If you’re considering hiring a property manager, you probably have some questions. Hiring a person who’s responsible for overseeing your rental property and taking care of many of the day-to-day responsibilities can be extremely helpful for a busy landlord.
But before you decide to hire one, it’s helpful to understand what they do—and how much it will cost you!
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Who is a Property Manager?
A property manager is a person who manages the day-to-day operations of a property. They are responsible for all aspects of the property and its residents, including maintenance and billing.
A property manager is the link between an owner and tenant, so they must be able to work effectively with both parties. The job requires them to have good communication skills and knowledge about legal issues in leasing properties.
A good property manager will be familiar with landlord/tenant law in your state or province, including how much time you can legally hold on to deposits or what kind of notice you need before evicting someone from their home — that sort of thing!
A property manager can work for an individual landlord, or sometimes multiple owners and tenants in a multi-family complex or community.
The duties of a property manager include:
- Collecting rent from tenants on time
- Supervising repairs and maintenance to keep the building in good condition
- Ensuring that the building complies with local laws and regulations, including zoning ordinances, fire codes, and permits
What Does a Property Manager Do?
A property manager is the person you call when you need to buy, sell or manage rental properties.
A property manager will:
- Manage your property and tenants by working with contractors to make repairs and handle other issues that may arise.
- Manage hired vendors for projects such as landscaping or snow removal.
- Handle all financial matters related to your home and tenants, including collecting rent payments, paying bills and ensuring that everyone receives their portion of the rent in a timely manner.
Pros and Cons of Hiring a Property Manager
Pros:
- A property manager can help you find tenants, collect rent and deal with evictions if necessary.
- Property managers are insured for this work and are bonded to protect your interests.
Cons:
- If you’re looking for a long-term tenant willing to stay in the same place for years on end, then a property manager might not be your best bet; they tend to favor short-term tenants who frequently move through their properties.
- Property managers generally have high fees, so if you don’t need their services regularly or aren’t renting out many properties yourself (or both), it might make sense to just keep doing it yourself instead of hiring someone else.
What Should Owners Look For in a Property Manager or Management Company?
When looking for a property manager, you should look for someone with experience and a proven track record. You also want to make sure they understand the local market and have relationships with local service providers (such as contractors and maintenance suppliers).
It’s essential that your property manager has a good relationship with you as well because they will be managing your property when you are not there.
One more thing that’s proven to be helpful, is hiring a property manager who is tech savvy, this way, it will be easy for them to implement property management software that will support better business results all around.
How can Pickspace help your property manager perform much better?
It’s very clear that being a property manager requires performing endless tasks that seem to never end. This is why it’s extremely important to integrate property management software that minimizes your workload as much as possible.
- Tenant management – Instead of feeling bombarded with endless calls and emails, save time and streamline all tenant communications on the platform. Edit tenant info, collect rent payments, send reminders, receive maintenance requests, and post announcements in just a few clicks.
- Invoice management – Make it easy for tenants to pay on time. Automatically send invoices, rent reminders, recurring charges, previous billing reports, lease renewals, and track and manage late payments without hassle.
- Maintenance/work order management – Effectively manage maintenance requests from tenants, automatically assigning them to your chosen vendors, track their work progress and notify tenants upon resolution.
- Property management – Track and Manage every aspect of your property from listing vacant units status to tenant screening, onboarding, and moving. Run hand picked revenue forecasts, manage cash flow and anticipate upcoming contract changes.
- Report management – Generate unlimited, customized property reports on demand for landlords and owners.
What are the licensing or certification requirements to become a property manager?
The requirements to become a property manager vary from state to state. In some states, such as New York and California, certification is not required, but it is highly recommended. Depending on their duties, other states require property managers to be licensed or certified. And some states do not require either certification or licensing for property managers who only perform administrative functions within the leasing process (i.e., they don’t negotiate leases).
However, it’s important that you check with your local municipality before assuming that you can be a successful property manager without any formal training or qualifications beyond an undergraduate degree in business management.
Hiring a property manager can be overwhelming, especially for first-time landlords. When choosing someone to manage your rental property, there are many factors to consider. It is important to remember that choosing the right manager takes time and research on your part. The more time you take now will save you money down the road!
FAQs
Are Property Managers Regulated?
You may be asking yourself this question. The answer is yes. Property managers are regulated by the state because they have access to personal information about tenants, such as their Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and credit card information. This means that you need to have a few things in place before hiring someone as your property manager:
A background check - You want to ensure that anyone helping you manage your property has no criminal record or history of fraud. Ideally, they should also come with recommendations from previous clients and references who can tell you if they're trustworthy and hard-working (or not). If possible, it's best if this person lives close enough so that he or she can meet up once in a while just to check on things at the place where he/she's managing your property—this way there won't be any surprises later on down the road when something goes wrong (and believe me: something will go wrong).
Is a Property Manager Worth It?
A property manager is essential to every real estate investor's team. Without a property manager, you would have to take on the responsibility of finding tenants and managing your property yourself. Your business would suffer from the lack of time to focus on other areas, such as finding new properties or performing necessary maintenance work.
Property managers know how to find great tenants for your properties and how much it costs to maintain them. They are also adept at negotiating with potential tenants so they are more likely to choose your listing over others when looking for their next home or apartment lease agreement. In addition, they can help you manage all aspects related to renting out properties: collecting rent payments on time so that there are no late fees charged against your account, keeping track of security deposits held in trust until move-out day arrives (or whenever appropriate); monitoring any repairs needed by renters; ensuring compliance with health codes etc...
What degree is best for property management?
If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a property manager, it’s important to know that there are several different educational paths you can take.
A bachelor's degree in property management is the most common initial degree for those looking to enter the field. A bachelor’s degree program in business, finance or real estate is also acceptable and may be more flexible if your academic schedule interferes with your work responsibilities. However, if you want to advance within the industry beyond entry-level positions or have specific aspirations of owning your own business one day (which requires additional certifications), consider earning an MBA instead. It’ll give you an advantage over other candidates when applying for managerial roles after graduation and will make it much easier to start working on obtaining additional certifications like PMI certification later down the line.
What skills do I need to be a property manager?
As a property manager, you’ll need to be able to keep your tenants happy and ensure that the building is operating smoothly. To do this, you'll need to hire and oversee employees, check in on units regularly, collect rent payments, handle tenant complaints and resolve them when possible.
You can learn how to manage properties through certification programs or online courses from colleges around the country. Many of these programs include an internship period where students get hands-on experience managing properties before graduating.
A bachelor's degree may not be required for some entry-level positions as a property manager, but it can help increase your chances of getting hired by an employer who requires one for all employees. In addition to formal education, there are other ways to gain experience, such as volunteering at local nonprofit organizations that deal with rental housing issues or even working at a real estate agency if they have any available positions on their team!
