Not sure what to look for in a property management company? Indiana native Nia Reczek is an experienced realtor who frequently helps match up homeowners and tenants. In this article, the Clearview Property Management owner explains the basics of finding a reputable property management company.
When homeowners decide that they are ready to have a property management company handle the rental of their home, there are quite a few things they should look for.
The number one thing I would advise is to make sure and look for a company that screens all potential tenants and does background checks on them, too, to make sure that they aren’t some kind of criminal with a bad history.
Secondly, I would say that homeowners need to look for any hidden fees and compare them to what other companies are charging. Here at Clearview Property Management, we normally charge homeowners a monthly fee of 10% of whatever the rent on the property is. And of course, we do not make any money unless the home is rented out.
Some companies will charge homeowners a fee regardless of whether the home is rented or not, and that can be a real problem. With our fee schedule, it is advantageous for us to get your home rented out quickly, because only then will we make any money.
If a company is charging homeowners a fee whether their house is rented or not, then what do they care if they find a good tenant or not? They are making money whether your home is rented or not, so they have no incentive to find a good tenant quickly.
Generally, it takes me just a matter of two or three days to get everything done once a person decides to rent his home. We advertise our homes on about 10 websites and periodicals. And while it takes awhile to get the home listings printed in monthly periodicals, we can get those listings up on the web almost immediately. So that speeds the process of finding a tenant and getting the home rented.
In addition, some companies will also charge an up ront fee just to get your house rented. However, we don’t do anything like that here at Clearview Property Management, and that is something that I would watch out for.
Usually the biggest concern that most homeowners have is how much the process going to cost them, and what kind of guarantees — if any — they get that their home will be well cared for during the time when it is being rented.
Of course, I can’t guarantee everything with 100% certainty. I don’t have a crystal ball, and I can’t foresee in the future. People’s lives change, unfortunately, and a tenant who was an upright citizen when he came to us can change. Something can happen in his life that just spirals into some kind of crazy abyss, and that perfect tenant can suddenly start drinking and smoking and hanging out with the wrong crowd.
That type of situation does happen occasionally, but that is why we do the home inspections every three months because hopefully we can catch that before it becomes a big problem. And once again, that is why the background and credit checks are so important at the beginning of a lease.
If the tenant is violating his lease by having more people in the home than the number that is supposed to be there, or by having a dog when he is not allowed to have one, or if the house starts to look like it is not being well cared for, then we can and will evict him from the home on the grounds that he is breaking his lease.
Finally, homeowners should look for property managers who know what they are doing and have experience in the industry — enough experience to advise clients on everything else they need to be doing.
For example, once the homeowner moves out, he need to call his insurance company and let him know that the home is now a rental property. The insurance should change some, from a homeowner to a rental agreement, and most of the time the premium will go down since he is no longer insuring his own personal property. Instead, now just the house in insured.
Of course the amount of insurance that the homeowner will need will go up because the house is now a rental. But overall, the cost usually ends up balancing out, or the homeowner ends up paying a little less in the end.
