Being a property manager comes with a lot of perks. If you own a home and want to turn it into a rental home, managing the property may appeal to you because you can make residual income on a property you are already invested in. You may feel like you can even manage the property on your own from your retirement home across the country. Depending on the type of lease you offer your renters, you could be doing a whole lot or very little for tenants; however, the less you offer the fewer interested renters you will have.
While being a property manager may seem like a dream job for house flippers or even people who are retiring, moving away, but don’t want to sell their home. There are a few things you need to consider before you take on the role of property manager yourself.
- Being Available is a MUST. Homes have emergencies. Think of the last time you had to deal with a basement flooding, water heater that stops working, or your central air gives out in the dead of summer. These things happen, and renters don’t always know how to fix these issues themselves. One of the main reasons people rent is to not have to provide maintenance themselves.
- You’ll need available cash or credit for emergencies. That water heater that stopped working, the flooded basement, a termite infestation happens. You need cash or credit on hand to be able to take care of emergency situations that happen at your property.
- Late rent situations can leave you high and dry. If a tenant doesn’t pay rent, you have to go through the proper legal channels for eviction which can take several months in some cases. Not only will you have legal fees to pay and back rent to try to collect on, you may have some property damages you are left with as well.
Being a property manager can be a fantastic career, but a huge headache for property owners. Consider hiring Scott Properties to handle your property manager needs!