How To Screen North Carolina Property Management Companies
The average real estate investor can get a return on investment (ROI) of 7%. More aggressive and seasoned real estate investors can get ROIs of 10% to 12%. As long as you manage things well, you should eventually start making a profit.
However, property management in North Carolina is far from an easy job. There are many actions that you must take to keep your property in good condition. This can, of course, be a lot for a single person to manage.
You may want to look for North Carolina property management companies to assist you. However, you want to make sure that the company you hire is of high quality. Read on to learn some tips on how to find the best property management company.
Find Out Which Aspects of Property Management Are Difficult for You
Before you start your search for property managers, you need to assess the skills that you already have. Over the next few weeks or so, monitor how you feel while doing the necessary property management tasks. Here are some example tasks that a great property manager needs to perform regularly.
- Create effective marketing campaigns to attract tenants
- Do background and credit checks on tenants
- Get quality, ironclad lease agreements from legal professionals
- Communicate professionally and effectively with tenants
- Collect rent from tenants and keep track of who pays
- Perform regular inspections of your property
- Regularly upgrade and service appliances
- Keep the tenants and properties safe with the right security protocols
You may do a great job communicating with your tenants, but have trouble keeping track of the rent. Or you may keep track of the rent and schedule property inspections effectively, but struggle to talk with your tenants. Whatever your weaknesses are, be sure to write them down.
Now take your list of weaknesses and use it to find a property management company that can make up for them. Look at the services that each potential property management company offers. You should strongly consider the one that can take over most of your struggle areas.
Look to Others for Reviews and Recommendations of North Carolina Property Management Companies
Your first instinct when starting your search may be to simply type “property managers near me” into the bar of your favorite search engine. While this is a valid method, it can be a very time-consuming one. You will likely click on every link that you find and have to search for all the important features for each one.
The faster way is to get other people to vet property management companies for you. By asking the right questions to the right people, you can easily get the names of several good property management companies in the area.
You should first check with other NC property managers that you trust. These can be family, friends, or others. Ask them about the property management companies that they’ve used and which they think are worthwhile.
If your social pool isn’t large enough, you can always go online with similar questions. You can likely find several social media subgroups for Raleigh, Durham, or other NC cities. If not, you should be able to find groups for property managers like yourself.
Once you’ve gathered a list of possible property management companies, you can vet possible choices even more by looking up reviews. Be sure to check credible resources such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The reviews in some places may be fake, but places like the BBB will vet the reviews that it gets.
Get the Credentials of Each Possible Property Management Company
Certain details can help you separate the high-quality property managers from the mid-quality managers. You just have to know what they are and where to find them.
Having years of experience is a great indicator that property management company employees know what they are doing and do their job well. If you can’t find information about their experience level on the site, try to find them on LinkedIn. Keep in mind, though, that not all the employees in a company have to have a ton of experience.
You should also find out how long the company has been in the area. The longer they’ve been around, the more trust their customers have in them. If customers don’t trust a company, they’ll stop providing a company with business and it will end up failing.
Accreditations are also a great indicator of quality. A company only receives these after it has proven itself to have excellent services by a respected authority. The BBB is the usual resource for all businesses to get accredited, but there are plenty of industry-specific accreditations.
Assess How Professional the Company Appears
The professionalism of a company is a great indicator of how seriously the employees take their work. It is also a great indicator of how much they care about their clients.
The easiest way to assess the professionalism of a company is to look at its website. It should have all the hallmarks of a good site. If it does, the company head likely cares about the success of his or her business enough to invest in good website design.
If you have time, you should also contact the customer service line of the company and ask questions. Assess the language that the person on the other end uses. You’ll probably get the same level of courtesy when you officially work with the business.
We’ll Be Your NC Property Manager Where You Can’t Be
The above methods are just a few of the ones that you can use to search through North Carolina property management companies. There are plenty more that you can find through research. You can also make some of your own by considering what you think the perfect property management company has.
Also, while you’re searching, consider our services. We offer you customized attention and support rather than the old formulas. In addition, as a local business, we know just how the North Carolina real estate market functions.
Check out our service packages and get a free rental analysis by filling in the questionnaire near the bottom of the page.