Veteran landlord and property manager Hank Rossi blogs this week about why he loves being a property manager.
By Landlord Hank
Why do I love my investment real estate and how do I personally feel about being the property manager?
I look at my rental units as my money machine.
They produce income seven days a week every day of the year (when they are rented),.
Never do they take sick leave. They don’t take breaks. Hey, they don’t even sleep!
But, they do produce income when I sleep.
This is a work force that doesn’t want a vacation or a raise and with routine maintenance will continue to produce income as long as it is well managed and cared for.
How could I not want to take care of this treasure, this tireless worker?
My work of management could be limited to occasional phone calls to repair staff.
Some tenants are not heard from during the entire lease period as far as maintenance requests or problems.
So I don’t look at my job of answering the phone as too demanding, but it is necessary to always be available to your tenants. Just set some ground rules going in on when tenants should contact you for emergency (whenever the emergency happens) and when to contact you for routine maintenance-via email or text anytime-phone during normal business hours.
This job does not require digging ditches-it’s not physically demanding. I always have my phone handy and can deal with property management while I’m shopping, driving, at the beach, etc.
Since I love my job I don’t really consider it work
I’m just keeping my money machine well-oiled and my tenants happy. I also keep my properties well insured as anything could happen at any time-hurricane or tornado, sink holes, floods, fires, automobile damage (someone running into your property-has happened to me twice), tenant damage-accidental or intentional or vandalism.
With my job, it is usually something different every day-could be a plumbing blockage, air conditioning or heating not working optimally, new move in, pest control, roof leak-all systems are going to need attention at some time.
BUT, many times everything is working perfectly and no calls come in at all (I admit a few day of this and I wonder if tenants are having problems and not calling for repair, for some reason).
If you do not love it, why not?
If you have investment rental property and you don’t love it, why not?
- Are you putting in bad tenants?
- Keeping troublesome tenants?
- Maintenance getting out of hand (take care of something as soon as possible-unlike the human body-properties don’t fix themselves)?
- Trouble collecting rent?
Spend time checking out your tenants thoroughly and never rush to put a tenant into a property until this has been done. Don’t short cut this procedure because you want to have your property full.
Better to keep a property empty than put in a tenant that is not qualified and that you feel satisfied will be a good tenant-they have a good rental history, make enough money to pay the rent, have a good income to debt ratio, they pay their obligations.
Good tenants make being a property manager an easier job
When is it time to quit being a property manager?
When you no longer care enough to do a great job of taking care of your property and your tenants!
That doesn’t mean it is time to sell your property although that could be an option but there are great property managers out there that will care for your place.
Find one and check them out as well as you do your tenants
After all, they are managing your treasure chest.
Photo credit Vadimguzhva via istock.com
About the author:
“I started in real estate as a child watching my father take care of our family rentals- maintenance, tenant relations, etc , in small town Ohio. As I grew, I was occasionally Dad’s assistant. In the mid-90s I decided to get into the rental business on my own, as a sideline. In 2001, I retired from my profession and only managed my own investments, for the next 10 years. Six years ago, my sister, working as a rental agent/property manager in Sarasota, Florida convinced me to try the Florida lifestyle. I gave it a try and never looked back. A few years ago we started our own real estate brokerage. We focus on property management and leasing. I continue to manage my real estate portfolio here in Florida and Atlanta. “ Visit Hank’s website here.
Photo credit Vadimguzhva via istock.com