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Property management is a rapidly growing industry, and more and more landlords are turning to property managers to help them further manage their rental properties efficiently. If you are a landlord who owns a property but doesn't have the time or experience to handle the business-related tasks involved, your best decision may be to hire a property manager to help you handle your rental unit.
Let’s go over the things a property manager can do for you.
Respond to Maintenance Requests
Your tenants will feel valued when you respond to their needs in a timely and efficient manner. They are also more likely to care for the home if they see that you do make their issues a priority. A slow or non-responsive attitude to maintenance requests is the primary cause of tenant turnover, which can be a costly process, leaving you with much higher expenses and long periods of vacancies.
Your residential property manager can help eliminate this hassle by proactively handling tenants' requests or complaints, including after-hours emergencies, and solving maintenance issues while preventing any code violations.
Moreover, staying on top of regular maintenance helps control costs and prevents bigger problems from flaring up or even becoming permanent down the road. Your property manager may conduct periodic inspections in order to spot any deferred maintenance and ensure the tenants are happy and complying with the lease.
Handle Tenant Management
During your tenant’s lease, it’s likely that they’ll have questions, concerns, or issues to address during their tenancy. If you’d prefer they not reach out to you directly, especially for matters that would be hard for you to attend to if you don’t live near the property, your property manager is your best friend, as they will act as the tenant’s point of contact.
Your property manager can manage any questions or requests that don’t specifically require your involvement. They would only direct the request to you if there are matters that need your approval.
In the event of a tenant violating the lease and needing to be evicted, or if other legal action needs to be taken as a result of a dispute, the property manager can assist with these less-than-pleasant tasks, keeping you protected from any further inconveniences.
Leasing & Tenant Screening
Every landlord hopes their tenant is responsible, respectful, and reliable, but it can be difficult to tell if that’s the case from just an online conversation or even an initial meeting. A thorough screening process can help reduce your risk of a potential financial loss, which can be the direct result of a noncompliant and troublesome tenant. This is why it’s detrimental to perform an array of background checks, including: credit, employment, rental history, criminal and terrorist lists, and pet information.
Your property manager can assist you with all of these checks, which will help ensure that your tenants are a good fit for you, depending on your preferences or requirements.
Once you have chosen a tenant, your property manager will then handle the task of signing the contract and collecting the security deposit.
Accounting
Business success depends on keeping up to date with your accounting and doing it correctly, which sometimes can get overwhelming. With leasing out a property comes a lot of accounting requirements specific to this industry.
Competence in these fields relies on your property manager’s expertise, and it can be an asset to your business to have a professional handle things like rent collection, miscellaneous fees, and security deposit dispositions.
Navigate Laws and Regulations
Keeping track and understanding landlord-tenant laws can feel like an overwhelming task for property owners, especially if they own rental homes in multiple locations and are not fully acquainted with all of the area’s regulations. A property manager will not only have strong expertise in current laws, regulations, and ordinances, but they’ll also know how to correctly address and handle them.
They'll also help make sure everything is conducted in compliance with fair housing and discrimination laws. This will help avoid issues from the get-go and having to deal with them down the road.
Conclusion
If you’re on the fence about whether a property manager can benefit you, consider the extent of what they offer and how their services may impact your business. They are skilled experts who know how to navigate the rental business in order to aid you and keep everything running smoothly.
Named one of the Best Property Management Companies in Chicago, Landmark Property Management is a full-service brokerage with a reputation for going the extra mile for our clients. If you need help, have any questions, or are interested in learning from the best property management company in Chicago, don’t hesitate to reach out! You can contact us at Landmark Property Management via phone at 312-313-8553 or send us an email at office@landmarkrgc.com
