Self-managing might seem easy enough when you have a Fort Worth rental property. After all, you simply need to find a tenant, sign a lease, and start collecting those sweet rent checks, right?
Not exactly.
Self-management can result in costly errors and nightmare situations. The wrong tenant or the incorrect security deposit procedure can cost you a lot of time and money, not to mention the frustration and headaches that come with a rental property dispute or conflict.
These are the top 10 reasons you shouldn’t self-manage and instead ought to contact a professional Fort Worth property management company.
- Pricing Your Property:Pricing your rental home too low means you’re losing money every month when you collect rent. Pricing it too high means you’ll have a longer vacancy period, which is often even more expensive than lowering your rental expectations by $50 or $100. Professional managers can conduct a comparable rental analysis and ensure your investment is profitably and competitively priced.
- Market Knowledge:Self-managing landlords often don’t understand the local rental market and how dramatically things can differ throughout the Metroplex. You need experience and expertise when it comes to having a successful rental experience.
- Online Advertising:You could spend a lot of time posting your listing and its pictures on each rental site you want to use. Or, you can let a professional management company handle the leasing of your home, which will i nclude advertising on all the most popular rental websites.
- Tenant Screening:Tenant screening is critical because the wrong tenant could potentially damage your home, stop paying rent, or cause problems in the neighborhood. Unless you have access to national eviction records, credit histories, and criminal backgrounds, leave the screening process to a professional.
- Fair Housing:You may not think you’re discriminating, but it’s easy to run afoul of fair housing laws without realizing it. Make sure you understand the seven protected classes and how not to discriminate against them if you’re self-managing. You also need to know the difference between a support animal and a service animal and why they’re not pets. Do you understand disparate impact as it pertains to fair housing? If not, get professional management help.
- Texas Property Code:The Texas Property Code contains a number of requirements and regulations when it comes to renting out a home. You need to comply with every detail and self-managing landlords often miss some of the most important things.
- Routine Maintenance:Protecting the condition of your property requires responsive and reliable maintenance work, which includes great vendors and cost-effective pricing. How much time and money do you have to spend on maintenance as a self-manager?
- Emergency Maintenance:Self-managing landlords need to be on call for their tenants 24 hours a day. When the air conditioning goes out in the middle of summer or a leak turns into a flood in the middle of the night, you’ll get the call. Or, you can let your property manager be the contact person for these immediate repair needs.
- Non-Local Landlords:Professional property management is especially critical for landlords who are out of state. Even owners who live on the other side of the Dallas Fort Worth area can have trouble responding to the needs of their investment property from where they are.
- Asset Protection:You invest in property because you want to earn short-term cash flow and long-term returns. Professional managers can protect and grow your asset better than you can alone.
These are just 10 good reasons not to self-manage. To hear more about the benefits of professional Fort Worth property management, contact us at McCaw Property Management.