Whether you own a few duplexes or are positioning yourself to buy up a small neighborhood, finding the right property manager to help with your investments is critical. A good property manager becomes a reliable partner and member of your team and is often tasked with multiple jobs.
Selecting the best property manager for you and your assets may require some initial leg work, but it will pay off in the long run, when you know you’ve hired an indispensable team member. Let’s examine some important questions, concerns, and tips for selecting the best property manager you’ll want to consider before you get started.
What’s a Property Manager?
When owning multiple properties, especially in different geographical areas, it can become difficult and time consuming to travel between locations for maintenance and managerial duties. Between normal building maintenance and tenant management, there are numerous tasks to accomplish.
By hiring a property manager or property management company, you’re authorizing a second party to act on your behalf and benefit. Their job is, in essence, to maintain and manage any issues with your properties for a fee.
Although this may sound straight-forward, a quality property manager is an extremely valuable asset and not always the easiest to come by. Ideally, the perfect candidate has experience, is organized and motivated, and has the knowledge or training to handle a wide range of potential problems or property management issues.
Tips for Selecting the Best Property Manager
Since the property management you choose will represent you and your interests, make sure they’re well-vetted and properly researched. Take your time and be thorough.
Plan Your Interviews
When considering who will be in charge of your properties, you’ll want to have a standardized set of questions and discussion topics to introduce in your interviews. By developing the questions to ask a potential property manager candidate ahead of time, you won’t accidentally forget any important points, either.
Also, make sure you interview a decent number of candidates and strive to avoid initial bias. Just because the second interview went great doesn't mean your search is over.
Research Candidates Ahead of Time
Preparation isn’t only necessary for the questions you’ll ask. Knowing some professional information about the people and companies you’re considering helps them to know you’re serious.
It also gives you an opportunity to see how truthful and accurate the candidates might be. Knowing the background information about a potential hire should be considered standard instead of savvy.
Ask for Recommendations
Sometimes a recommendation from a colleague or industry luminary can be one of the most valuable pieces of insight. Determining who others trust with their valuables can become a ringing endorsement for your next hire.
Check Their Work
Sometimes the truest measure of a person’s craft is their craftwork. When searching for a property manager, it can be enlightening to see how they’re managing their current or most recent properties.
Equally, inquire with former clients to discuss the pros and cons of their managerial abilities. Third party endorsements are on par with great recommendations.
Review Credentials
Although certificates and licensing may be standard for all property managers in your area, it’s worth seeing what other credentials they’ve received. Specialized licensing, added legal abilities(ex. Notary Public), specific degrees or certifications, or even continuing education coursework can indicate a higher quality candidate.
Price Comparisons
If nothing else, you can always consider how much you’ll be charged for services rendered. Nobody wants to pay the most expensive price, but it’s also probably best to be wary of the cheapest options, too.
If possible, have each candidate or company itemize what they offer as a property manager. Remember that you’re hiring them, so be as specific and detailed as possible in your questioning and decision-making process.
Choose Wisely
Picking the right property manager is possibly as important as picking the right properties. For both, you expect increased value, over time. Both should also represent you and prove an asset to your overall organization. Use these and other tips for selecting the best property manager.
Properly managing your real estate assets can be the key to financial independence. Click here for more valuable information about owning and managing real estate and see how Chandler David Smith was able to own over $30 million in real estate assets by the age of 31.
The answers may be simpler than you think!