As a property owner, chances are high that you’ve weighed whether it’s worth it to self-manage your property or hire someone to do it. While the thought of saving on fees and avoiding having a third party in the fold might be tempting, there are countless advantages to working with an experienced property management company rather than handling everything yourself when it comes to property management. From detailed marketing strategies that ensure full occupancy to dealing with tenant disputes quickly, here are several reasons to avoid self-managing several properties.
Time Commitment
One key reason to avoid self-management is the time commitment required when handling maintenance, tenant relations, rent collection, and other aspects of property management.
Effectively managing two or more properties at once can be quite challenging, as there can often be conflicting demands on your time and resources. Tenants expect their issues to be addressed quickly and promptly, which can require a lot of effort.
This effort can be challenging to sustain, especially when managing numerous properties simultaneously. Therefore, if you don’t have suitable systems or enough staff members to manage the workload, self-managing multiple properties may not be feasible.
Requires Specialized Skills
Self-managing multiple properties requires specialized skills and knowledge. In many cases, even individuals with a great deal of experience managing a single property can find themselves overwhelmed by the increased responsibilities of running multiple properties.
You need to possess the necessary organizational skills and know-how about tenant leasing agreements, local housing ordinances, legal paperwork, and other critical areas of knowledge. Without these skills and knowledge, self-managing multiple properties can not only be difficult but also be a very costly mistake.
Complex Legal Landscape
Self-managing multiple properties can be complicated as the legal landscape is complex and ever-changing. For instance, in Los Angeles property management, each tenant has rights and protections under the law. These laws can vary from state to state, with each area having different landlord and tenant laws.
Keeping up with details such as local ordinances, fire safety regulations, fair housing laws, strategies for lease enforcement, and tenancy termination procedures while managing different properties fairly and legally would stretch anyone too thin.
Mental Drain
Managing one rental property can be exhausting; between collecting rent and being available to handle any issues or requests you may receive from tenants, it is easy to get drained. If you choose to take on multiple properties as a self-manager, this work will intensify exponentially, as well as the mental strains that come with it.
When dealing with multiple properties, things like maintenance reports, tenant communication, lease violations, and more will always require your attention. Too much of this at once can eventually ruin your effectiveness as a reliable property manager and be detrimental to your mental health.
Logistics
If you are far away from the property, handling any unexpected issues that may arise and maintaining your property properly will be much harder. This can result in a number of problems, such as a lack of communication with tenants, difficulty overseeing repair and maintenance work, and inevitably increased tenant turnover.
Without regular property visits, you cannot form strong relationships with renters or properly assess the building’s condition. Finding the right team of contractors and other workers can also be challenging if you are unfamiliar with the area. As such, self-managing multiple properties while living far away makes managing your rental property even more difficult than it needs to be.
Tenant Acquisition and Management
Screening tenants is vital to have responsible occupants, but this process alone can be time-consuming and tedious because it involves conducting thorough background checks. Some scenarios might even require hiring third-party management teams or legal representation, which should always be done carefully.
Further, properly managing tenants involves organization, communication skills, and attentiveness to detail. Tenant issues can be difficult to handle on your own with fairness and without getting bogged down in technicalities or complicated negotiation processes that require a legal understanding. These factors make self-managing multiple properties an increasingly daunting task that many people are not well suited for.
Minimized Objectivity
When managing multiple properties, it’s essential to remain objective no matter what the situation. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to do this when self-managing your properties. Human nature makes us biased and favors our interests over those of clients or prospective tenants. This can have an adverse effect on tenant retention and could cause significant legal issues down the line.
Costly Mistakes
There is potential for significant financial losses if self-management is done incorrectly. This can be due to investing too much in upgrades that don’t add value to the property or being too lenient with tenants, leading to a loss of income through missed rent payments or costly evictions.
Additionally, self-managing can be time-consuming and overwhelming as there is likely more responsibility than you are used to in regard to taxes, paperwork, maintenance, and rent collection. It is, therefore, better to consider property management companies who know the business inside out and can save you money and time.
Financial Management
Inadequate financial management can quickly lead to unrelated issues like drained resources, non-payment of property taxes, and overwhelming debt. Self-managing multiple properties without the requisite financial skills will likely result in such problems because the complexity of a portfolio is far greater than that of a single property.
As a result, it’s important to have the right knowledge to properly handle the finances associated with multiple properties. This might require hiring an expert or an accounting software program that offers reports and analytics.
Without a proper understanding of accounting, a landlord cannot efficiently and safely manage their income and expenses for running these separate entities, resulting in prolonged disagreements and legal repercussions.
Grow Your Portfolio
Unless you are an experienced real estate professional with deep knowledge of landlord-tenant laws and regulations, self-managing multiple properties can quickly become overwhelming and take up all your time.
From handling tenants’ maintenance requests to keeping track of expenses, it can be easy to lose sight of your original goal: growing your portfolio. By hiring a property management company to help you manage your properties, you will be freed up from the day-to-day management items and have more time to focus on increasing your investments and expanding your portfolio.
Final Thought
As a self-managing landlord, you are pulled in a million different directions. Not only do you have to find and screen tenants, but you also have to handle maintenance requests, rent collection, evictions, and more. It’s time-consuming and stressful and can prevent you from growing your portfolio. Hiring a professional is the way to go if you’re looking for freedom and peace of mind. A good property manager will take care of all the little details so that you can focus on other areas of your life.
