Hi There,
If you are new to real estate investing, one question that you will face is:
Do you manage your rental property yourself or do you hire a property manager.
Valid arguments can be made for both sides.
However, you should know that most real estate investors, are not very good landlords. As such, if you are not good at being a landlord, you need to get the help of a professional property manager.
Here are 4 Reasons Why You Need A Property Manager.
1) Your Tenant Is Behind In Rent
If your tenant does not pay you on time once, there is a high probability that they will repeat this behaviour again and again. If they are repeatedly not paying you on time, you are not doing your job effectively as a landlord, bottom line. As a landlord, you must collect your rent on time. If you are having trouble with this you need to hire a property manager who will step in and ensure that your tenant pays you on time. Timely rent collection is an essential skill that you require.
2) You Have Not Raised The Rent
Many landlords once they have a tenant move in, never raise their monthly rent. Depending upon where you reside, in most places you can raise the monthly rent on a periodic basis (often annually). If you have tenants that have lived at your rental property for several years, and who have not had their rental amount raised, that is not good for business.
As a real estate investor, you are a business operator. In business, your objective should always be to maximize revenue. What better way can you maximize your revenue than by increasing your rent? Increase your rents…bottom line.
If you are afraid to raise your tenant’s monthly rent, step out of the way and let a professional property manager take over as the landlord. They will be able to give your tenant the proper notice and have them pay the increased amount in rent, guaranteed.
3) You Don’t Like Confrontation
If you are not good at dealing with conflict, you will struggle as a landlord. Whenever a problem arises with your tenant, you will have to be communicating directly with them. It may be a problem that is not your fault, however, you have to come up with the solution to it…that is the job of the landlord…
For example, your tenant may call you frustrated and let you know that their washing machine has not been working for 2 weeks. Further, the washing machine has broken down with a full load of clothes in the wash and that the machine has water in it and is not draining. Further, they might also tell you that they need the washing machine fixed today, because they are all out of clean clothes and they need to have access to the washing machine to wash all of the clothes for their new born baby.
This is a situation that you have to deal with immediately. The longer you leave this situation unresolved, the further frustrated your tenant might become. If you don’t like dealing with frustrating circumstances like this one, you need to have a property manager step in and handle situations like this. They will be able to communicate with the tenant directly and co-ordinate any maintenance people that may be required to come and fix the washing machine in a timely manner.
4) You Are Not Good At Keeping Records
Keeping records is actually a very important skill to have as a landlord. Depending upon how many rental properties you end up buying and depending upon how involved you are with your tenants, you will likely have to keep very detailed records.
Detailed records are required when a tenant has not paid rent. The tenant is now behind with the rent payment. A few days from now, they may make a partial payment of rent. A week later, they may make another partial payment of rent. Simultaneously, you will have to file the paperwork with your local governing body that deals with Landlord and Tenant Issues.
There is a lot to keep track of when things go wrong with your tenant. As the landlord, the onus is on you to keep flawless records. If you are not good at doing this, give up the job as manager of your rental property to a professional property manager.
These are just 4 reasons why someone would need a property manager. There are many other reasons why you should hire a property manager. We will leave that discussion for another day!
Happy Investing!
Neil
ps: If you are new to real estate investing and are looking to buy your first rental property, you might also be in search of the money to do this. Finding money to buy a rental property can sometimes be hard.
The quickest way to find some money so that you can purchase a rental property might be through finding a joint venture partner.
Presenting to a Joint Venture partner is a challenge to a lot of investors. But when you discover there are only 3 powerful ingredients that influence people to say “YES” to your deals, it’s not so hard anymore.
My friend and fellow real estate investor, Joey Ragona just released a video on this, and it’s awesome: https://rl163.isrefer.com/go/JVPF-intro-direct/SBA45/email
He really simplifies and breaks it down, and explains why MOST investors are wasting their time chasing people who will NEVER give them money. You’ll learn:
- Why people say “NO” to your deals
- The 3 HUGE mistakes investors make when they’re looking for JVs
- Joey’s 3-Step Presentation Formula ingredients
- How the 1-Page JV Presentation filters out people who will waste your time
Joey shows you in this video, so check it out before he pulls it down.https://rl163.isrefer.com/go/JVPF-intro-direct/SBA45/email
Enjoy the video. And take some notes. Don’t worry, there’s no opt-in required.
These are great tips. If you are not making progress with your property, and you still charge the same rent as when you started, then you might need some help with it. Thanks for sharing.