5 Signs of The Best Property Management Company
If you’re a rental property owner, hiring the best property management company can take a lot off your plate. Keeping up with all the tasks associated with an investment property is hard. Tenant screenings, Inspections, rent collection, servicing appointments, cleaning, and occasional repairs happen throughout the year, which require your time, money, and attention. It’s no wonder many real estate investment pros enjoy the convenience of using the best property management services!
Why Rental Property Management Works
Imagine having to keep up with several rental properties at a time. Landlord responsibilities are vast: on top of regular HVAC maintenance, dryer vent cleanings, and annual roof inspections, you also need to find qualified tenants, keep in touch with residents to renew leases, respond to property maintenance requests, collect rent, do all the lease paperwork, and conduct proper move-in and move-out inspections for each lease period.
Oh, and in between leases, you must be responsible for showings, marketing, if there is a need for an eviction, you have to do that too. Also, don’t forget to stay on top of financial reporting for each property. Phew — that’s a lot!
A real estate investor of multiple properties simply can’t be on top of all this if they have a full-time job or live out of state. The key to making it work is to hire the residential property management to handle all the big and small details. But how do you find a good one that will maximize your profits and minimize risk? Here are 5 signs of the best property management companies.
5 Signs of the Best Property Management Companies
When you want to keep your single-family home profitable and in the best condition, you need a property manager who stays on top of routine tasks and knows how to decrease turnover and risk. Overall, you’ll know it’s the right fit when you don’t have to worry about tedious tasks.
Time freedom comes from not having to collect monthly rent, not having to worry about the legality in how you screen potential tenants, or keeping track with who to follow up renters with at end of lease to maintain occupancy, and of course, not having to reply to late night texts and phone calls. For a competitive property management fee, you get your life back.
So go ahead; travel, enjoy life, spend time the way you want, and collect rental income from anywhere. You worked hard for your investments, and now it’s time to reap the rewards while a property management firm does the work. Here are 5 signs of the best property management company.
1) They know how to keep vacancy low.
An experienced property management company knows that landlords save money when vacancy is low. Therefore, it will proactively retain residents instead of finding someone new. After all, even a month of vacancy can mean the landlord paying out of pocket for a potential mortgage payment or utilities.
This is why Marketplace Homes has dedicated rental and customer service teams that reach out to residents at the end of lease periods. By proactively communicating, we maximize lease renewal rates to reduce turnover or vacancy. This efficient process ensures that someone is always on top of keeping your rentals occupied.
2) They will keep everything legal.
A professional property management company will know real estate law and regulations from A to Z. They will understand the legal intricacies of the tenant screening process and adhere to local and national laws about rental applications. This keeps you out of any legal tangles because everything will be handled correctly. Screening tenants and tenant placement can get tricky, so working with a firm with years of experience will take a lot off your plate when finding prospective tenants.
Also, you don’t have to worry about accidentally skipping an application, doing paperwork incorrectly, or choosing the wrong templates. You also don’t have to wonder what criteria you can use to approve or deny an application. Our real estate professionals will examine objective factors like credit scores, debt-to-income ratio, and any other aspects that predict financial fitness.
3) You will feel like all your property management needs are fulfilled.
Whether you are an owner of one property, five, or a large portfolio of investments, having the right property management company on your side will free you significantly from responsibilities that used to burden you. You can go to sleep at night knowing that you don’t have to keep your phone on for a potential late-night maintenance request. Instead, you can rest assured that your property management company has implemented efficient, professional communication methods so residents can make maintenance requests day or night.
For example, Marketplace Homes makes it easy for residents to submit urgent and non-urgent maintenance requests through online portals and via phone. They also have access to weekend emergency phone numbers for serious issues like a broken heater. This is much better than only relying on one landlord’s phone number! Our teams are dedicated to responding promptly to requests and being as efficient as possible in resolving them.
4) You (and your residents) will feel connected.
When a landlord is pulled in too many directions, response times can be too long for the resident’s liking. However, a full-service property management company has the bandwidth to stay in close communication with landlords and residents.
For instance, our property management company invests in customer service and training for responsive pick-up times and friendly service. Marketplace Homes has an excellent customer service team that is passionate about reaching residents and responding to their needs. We also make it a priority to keep in touch with landlords and respond to their questions promptly.
5) There’s all-around professionalism.
A good property management company just feels like it’s got its act together. You get an all-around professional feeling when you speak to anyone in the company – from the listing team, property manager, to customer service. Everybody is on the same page, operations are organized, and you feel confident that everybody knows what they’re doing. This happens from experience after a company understands what works the best.
For example, Marketplace Homes understands that when you have people who are really good at what they do, they can focus on that task very well and do it to satisfaction. This is better than having one person who’s a jack of all trades and a master of none.
If you work with a solo property manager who tries to do everything, you may find your wait times to be longer or you might find that one aspect of their service is not to your liking. Marketplace Homes understands this and ensures that everybody provides real estate services according to their strengths to benefit clients.
The Best Property Management Companies Offer Something Special
The best companies strive to offer a premium experience that you can’t find just anywhere. For example, unlike small-time property management companies, we are a nationwide full-service brokerage that can provide end-to-end services to investors through Marketplace One. Whether you need an updated market analysis on your home, to do background checks on applicants, or find the best strategies for acquisitions or dispositions, we are here to help you.
With over a decade of experience in investing, we have a database of off-market properties that investors can explore to grow their portfolio without all the competition or bidding wars. This isn’t easily possible when you work with a single agent. We are also a nationwide brokerage, meaning we can manage properties across state lines. Specifically, we are active in over 35 states and counting.
Working with a nationwide realty property management company gives you an incredible edge. It allows you to diversify your portfolio to participate in national markets, a known practice to reduce the impact of downturns. Even if one market is slowing down, you don’t have to worry because other investments in another state or city are doing well. If you have a market in mind in which you want to invest, contact us, and we will get to work for you.
The Best Property Management Company Nationwide
If you need to take a break from managing your investment portfolio, then Marketplace Homes invites you to explore our Property Management Solutions. Come meet our teams and talk about the process of handing over the lion’s share of work to our real estate professionals. To find out more about property management and our other Real Estate Solutions, contact us today.
Alicia Persson is a real estate content/SEO writer at Marketplace Homes. She has several years of experience working in real estate teams that specialized in investments and property management. Before she joined Marketplace, she was a freelance writer for 7 years, leading to a specialization in real estate and home living content for boutique digital marketing agencies. During her writing years, she learned the basics of SEO and gained experience writing for many different clients, making her highly versatile at creating diverse content.
She is a proud University of Virginia master’s graduate and enjoyed her undergraduate years at the University of Mary Washington. When Alicia is not writing, she plays keytar and sings in a local 90’s rock cover band, or she spends time with her amazing family.