What does a property manager do?

If you are looking for reasons to choose us as your property manager, look no further. Here are 10 key activities we perform for our clients:

Being a landlord isn’t easy, especially if you are working. The temptation to save money is high and many landlords endeavor to manage their properties on their own. Unfortunately this is a false economy. It takes up significant amounts of time, often at weekends, and almost always when you have something else scheduled.

Here are some of the problems landlords experience before they come to us:

1. Setting the rent – Knowing how much to ask is key. Ask too much and the property stays unrented. Ask too little and you miss out on revenue. Understanding the market is essential. We have access to thousands of data points and can tell you what has rented in your area in the last 5 years and how much it went for. And the market changes from month to month where we are with the seasonality of PCS season and other factors.

2. Advertising – It is easy to advertise on-line, but difficult to know which websites will succeed. Owners can easily spend money advertising on websites that produce no leads. With a property manager, the property is listed on the MLS and syndicated to other websites. At Century 21 Sterling, we syndicate to over 200 sites. Sounds impressive, but we estimate that 95% of our leads come from fewer than 10 sites and we know where to focus. The point is, getting it wrong is expensive.

3. Showing the property – prospective tenants will want to see the property at a moment’s notice. Without a process, you can waste hours waiting around for viewing appointments at inconvenient times, with many turning up late or not showing at all.

4. How to screen tenants – There are systems around that allow you to do background and credit checks on renters. But how do you decide between two tenants. And how familiar are you with Fair Housing regulations. Get it wrong here and you could be in big trouble.

5. How to set rent and tenant policies – How much deposit can you ask for? What you your policy be on late fees? Do you allow pets – are there any restrictions? What about service animals or Section 8 housing? Some items may not be particularly difficult to set up, but it does take a lot of time.

6. Tenant management – Tenants expect you to be available 24 x 7. You will be expected to reply to texts and emails quickly and answer your phone at all times. Keeping on good terms with your tenants is important to keep the property well looked after, but how do you address all the issues that come up e.g. friends staying for a few weeks, a new pet that isn’t on the original agreement and so on.

7. Maintain the property – From changing filters, to cleaning gutters, something always needs attention. And your best intentions to really help your tenants can backfire. They assume that Sunday evening at 8 pm is an OK time to talk to you about a faulty light, a blocked sink or a noisy neighbor (with the right agreement and policy, none of these should be up to you). Your tenant manual (do you have one?) should explain what constitutes an emergency. Tenants should know, but it doesn’t stop them calling.

8. Legal knowledge – We are not attorneys, but we can point you in the right direction. Renting a house comes with a number of legal obligations. You will need to know what constitutes a safe, sanitary, habitable environment. Do you have all the legal forms such as leases and lead paint declarations, and what the deposit can be used for? Do you have the right insurance?

9. Collecting rent – Your lease will probably have a clause that allows you to charge for late payments. Tenants may late with rent payments for any number of reasons, or they may have made the payment, but it hasn’t come through yet. Chasing around every month can be time consuming. Better to have your rents collected either via automated monthly payment or through a portal, and someone to check on it. Getting paid on time is more work than you would think.

10. Termination and evictions – You should know your rights with regard to ending a tenancy. For example, if you need to move back in or sell the property, can you? (answer, usually not). Hopefully you won’t need to, but occasionally, you may need conduct an eviction. Get this wrong, and you could be in for a number of months without rent and your property getting damaged.

What does a property manager do?

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