If you have a rental home or property, you may be struggling with whether to be a landlord or whether to hire a property management company to do it for you. There are pros and cons to doing it yourself versus hiring someone. Here are some of the factors you have to consider that will allow you to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision.
How Much Time Do You Have?
Being a landlord can be time consuming at times. When you are looking for a tenant, you have to make yourself available to show the property when prospective tenants are available. This may be on the weekends and/or evenings. If you work full-time and have a family, coming up with this time can be a hassle. Secondly, if something goes wrong in the house, such as a burst pipe, you have to field phone calls and get a repair company out to the house quickly. Once again, this is time consuming. A property managemetn company can do all this for you.
Do You Know How to Screen Tenants and Price Properties?
Being a landlord isn't easy. Most people don't realize the amount of work that goes into renting out a home. You have to price your property correctly, which can take skill. If your home is underpriced, you lose out on money. If it's overpriced, it may not rent. Once you have settled on a price, you have to find tenants and screen them. This takes time and also requires you to know how to screen them. Do you know what questions to ask their previous landlords? What a fair credit score is? How to look for past evictions? If you are unfamiliar with any of this, you may be best off letting a property management company handle it.
What's Your Financial Situation?
The last question you need to ask when weighing the pros and cons of being a landlord versus hiring a property management company is what your financial situation is. Hiring a property management company costs money. If money is tight right now, you may need to be a landlord until you can afford to hire a property management company.
If you have decided that hiring a property management company is easier than doing it yourself, give Gassen a call today. We are a property managmenet company in the Eden Prairie, MN area and would love to help you rent out and care for your rental properties. Give us a call today for a quote or to get answers to any questions you may have.