If you are a property manager, you know it’s essential to communicate with renters and keep properties repaired. But you can have many problems in this field if you make any property management mistakes below.
Signing Up The First Applicant
Having a vacant house or unit for weeks or months can cost you thousands of dollars. So, it’s tempting to sign up the first applicant for that vacancy. But many experienced real estate investors say you need the best tenant for your vacancy, not the first one.
It’s essential to have systems and guidelines in place to evaluate potential tenants in terms of their credit history, criminal record, and on-time rental payments. Also, you should check that they have a stable job and enough income to cover your rent.
Taking the first renter and relaxing your standards to get the unit filled can lead to problems. For example, you might get a tenant in the unit who doesn’t pay rent on time or causes extensive damages. Then you’ll wish you had left it vacant.
Fortunately, you can rely on a professional property management company to help you get the best tenants for your vacancies.
Only Doing Reactive Maintenance
Maintaining properties is essential to your long-term financial success. But it’s easy as a property manager to fall into a reactive maintenance pattern, which means only fixing things when they break.
You can prevent a lot of expensive problems by simply performing routine inspections and maintenance of your properties.
For example, say you have a three-bedroom rental house. You have a lot of things to worry about as a property manager, so you skip annual maintenance. Plus, you don’t inspect the home every quarter the way you should because you’re short on time.
But then you get a phone call from the tenant that water’s leaking from the ceiling into the kitchen.
It turns out there was a small leak in the bathroom upstairs the tenant forgot to tell you about. Because you didn’t perform routine maintenance and inspections, it became a big leak. Now it’s damaged the floor upstairs, and ceiling downstairs, and the water even leaked into the basement.
All of this damage could have been avoided if you had caught the small leak months ago.
Not Doing Your Homework On Contractors
A standard error property managers make is hiring a maintenance specialist who looks fantastic on paper. But anyone can fake a work record and resume. So, you should always call two or three references before you hire someone to do a repair job.
Sometimes the best contractor isn’t the least expensive or the one with the fancy website. An excellent way to find a reliable contractor is to rely on contractors listed on Yelp and Angie’s List with a lot of four and five-star reviews. That way, you know you are hiring someone with a long record of success.
Not Cleaning Up A Vacant Unit
https://i.ibb.co/JyqvXjB/R.jpg should be cleaned and tidied up as soon as the last tenant leaves. But, don’t leave it for later because here’s what happens: Someone calls you to see the vacant unit, and you either show it dirty or there’s a delay in getting it cleaned.
Either way, you stand a chance of losing a good tenant. So, have it on your list to clean the unit as soon as it’s vacant. This includes having it spotless, including clean windows and windowsills. Also, have all holes and dents in the walls fixed.
If you show the unit dirty and damaged, you can bet the tenant will leave it the same way.
As a successful property manager, you should follow the tips outlined here. That way, you’ll make more money and retain good-paying, reliable tenants.