Residential property management, at its core, involves enhancing and maintaining the value of your property. This means supervising and attending to all matters concerning your residential property. And that’s not an easy task!
Residential property includes a range of activities, from rent supervision to marketing your property. This explains why many property owners use professional companies for property management in Howard County, MD. This post highlights the activities involved in the property management process.
The property management process includes the following:
● Tenant Screening
Every property owner agrees that selecting tenants is one of the most essential parts of property management. It is also among the most complicated processes, as many factors are involved.
Tenant screening is the stage where you decide to take in a potential tenant, or refuse their application.
You need to conduct background checks to ensure your tenants are financially sound, respectful of your property, and stable. To make sure, most property owners ask potential tenants to fill out application forms which include reference checks.
Additionally, the process involves performing an employment verification, confirming passport details, conducting tenant database checks, and verifying credit standings. It’s also necessary to meet potential tenants in-person.
● Setting Rent
Of course, the main purpose of renting out your property is to make a profit by renting it. Since you’re in charge of managing your property, you must determine the rent. The ideal rent is an amount that gives you the highest income in the shortest time. However, the amount of your rent shouldn’t be too low or high relative to other similar properties in the same area.
When your rent is too low, you may enjoy a high demand of tenants, but your property would only give you minimum returns. On the other hand, if your rent is too high, you’ll find it hard to attract tenants, leading to a high rate of vacancy-related losses. To keep your rent in line with others and ensure optimum profit, you must conduct the necessary research.
● Regular Inspections & Maintenance
No matter how respectful of your property a tenant is, repairs are inevitable. Whenever there are general damages, it’s your responsibility to get it fixed as soon as possible. To avoid damages, you need to carry out regular inspections and maintenance. Regular maintenance helps you preserve – and enhance! – the value of your property, while also keeping your tenants satisfied.
● Rent Collection
Rent collection is one aspect that many property owners find challenging. To avoid the unnecessary headache of collecting rent, many pay for residential property management in Howard County.
When tenants miss rent payments, it can cause financial losses. Setting a zero-tolerance policy helps avoid late payments. However, the fact remains that collecting rent yourself is often stressful and challenging.
● Tenancy Agreements
Renting out your property is a business transaction you must back up legally. This saves you the stress of facing several inevitable issues like tenancy termination. The purpose of a tenancy agreement is to help both the tenant and the landlord understand the basic terms and conditions of their transaction.
Conclusion
Managing your property is a continuous process, no doubt. You must ensure you render quality services to your tenants, while also receiving maximum returns. Our company can help you handle all these processes and more. Contact us today and avoid the stress!
