7 Critical Mistakes Property Management Owners Make: Learn How to Avoid Them Now!

You hired a Realtor, who sells homes for a living, rather than a Property Management Specialist.

If you stop for a moment and think about this, most realtors (in fact most people) do not enjoy being property managers. In fact, if someone didn’t choose to specialize in property management, he is in affect choosing to do it part-time. Therefore, how good can he possibly be? It’s kind of like an accountant selling mortgages, or a high school teacher selling life insurance on the side.

Not to mention, if someone is just doing something to pay their bills, when their regular income is slow, what happens when their business picks up? You would have to think your property would become less of a priority, right?

Sadly, for most realtors, who dabble in property management, this is exactly what happens. He or she is really only passionate about writing contracts and collecting BIG Commissions, from selling homes and NOT renting them.

No question, Realtors are happy to rent out your home, BUT there is a big temptation to just put the first “live body” that comes through the door. It is a lot of work to market your rental effectively, answer phone calls, and do proper background checks. Not to mention, all the work servicing your tenants, once they move in.

When you think about it, most Realtors’ long term success is not based on your rental property performing well. Selling houses is really what their after.

When you are dealing with someone like us, we have the same “vested” interests. I want to rent your home quickly, to a good tenant, because that’s the only way I make money. Our focus is not selling homes, but managing rental properties (like yours) for the long haul.

This is what has made us so successful, and it is why 99% of our property owners remain our clients, year after year.

The end result is you get a property management specialist who lives and breathes this stuff as their chosen profession, rather than a typical realtor just managing homes, until sales pick up.

You are Falling prey to unscrupulous or inefficient repairmen.

If you have owned your property awhile, I am sure you remember the annoyance of being over charged by one of these guys.

For example, your Plumber shows up to fix your leaking toilet, charges you $75 to drive out, $85 to fix the toilet, and $35 in parts for stuff that costs $8 at Home Depot. OR…

Your AC repairman comes out to fix your system. And after just 20 minutes of looking over your AC unit, he tells you it can’t be fixed, and you need a brand new system. You’re left wondering if he is really looking out for your best interest… or his own.

Does any of this sound familiar? After a couple of years of experiencing this type of service, I decided to do something about it. We created…

Our own 24/7 Zero Overhead Repair Service

We went searching for and found electricians, plumbers, and AC repairmen that are 1 or 2 person businesses. They are licensed and insured and operate out of their work trucks. There is no office space, fancy trucks, expensive advertising, or employees, so their over-head is next to nothing.

These guys constantly suffer from inconsistent business: a typical “feast or famine” cycle. So when they find us, we give them steady work which smoothes out that annoying problem. In other words, we can instantly fill 50%-75% of their time, and they never have to spend any advertising dollars to keep this business. We simply insist they do quality work, and our clients receive discounted rates.

For example a typical electrician might charge you $125 an hour, $75 trip charge, and a 300% markup on parts. On the other hand, our electrician charges us $60 an hour including the time it takes to drive to your property and zero mark-up on parts. He comes out ahead because he is NOT just fixing your house that day. We have also given him one or two other electrical jobs at other properties.

Keep in mind, the electrician we hired spent no money on advertising, office rent, receptionist, or any of the other significant costs. Therefore, he is earning more “take home” money compared to the electrician working at a large electrical company, with far less headaches. Can you see how this would work for him (and you), in a positive way? The net result is:

Your Cost To Repair Electrical, AC, Or Plumbing Issues Is At Least 50% Less Than You Will Pay Working With Other Wesley Chapel Property Managers

Our ballpark estimate of what our typical clients saves in repair costs is $875 a year per property.

More importantly, you typically don’t need to hire an electrician, plumber, or a contractor for minor repairs. A well trained, responsible handyman can easily handle 80% of repairs that typically come up. Our company actually has 4 of these handymen on our payroll. You end up saving even MORE money on these types of repairs.

For example, any handyman (worth is salt) knows how to quickly repair broken or leaking toilets and sinks. You don’t have to hire a plumber for that kind of stuff. If you do, it is simply an overkill and much more expensive. It’s like visiting the emergency room for a migraine headache and getting a prescription. The visit would probably cost you around $700 while your neighborhood walk- in clinic could provide the same thing for $75.

Obviously, any type of serious repairs will be handled by our licensed and insured plumber, AC tech, electrician, or contractor. But, the fact of the manner is that most repairs are minor and do not fall in that category.

Be leery of any property management company that just hires repairmen from large companies driving fancy trucks. You end up “paying through the nose.” The property manager is paying top dollar to companies with huge amounts of overhead.

Not to mention, these repairs are being completed by an over qualified technician, which (more often than not) could be repaired by a competent handyman, at a fraction of the cost.

Paying Unnecessary Fees to your Property Manager

• A Set-up/Processing Fee of $250-$400 simply to set up your rental property in their computer system? To be blunt, this fee is completely bogus.

In the real world, it only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to type in your information into the computer. Okay, to be fair, it might take a few more minutes to pull out a filing folder, label it, and put the management agreement into it, but that 15 minutes of work doesn’t justify this fee.

• Charging the Leasing Fee UP FRONT – This practice is absolutely absurd. Normally, all management companies earn 50% to 100% of the first month’s rent, to find you a qualified tenant (i.e. leasing fee). This fee should only be paid once they do (in fact) find you a quality tenant. NEVER pay this fee in advance, because there is no incentive for the company to make the extra effort to find a great tenant quickly.
• Advertising Fees of $500-$700 to “market” your rental – The bottom line is this should be a cost of doing business for the property manager (not you). You shouldn’t be charged a dime for this. It’s like going into a grocery store, and the check-out clerk tacking on an extra 15% “advertising fee,” once she rings you up. It just doesn’t make any sense.