What Good Property Management Can Do

Short of finding a good rental home to pursue, the most important decision a home-renter will likely make is selecting a good property manager. Like an employee, it is absolutely worth the time to thoroughly investigate and interview. In fact, it may be helpful to consider a property manager or property management company as just that, an employee.

These are the individuals that will be stewards for something very expensive, very worthwhile, and very versatile.  A plethora of legal considerations, property codes, and Home Owners Association criteria need to be considered, to the degree that anyone who works full-time and rents/owns property needs to hire someone to proactively care for these assets.

When employment superiors and administrators go into an interview, they are almost always equipped with specific, well-thought questions and scenarios in order to test the readiness and capability of a potential candidate. Going along with this metaphor, here are questions an employer (home renter) should ask when potentially hiring an employee (property manager):

How much do you need to be paid, and is that price warranted?
Both individual managers and property management companies tend to utilize a monthly fee for their services. To give a ballpark estimate of how much they should be charging, percentages typically range from 5% to approximately 20%. It goes without saying that frugality is important, but also remember that you get what you pay for. Using a median amount between the two extremes is a good starting point.

Are you skilled and experienced at the tasks needed for this arrangement?
Maintenance, repairs, and yard work are some of the ‘bread and butter’ tasks associated with property management. It is important to know if a maintenance crew is directly employed, or if they contract that work out to some kind of handyman or other service. Significant ramifications exist within this distinction: How much do they cost? Are they equipped to handle everything involved with your land or home? What happens if or when they’re not? In addition, you need to know how hands-on you want to be in regards to more expensive work, and enquire as to their willingness to keep you in the proper loop.

How would you handle an extended vacancy? How about an unexpected eviction?
Good employees step up to the plate when bad things happen. To the degree to which they rise to the occasion says a lot. If a vacancy were to go longer than anticipated, you need to know if some type of fee or charge would be coming your way, and what that would be. Same thing with evictions: If that were to occur, what out-of-pocket money would you have to forfeit?

Do you have the accounting and monetary habits that gel with how I want to exchange funds with you?
With the usual primary motivator being profit, it is important to clearly lay out exactly how those profits will be collected, and how liabilities will be paid. Things as simple as the date each month you’ll receive payment, whether it will be via check or other money form, and if they have some reserves to survive temporary hardship are often overlooked, to the detriment of the rent. Advertising factors into this as well, in that if a vacancy is trying to be filled, money will be exchanged more frequently in order to find a renter.

Written by Clif, freelance writer for RPM East Valley.