Managing Your Own Properties-A Big Mistake?

Professional Property Management vs Self-Management

Being a landlord may seem natural for some owners or investors. Today, I will break down professional property management vs self-management, and explain why professional property management might be the best option for you.

Based on personal experience, what I can’t stress enough is this could be the single worst decision a lot of people make. Once you talk to other owners/investors who’ve tried it, you may or may not understand exactly how much work, effort, stress and hours go into managing your own property or properties.

Managing a property without the help of a professional management company can and probably will consume much of your time, and it is not worth it. Most companies charge 5 to 10% per month. National Property Management charges 5% per month, so for $50 to $150 per month, you are almost stress free. The time you put into trying to collect rent, screening potential tenants, and either doing repairs yourself or coordinating, checking up on, and listening to the tenant, you could have been doing something far more productive. The rule is that if you are making more money per hour than you can pay someone else to do, it’s worth it. So if your housekeeper gets paid $20 per hour and you make more than that-hire the housekeeper. If you are spending more than an hour or two a month on management, hire a manager. While you might be able to save money managing the property by yourself; you will be losing time, which is your most valuable asset. You can generate more income, but not more time.

As a landlord, you will have to brace yourself for some tough times. We’ve all heard stories about terrible tenants, who destroy your home or don’t pay on time, dealing with evictions, etc., but the truth of the matter is, even good tenants can be problematic!

If you are the landlord and the air conditioning or heat decides to go out during dinner time or a holiday, who will the tenants call? If you are the landlord, and a water line breaks in the middle of the night, who is going to coordinate repairs? All maintenance is the landlord’s responsibility. In fact, everything is the landlord’s responsibility. Being a landlord means that you will always be on call — 24/7. You will know that no matter what you plan, plans will likely change; holiday or not; middle of the night or not.

A landlord has to be tough! You have to be forceful, determined, and sometimes hard hearted. Nice guys will get taken advantage of every time. What if your great tenant loses his job or a family member passes away. Are you tough enough to tell them rent has to be paid regardless? And if they don’t, can you follow through with an eviction?

A property management company like National Property Management can be the “bad cop” and you can be the “good cop”. This is a huge reason to hire a professional and a major stress reliever.

Being a landlord isn’t the worst job for an owner or investor, but it isn’t something to be taken lightly and without a thorough education. It is mentally tough, requires work and is very time consuming. If you are not 100 % sure, you may want to consider the small monthly investment in hiring the right management team to help you with your investment business.