Hiring a property management company can be overwhelming & time-consuming in the screening process. Calculating their worth and getting the best value for your money can be challenging in a few cases. Not all companies are equal in efficiency, reliability, quality & availability. Living aside these factors, there are some common pros and cons of every property management company. And these are the things that I will discuss based on our practical experience working with landlords & tenants.
Every desired human-made system on this planet also has some demerits. You can think of these disadvantages as the by-product or unintended. Property maintenance companies are no different.
These companies are licensed, well-trained, educated & experienced, and they are excellent at what they do. Still, there are some disadvantages to hiring a property management company.
Let’s see them side by side.
Advantages & disadvantages of hiring property management companies
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Save your time & money | It costs additional money |
| Marketing & tenant screening | Contractor makes decisions on your behalf |
| Legal compliance & protection | Dependency on reputation |
| Very less vacancy | Communication challenges |
| Property maintenance & repair | Inconsistent quality |
| Rent collection | Potential conflict of interest |
| Market knowledge & experience | Limited personal touch |
| Documentation and bookkeeping | Hard to find a reliable property manager |
| Have necessary tools | |
| Risk management | |
| Dealing with bad tenants & eviction process |
If you want to learn more about their responsibilities, please see what does a property management company do.
Now let’s discuss a few of the advantages & disadvantages.
Pros or benefits of hiring a property maintenance company
You saw the main points in the above table. If you think more closely, you’ll find that the right property management company can do a lot of complex stuff on your behalf. Their presence reduces your workload and ultimately it helps you to focus on your other business where your time matters. To be more specific, the right property management company helps you to achieve your business goal. At the same time, it also brings a good earning potential in the long run. However, if you hire a company for a short period of time, you may able to fix specific & certain issues but you won’t get the full benefits.
The above table is pretty self-explanatory but some of you may still have questions. Let’s discuss a few of them where you might have confusion.
Save your time & money
Contractors save your time by doing all the heavy lifting. But how they can save money while you have to spend to hire them?
If you do everything yourself, you’ll lose focus on your main job. Also, contractors maintain your property effectively and easily. The same task may cost you more than the contractors. Because they are educated and have experienced. This is how they not only save you time but also money.
Marketing & tenant screening
Finding the right tenants can be hard. Also, your valuable property may be vacant for a long time.
On the other hand, property maintenance contractors are fully engaged with this type of work and they know how to market or advertise for your rental property. Some of you may think of advertising yourself but it’s not as easy as you think. Targeting the right audience needs technical skills. Contractors are habituated to this kind of promotion and it’s their daily job.
As a landlord, you don’t want tenants to live in your rental property and cause problems afterward. However, a property maintenance company can help you in the screening process to find & place the right kind of tenant.
They can help you from various directions and do any heavy lifting for you
In the same vein, a property maintenance company also help you with the following:
- Helping with legal aspects
- Reducing vacancy rate
- Maintaining & repairing your property
- Collecting rent on time and deposit to your bank account
- They use their knowledge & experience to make your property stand out
- Keep documenting and bookkeeping so you can get the required data
- They have the necessary tools
- They help with risk management and protect your rental property from vulnerabilities
- Dealing with bad tenants & eviction process, etc.
Cons or disadvantages of hiring a property management company
Property maintenance companies are great if you choose the right one. However, there are some contractors who may change your positive experience. So it’s always the best practice to spend some time, looking for different aspects, their experience, etc before finally hiring a company. If you need brainstorming for the vetting process, please see how to find a good property maintenance company for your specific needs.
Anyway, let’s see the disadvantages of hiring property maintenance companies:
- Cost: It costs additional money to hire the maintenance company.
- Less involving: In some cases, your contractor may make a decision without discussing it with you. It can be a bad thing if anything goes wrong in the future or if you have a different decision than the contractor.
- Dependency on reputation: Most landlords want to depend on reputable companies. It’s a good thing. However, a company hires many different people to do their jobs. If your contractor appoints a novice or inexperienced person on your property, it may cause issues. So only depending on the company’s reputation is not a wise decision.
- Communication challenges: Sometimes it’s hard to communicate with the contractor and get responses. It’s not obvious but happens sometimes.
- Inconsistent quality: Some companies will show you outstanding work at the beginning. However, once you start to trust and rely on them, they might involve newbies or trainees in your rental properties which may cause a lack of quality.
- Potential conflict of interest: As I mentioned earlier, a contractor may make a decision without asking you. Some companies may give more importance to the tenant over the landlord. For example, they may prioritise the tenant to retain business which may conflict with the landlord’s expectations.
- Limited personal touch: Some landlords may want the contractor to keep holding their hands and always keep in touch. However, it’s also a business and the maintenance companies have to deal with many others. So it’s always not possible for companies to stay in touch 24/7.
- Hard to find a reliable property manager: Not all companies fit well with each landlord & tenant. Finding the right company can be challenging sometimes. Also, you may need to hire multiple companies one by one to see which one is the best for you. If you need help, see how to find a good property maintenance company.
If your property is located in Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, or anywhere in Rhode Island, you can also contact us for a quick discussion.
Wrap up
Now you know both the pros and cons of hiring a property management company. As I mentioned earlier, all companies are not equal. So you have to spend some time in the vetting process. I also shared the link to another post that can help you with it.
If you’re a landlord and do everything yourself to maintain your property, probably you’re wasting your time, effort & money.
Property maintenance companies have some disadvantages. But you can reduce these problems by finding the right company.
Lastly, if you hire a company for a short time, this might not give you the full exposure. If you want the best out of these companies, you have to use them for a long.
