3 Questions for a Potential Property Manager
If you’ve decided to invest in real estate, then you could quickly see why it would be a large amount of work to handle the property yourself. You should definitely be excited about the potential your property has, but separate yourself from being the boss and sit back as the owner. Don’t bother burdening yourself with the tedious nature of managing tenants, collecting rent, and making sure upkeep of the grounds are being handled. There are professionals out there that are experienced in making sure real estate locations are being kept in the best condition. However, not every professional may be a fit for you and your location. So, if you’ve decided to interview one yourself, what should you ask to see if they are a fit? Well, we’ll be going over that right now.
First thing you should ask is what would the property manager do if they were you? Why this question? Well, not only should a manager be able to help you create your vision, but he should be able to enhance it. Fresh ideas are a benefit to you and your location, initiative shouldn’t be seen as a negative attribute from them. Their ideas could be something you hadn’t thought of yet, or something you may have passed over when originally planning the investment. It’s also interesting to see the ambition a manager might have towards real estate. Why hire someone if they don’t love what they’re doing.
The next question you should ask a potential property manager is how would they screen tenants in a face to face interview? It’s interesting to see how a manager would handle an interview with people and what questions they would ask. This question gives you a better idea of what characteristics the manager is looking for and if they match up with yours. Maybe they’re exactly on the same page with them, maybe they’re slightly off, and maybe they’re not even reading the same book. Selecting someone that would take your place and select others to occupy your real estate is important and this would be the time to clarify any details that you may want to bring up.
The last question you should definitely ask is how would they handle a bothersome tenant? This question gives you a better perspective about how much patience they might have, as well as giving you a glance at their people skills. Let’s face it, not all tenants are winners. Some slip through screening and show their true colors once settled in. If the tenant is being a nuisance to the other tenants then they must be dealt with. How many warnings would they give them? One, maybe two… or would they give them none at all? This is where the patience we talked about earlier would come in. How much can they take before enough is enough? There needs to be a balance between the two. These questions are important to anyone looking to take a big step towards a successful investment. Finding the right property manager that is in it for the long run is vastly important.
