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5 Pitfalls of Managing Your Rental Yourself

Joshua Preston • November 12, 2019

 5 Pitfalls of Managing Your Rental Yourself

Investing in rental property or properties is a great way to build your investment portfolio and bring you financial freedom. What many people don’t realize when it comes to having rental properties that you are not only investing your money into them, but you are investing your time.

After many years of managing our own rental properties and managing properties for our owners, we have seen many pitfalls that overcome owners who are trying to manage their rental properties themselves. These pitfalls can cost owners not only a great deal of money but also a great deal of time. Here are some of those pitfalls:
  1. Screening New Tenants. Screening and approving new and qualified tenants can be a challenging task. It involves advertising, phone calls and research. Sometimes things go wrong, especially when you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up appointments yourself. Even when you do get an application to rent, there’s the inevitable series of phone calls to check references. Do you really know if they are credit-worthy? By using a professional Property Manager, you can be assured that your property is reaching the right potential tenants and a thorough screening process for all applicants will include full credit checks, landlord and character reference checks, and employment/income will be verified.
  2. Collecting Rent. One of the toughest tasks as an owner of a rental property is collecting the rent and managing late paying tenants. What do you do when you have a tenant who has not paid rent at all, and what is the legal process to evict. It can be very time consuming and a huge hassle. A professional property manager will collect the rent for you, and if necessary, go through the proper legal procedures to remove bad tenants and reclaim your property on your behalf.
  3. Maintenance & Emergency Response 24 Hours. Handling the maintenance of your property can drive you crazy with requests coming in the middle of the night, throughout your day while you are at your job, or while you are sitting down having a meal with your family. Who do you call in the middle of the night when the hot water tank bursts? These types of emergencies never seem to happen during business hours – it’s always at the most inopportune time. Maintenance requests can cost you valuable time. Having a professional property management manager will make sure that all requests are handle in a timely manner, respond to all emergency request no matter what time they come in and will help to make sure that your property is being repaired.
  4. Marketing & Rental Amount. Determining the monthly rent amount for your property can be challenging. What drives the rent amount? What is the marketing demanding for rent? Once determined, how do you market it to potential tenants? All of this can be very overwhelming and can cost you money if it is not handled properly. Having a professional property manager will do the research, checking the local rental market for comparable rents, and gauge supply and demand to determine the optimal rental amount for your property. They know where potential tenants are looking so they will make sure that your property is advertise in those places.
  5. Property Inspection. How can you be assured your property is being taken care of? A Professional Property Manager should be conducting periodic property inspections of the property to ensure the property is being properly maintained by the tenants. This will also identify any issues that may result in costly repairs if ignored, such as slow water leaks, foundation cracks, deck damage, unchanged furnace filters, or other maintenance concerns.
All these pitfalls can be easily overcome by having a professional property manager handling your rental(s) for you. By helping you protect your most valuable assets, saving money, but most importantly freeing up your time, you can know enjoy the most important people and things in your life.

VIP Rentals Blog

To Know or Not To Know

To Know or Not To Know

By Joshua Preston • December 3, 2019
Not knowing what is happening to your property while the tenant is living there is like gambling with your investment. You might come out okay, but you can out with a huge hole in your pocket.
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