Finding Your First Home

Posted on: 9 April 2021

When you own a rental property and plan to manage it yourself, there can be quite a bit of time and effort involved in the process. However, with the services of a property manager, you will get great service that will benefit both your rental and your tenants. Here are some tips to help you in the selection of a property manager for your rental property.

Ask About Provided Services

Your rental property is going to require a variety of different services and tasks to stay profitable and to keep your tenants happy. A good property manager should provide management or maintenance of the rental property, which can include services while the property is occupied and when a renter moves out. If your tenant experiences a plumbing problem or an outage in the heating or cooling, for example, your property manager should take their call and arrange the necessary professional services. Some property managers will have a maintenance professional on staff, but they also may need to hire out additional work services. 

When a tenant moves out of the property, your property manager should inspect the property and refund the security deposit, then assign cleaning and maintenance of the property to get it ready for the next tenant as quickly as possible. This turnaround timeframe should be as short as possible, especially if you have a new tenant waiting to move in. A turnaround time that takes too long will cost you money in lost rent.

A good property manager should also advertise and market the property to keep it rented and then show it to prospective tenants. Then, they should provide a rent collection service, either online or through the mail or a similar service. Make sure you review all their professional services to make sure they will handle all services that you need.

Look at the Tenant Screening Process

Another important element of a property management service is the type of tenant screening they provide. Screening tenants is a great way to protect your investment and ensure you have good constant cash flow from rent. 

If you let the wrong tenant into your property because you did not properly check into their credit and rental history with a background check, you will have costs to pay for if you have to evict them and can have months of lost rent. So, it is a good idea to find out what type of screening process a property management company will use in order to find great renters for your property.

Contact a property management company in your area to learn more.