Screening tenants properly leads to higher quality tenants.

Screening tenants takes up too much time and becomes complex for anyone inexperienced with investigating people. Too often, inadequate investigations result in bad tenants. Making matters worse, trying to evict bad tenants takes more time and becomes expensive if they refuse to leave.

The best property management companies utilize modern, high-tech tenant screening processes to select tenants:

• Rent for longer terms
• Pays rent on time
• Maintains the property
• Causes fewer problems

Preventing potential problems with tenants by using a professional property management company.

Professional property management companies learn from their experiences. Properly digging into issues regarding potential tenants raises red flags quickly. These include recognizing rental scams, late payments, poor credit history, and other bad facts hidden in a person’s past.

Avoiding just one lawsuit more than pays for the hiring of a property management company.

Experienced landlords know that one bad tenant can create legal and financial headaches. Another advantage of using a professional property management company is the ability to avoid legal problems.

Knowing the laws and following them prevent lawsuits. Some examples include:

• Avoid discrimination lawsuits preventing time-consuming and costly discrimination claims by screening tenants properly.
• Maintaining properties avoids unsafe living standards. Periodical property inspections and maintenance keep premises in safe repair.
• Using real estate attorney-approved legal agreements ensures landlord protection.
• Properly collecting and utilizing acceptable accounting procedures to handle rent and security deposits.
• Following all laws when evicting bad tenants.

Leaving your properties vacant for too long means losing money.  

An additional advantage of a property management company is reduced vacancy periods.  Here’s how:

• Preparing your properties to rent – Property management companies know which cosmetic improvements work best to attract new tenants.
• Determining the best rental rate – Setting yours too high takes much longer to rent, if at all. Too low and you lose money. Setting the highest rent rate without scaring potential tenants is a skill. Based upon knowledge of the current local real estate market, comparing similar units, and using modern rental rate tools.
• Effective marketing – Writing ads that attract tenants in the right media platforms brings many candidates quickly. The ability to advertise in high volumes results in lower rates from media outlets.
• Expert negotiators – Property managers know how to negotiate with tenants. Fielding phone calls from prospects, showing them the best features of a unit, and answering questions. Explaining complex legal jargon in lease agreements builds trust. Negotiations go smoother using property managers.

Every landlord desires to rent to good tenants who stay for long periods of time.

The disadvantage of short-term tenants includes lost rent, cleaning expenses, changing locks, repainting interiors, replacing carpets, and making small repairs. Then, there are the advertising and tenant screening process costs.

Time and money saved with long-term tenants.

The best property managers have a time-tested good tenant retention policy. Yes, a systematic approach to making tenants happy. Unhappy tenants tend to leave sooner than they planned.

Making a tenant happy includes providing good communication, rapid response to unit problems, and quick repairs. It doesn’t hurt to remember tenant birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays with cards and even small gifts.