10 - Property management Success Tools
To best understand the value of a property manager to you, (or whether it makes sense to quit your day job and become your own) we have to truly understand the scope of work for a property manager.
They first take a look at the property, give you an idea of what maintenance items should be taken care of and when.
Marketing – a good property manager will show you how, where and when they will market your property and for how much, with reports showing what the current expected market rates are, demographic of renters and what you can do to keep current renters or otherwise.
Tenant management – how to pick the right tenants
The best tenants are those that pay on time and treat your place as their own in a good way. They complain little and help you see things you don’t or can’t because you are not there everyday. To attract these tenants you have to take time to understand what they are about in terms of lifestyle and how they view a good quality of life.
Bad tenants are consistent in their approach to life…they don’t pay on time, scream a lot in some form or fashion and have a history of drama on one or more levels. They break the rules and make their own. Lying is second nature to them as in deceptive practices the average person could not come up with.
Most tenants fall in between and with enough background checks it is easy to get a handle on who is good, bad and naughty but nice.
Document controls – from emails to texts
As a landlord it is as important for you to document what was said, agreed to, done and will do in the process of ownership. Sometimes life gets busy so use technology as your friend. Always communicate in multiple ways to keep track of people, places and related expenses.
Your legal responsibilities as a landlord
As a landlord you should always have your leases clearly state what you do and don’t do.
Be clear to use specific forms or disclose specific items such as lead disclosures, fair housing policies and so on.
For your taxes, try and put all your expenses on a specific credit card or one bank account just for your landlordism world. Never mix and match receipts between units. You may get away with it on your taxes but when you clearly assign expenses to the specific properties it not only helps you with taxes it helps forecasting and planning for your future using your own historic real, accurate information on each unit in each place.