If you have an empty rental property, there are now lots of ways you can have the place occupied beyond the traditional way of hiring a vacation property manager. Despite the rise of airbnb & house sitting, there are still a lot of benefits to using a property manager for your vacation property.
Better Quality Tenants
Getting a good quality tenant isn’t easy and if you think you got a good one, but they turn out to be a lemon, that’s not going to be fun to deal with.
Property managers know all the tricks people use to make themselves look good when applying for tenancy so will be able to quickly filter out the worst tenants. They’re then able screen the remaining tenants to choose the one that is likely to:
- Pay on time
- Rent longer
- Look after the unit
- Not be a trouble maker
Less Money Spent On Potential Legal Fees
When you end up with a bad tenant, you may find yourself paying more money in legal fees than rent coming in, yet you still can’t get rid of the tenant. Property managers aren’t perfect and sometimes get the tenant wrong, but they know the laws of the area and industry to resolve any issues much faster and cheaper.
Less Vacancy Time Between Tenants
Getting new tenants can be a real pain and takes a lot of time and effort. Time and effort you don’t have. Property managers help shorten the time down by:
- Improving the property to maximise revenue (cosmetically)
- Determine the best rent rate based on the local market using data industry experts have access to
- Market your property properly. They have access to large databases and may have people already wanting
- interested in your property.
Better Tenant Retention
When you don’t have tenants, you lose money. Short term tenants are double bad as turnover costs aren’t cheap. You need to clean, change the locks and make any repairs. A property manager keeps tenants happy with systems they’ve automated as much as possible.
Tighter Rent Collection Processes
We all like to be nice in the world so if your tenant lets you know he will be a few days late with the rent, you won’t mind. This creates bad habits, you probably know this yourself and things snowball from there.
Property managers collect rent for a living and are just doing their job by making tenants pay rent on time and if it isn’t paid, they tenant will face consequences. You also don’t end up looking like the bad guy!
If tenants do need to be evicted, your property manager will know how to evict them following the law. It’s not always easy!
Lower Maintenance and Repair Costs
A great property manager will have a network in the area to cover a variety of industries such as plumbing, painting and handymen. If there’s any problem requiring a fix, they can get qualified people onto the job right away rather than you attempting to manage the problem from a far.
That’s quite a few benefits to having a vacation property manager right? Don’t forget about the benefits you’ll feel directly, less stress, more freedom and most of all, more time!