive real estate area. In most cases, it pays for itself to have a market leading real estate manager who can help promote your properties over the properties owned by competing real estate owners. A property manager will know exactly where to market your property and how to craft compelling advertising materials a significant advantage when it comes to filling your properties quickly and avoiding long vacancies.

#4: Last on our last is the task of finding the perfect tenants. Real estate owners who have been suffering from extended vacancies will often find themselves giving into tenants that may or may not be responsible and destructive to their property. Experienced property managers are experts at finding good tenants, and will take care of all the details, including the securing all criminal background and security checks, running credit reports, verifying employment, and collecting previous landlord references.