Now that you have bought a small apartment building, you have to decide if you should try and manage it yourself or should you have a property management company to manage it for you. In order to make the best decision, you should determine what your goals are for the building and also what your skills are.
Your goals should fall under a landlord or an investor, although sometimes it?s not so easy to differentiate the two. If you decide to be the landlord you will have to dedicate most of your time for rent collection and any repairs that the building may need. This may affect the possibility of finding new properties to invest in. this outlines the importance of having a property manager.
Successful investors hire someone to manage their properties in order to free up their time to finding and selling properties. Hiring a good property management company will free up your time to allow you to focus on investing.
For a beginning investor, caring for your own properties can be a good way to reduce expenses and generate more cash flow. It is cheaper to care for it yourself than to hire someone else.
Another major reason why an investor may choose to manage the property on his own is to generate cash flow. This is usually the case if the investor financed the property wrongly or paid too much leaving no room for property management services. When buying your property make sure the income it generates will cover all costs including property management fees.
If you want to manage the properties on your own, you have to decide if you have the capability to do it. You also have to decide if you want to deal with the tenants directly in collecting rent, even when they are late. When repairs are required, how will they be handled? Will you do all repairs? Do you have the capability to perform all of the repairs? Do you have contact numbers for repairmen in case you cannot do it?
The common belief is that property management services are really expensive and will add to your expenses. This is not always the case and with the correct property management company, you can actually save some money. Well-established companies usually have numerous customers looking for new apartments therefore your unit will fill up more quickly if you use their service. This translates to less advertisement therefore saving you money.
Finally, with the services of a property management company any vacated room will be prepared for re-renting within days. For instance if they get the room re-rented one or two weeks quicker than you would have done you end up getting extra income therefore the management service actually pays for itself with regard to the time and money saved. - 31904
Your goals should fall under a landlord or an investor, although sometimes it?s not so easy to differentiate the two. If you decide to be the landlord you will have to dedicate most of your time for rent collection and any repairs that the building may need. This may affect the possibility of finding new properties to invest in. this outlines the importance of having a property manager.
Successful investors hire someone to manage their properties in order to free up their time to finding and selling properties. Hiring a good property management company will free up your time to allow you to focus on investing.
For a beginning investor, caring for your own properties can be a good way to reduce expenses and generate more cash flow. It is cheaper to care for it yourself than to hire someone else.
Another major reason why an investor may choose to manage the property on his own is to generate cash flow. This is usually the case if the investor financed the property wrongly or paid too much leaving no room for property management services. When buying your property make sure the income it generates will cover all costs including property management fees.
If you want to manage the properties on your own, you have to decide if you have the capability to do it. You also have to decide if you want to deal with the tenants directly in collecting rent, even when they are late. When repairs are required, how will they be handled? Will you do all repairs? Do you have the capability to perform all of the repairs? Do you have contact numbers for repairmen in case you cannot do it?
The common belief is that property management services are really expensive and will add to your expenses. This is not always the case and with the correct property management company, you can actually save some money. Well-established companies usually have numerous customers looking for new apartments therefore your unit will fill up more quickly if you use their service. This translates to less advertisement therefore saving you money.
Finally, with the services of a property management company any vacated room will be prepared for re-renting within days. For instance if they get the room re-rented one or two weeks quicker than you would have done you end up getting extra income therefore the management service actually pays for itself with regard to the time and money saved. - 31904
About the Author:
Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading property management solution review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.
