Considerations You Should Have when Hiring a Property Management Company
Here are a few considerations you should have when hiring a property management company like Simarc.
1. Management Fee
The property owner needs to understand the purpose of the management fee (typically 10%). The percentage management fee pays for the property manager’s time. The 10% allows someone else to help shoulder the burden of owning the property. The owner is paying for someone else to field 2:00 am calls. It is important to remember that the property manager cannot take all of the responsibility and burden off the owner. In the end, it is the owner’s property and the owner’s responsibility.
2. Interview
When hiring any professional, an interview will be conducted to hire the correct candidate and then the professional is left to alone to do their job. Working with a property manager is no different. During the interview process ask good questions; require forthright answers, hire the right candidate, and then get out of their way. If an owner is a high micromanager then they should hire a certain type property manager (see Property Manager categories below).
3. Personality fit
The owner’s personality has to fit the property manager’s systems and procedures. Sometimes owners will have difficulty with a property managers systems and procedures. If a property management company sets office hours between 9-5 Monday through Friday and owner wants an update on their property @ 6:00pm on a Friday evening they will have to wait until 9:00 am Monday. This may drive some owners crazy who want to be very involved in the day-to-day management. If this is the case they probably should hire a manager who will be more responsive to the owner’s needs.
