Not everyone is ready to turn their keys over to a property management company. It’s not easy! Trusting someone with your physical property, as well as the responsibility of upkeep and financial management, doesn’t happen overnight. However, we have seen firsthand how partnering with a quality property management company differs from working with just any company. There are certainly major differences between how different management companies handle things, so we don’t recommend trusting just anyone with your property, but we are confident in the results we have been able to prove for our clients.
Today on the blog, we wanted to touch on the three signs or factors that indicate when an owner might know that it’s time to hire a property management company!
Time
The first sign that a rental property owner might be better off hiring a property management company is time. If you don’t have enough time to manage your property, then you aren’t able to handle all the ins and outs of what it takes to keep things moving in the right direction.
This could be related to the number of properties you own. If you have gotten too far out over your skis and are finding that managing multiple properties has become a time suck, then it might be time to have a cup of coffee with us!
There may also be things in your life that you’d be happier doing than figuring out what’s wrong with your tenants’ sink drain. If you’d rather be watching your kid’s soccer game, but are having to deal with collecting rent to ensure they can go to camp this summer, then you might be better off hiring a management company.
Until you actually own and manage your own rental property, you have no idea how much work and time go into it. Once you’ve reached a point in your life where your time is more valuable to you than the constant stream of needs that you are responsible for, you deserve an opportunity to sit back and enjoy your hard work rather than lose sleep over it. Leave that up to us.
Temperment
When you’re first starting, being a property manager can be exciting and rewarding. Providing a safe home for someone can be fulfilling, and seeing the fruits of your labor in the form of revenue is obviously something that feels good. However, managing your own property can become extremely stressful and overwhelming when things start to get real.
Here are a few signs that you may be losing the temperament to handle managing your own properties:
You’re becoming easily stressed and overwhelmed
Things that once were simple and easy to handle are becoming seemingly insurmountable. Being a customer-facing owner, you have to handle complaints from the tenant, emergencies, disputes, and communicate with contractors and service providers. If you are overcome with anxiety and stressed out all the time, consider passing the keys to a trustworthy property management company.
You find yourself struggling with confrontation
Unfortunately, part of managing properties is having uncomfortable conversations. If you are someone who struggles to stick up for yourself, avoids confrontation, or struggles to keep your cool in the heat of the moment, you may be better off letting someone else handle these uncomfortable situations. If you can’t be assertive, or you can’t avoid asserting your dominance, let someone else handle it and find your peace!
You feel too close and personal to your property
Property is yours, but you must be able to set your personal attachments aside to have a fruitful relationship with your renters. If you find yourself constantly upset because of things that your tenants do, then you may be able to feel happier not dealing with tenants at all.
These are a few key examples of temperament being at a breaking point, though there are certainly other examples. If you are thinking about looking around, then you probably are ready to let a management company take over.
Knowledge
There is much more to property management than just answering calls about a clogged toilet. Finding and screening tenants, managing finances, following new legalities and regulations, collecting rent, fixing issues, and making maintenance calls can be stressful. This gets more and more stressful with the more property that you own.
If you find yourself struggling to work with new technology and software to track your finances, costs, and bookkeeping, then you might want to look at a professional management company. Many landlords fail to budget for all expenses, including maintenance, unexpected repairs, and vacancies. Not having a keen understanding of the market and setting a rental price that is too high or too low can also be a sign that you should meet with a professional company.
One of the most important aspects of property management that is often pushed to the side by self-managers is the legal and compliance side of things. This is something that is often forgotten about by owners until it’s too late. If you are not up to speed with all your local laws and regulations regarding landlord-tenant relationships, you could end up in hot water quickly.
Countless federal, state, and local housing laws are constantly in flux, and we often see self-managing landlords violate these laws without even knowing it! There are plenty of important documents related to taxes, maintenance, and rental management that must be organized and on hand when you end up in a legal situation. Having a legal team to go to court on your behalf can sound a lot better than trying to shoulder this load on your own.
If you are still reading, then you’ve obviously had a few thoughts about choosing a property management company. We understand how daunting it can be, as we are property owners ourselves, and not having a trustworthy management company to turn to is why we started the company in the first place! If you or someone you know is grappling with turning the keys over to a property management company here in Buffalo, then we’d love to invite you to have a cup of coffee with Steve, our CEO and owner, so you can learn more about what we can offer to you!
