What separates good property managers from the bad?

Question

Hi,

What qualities should I look for in a good property management company?

also, what services should a property management be providing the tenants?

William Murrell · Answer

That's a good question with a very long answer.  Some of the things I look for are vacancy rate, references, selection of vendors, reporting, and online presence/ marketing.

-Vacancy rate is key because (at least for me) vacancy kills more cashflow than repairs or anything else.  I just ditched a property manager that allowed a SFH to sit vacant for three months at market rent while everything else around it was rented with ease.  If they can't place a tenant, why pay them?

-References are important because everyone of them will have marketing material telling you that they're awesome.  But who cares what they think of themselves?    What do other investors think?  Find out what other people who are actively investing think and recommend.

-Selection of vendors is another key issue.  I had a local property manager send an unlicensed, uninsured vendor in to one of my rental houses to perform some work.  15k worth of damages later,  I was left with essentially no legal recourse other than suing the vendor who was a tiny one woman shop with no ability to pay for the repairs.  I would have won any legal action, but I never would have been able to collect on the judgment.  Total nightmare.  My current manager only sends licensed and insured vendors in and that translates to peace of mind.

-Reporting is nice because they'll send you an accounting of the profit and loss for each property as well as documentation of the repairs that are done.

-Online presence ties back into vacancy rate.  I have two property managers currently and one gets essentially no traffic to their site and they have a terrible time getting tenants into a house.  The other has a dominant position when it comes to SEO/SEM for local rentals so almost anyone searching for rental properties locally will end up at their site looking at (among others) my rentals.  The dominant marketer was able to place a tenant in 1.5 weeks in a house that the other couldn't fill up in 3 months!

This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully a good start.  Good luck!