Property Management Jobs Guide

Quite frankly you can personally do all the things you would pay a property management company to do for you. There is not one duty they perform in your name that you could not theoretically do by yourself.

Having said that it is crucial to keep in mind that the people who work for property management companies have developed a large set of management skills related to this field allowing them to do things you could do but would have major trouble actually doing it.

What type of real estate management expertise are you exactly paying them for?

Their main jobs are to:

• Advertise and find prospective tenants to rent your property
• Qualify tenants to make sure they will be good renters by checking criminal background, credit history, and personal references
• Collect the monthly rent
• Handle all maintenance issues

As stated, there is not a property owner who would not be able to do those four items himself. Just keep in mind though that each step is very time consuming and difficult especially if you are not trained in that area. Additionally, doing background and credit checks are expensive if you do not already have a service in place to handle that.

Here is a break down of those four duties and you can decide if you would be able to do them yourself or if it is worth to pay an expert to do them for you.

Advertising

You have an empty house. Oh course, you would like it to be rented as soon as possible because every month you are paying the mortgage for it. How do you plan to find interested people? Some options are Craigslist, the local newspaper or other forms of print advertising, apartment guides, fliers, or the internet. There are good advertising mediums that cost money and some that are free. It depends on the property and the area the house is located in. If the home is on a major street you can get people interested by putting a sign up. People will see it, write it down, and call you. But if it is in the middle of a suburban neighborhood then you will have to get more creative.

Qualification Process

There are exceptions but generally people do not want convicted felons renting their property. Everyone does deserve a second chance but I would prefer not to have those people rent from me because of the potential problems (seedy element) it brings.

These days rarely anyone has great credit. But, you want to find out if a person has a history of not paying their rent or utility bills. If they were evicted in the last several years you definitely do not want them renting from you!

Overall you are not looking for someone who is perfect but you do want a good all-around tenant with a stable job to rent from you. In order to do this you need to do a criminal background check, credit check, and at personally call some of his character references.

Again, all very time consuming.

Rent Collection

Sometimes you do not end up with a tenant that pays on time. It may not be his fault at times but if it is a chronic problem you will have to stay on top of him or her. You will have to call him, meet him, chase him, and at times warn him sternly (though legally) that he needs to pay the full amount on time. This is the part that many people hate. You have to have thick skin to accomplish this task. You will have renters who will get aggressive and mean when you ask them to fulfill their obligation. Are you prepared to deal with that.

Maintenance

Things happen and it never seems to be at a convenient time. You could get a call at 2 AM from a tenant telling you the toilette is not working or the washing machine broke. These items can be seemingly endless especially when a person has an older house. If you want to put your clothes on in the middle of the night and deal with it, by all means do so. But property management companies have their own handymen on call that they would send out in an event like this.

These are the (4) main items you will have to deal with when it comes to managing your property. I have just mentioned the main jobs you will have but there are several smaller ones which may come up.

There are many reasons why you should at least consider using a property manager to help you with your real estate management needs. It takes the headache of owning a any investment property or 2nd home out of your hands. You will most likely find that the price you pay to have this service is cheap for what you actually get.
About the Author

About the Author

This article is written by Wesley Barras of Sun World Group, a premier Vancouver Wa property management company serving the Pacific Northwest.
If you would like more information about the subject just discussed you can visit another article written by Wesley on the topic of property management qualification tips.