When you own rental properties, knowing the smartest way to handle managing the properties is the key to maximizing your profit. Here is a quick look at the things you should consider about rental property management.
Try to self-manage.
Self-managing is one of the best ways to lower the management costs of your rental properties. Because rental management companies will charge you percentages of your rent for their services, you will save the most money by simply spending the time needed to manage your own properties instead.
Avoid management companies.
Though much more convenient than managing on your own, hiring a management company is rarely cost-efficient. They will typically take the entirety of the first month’s rent whenever they find a new tenant for your property and consistently require a payment of about 10% of your monthly rent. The only time a management company should be considered is if you have too many properties to keep track of on your own or if you live too far away from your properties to manage them effectively.
Reduce maintenance costs.
One of the biggest expenses of a rental property will be paying for the repairs on damages that occur to the properties. When it comes to rental property maintenance, it is actually more cost-effective to be proactive rather than reactive. For example, neglecting to fix a leaky faucet could lead to emergency calls to a plumber in the future. Fixing problems while they are small will help you to save money in the long run.
Check your tenants.
Having bad tenants can lead to damage to your property, higher maintenance costs, and overdue rent. Try to have background checks performed on potential tenants. These checks will give you credit scores and references for the tenants and give you an idea of how well they will treat your property.
Do what you can on your own.
The easiest way to bring down costs is to do as much work as you can on your own. If you are handy around the home, performing maintenance yourself removes the need to pay for plumbers or others to fix problems that occur on your rental property. This is true for landscaping and cleaning as well; if you perform the work on your own, you will not have the expense of hiring landscapers or cleaning companies and will thereby reduce your overall expenses
