 The opinion of many rental owners is that property management services are reserved for out-of-sate owners or large investors. Property Managers (PMs) are valuable whether an owner has one or 100 units. Here are four reasons why the owner should consider a PM.
1. Local laws are complicated The PM has to stay current on the changing laws and ordinances within each county they operate. If they don’t, they aren’t a real PM. For example, in Maryland the lead inspection laws are changing January 1, 2015 and will require either a lead inspection certificate or a lead-free certification for any house built before 1978. Smoke and carbon monoxide laws are changing too and vary in each county! 2. There are many hassles to the job It is not a pleasant experience to be woken at 2am to an emergency, particularly if what your tenant considers an emergency is only good information to you! That’s just one reason why having a PM is helpful in making the owner’s life easier. Those are the easy issues, but there can be much bigger problems. For example, a tenant complained that the tile work was coming off the tub surround. After inspection, it seemed a pretty straight-forward job to just re-tile the surround. When the wall was opened, the contractor saw that black mold had engulfed all the drywall and the insulation and right on through to the exterior wall’s sheathing. The PM dealt with the initial contractor, mold remediation contractor, and provided quotes and pictures requested by the insurance company. The owner lived 3000 miles away and only had to pass emails on to the insurance company; the PM handled everything. 3. The PM knows the territory Local PMs know trades people and companies that they have trusted for years. They pride themselves on a wide and deep network of all kinds of professionals. The average 1-2 property landlord just doesn’t have enough maintenance experience to develop as extensive a network. This gives clients comfort in knowing items will get resolved with reputable, reliable, and honest services at below market prices because of the volume of business the PM brings them. When a PM takes over a property, relationships the owner had fostered with his/her contractors are maintained; and that builds the PM’s network as well. 4. The PM protects the owner’s investment The knowledge and experience of a PM allows them to budget for the expected expenses for a home of a certain age, construction, and location. They can run market comps or use similar-tos from their current rental inventory. Sometimes the owner completely overprices the unit to cover their mortgage payment, wants to hold out for a greater rent, or uses unappealing photos in their advertisement. By correctly selecting the rent and properly constructing the advertisement, the PM can get a lease signed quickly and maximize the rent for the year. 77th Meridian, LLC manages residential property in Anne Arundel and surrounding counties, and parts of Baltimore City for a monthly fee of 7.7% of the collected rent. Why pay the 10% others charge? ***** We save you TIME and WORRY *****
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