Pro Tips for Property Management
The time is now for those of you interested in renting property to others. While becoming a landlord is rarely glamorized by the mass media, it’s important to recognize how much opportunity there is. The American housing market has surplus demand and a shortage of viable options. Only a few months ago, Jacob Passy at MarketWatch promoted the fact that home values were skyrocketing at the fastest pace since 2006. A total of 35 different US metros were highlighted and 21 of them saw peak median values set before the 2008 recession. Current homeowners are certain to favor those statistics but prospective ones often have mixed emotions because they could very easily be priced out of their ideal scenario.
Rather than compromise their standards, some people choose to rent a property while saving further and continuing the search. There’s also the steady rise of renting as a more pervasive and widespread trend, which was reported by Richard Florida at CityLab. The data in his article suggested that renting was becoming a more popular choice across nearly all demographics, especially millennial professionals. He concludes with some striking takeaways.
“Cities and metros with more renters have proven better able to cope with the transformation from an industrial to a knowledge economy,” Florida writes. “In fact, metros with greater shares of renters have higher wages, higher productivity, and greater concentrations of high-tech firms.” In other words, it’s probably safe to say that the trend toward renting is here to stay.
Yet despite having an abundance of possible customers, many rental properties can struggle to turn a profit and eventually fail. Much of that has to do with preventable tenant turnover. That means a tenant leaves because of an issue with the property that could have been addressed but wasn’t for one reason or another. Seasoned landlords consider those departures permanently lost customers. You shouldn’t fall prey to those types of mistakes. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some relevant guidance.
Forbes contributor, Sarnen Steinbarth, already shared some practical tips for new landlords. That’s an excellent place to begin. According to him, cutting corners when it comes to documentation is a recipe for disaster but that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Steinbarth emphasizes how important it is to know and understand the applicable fair housing laws. Non-compliance can have serious repercussions. Another key takeaway is finding new ways to become efficient.
Property management encompasses countless duties and responsibilities – many of which can be tedious and time-consuming. That could include drafting promotional ads for unit vacancies or generating a tenant screening report for any new applicants the ad might attract. Activities like those can rapidly balloon out of control and – let’s be honest – no one wants to input all that information manually. People are usually better off using that time to make crucial strategic decisions on behalf of the business.
Relying on technology is how most companies are developing a competitive edge. It should be no different for the real estate industry. Inc. contributor, Alex Chriss, publicized five ways businesses can leverage new technology to stay ahead of the competition. The very first category introduced was automating simple but recurring administrative tasks. Never underestimate the value of eliminating monotony from the daily grind. Not only are time and money saved, but people can focus their attention on more productive things.
Alex also stresses the impact artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can have on the decision-making process. That’s because the more successful a business becomes and the more it grows, the more data it will have at its disposal. At a certain point, the abundance of data becomes too overwhelming for individuals to manipulate and extract insights successfully. Utilizing software powered by AI and machine learning could solve that problem. The reality is that property management is a complex human-centered business with significant risks to mitigate. There’s no doubt that responsible new landlords could use technology to do so while simultaneously improving the customer experience. What more could you ask for?
About the Author:
Rupesh Singh is freelance writer and founder of moneyoutline.com You can follow him on Google + & Facebook.
