Is figuring out what will impress investors stressing you out? Follow these essential property management tips for stress-free home renovation.
Property management is one of those things that, when you set out to be a landlord, you think will be equal parts easy as it will difficult. This tends to be the first mistake in property management.
If you’ve made that mistake, the trick is not to panic.
Property management is a huge undertaking. Getting it right the first time is a ludicrous notion. We learn from our mistakes, after all. But that also doesn’t mean we can’t prepare to make those mistakes easier to fix.
That’s where knowing people who have been in your shoes before and reading their experiences can come in not only handy but necessary. If you want to invest in property management, you need a plan. The plan is so important that it’s not even a tip: it encompasses all tips.
Let’s concentrate on bits and pieces that might save you from a whole bunch of property management-related headaches in the long run. It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it.
Property Management: Expectations Vs. Reality
In a way, you have to manage your expectations of property management before managing the property. One doesn’t simply walk into Mordor. Nor does one simply walk into property management unprepared.
Expectations
On the surface, it appears that the rules – much like HOA rules or the avoidance of decorating mistakes – are simple. Like such:
- Invest in some property
- Find tenants to live in the property
- Get somebody to draft up tenancy agreements
- Collect rent
- Profit!
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Reality
In a sense it’s right. Property management, however, is much more in-depth than it appears. What a home investor really has to look at is things like:
- Keep up-to-date on laws and legislation for home investment in your State
- Finding the right tenant for your property by conducting interviews and, if applicable, background checks
- Managing finances: Rent, maintenance, working out rental costs by taking maintenance and more into account
- Finding Las Vegas contractors you can trust (do they have good customer service? Have they been honest with you in the past?)
- …the list could go on.
Into the hundreds, really.
When you see this, you can see how easily you can get overwhelmed without a system in place.
Property Management Tips to Help Avoid a Total Breakdown
When we say breakdown, we do mean a personal one rather than a breakdown of, say, a gas heater. But then without a system in place, gas safety and other such amenities can break. Then you’ll be looking at even more stress than you need.
To help, we came up with an acronym that’s easy to remember…
ITF: Invest, Trust, Forget
At a glimpse, it sounds dangerous, but let us explain a little bit. Home investment can be a little like investing in a car, only a tad more expensive.
If you find a cheap car on eBay, you ask yourself why the car is cheap, and then look into it.
Not all second-hand vehicles or pre-refurbished properties are bad, but it’s wise to think of the bigger picture.
1. Invest
Ask yourself what steps you can take to improve the vehicle when you first buy it. Sure, you’re shelling out more, but you’ll be saving yourself a lot of grief and a lot of money down the line.
The same goes for home investment. If you put in a larger investment that includes kitchen remodeling, plumbing work, and whatnot, into the property, in the beginning, you’ll deal with less uproar down the line.
2. Trust
Present your tenants with a tidy home with appliances that work and don’t call for a lot of repairs and they’ll treat it with the care needed to make your life easier.
A large investment in the beginning will take the load off for you and your tenants. You’ll have a relationship relying on mutual trust rather than hierarchy. It’s the human condition to respond to respect with respect.
With trust, you can then forget.
3. Forget
Our favorite of the three steps also sounds the most juvenile, but it’s not.
A good property investment plan means not stressing yourself out over what your tenants are doing when you have things that you need to be doing.
It’s a good rule of thumb in any profession to concentrate on your own responsibilities.
As a team leader – which, as a property manager, you are – it’s not hard to get pulled into taking on the responsibilities of keeping your team in line.
So, if you fully invest in the property you’re managing and trust your tenants, it won’t feel like you’re having to hold the world together.
For productivity, that’s priceless.