5 times you'll be glad you have a property manager

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Managing your own investment property may seem like the thrifty thing to do. After all, a property manager will charge you to manage your rental home, so why not do it yourself?

One reason is that an experienced property manager, spending no more money than you would spend yourself, can easily and efficiently manage your property while you live your life. He knows the most reliable vendors to use to maintain your home, the appropriate legal experts to deal with problem tenants, and has the infrastructure to handle issues that may arise at inconvenient times. Here are 5 times you’ll be glad you have a property manager.

1. Late night phone calls

A good property management company will have an emergency contact line tenants can call in case of an important problem. If you’re managing your property yourself, this call will come to you. Imagine your cellphone ringing at 2:00 AM, with a tenant insisting that their clothes dryer isn’t heating up properly.

An emergency? The tenant says they have an interview in the morning, and they need to wear their lucky shirt. But what can you do about it during the night? This is an appliance. Is it even your responsibility?

If you have a property manager, the emergency line at their office will to take the call, reassure the tenant that someone is listening, determine if the dryer really is your responsibility to fix, and inform the tenant about how to put in a maintenance request.

All you have to do is read the email from your property manager once the problem is taken care of.

2. A needed vacation

Your day job has been taking all your time, so you plan a vacay with the family. A well-needed trip to the mountains to spend family time under the stars. But as you’re packing the car, a hysterical tenant calls to say that she is filing for divorce, and wants the locks changed on her house immediately.

The tent goes back in the closet, and your son goes back to his video games. Instead of time with the family, you are off to change the locks on your rental home.

A property manager will have well established procedures for this situation. While you’re cooking hot dogs by the fire, your property manager will handle the issue.

You can throw your line in the water.

3. Evictions

Do you enjoy taking time off from work to go to court? Do you know the legal requirements and procedures for an eviction? This is one part of renting that most landlords would like to pass on to the experts.

A property manager has legal experts they work with, making sure that every step of an eviction is handled legally and with a minimum of problems. Then they’ll find you a new, highly-qualified tenant.

And you never have to see the inside of a courtroom.

4. Neighbor Complaints

You’re at your day job, about to give a presentation in a big meeting. But your phone rings. It is an irate neighbor, the guy who lives next to the tenant in your rental property.

Apparently, your tenant’s poodle has been pooping in the neighbors yard. The neighbor is angry. He wants you to go talk to your tenant, NOW.

If someone manages your property, this call would have gone to his office. Your property manager knows how to deal with neighbor complaints, and stops the neighbor feud before it gets out of hand.

You’d be giving a great presentation at your meeting, never even knowing about your tenant’s poodle.

5. Weather Damage

A record-breaking snow storm hits Colorado Springs (sound familiar?), and not only are your trees down, a 50-year-old pine has fallen on your mother’s roof.

But can you go help your mother? No. Why? A tree actually crashed through a window at your rental property, and your tenant can’t wait for help.

A good property manager will be on this in a second. He has vendors on call to take tenant calls and immediately get out to the property to remove the tree and fix the window.

You can go to your mother’s house and help her out.

Summary

These are just some examples of things you might (and probably will) face when you try to manage your own property. Although a property management company will have some up-front costs, overall, you may end up spending no more than you would have in trying to do everything yourself.