Buying real estate is one of the most significant investments you can make, so it comes as no surprise that you must make a good choice for your property manager. You’ll want someone who’s both competent at managing your rental property and has your best interest in mind. Making a poor choice could lose you valuable tenants and make property investing much harder than it needs to be.
No matter if you’re a novice property owner or if you’ve already got six properties under your belt, you can still conduct thorough research and screening to find the best options available.
Our property expert Wayde Hildrew has outlined four steps for how to find a suitable property manager. We’ve also included a list of questions you should ask a property manager at an interview, all the while setting you up with essential tips along the way. By the time you finish this article, you’ll be well-equipped to find and evaluate your options and choose the right property manager with confidence.
Step 1: Establish your selection criteria
When thinking about finding a good property manager, you should first think of yourself as an employer. This makes sense since you are, after all, hiring someone to do work for you at a price!
This means that you’ll need some selection criteria. It’s about having an idea of what you’re looking for before you start searching for candidates.
Wayde explains that there are three key factors that you should take into evaluation:
PriceService levelAbility to manage risks and get resultsA large number of property managers will offer trade-offs between these factors. For example, a property manager might provide an all-encompassing service with cutting edge technology, but it’s at a price premium. Or, they might be a low-cost provider but have standardised their activities across large areas, which gives them no location-specific expertise or experience to minimise risks.
However, Wayde further shares that investment property owners who do their research don’t necessarily have to trade off one benefit for another.
“There are property managers who can provide excellent service and get strong results at a reasonable price point. That is what I recommend real-estate investors try to look for as much as possible.”
Wayde Hildrew, Different Property Expert
Property managers who routinely innovate on their processes and their service model have found ways to give property investors all the benefits while staying low-cost.
Once you have identified what you’re after, you can start looking for potential candidates.
Step 2: Find a pool of property managers.
How do you find a suitable property manager? Word of mouth is always a great place to start. On top of that, there’s a world of resources online which can help you vet potential candidates and come up with a list of prospective property management companies.
Wayde recommends that you talk to other investors for insights on their experiences and property manager recommendations.
“People who have been through the process before will have had positive and negative experiences and are good to speak to.”
He further adds that you can look at what is marketed online to find suitable property managers. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential tenant, and browse rental listings online in your relevant area to see which property managers are doing a good marketing job to find some likely candidates. Read More…
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