When you invest in and rent out commercial or residential properties, you want them to generate sufficient, if not lucrative, incomes for you. To make money from them, however, you must ensure they are properly managed.
It may not be possible for you to manage them in-person on your own. Instead, you can use these eight vital tips that we at Upside Investments recommend to ensure the successful and long-term property management of your real estate investments.
1. Communicate Effectively
One of the key factors of ensuring successful and long-term property management for your real estate investments involves the lines of communication with your property managers open. You must ensure you communicate thoroughly with your property managers so they know what you want and expect of them and the properties they manage.
By that same token, you must be responsive to communications like phone calls, text and emails that your property managers may send to you. If your property managers suspect you do not care about communicating effectively with them, they may assume as well that you do not care about them, your properties or the manner in which your investments are managed.
2. Guard against Procrastination
Procrastination can also sink the success and long-term management of your properties. You need to hire property managers who are proactive, prompt and do not procrastinate when you direct them to carry out management tasks on your behalf.
Procrastination can result in detriments like rent not being collected on time or repairs and maintenance getting overlooked for weeks or longer. Your properties may decline in both appearance and value. Rather than risk losing money on your real estate investments, you should hire property managers who will not procrastinate and instead handle any task you put to them immediately and as effectively as possible.
3. Stay Updated about Property Management Regulations
Housing laws in each city, county and state can change at a moment’s notice. It is not enough that you require your property managers to know what these changing laws are and how they apply to your real estate investments. You must also keep informed about these regulations and ensure your property managers are utilizing them properly.
Together, you and your property managers can work together to manage and ensure the profitability, appearance and value of your investments. You can also ensure you do not risk infractions like failing property inspections or violating local tenant laws as a property owner.
4. Screen Your Tenants
As a property owner, you likewise need to screen your tenants before you lease to them. By using a service like Upside Investments, you can avoid leasing to anyone who will not pay rent on time, has a questionable credit record or could otherwise put your real estate investments at risk.
You can also require your property managers to rely on the screening details from Upside Investments to determine what tenants to whom to lease. You avoid the risk of property managers perhaps leasing to friends, family members and others who do not meet your qualifications for leasing from you or overlooking infractions that could result in late rental payments, property damages, criminal activities and other risks.
5. Keep a Positive Attitude
Owning and managing rental properties can often become fraught with challenges. You may have to deal with issues like leaking pipes or broken sewer lines, along with broken windows, malfunctioning appliances and late rental payments.
Despite all of these challenges, it is vital that you keep a positive attitude as much as possible. When you are positive about your own real estate investments, you can motivate, if not placate, the property managers working for you. Your attitude can keep them focused on helping you resolve issues with your properties and keep your investments as profitable as possible.
6. Be Decisive
Your property managers also look to you for direction when it comes to managing your real estate investments. If you hesitate to make decisions or contradict yourself in what you want or expect, you could drive away good property managers and have difficulties finding professional and effective replacements for them.
Instead, you should be decisive about what you expect for your properties and require from your tenants. You should also provide firm and clear directions to your property managers so they can abide by your expectations and know what you need or want from them as your employees.
7. Be Adaptable
Still, you should also be adaptable as the owner of rental properties. You have to leave some proverbial wiggle room in how your properties are managed and in what manner your property managers carry out the tasks you put to them.
Factors like the weather or construction on the property may prevent certain tasks from getting carried out to your satisfaction. You also may not know what challenges your tenants may face or why they failed to pay rent to your property managers on time.
For those unexpected circumstances, adaptability can help you manage and overcome them. You can adjust your plans and figure out other ways to operate your real estate investments and direct your property managers to act on your behalf.
8. Set Goals
Finally, when you set goals for your real estate investments, you give your property managers a benchmark for which to stride. Your managers want to feel like they are working towards a goal for you and have a specific purpose in their jobs. They want to avoid boredom or feeling confused or rushed to carry out hasty decisions.
You can set a goal for how many units you want to rent out by the end of a season, for example, or what improvements you want to make to your buildings. By setting goals, you can provide motivation and direction for your property managers, foster higher retention rates and help your managers feel like they are useful to you.
These helpful tips are just a few to help you manage your real estate investments effectively. Learn more about the keys to ensuring successful and long-term property management by contacting us at Upside Investments.
