If you’re like many people who are managing their own properties, whether you’re new at it or you’re pretty experienced but feeling a bit overwhelmed, check out these five tips to help you stay organized and on top of maintenance requests, rental payments and more.
Managing Your Own Property? Use These 5 Tips to Stay Organized
First things first: You don’t have to manage your own property. In fact, it’s easier than ever before to hire a qualified, experienced and skilled property manager in Boston. If you’re overwhelmed, don’t know what to do, or simply no longer want to manage your own property, we can help you – just call our office today to discuss your options.
If you do decide to manage your own property, you can use these five tips to stay organized.
- Communicate clearly and in writing.
- Stay focused on the long-term health of your property and your rental relationships.
- Inspect your properties regularly.
- Set up standard processes so everything works the same way, all the time.
- Outsource tasks you don’t want to do.
Here’s a closer look at each.
Property Management Tip #1: Communicate clearly and in writing
When you communicate with your tenants, do so in writing. And if you communicate in person or over the phone, send a recap of your conversation by email. That way, you acknowledge everything you discussed and have a record of it that you can fall back on should you need to protect your interests later.
Property Management Tip #2: Stay focused on the long-term health of your property and your rental relationships
Always focus on the big picture. Remember that your property is your income generator, and that you must take care of it if you expect it to keep generating income for you. At the same time, keep your rental relationships healthy; if you have good tenants, make sure they know you appreciate them (and don’t do crazy things like hike the rent by half when it’s time to renew a lease). If you have bad tenants, decline to rent to them again and look for someone better. (This is particularly important if you have a multi-unit property, because one set of bad tenants can cause your good tenants to move out.)
Property Management Tip #3: Inspect your properties regularly
Don’t be caught off guard when it’s time for a tenant to move out; if you haven’t been to your property in 6 months or more, it’s time to schedule a check-in. Properties that don’t get checked on can decline quickly. (Worse, this can happen.)
Property Management Tip #4: Set up standard processes so everything works the same way, all the time
Save all your important information in a single location. Keep tenant leases, rent receipts and other documentation in the same digital file and back it up to the cloud in case anything happens. Set up processes for collecting rental payments, handling tenant repair and maintenance requests, and other frequent tasks so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time something pops up.
Property Management Tip #5: Outsource tasks you don’t want to do
Even if you manage your own property, that doesn’t mean that you’re the one who’s stuck doing all the repairs, coordinating maintenance tasks, or anything else. If something is too big a time-sink, outsource it so you don’t have to worry about it.
Do You Need to Talk to a Property Manager?
We’re here to help you every step of the way – all you need to do is sit back and collect your rent payments.
Call us at 617-262-3075 or fill out the form below now to find out how we can take all the stress out of renting out a property in Boston. We’ll take it from here!
