How To Avoid Bad Property Managers

If you have a rental property in Santa Monica, you will know that bad property managers are as bad as bad tenants. As a rental property investor, you need to ensure that you are working with the best property managers in Santa Monica when you want to hire a property management company. A good property manager can be worth their weight in gold, but a bad one can wreak havoc for you and your business.

No doubt, hiring a property management company is a task that needs to be done carefully. You need to put time and resources to ensure that you are working with the best property manager to save your investment and get the best return from it.

To help you get the best property manager, we have listed some important questions you can ask when you are searching for a property manager.

Important Questions to Ask:

1. How Long Have You Been Managing Rental Properties?

You need an experienced property manager to take care of your property. Avoid managers that have zero or little experience in the industry.

2. What is Your Current Vacancy Rate?

Remember that this is a business for you, the more vacancy in your property, the more money you will lose. You need a company that can guarantee fast filling of any vacancy. You can compare various vacancy rates and choose the one that is best for you.

3. Do They Have their own Maintenance Crew?

Real property managers have their own maintenance crew. This means they have contractors they trust that are reliable and can come in anytime to do reliable repair works.

4. What Kind of Property Do They Manage?

Depending on the type of rental property you have, you need a company that can provide you with the type of service you are looking for. Some property management companies in Santa Monica specialized in managing residential rental properties while others prefer commercial rental properties or both. Ensure you choose a company that can provide you with the type of service you are looking for.

5. How Often Do They Send Out Checks and Reports?

You need to know what is happening on your property at all times. Good property managers won’t have a problem giving you reports at least once every month. If the company that you want to work with can’t give you monthly report, you should walk away and look for another company.

6. How Often Do they Have to Evict Tenants?

Tenants leave for various reasons. However, if the property manager is dealing with constant evictions, it is an indication of how bad they screen tenants. You need a company that does a thorough job when it comes to screening tenants. Each eviction ruins your reputation. You need a company that saves your reputation by getting the best tenants.

7. What Are Their Fees

Note that every property management company in Santa Monica has their own fees. Before choosing to work with any company, find out their fees and compare it with the fees of other property managers in Santa Monica.

8. Are they Licensed?

Many property managers in Santa Monica will claim they are licensed. Ask them for their license. If they are not licensed, please walk away before you put yourself in trouble.

9. How Do They Handle Relationship with Tenants

While it is important to be firm and professional, you also need a property management company that makes making tenants happy their priority. It is not compulsory to be friends with tenants, but they should at least come up with programs to keep tenants happy. This is because it is easier and more cost-effective to retain good tenants than look for new ones.

10. Are They Responsive?

Reliable property managers should be responsive to the needs of tenants and investors. You need a property manager to responds quickly to tenants’ complaint and also provide the services you need when you need them.

Conclusion

Finding a good property management company in Santa Monica is not easy. You will need to compare different companies and ask questions listed above to determine a company you can work with. However, if you want to work with the best property managers in Santa Monica, you can save yourself the stress and come and work with us at Los Angeles Property Management Group.