When to Use a Property Management Company

A property management company deals with prospects and tenants, saving you time and worry over marketing your rentals, collecting rent, handling maintenance and repair issues, responding to tenant complaints, and even pursuing evictions. A property management company stays on top of federal, state, and city regulations. A professional property management company, like Fairfax Property Management protects your investment while also ensuring your rental income stays your income. 

Owning a rental property can be valuable in generating a steady revenue. However, as a landlord you’re only going to make rental property income if you have decent renters who make their rent payments on time and are not destroying their rental unit. A bad tenant can make the experience of being a landlord a nightmare. 

There are many reasons using a property management company are beneficial to you, and probably the most significant benefit is saving money. A property management company alleviates the stresses on the landlord, it also frees up time, because a property management company will, make repairs, chase tenants of late rental payment, and enforce the terms of the lease.

Here are some pros to using a property management company: 

  • Higher Quality Tenants – an experienced property management company has seen its share of rental applications and knows how to quickly look for real facts about candidates and analyze information for warning signs. By letting a management company take care of the screening, you are protecting yourself from rental scams. Selection can be a longer process, but it means avoiding bad tenants, scams, and lawsuits.
  • Less costly and time-consuming legal problems – one troublesome tenant can cause a whirlwind of legal and financial headaches for a landlord. A good property management company is very knowledgeable in the latest landlord-tenant laws and regulations and will ensure that you are not being left vulnerable to the potential of a lawsuit. Federal law on rental properties covers various areas such as tenant screening, safety and the state of the rental unit, evictions, inspections, lease addendums, ending leases, managing security deposits, and rent collection.
  • Quicker vacancy cycles – a property management company will help you perform critical tasks to fill your vacancies such as overseeing cosmetic improvements to maximize revenue, determine the best rent rate for your unit, and effectively market your property to close a sale.
  • Enhanced tenant retention – the process of turning over a property for each tenant involve a detailed cleaning, replacing the locks, painting the walls and possibly new carpets or small repairs, plus the effort of marketing the property, showing, screening and settling in a new tenant. It’s all very time-consuming. An experienced property management company has a time-tested tenant retention policy that ensures happy tenants with more extended stays in your rental properties.
  • A fixed rent collection process – collecting rent on time monthly, which is the only way to maintain reliable cash-flow, and your tenants need to understand this. A property management company acts as the in-between person between you and the tenants. The management company will play the “bad guy” who must chase down rent, and if necessary, carry out evictions.
  • Support with taxes – a property management company will help you in understanding which deductions you can claim, and organize the forms and documentation needed to make those claims. Also, the feel of a property management company is tax-deductible.
  • Less expensive maintenance and repair costs – proper maintenance and repairs maintain happy tenant and conserve the value of your investment. By joining with a property management company, you gain access to in-house maintenance staff, and licensed, bonded and insured contractors who’ve already been vetted for their excellent prices and quality of work.

Hiring a property management company has not only many benefits on making you revenue, but also many personal benefits:

  • Less stress – by having the middleman you avoid dealing with middle of the night emergencies, chasing down rent, evicting people, tenants were wrecking your property, rental scams, and piles of paperwork.
  • Lots more freedom – by having a property management company looking after your investment, you do not need to be available 24/7 in case of tenant emergencies. You have the freedom to travel or live where ever you want, and to buy more rental properties if you choose.  

The freedom and less stress can be expected if you partner with competent and trustworthy property management companies, like Fairfax Property Management, that understand your bottom line and want to help you succeed. Your rental investment is a significant asset and deserves the proper care and management. A property management company will save you time, boost your bottom line, ensure diligent maintenance, and reduce liability.