Property Management Companies lighten the load for landlords by taking care of marketing for tenants, showing units, screening and evaluating prospective renters. They also handle maintenance, accounting, and emergencies.
The firms are tasked with keeping properties in the best possible condition while following long-term investment policies and addressing residents’ concerns.
Maintenance
Property management companies offer a number of maintenance services to landlords. They typically charge a monthly fee that covers the cost of a maintenance team, which may perform tasks like landscaping, mowing, painting or fixing appliances. They also may have a network of preferred vendors for better rates and higher quality work.
Keeping up with routine maintenance is crucial. This ensures that tenants are happy and helps owners keep costs low. For example, mowing the lawn and pulling weeds prevents fire damage while tree trimming keeps branches from interfering with power lines in the event of a storm.
Many property managers also handle emergency maintenance issues after hours, such as a burst pipe or broken air conditioning. They have procedures in place to determine what qualifies as an emergency, and they prioritize maintenance tasks accordingly. They can also update amenities like halls, entryways, laundry and mailrooms to meet current residents’ needs such as keyless entry or Amazon package rooms.
Rent Collection
Whether you own a single rental property or multiple properties, the rent collection process is often one of your biggest challenges. You need to advertise vacancies, interview applicants, run background checks, and make sure all the paperwork is in order. Property management companies take the hassle out of rent collection and make it easy for landlords to find and rent their properties quickly.
Property management firms also ensure that landlords are complying with state and local laws. These services save landlords money by avoiding costly lawsuits. This is especially important for landlords who have several rental properties and don’t have the time to keep up with changing state laws.
Greystar is a worldwide property management company that manages over 500,000 units in the United States. It specializes in multifamily, office, and retail properties. It offers a full range of services to owners and investors, including marketing, leasing, tenant relations, maintenance, accounting, and reporting. The firm has a team of experts who focus on the details and have years of experience in the industry.
Accounting
Property management companies take care of the administrative tasks involved with rental properties. They organize tenant leases, complaint records and repairs costs. They also ensure that industry standards and legal obligations are met.
To manage the financial side of property management, property management firms create a chart of accounts for each rental business unit. These accounts are like internal bank accounts that are organized based on the type of financial activity. Then, every transaction goes into a specific account, so the financial statements can easily be reviewed.
In addition, a good property management company uses double entry bookkeeping. That means that each entry to a particular account must have an opposite yet corresponding entry in another account, so the financial statements will balance. This method of accounting is ideal for property management because it makes it easy to report income and expenses separately by rental units. This can be essential when preparing for a tax audit or filing an investor return.
Tenant Relations
Keeping tenants happy enough to stay at an apartment or single-family rental home is often challenging. Property management companies work to meet the needs of the owner and their tenants by helping to find suitable applicants, screening tenants, drawing up a lease agreement, conducting inspections, coordinating maintenance requests, collecting rent, providing financial statements to the owner, and filing taxes.
Good tenant relations can also help to increase lease renewal rates and referrals. The best way to build a relationship with your tenants is to be available when they have questions or concerns and communicate through their preferred method of contact.
Some landlords purchase rental properties with plans to be hands-on, but they quickly realize that taking care of the maintenance, accounting, and rent collection can become more than they can handle alone. Having a management company handle these functions can relieve the stress of owning rental properties and free up the time that owners may need for other personal and professional activities.
