Property Management Tips
By: Bryan Dulaney
If you own a lot of property, you might need some help keeping up with things. Some like to have someone do everything for them, and they just collect the money after the rents are paid, and some like to have someone just for maintenance reasons, or perhaps to handle phone calls and complaints. Whatever it is that you are looking for, you do have to take some time when deciding who can help you with property management ,and who might do you more harm than good.
Some landlords like help with property management that involves just the upkeep. They may have someone hired to do the landscaping on all properties, and that is usually something you can hire a company to do. This is often not a hard choice, as long as someone shows up when they should and they are doing all of the work they promise. That might include just the lawns, but might also include upkeep of the property in the way of picking up trash and other odd jobs. References arenít immensely important if they are not allowed access to the buildings on your property, but they might still be a good idea anyway.
Some property management can be done by a company. Some will show the property to potential renters, take their applications, do credit checks, and then collect rent when and if they are approved. They may also makes calls for repairmen when something goes wrong, and they might check up to be sure the paint is in good shape and that the tenants are not trashing the property. This kind of property management is for the landlord that does not have time, lives far away, or simply has no interest in it. If choosing something like this, make sure to get references so that your properties and your interests are not going down the tubes when you are not looking.
Others have a mixture of the two for property management. They may have someone handle the money, and someone else for maintenance work. The landlord may take phone calls directly from the tenants when there is a problem, and may want to screen applicants on their own. Before hiring anyone in any type of official capacity for property management, make sure you do some checking of your own. References are great, but a criminal and background check might be a great idea. That way you can rest a little easier letting someone else handle what is very important to you.
Tags: Property Management
