TOP 6 REASONS TO HIRE A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY

Hey, guys, Chris Knight here, business Development Manager with Red Door Property Management, here again to provide you with some valuable information to assist you along your investment journey. Here we go with today's top six reasons that you should hire a property management company today. I've got me a little cheat sheet here to keep me on tasks, because if not, I will make this a very long video and go on and on and on. So, I want to stick to the six main points that I've outlined today. So, we're going to go ahead and jump right in. 

Reason number one 

Here we go. Number one would be marketing. Look, let's be real. Anybody can jump on Zillow, upload your property, start marketing, and that's where it's probably going to get most of the hits, right? There are, of course, many marketing websites that are used today, including Zillow, Hot pads Rental, Ads.com Apartments.com, which is actually a pretty big one these days. And we do, of course, market on all of these available platforms. But Zillow is going to be your number one hit. But when you're talking about marketing, you're not only talking about where the property is going to be posted. What's probably even more important is responding to these leads and how you're responding and what action you're taking once you are responding to these leads. For example, when our properties are listed and marketed, we equipped our properties with what's called a tenant turner or a writly box. These days is what's used to prequalify an individual before they schedule a showing. Once they meet certain qualifications, they're given an access code to view the property, and then they can walk through the property and then also responding to the ratings that they might provide after viewing the property. But in a nutshell, it's having the right response to those leads when they have questions, concerns, or trouble accessing the property. And also with our showing process, we're able to achieve twice, three times as many showings as if you were to arrange a showing that would meet up with your schedule. You're going to lose many leads that just won't have the availability that you might. So, number one is going to be marketing and responding to those lead in the proper way. Number two, tenant qualifications. I probably should have made this number one. This is absolutely huge. I'm going to give you a nutshell of what our team does, but I assure you there are several subsections in each one of these categories that our team does to ensure that we are going to have the best chance of success when we secure a potential tenant. So, number one is doing. We check the national sex offender checklist. This is very important for obvious reasons. 

Reason number two

Number two, background check. Number three, credit check. We check their two previous residences and we check their current employer. So, we go through all of those categories. When checking with a previous landlord, there's an entire rental verification sheet that the previous landlord is going to fill out. Has it been late? How many times? What's the current rent? We want to make sure that they are not jumping from a major monthly rent lifestyle unless they've had other changes in their life that have made them qualify for a larger rent anyway. So, that is going to be tenant qualifications. And I also want to add to this that scammers have become extremely prevalent. So, tenant qualifications, no matter who you hire or if you manage your own properties, tenant qualifications have got to be a top point. 

Reason number three

Number three, this is also very huge. Again, I could continue to go on and on, but I'm going to stick to the points here. Move in and move out documentation. One thing that Red Door does both of these is we complete a video as well as a detailed written inspection checklist that is confirmed by the tenants once they move in that the property of the current property is conditioned. So video, proper detailed inspection checklist confirmed by the tenants at move in and then the same thing at moves out. Photos and video to reconcile the tenant's security deposit. This is extremely important for obvious reasons. Holding the tenant responsible come the lease end to recover as much of the security deposit as necessary, minus any normal wear and tear or whatever laws are applicable where you are. 

Reason number four

And then moving on. Rather a well attorney written lease documents is extremely important if you're getting into this and don't understand where the importance lies with contract law and holding people responsible, not only the tenants but also the management company for whatever their duties may be. So, this is extremely important. And not only that, it needs to be updated on a regular basis, right? As laws change things, new technology comes out, whatever it may be. Having a well attorney written lease agreement that is updated to hold both parties responsible is extremely important. And this is going to be provided by a good property management company.

Reason number five

Next, we've got routine video inspections. Another huge milestone on my checklist here, routine inspection. So, if you haven't already, check out a previous video I've done on this. Routine inspections. That's how important I think that these are. Going in mid lease term, doing an entire new video inspection of the property. Number one, notifying the tenants that we do intend to hold you responsible for your living conditions as well as at the end of the lease term, but also mid lease term. We're coming in to check things out. And then also notating any lease violations that you might find there. So is the carpet overly worn over damaged walls, anything that you might need to point out. And then also very important here is holding that tenant responsible for those lease violations when applicable. So, for example, Red Door will give them 30 days to rectify those lease violations once notated and then go in for a follow up video inspection to confirm that it's completed. Waiting to hopefully recoup those lease violations at the end of a lease term with that security deposit is a big, big no no. So, holding a tenant responsible, having those mid lease term video inspections completed, very, very important. 

Reason number six

And then lastly, and this is the season that we happen to find ourselves in right now is accounting, right? Who likes accounting if you do? I don't know, but accounting purposes very important to have a good property management company that provides you a year-end report that will detail all of your income, any applicable expenses throughout your year that you might be able to use as a proper write off, utilities, agency fees, whatever it may be. So having a proper accounting provided at the yearend report with your 1099 is going to be absolutely huge and save you a tremendous amount of time in if you happen to be self-managing versus having a good, reliable property management company. 

So, that's going to wrap it up. And again, as I've mentioned a couple of times before, if you haven't already, be sure to check out our market reports. We are right in the middle of a very fluctuating market. Stay on top of those, know where to invest, when to invest, what market rate rents you might be able to achieve, versus average home prices. So that will wrap it up today. Today. Chris, business development manager here. Red Door Property Management. Thanks for tuning in.