When should a landlord in Orange County hire a property management company?
West Point Property Management: You have a lot on your shoulders as a landlord. Managing your properties is the greatest tax on your time and money.
Deciding when you need a professional, trustworthy Orange County property management company is an individual decision. That said, there are a lot of important factors that can help you decide whether a property management company is best for your Orange County properties.
Many landlords operate, manage, and maintain their own properties. While they may have an employee or two, most landlords who manage properties themselves are responsible for protecting their investments on their own. Landlords are also responsible for rent collection, repairs, and evictions.
For some landlords, this works well. They may be retired individuals or those who make their rental properties their full-time occupation. Or they may only have a handful of properties and find little trouble managing on their own.
However, other landlords find themselves strained by properly managing an often-growing number of rental properties. In these cases, hiring a property management company in Orange County can make a lot of sense. If you own rental properties in Huntington Beach, CA, read on to find out if a property management company could benefit you.
What Can a Property Management Company Do?
Hiring a property management company in Huntington Beach can be a major resource for your growing business. The first step in deciding whether your business can benefit from a property management company is knowing exactly what it is they can do for you.
Property management companies interact directly with your tenants (and prospective tenants) for you. This saves you the work of advertising rentals, collecting monthly rent, repairing and maintaining your properties, evicting for nonpayment, and addressing tenants’ complaints.
Professional property management companies have plenty of experience handling these and other tasks related to protecting your investments.
Since property managers are independent contractors, using one does not involve becoming an employer. This can be far simpler than some alternatives.
That said, hiring a property management company comes with costs, too. Factoring in these costs and their alternatives is a major part of making a final decision.
Would a Property Management Company Benefit Me?
This is the question you have to ask for yourself, and no one can answer it for you. But you can keep in mind some of the advantages of hiring a property management company to weigh their value to you. For example, if you have a large or growing number of rental properties, you may especially benefit from working with a property management company.
Additionally, if you live further away from your rental properties, it can be far better to enlist management services than constantly making personal trips to each property.
This is especially helpful when there are sudden and unexpected issues that need to be handled quickly. Repair calls and tenant concerns need to be addressed as quickly as possible, something that becomes difficult with added distance.
If you are not keen on managing properties yourself, you should consider management services. Some landlords enjoy caring for properties and meeting new tenants, but not all do.
If rental properties are an investment for you but not something you want to personally spend time doing, management services can help.
This is especially true if you are short on time to give to your properties. If you already have a full-time occupation, you simply may not have the time to keep up with everything on your own. Or if you want to spend more time growing your business and acquiring new properties, a property management company can help free up that time.
What Do Property Management Companies Cost in Orange County?
As with any business expense, property management companies come at a cost. That cost is not for every landlord, nor does it make sense for every business. But for many, hiring a professional property management company makes immediate sense. Usually, management companies will provide quotes that range anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of your rental revenue. Your property management company will collect directly from your tenants, remove its fee, and forward the rest of the income to you.
This often makes perfect sense for landlords whose businesses are growing significantly, especially as their time becomes more constricted. It can often cost a lot of time and effort — not to mention money — to keep up with every property and every tenant.
If you do not want to be an employer, hiring a resident manager is probably not for you. Nor would it make much sense to hire your own employees to help manage your properties. Because a property management company operates as an independent contractor, you do not have to deal with payroll or the other factors of running a business’s day-to-day.
Finally, if your rental properties are part of an affordable housing program, they can quickly become very complex. These programs usually supply federal aid to landlords in the form of tax credits, grants, or low-interest loans. In exchange, landlords agree to rent properties (or units) to tenants below specified income levels.
Landlords must keep up with various rules and regulations to remain eligible for this assistance. Doing so can be time-consuming and confusing, making an experienced property management company a serious asset.
Finding the Best Property Management Company in Orange County
After you decide to hire a property management company to take care of your investments, make sure you take time to look over your local options.
A local company is better able to give your properties the attention they deserve. You should ask for recommendations from other landlords or business owners you know. You can also ask your local chamber of commerce or apartment association.
Once you settle on a few final contenders, make sure to look over them carefully and request quotes. With this info in hand, you are prepared to figure out which is the best property management for your business.
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