3 Questions You Should Ask When Hiring a Property Manager
When you own multiple investment properties, hiring a property manager with extensive expertise and knowledge of managing rentals can add value to your portfolio. In this post, we’ll cover three questions you should ask when contacting a property management company.
Question 1 – How many investment properties do you own yourself?
Hiring a property manager that is also a real estate investor can make a big difference. Why? Every decision that they make, suggest about your rental property will be executed with an investor mindset. They understand that the cost of ownership is key to be successful and their focus should be on reducing expenses while optimizing the property.
Blackstone Group Leasing and Property Management currently own over 500 units. The company was created by 3 property investors in 2016. After carving a proven model to manage their own properties efficiently, they decided to take on 3rd party clients.
Question 2 – Do you outsource maintenance calls?
In order to keep the maintenance cost down, it is important to find out how the property manager is going to address these calls. Having an in-house maintenance team is important for 2 reasons. Firstly, the team will be available 24/7. No need to rely on a 3rd party service provider that may or may not always be ready to respond when the call comes in. Secondly, it will be more cost-effective. The cost of each maintenance call will be less expensive than calling an independent service provider. A property management company may need to outsource some bigger jobs requiring licensing such as plumbing. However, a good property manager will have an established reliable network offering competitive pricing. When hiring a property manager, you should verify how the maintenance is going to be handled.
At Blackstone Group Leasing and Management, we operate with our own in-house team of technicians driving Blackstone branded vehicles. If a job is beyond our ability, we have an established list of licensed professionals available 24/7.
Question 3 – How do you find qualified tenants?
The tenant screening process is an important step when being a property investor. You need to find solid and qualified tenants that will pay on time and take care of the property. When hiring a property manager, you need to check that the property management company will run a very thorough tenant screening process including:
A. Income verification (two most recent pay stubs)
B. Employment history (in writing and verified from the employer via phone call)
C. Credit Score (Done by a pro service such as Experian)
D. Capturing Debt load
E. Lines of credit
F. Criminal history
G. Rental eviction history
H. SSN verification
I. Address verification
J. Landlord history (current and past) – phone calls made with screening questions
It should be a minimum of a 10-point tenant screening process. The criminal history or landlord history are often overlooked when placing tenants. It can negatively impact your rentals. Dealing with evictions and legal services is very expensive and frustrating.
All property management companies are not created equals. We encourage you to meet a potential property manager in person, ask these questions (and more!!) and read reviews online.
If you are interested to learn more about the investor mindset approach from Blackstone Group Leasing and Management, please fill out the form below.