Over the years we have found that common misconceptions about the roles and duties of a property management company can lead to frustration or worse yet an owner who constantly struggles to manage a property themselves. While you certainly could manage your property/properties yourself we wanted to breakthrough myths to help you decide if a property management company might be the best fit to help with your real estate portfolio.
Myth #1: All you do is collect rent
This is the #1 item that we hear from prospective clients prior to them enjoying the service of a property management company. There is no doubt that one of our most important duties to our clients is that of collecting rent, but that is far from the only task that we handle on any given month for our client’s properties.
Consider just a few of the following activities that we complete on a given month for a property:
- Get a tenant into a property after they lost their keys
- Called, schedule, and coordinated three tradesman to provide proposals on a new air-conditioning unit
- Scheduled a handyman to fix a leaky faucet (yes it happens daily)
- Evaluate rental applications including Pet Screening
and background checks
- Perform a rental analysis to ensure the current rent is maximizing the yield for our client and helping to maintain top tenants
- Reviewing updated housing laws to ensure properties and policies adhere to both local and state laws
And the list goes on and on. Collecting rent for our owners is a vital task; however, it is only one small item that we tackle with pride daily.
Myth #2: I'm Paying Even When There isn’t a Renter
Having a vacant property means you are taking on an added expense without the benefit of the income. If you had to pay a property management company on top of the mortgage then that really would be frustrating!
While we can’t speak for every property management company however at Beach Cities Property Management we can assure you that we don’t charge you while your property remains vacant. When your property is vacant we are not making any income and we are spending money, investing our time, and putting in effort to attract new prospective tenants. A vacant property is one where no one wins which means we are working hard to find you the best possible tenant.
Myth #3: Showing a Property isn’t that Hard, Why Should I Pay for it?
It would be nice if you could hold your rental property open for a few hours and along came a tenant that had perfect credit, presented to you their financial background and was ready to move in the next day but unfortunately that doesn’t generally happen. The reality is that finding the right tenant comes down to effective marketing for tenants, evaluation of applications and ensuring the property is available to be shown at a variety of times.
Take for example the below times we have for showing on just one of our available rentals:
