Being a landlord isn’t easy. Your property rests in the hands of a tenant you might not really know, and it may or may not be in good condition when you get it back.
Although renting out your property can be a great source of income, it can also be a huge risk if you’re not experienced. But if you’re willing to put in the time to educate yourself about rental properties and how to make them profitable, it’s transformed into a calculated risk that is well worth taking.
While rental property income has the potential to be passive income, sometimes in the beginning it’s not so passive. When you’re out there driving around on your days off, doing repairs for tenants, filing evictions, and chasing down late rent checks, your rental income becomes anything but passive. Instead, it becomes hard work that takes you away from your friends, family, and your life. And sometimes, it can even become an expense if you’re spending more on repairs than you’re generating in rent.
You may be surprised to learn that many landlords don’t actually make a profit from their rental properties because they’re spending too much time, gas, and money on repairs and maintenance. In fact, most unprofitable landlords spend 20 percent or more of their rental income on maintenance and repairs. This is often due to the fact that they greatly underestimate what it’s going to take to maintain their properties.
To turn your rental property income into truly passive income, and get yourself out of any holes you may be in with your current properties, you need a property management company to handle your rent, repairs, and be the main point of communication for your tenants.
Here are 6 huge benefits to hiring a property management company to help you run your rental properties so you don’t go broke, like a lot of landlords unfortunately have.
As a landlord, you’re responsible for maintaining your properties to be habitable according to specific housing laws. And tenants are only responsible for anything beyond normal wear and tear. This means that you need to be prepared to be responsible for the majority of large breakdowns that may occur with appliances and other aspects of your property like the roof, plumbing, and electricity. These large repairs can be very expensive.
By hiring a professional property management company, you automatically have access to the contractors they use across multiple properties, giving you access to discounts you couldn’t get on your own.
Imagine having to hire a contractor for work that you’ve never had done before. You won’t know if you can trust them, and if you choose the wrong contractor, even if their initial rates were cheap, you may end up paying more in the end to fix their mistakes.
Because property management companies deal with contractors all the time, they have already found reliable contractors to work with, saving you the time and stress of starting from scratch.
They’ll have quick access to licensed, bonded and insured contractors they’ve already vetted for professional quality work, eliminating the need for you to guess who might do a good job. When you have access to their large vetted network, you can be sure your contractor will do the job right from the start.
The stress of being a landlord can be overwhelming when you have to deal with unruly tenants, evictions, late rent, neighbor complaints, and unexpected and expensive repairs.
When you hire a property management company, there probably isn’t anything they haven’t already dealt with. Or, that they aren’t prepared to deal with. They’ll have effective systems and methods for dealing with common problems, and be able to solve them for you quickly. And because they’re experienced, they’ll know housing laws to the letter to help you avoid any sticky legal situations that may arise.
There’s nothing worse than being woken up at 1 am by a frantic tenant whose oven stopped working while they were trying to bake a late night snack of chocolate chip cookies. If you’re like most landlords, you can sympathize with their dilemma, but you probably have another job and need your sleep.
When you hire a professional property management company, they will field those late night calls for you. That way, you can sleep through the night without having to keep your phone on for emergency calls.
Many landlords don’t realize the biggest implication of renting out their property is that they need to be available in order to make necessary repairs or supervise the contractors they hire to do so. This can be very restricting for some people who love to travel.
When you hire a property management company, you can live wherever you want without being constrained to the area of your rental properties, and you’re free to travel anywhere in the world.
Being able to spend more time with your family just might be the most important reason to hire a property management company.
You know all that time you spend on your days off driving around to check on your properties, do maintenance, and supervise repairs? When you hire a property management company, you’ll get all that time back to spend with your family.
These benefits won’t come with just any property management company. The company you choose has to be trustworthy and competent. Green Residential property management is the best investment you can make to ensure your rental property becomes a stress-free source of passive income.
When you choose Green Residential, you’ll be one of many satisfied customers relieved of the stress and worry that accompanies being a landlord. Contact us today at 713.395.9700 to find out more about how we can help you manage your rental properties and make your life easier.
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