Owning a rental property is a good way to build wealth over the long run. It can provide you with regular monthly passive income, making it a great investment if done properly.
Property management involves many responsibilities. You need to know how to manage the property, how to set the right rent amount, and among others, know what the local tax requirements are.
We recommend that you consider hiring a property manager if you own several rental units, live away from your rental, or if you lack experience and don’t have time to focus on managing your property. They offer a full range of services to meet your needs.
Here are 6 reasons why you should hire a property manager for your Washington property:
1. Professional marketing and advertising
Property management professionals have the experience to know where to market your buildings to attract the right audience. Their experience offers a significant competitive advantage to quickly fill your units and thus reduce vacancies.
High tenant turnover can be expensive because once a tenant vacates your rental property, you’ll have to:
- Advertise your rental property
- Go through the tenant screening process
- Make small repairs such as replacing carpets, repainting walls, changing the locks, and cleaning the unit.
Aside from being costly, doing these things also take up a lot of time. Plus, you’ll have zero rent at the end of the month due to the vacancy. Therefore, long-term tenants are crucial to the success of your rental business.
When hiring a property manager, insist on one with a solid tenant retention rate.
2. A reliable and thorough screening process
As the owner of a property, you wouldn’t want to rent to a tenant who has an eviction history or has caused damage to an apartment in the past.
One of the reasons for the success of your business is renting to high-quality tenants.
Do you know how to find tenants? Do you know how to screen them properly?
Finding high-quality tenants is one of the many responsibilities of a property manager.
You want to rent to a tenant who pays on time, cares for your property, and rents long-term.
An experienced property management company has sufficient knowledge, experience, and resources when it comes to finding and choosing the best tenants. They have been in the business long enough to spot a potential problematic tenant when they see one.
3. An effective and efficient rent collection process
Another key to a successful rental business is to ensure that your cash flow is consistent and reliable. Experienced property management companies have the right tools and processes to ensure this. Among other ways to collect rent, online payments are the most efficient way in doing so.
The property manager will also know the steps to take if a tenant fails to pay rent on time.
Evictions are guided by strict laws and not being able to follow them can lead to mistakes and expensive costs. An experienced and qualified company will know the right processes to follow to make the eviction process as smooth as possible.
4. Experience in legal matters
You’ll need to have an understanding of the federal, state, and local laws that guide the landlord-tenant relationship.
Among other things, you also need to know how to screen tenants, collect and handle security deposits, create and sign lease agreements, conduct property inspections, and deal with tenant evictions.
An experienced property management company will protect you from any potential lawsuits by making sure you’re compliant with these laws.
5. Timely repairs and maintenance
What happens if there’s an emergency at your property in the middle of the night?
Would you have the skills and resources to take care of it?
Do you live close enough to your rental?
In most cases, landlords can respond to these emergencies right away, but most will not have the skills needed to fix the problem. Hiring a property manager will help you with this matter. Not only will they have the right vendor partners to do this but they also get their services in bulk. This means savings that they pass on to you.
Complaints from residents can be handled immediately while ensuring your investment is well maintained and protected.
6. Tenant management
Tenants will want their issues addressed immediately.
Is your work schedule flexible enough to perform landlord duties?
A common mistake landlords make is trying to effectively manage their properties when they already have full-time jobs or own multiple rental properties. As a result, this may lead to the neglect of the property’s needs, unhappy tenants, and possibly, a high turn-over rate.
Consequently, if you feel that you won’t have enough time to respond to your rentals and tenants, hire a manager. One of the advantages of hiring a property manager is that they take on many of these responsibilities for you.
Hiring a property management company signifies that you’re assigning them with the task of maintaining and growing your investment.
However, hiring a manager doesn’t always guarantee that everything will run smoothly. Sometimes, hiring an inexperienced company may result in losses of money and not profits. Make sure to do your due diligence before hiring to increase your chances of finding the best and most highly regarded company you can find for your Washington property.