The Value of a Property Manager
Many rental property landlords and investors consider a good property manager to be worth their weight in gold. This year, that opinion has become even more deeply embedded. There are two main reasons for this:
- It has been a difficult year for everyone; many worries, concerns, and frustrations get passed along to someone else. For a tenant, that is often the landlord or the property manager.
- Necessity is the mother of invention, and in challenging times good property managers develop new or improved methods that directly benefit not just themselves, but also the property owner and the tenants.
Let us look at what good property managers are doing and the 5 reasons to hire a property management company during COVID-19.
5 Reasons to Hire a Property Manager
1. They Have the Technology
With social distancing, safer-at-home and work-from-home orders in place in many states, more people are getting more used to remote communication. Automatic email response systems, direct, regular communication and follow-ups, Zoom and facetime conversations and meetings are becoming the norm. Property management companies will have these systems in place. The tenants will “assume” they can use this technology to moan, question, respond, and report to either their landlord or property manager. Either the landlord must bur, install, and learn to use new technology or let their property manager do it all.
2. They Have the Greater Need
A rental property investor with a few properties may be tempted to put off this kind of expenditure and hope their tenants will be different from the millions of others who expect technology support. A property manager knows they must invest both the money and the time to get, learn, and use it.
3. Good Property Managers Plan Ahead
The industry will experience the same challenges everywhere in America. The professional associations to which property managers belong have, are, and will keep looking for ways to make everything better or to stop the everyday practical problems from becoming worse. Landlords can either wait for the problem to arise, act fast after it does, plan ahead, themselves, or leave everything to their property manager.
4. Property Managers Have Their Own Network
Professionals of all sorts network with others, receive industry news reports, practical ideas, informational blogs and so on that helps them to easily stay on the ball. These networks make it easier for the manager of a property to plan and solve than it is for a landlord working alone.
5. Property Managers Handle the Headaches
This year we have seen more overdue rents, more potential evictions, etc. than usual. Individual tenants who need help can speak to their landlord or to the manager who has more experience in helping to resolve problems or to prevent them from happening.
The Takeaway
Experience, practice, professional support, and shared ideas beat the “learn as you go” or “hopefully it won’t happen” stance. It is usually good business practice to hire the experts, and this year that principle may be more relevant.