If you own rental property long enough, there will come a day when you rent to a difficult or problem tenant. This person may cause you to make decisions that aren’t to your benefit as a business owner.
In times like this, I like to use a good management company.
Why?
I prefer to manage my good tenants myself. There’s no reason to pay a management company to collect rent from someone who has no problem paying.
But, I use a management company to manage tenants who:
- make excuses for paying late or not paying at all.
- need constant babysitting.
- just unnecessarily take up my time.
When a tenant deals with you, they take it personal. Some take your kindness for weakness. When tenants deal with a management companies, it just business. Business is better.
Management companies worked out for me because:
- they are inexpensive. For a few dollars a month, they collect rent. You get an eviction lawyer who makes tenants pay legal fees and you don’t have to use a vacation day from work to evict a tenant.
- they saved me time. They make calls to collect rent and send off 7 day notices. They set up court dates, schedule a maintenance people, screen tenant complaints, and meet the bailiff for evictions.
- they took the stress off of me. My management company was the middleman between me and my tenants. If they had complaints, I never heard about it. The management company just sent out a maintence person and everybody’s happy. If the bailiff is going to drag someone out of my house, I don’t have to be there.
What to look for in a good management company?
- a company that has reasonable prices
- a company that it firm with rent collections and charges tenants for all legal fees
- a company that’s good with maintenance
- a company that handles evictions for
