When you decide to rent out your home to tenants on a long-term or temporary basis, there are many details and tasks you will need to handle if you do it on your own. Hiring an apartment rental company, or property manager, to handle the property management of your home can make the process a great deal easier for you and free up your extra time for other activities. Here are some tips to help you know what to expect from the apartment rental company as they handle all the necessary tasks for you to help you make money on your rental.
Paying the Management Fee
Hiring a property management company has a cost associated with the service, but having your rental's day-to-day rental tasks will free up your time to live your life or work your full time job. This can be especially helpful if you have moved out of town or out of the state and cannot be around to take care of the property's management needs.
Expect to pay your property management company a certain percent of the monthly rent that is collected from your tenant. This percentage can be anywhere from four to ten percent of the monthly rent. Then, your property manager will also charge a tenant placement fee to find a qualified tenant. This fee can vary depending on the management company, but can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to a full month's rent. Although a property management service will cost you a bit, the experience you are getting from their team of professionals can help you have a positive landlord experience.
Finding and Qualifying Tenants
When it is time to find tenants for your property, the apartment rental company will advertise your home for rent and handle inquiries on and show your property to prospective tenants. Then, when a potential tenants wants to rent your home, they will take a rental application from the applicant and make a decision to rent to them or not based on the information given in the application.
Most property management companies will collect income information from an applicant and also get permission from them to look at their credit report. This is to help determine if their income and credit is good to ensure they will be a good tenant to be able to pay their rent on time. Looking at their credit report will also make sure they don't owe any money to previous landlords.
It is also a good idea for your property manager to complete a background check on all adults applying to live in your home to make sure they have a clean record. If your new tenants have a criminal history, there is a chance they may continue their illegal activity while living in your home.
Handling Tenant and Property Issues
After you have a tenant living in your home, you will need someone to take care of any issues that arise with appliances or systems in your home, such as the plumbing, electrical, or heating. As the owner of the property, you don't need to worry about hiring a plumber to repair a sewer problem on the weekend or in the middle of the night. Your property manager will have trained maintenance personnel to take care of these issues. You can arrange with your property manager to automatically handle certain issues automatically or contact you before they handle repairs, as you will be liable to cover the costs associated with any repairs and maintenance.
If your tenant is late on paying their rent, your property management will send out a late notice and attempt to collect the overdue rent. If the late payment on rent continues and it is necessary to evict the tenant according to the local eviction process, your property manager will hire legal counsel to handle the process and make sure it takes place in a timely manner.