Some property owners are excellent candidates for leasing
and managing their own properties, whether they have the education, experience,
or just plain guts to do it. However, more often than not, property owners get
in way over their heads. Here are some points to consider when determining if
you want to brave handling the property management or if you’d rather let the
professionals take care of it for you.
Pricing
If you
are going the DIY route you will end up deferring to friends and family first
to get an idea of what your property may rent for. Or you will find yourself
scouring Craigslist or the newspaper to try and figure out “what’s the going
rate?” If you work with a property management company they will take on the
search burden and guess work off your shoulders. They would have comparable
market data to give you a more accurate rate based on location, subdivision,
and property specifications as compared to other properties that closely match
the criteria. With so many factors to consider it is important to get the right
rent rate in the beginning so you can reduce your vacancy, push revenues, and
start collecting rent checks more quickly!
Advertising
Sure, anyone can jump on Craigslist and post an ad or pay the local newspaper
to run an ad. But property management companies most often have an extensive
advertising source list of places they advertise properties. With additional
exposure you will undoubtedly get more traffic on your property and hopefully lease
it more quickly. And on top of that, there is typically no additional expense
to the property owner to utilize the company’s advertising options- it’s built
into the price of leasing!
