As a real estate agent, finding the most efficient way of doing things can save you a lot of money, frustration and time. More and more, Realtors are choosing to work with property management companies to help streamline their day-to-day responsibilities and to increase earnings.
If you’ve been thinking of working with a property manager, you’ll be interested to learn about these three huge ways that property management benefits Realtors.
Property managers open up your earning potential
If you’re spending your time dealing with your investment property, you’re losing valuable time you could be using to show and sell properties that are on the market. Losing that time can mean losing sales, which means less earnings overall—not an ideal situation by a long shot.
When you have a property management company taking care of things for you, you can spend your time on more lucrative ventures that help you grow your business and earn more money.
Think of it like this: If, for example, you earn 5 percent commission, and you spend three hours showing a $500,000 property and closing the deal, you stand to earn $25,000 for that amount of work.
Now, think of spending those same three hours at your rental property fixing a toilet or repairing a broken heater in the middle of winter. If you’re not working with a property management company, you can add up those potential earnings over time, and the amount of money you’ll be missing out on can become downright staggering.
Why spend your most valuable time on your investment property? Instead, you could be doing what you do best and earning more money for it—that’s an ideal situation.
You don’t have to deal with maintenance
When you have to take care of something at your property, such as a leaky faucet, you might quantify it as, say, an hour’s worth of work that you’ll lose out on. However, think about the real amount of time you spend working and resolving an issue like this.
You first have to find a plumber or maintenance worker who can fit your property into their schedule–this can involve calling a number of vendors.
Then, you might have to meet that worker at your property. Depending on how close you are, getting to the property can eat up a significant chunk of time as well.
Waiting around while the repairs are made so that you can pay the bill for it is even more time. Add up that “hour” for fixing a leaky faucet, and you may have lost almost your entire afternoon. When you have a property management company taking care of maintenance at your property, the amount of hassle you have to deal with is significantly diminished.
Your time becomes yours again
If you got into owning investment properties to earn more money, you might be doing so, but at the expense of your free time (and your time doing your “real” work!). Spending time finding tenants for your rentals, vetting contractors for maintenance, chasing down rent checks, and other minutiae related to being a landlord can suck up all of your free time—and then some.
You don’t need to be leaving the office early to show an apartment or missing dinner with your family to meet a repairman.
When you have a property management company looking after your properties, you can be present at work and earn your living, then go home when you’re finished—your investment won’t feel like a second full-time job anymore. Living the life you deserve to live is easy when you have a property management company taking care of your property.
If you’re a Realtor and you’ve been looking for a way to make your investment property work better for you, working with a property management company can be an excellent solution.
With property management, you’ll have the potential to earn more money at work by using your time in more beneficial ways, you won’t have to deal with maintenance headaches, and you can leave the busy work to someone else.
Andrew Nast is the founder and president of Lofty Real Estate Co.