If you are a property investor or agent, you know how lucrative and rewarding owning and managing your property can be. You also understand that the effort, time, and skills property management demands to ensure continued profitability. Most upcoming investors choose to maintain and manage their own properties. However, as their investment portfolios grow, they have to consider hiring a property manager sooner or later.
Ian is a good example. He is a successful property investor by all measures with a portfolio of individual units and several multifamily properties. He was referred to us at the peak of the 2017 Boston luxury housing boom.
A rundown of the report for the 2020/21 real estate performance by the Greater Boston Association of Realtors (GBAR) reveals that the median selling price for condos rose by 10.3% from 578,754 to $638,250. The total active listings for condos increased by 26.8% while developers try to meet the ever-increasing demand.
Ian was initially hesitant to outsource the management of his property to a professional, despite his busy schedule. However, by the time his portfolio read ten units and was renting directly to college students, it was apparent he needed a professional to streamline operations and automate billing processes.
As a property investor, homeowner, or real estate agent, you should base the decision to know whether it is time to hire a professional property manager on the amount of help you need to manage your properties. A property manager comes in as a partner to leverage technology and professional skills to make your work easier and save you money.
Eventually, every successful property investor will need a licensed property manager. Here are three signs that you need one.
If you have been to Boston lately, you will know that buyers are scooping up condos and luxury apartments faster than the developers can build them.
Boston.com boldly asserts that the reported death of Boston's urban housing trouble during the pandemic may have been a great exaggeration.
There is a whole library of laws and regulations that govern rental properties. To which both landlords and tenants must comply. When you have more than a handful of properties to manage, the effort it takes to ensure compliance and prove it to tenants and arbitrators becomes a bit too much.
A professional property manager has the know-how and experience to handle compliance issues and dealing with difficult tenants. They can help you avoid unnecessary lawsuits and drama by ensuring your properties always comply with all applicable laws.
A property manager views your properties as businesses. It is in his/her best interest to maximize the profitability of your money and time. It is noteworthy that property managers offer a range of services that you can personalize based on your needs. For instance, you can hire a manager to collect rent and pay bills while retaining your current contractor to handle repairs and renovations.
How do you determine how much you should charge for rent? If you go through the classifieds to realize other landlords charge more or less, you are not doing enough research. Because we live in difficult and unpredictable times, property prices are highly volatile, and the market shows so.
A professional property management company is better positioned to help you with which types of tenants to target and how much to charge for rent. This strategy will ensure a perfect balance between maintaining a low vacancy rate and maximizing your monthly income.
Rental property managers, in particular, will know the right marketing and advertising channels to reach just the clients you prefer. These efforts will also set in motion long-term landlord-tenant relationships that proactively eliminate disagreements over rent and conflicts over responsibility.
On the fence on whether to hire a property manager yet? Consider all the time you spend worrying about tenants, payments, or unfilled vacancies. It would cost much less to let a professional resolve such problems in the shortest time possible.
If you know how a billing department works, you will agree that getting tenants to pay on time without making it awkward can be difficult. They seem never to understand the cost of a day in late payments. Coordinating rent collection, following up with payment receipts, and ensuring timely payment to service providers can be tasking and time-consuming.
The best property management companies today use sophisticated software to streamline rent collection and bill payments. If you still have to shuffle invoices and receipts in paper files, you may need to talk to a property manager. We use a tried-and-tested client management system that automatically handles rent collection, payment escalation, as well as other charges.
Property managers can monitor and download financial performance reports from the cloud to help them make efficient investment decisions.
Condo owners looking to invest in Boston may find it hard to get unbiased expert guidance on properties in and outside the city. Real estate agents, of course, have too many vested interests to offer the best advice. On the other hand, a property manager will have the most transparent picture of what a homeowner should consider before investing in a rental property.
At their bare bones, there are only three good reasons to consider hiring a property manager:
As Boston's real estate market continues to flourish, investors and even homeowners are recognizing the value property managers offer, especially to investors with multiple properties. We know that a property manager, in a way, executes the landlord's strategies to maximize income, minimize costs, and increase profits.
Our property management company helped Ian grow his two units to over 30 within a few years. He did all the hard work. But our management skills came in handy to handle 'all the other stuff.'
As an investor, Ian has the room to focus on building his portfolio while the property manager puts into action his preferred strategies to earn the most from his investments.
The best property manager must bring efficiency to your operations. They must also have sufficient local market knowledge to help inform your present and future investment decisions. Professionalism, openness, as well as availability, are also important when considering hiring a property manager.
There is a lot more that a good professional property management company can offer homeowners, real estate agents, property investors, as well as businesses interested in the Boston real estate market.
Would you like to talk to experienced professionals? You can request a free proposal for property management services from CharlesGate Realty now.