When is the right time to hire a property management company?

If the answer is yes, and any of the below scenarios apply to you, a property management company might just make sense…

‘Hands off’

Some landlords may seek a more ‘hands off’ approach from the word go, and simple invest in property for the financial rewards that comes with ownership, rather than getting involved in the day to day running of the properties, in which case, a property management company is an ideal solution.

Other landlords choose to hire a third party simply to take away the stress caused by rental management. Owning a property takes elbow grease, time and effort. So if spending your days screening tenants, chasing late rent or researching reliable tradesmen isn’t your cup of tea, hiring a property management company is an obvious choice.  

Lack of experience

You may want to invest in property, but don’t know the first thing about property management. Learning as you go and making mistakes along the way can become very expensive. And for an investor who is just starting out, hiring an unreliable tradesman or taking too long to fill a tenant vacancy will quickly eat away at your finances.

You own multiple properties

As the number of properties you own increases, so do your responsibilities. Many landlords find that managing a large property portfolio quickly becomes a full time, 40+ hour week job that they perhaps didn’t take into consideration and did not sign up for. More properties and more tenants means added maintenance issues, potentially more complaints, and tenant vacancies you will have to deal with. All of this combined means less free time – particularly if you have another job that you are committed to and are not prepared to leave.

In this case, hiring a property management company can lessen your workload and give you peace of mind knowing that your investments are in the hands of professionals.

The location of your properties compared to your home

The greater the distance between you and your properties, whether this was a conscious choice or not, the harder they are to manage. Hiring a local property management company means that any tenant complaints and maintenance issues are dealt with efficiently and emergency situations are responded to quickly. Living in a different area to your property may also make it harder to find tenants and fill the property quickly; but you can simply hand all of these responsibilities over to a professional with expert knowledge of the area, relying on them to make the best decision for you.

Do not underestimate the cost of travelling to and from your various properties, the money spent on fuel could be an expense better used to pay a property management company – potentially even saving you money.

 

Ogilvy and Sneyd provide a residential property management and lettings service for property investors, buy-to-let investors and property landlords in Staffordshire. Discover more about what we do, and how we could help to increase the return on your investments at www.ogilvyandsneyd.co.uk