The Practicality of Hiring a Property Manager for Your Rental Business

If you are planning to buy a property and start a rental business, know first that there are several things you should learn before venturing into the complexity of this industry. Examples include real estate laws in your area, lease, insurance policies, proper tenant screening and management, long-term maintenance of the building, and other important administrational tasks related to the financial and legal aspects. Also as a landlord, you should learn how to raise and maintain the market value of your property as well so that you can protect your investment and maximize your profit for expansion and growth. Running this project is not an easy job as there are serious risks that could put your time to waste and ruin your financial life.    

To be an efficient property manager, as well as a business owner, you must know the laws related to the rental business. It is an advantage on your part for avoiding problems in the process because you’ll understand how things work when it comes to the legal aspect. For example, in managing tenants there are laws called the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the federal Fair Housing Act Amendments Act of 1988 which prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, race, age, familial status, disability, sex or gender, and national origin. These laws apply to all aspects of the landlord-tenant relationship. As a landlord, you cannot base your preference on all of those categories mentioned such as by denying the availability of a unit or setting restrictions without justifiable reason.

When a manager is familiar with the Fair Housing Acts, he can set terms, conditions, and policies based on these laws. And because he knows how to use the knowledge of these laws, he will never become a victim of unfair court decisions, for example. As a property manager, one must know all the important rules about managing tenants such as it is illegal for a landlord to require larger deposits, terminate a tenancy for a discriminatory reason, or adopt an inconsistent policy based on prejudice. If you do things that are violating Fair Housing Acts, your tenant might end up filing a complaint to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Financially speaking, this is going to hurt your business.

When it comes to eviction, make sure you won’t fall for wrong legal decisions. It will waste a lot of your time and money on the process. This can be done by staying within the boundaries of the Fair Housing Acts and other real estate laws in your area. However, do not let your business be compromised by keeping a professional and strategic approach, especially in dealing with these laws. That’s why hiring a property manager for your building is really a must. This can still effectively protect your business and continue growing your investment without so much work.   

So the question right now is: are you ready to start managing a rental business? Are you sure you have the capacity to handle all of those things? If you doubt it, your doubt is correct; it is not an easy project. It’s better to accept that professionally, you cannot run it efficiently. And since this is the case, the right thing for you to do is hire a manager for your property. With this, you can still continue your dream of having this business without worrying about all of the technicalities, be it on the marketing, maintenance, or legal aspects. This is because property managers are professionally trained to do all these jobs and help you succeed. In addition to that, a good property management company is also very systematic in payment collection, repair, and maintenance, keeping and tracking tenant’s records, dealing with complaints, and answering tenant’s concerns. Of course, these responsibilities are ongoing while your business is running. You must understand that managing a rental property is a full-time job which is why hiring a manager for your business is a very practical thing to do.