Professional Property Management vs Self Management: Weighing the Value and Costs

Is the stress of running your own rental property weighing you down? Did you not expect to spend dozens of hours managing your rental when you first invested in the property? You’re not alone. 

According to DoorLoop, about 45% of landlords self-manage their properties. Many of these landlords like you find themselves in need of landlord rescue. Some are still content to spend all their time managing their rental properties rather than cutting into their profits with property management fees.

So what are the benefits and the drawbacks of hiring a property manager for your rental? We’re here to answer those questions for you. Read on to get the necessary information to decide which route is better for your business.

What Property Management Can Do For You

The first question on your mind has to pertain to what a property manager can even do for you to make the cost worth it. Many have the assumption that a property manager works similarly to a receptionist and still needs constant involvement from the landlord.

However, for a truly full-service company, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The right property manager gives you your time and freedom back by taking over all day-to-day duties such as the frequent maintenance requests you have to handle, accounting, and managing tenant turnover to keep your rentals occupied.

While owners are still involved on an executive level, this typically boils down to being kept in the loop by the property manager with efficient financial reporting and planning on the investment level. This is another advantage for you as it makes a world of difference to have a team knowledgeable of local real estate trends and rental market practices in your corner.

The Pros and Cons of Hiring a Property Manager

As with any business decision, there are going to be pros and cons to hiring a property manager for your rental property. While we are biased as a property management company ourselves, we always prioritize transparency with our clients in what will be best for their business. So let’s talk about the pros and cons.

Pros of Property Management

  1. Expertise and Experience: It can be challenging trying to be a jack of all trades with your investment. Staying on top of your portfolio and other business ventures while trying to juggle the complexities of property management is a lot. A property management company will come equipped with a team of experts in all fields of running a rental property. This expertise leads to increased tenant satisfaction, lower turnover, and long-term stability for your investment.

  2. Freeing Up Your Time: Without the burden of managing your property on your plate, you’ll have much more time to spend on expanding your portfolio, improving your financial life, and personal time for family and friends. This is an important step in many investor’s journey toward achieving true financial freedom.

  3. Access to Industry Resources: Property managers are more than just the friendly people doing all the work with your property. They also come equipped with the latest and greatest tools and technology for improving your rental business. Some common examples include rental analysis for staying competitive with the market and online portals for tenant communication.

Cons of Property Management

  1. Costs of Property Management: As you might’ve assumed before reading this article, property management does come with its share of costs. This can go beyond monthly property management fees and extend into tasks such as lease administration or renewal fees. The good news is that these companies are designed to take those costs and turn them into increased profits for your investment. You can explore how our pricing is structured here.

  2. Potential for Miscommunication: When you add another party to any workplace, there is always the potential for miscommunication. This can mean you as a landlord not being made aware of certain goings on with your property. That’s why it’s pertinent to find a property manager like PMI Mile High who prioritizes open communication with owners and accessible reporting.

  3. Loss of Control: With some landlords, it might be stressful at first to relinquish control to a property manager. Certain day-to-day decisions like tenant selection and maintenance solutions will be in their hands. However, you should rest assured that these decisions will be in the hands of professionals who are there to safeguard your interests.

When to Choose Property Management

There are several common reasons you might need to take the plunge into property management. Most of them boil down to the stress and time investment of managing your rental property alone has become too much. If the time you’re spending is cousin your rental investment or other areas of your life to underperform, it leads to a lot of undue stress and reduced financial success. This is where property management can help.

Owners often need help scaling their growth as well. Once you go beyond one or two rentals under your belt, it can be nigh on impossible to manage it all alone. If you want to grow your real estate portfolio but don’t have the resources to make it happen, property management gives you the natural manpower to do so.

This is also similar if you own property outside of your home state. Being an absentee landlord can be stressful in a different sense since you can’t be physically there to spend time on your property and perform daily operations. A property manager can act as your on-location representative to handle the business for you.

Partner with PMI Mile High and Free Yourself From Stress Today!

If you’re looking for a valued and trusted partner to take the burden of property management off of your plate, our team at PMI Mile High is here to help. To get started, explore our services to gain insight into all the specific ways we can transform your rental business and unshackle your time.

Still on the fence? We offer free consultations to help you decipher if our services will be worth your investment. Chat with one of our experts today. 

back