If you are an apartment owner involved in property management, a property manager yourself or a real estate investor, there are property management questions to ask about how the property is managed from different viewpoints.
Here is a look at 30 questions that touch on the issues no matter what your job, or job title, with your rental property based on blogger Larry Arth’s 30 years in real estate investing.
I have had my share of property management issues, so speaking from a position of strength, allow me to share some diligence that I have uncovered over the years on asking and interviewing property managers.
It starts with the self-discovery, reading Malcolm Gladwell’s fantastic book, “Outliers” where he illustrates it takes 10,000 hours to be a success at anything.
Understanding this principle I asked myself why anyone who invests part-time would try to manage their own properties.
The reason we have so many bad tenant stories is answered in this discovery.
If it takes 10,000 hours of diligence and passion invested in a discipline to be successful, it is then imperative to have a professional who has the credentials of these 10,000 hours of practice behind them to successfully manage tenants and the landlord business.
We understand that a property manager is to your investment, as your engine is to your car. Without a great finely tuned engine your car does not deliver you your intended outcome which is a safe journey without accident or incident.
Likewise, without a systemized, knowledgeable, experienced property manager, you will never get to your intended outcome which is a safe profitable business operated without incident.
The first questions have to do with finding good tenants. A building with good tenants tends to have fewer maintenance and other issues.
Property Management Questionnaire – Tenant Questions
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- How many vacancies do you have right now? Out of how many total units that you manage?
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- What is the average length of time it takes to fill a vacancy?
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- Is that average time getting longer or shorter?
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- How do you market your rental units?
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- How do you use the web site to attract new tenants and to keep prospects informed?
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- What factors would make you reject a prospect?
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- Would you accept a tenant who met your qualifications in some areas, but not others? Which qualifications are most important to you?
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- What screening methods do you use?
Property Management Questions – Tenant Management
The next questions relate to tenant management. It’s just as important to keep good tenants as it is to find them.
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- How do you collect rents?
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- What is your late rent policy?
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- What other rules do you set for tenants?
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- What percentage of tenants do you have to evict?
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- How does the eviction process work here?
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- How do your tenants contact you?
Property Management Questions – Maintenance
Which kinds of maintenance jobs are handled in-house?
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- Which kinds of maintenance jobs are handled in-house?
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- Which ones do you use an outside handyman for?
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- Which ones do you use professional contractors for?
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- How many quotes do you get for jobs?
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- How expensive does a job have to be for you to contact me before doing it?
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- What are your rules for contractors being inside occupied rental units?
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- Who are your preferred contractors?
Property Management Questions – Experience
You want managers to know the local real estate world inside and out.
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- How long have you been a property manager?
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- Do you have any certifications?
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- Does your locality require landlords to have a license or permit to operate a rental and if so what are those fees?
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- Do you understand the local rules and ordinances to accommodate things such as local licensure requirements and or section 8 requirements?
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- Do you personally invest in real estate in this area?
Finally, you need to understand your arrangement with the property manager
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- What is your fee structure?
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- Are your reports web based if not how do we get them?
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- Do you require an exclusive arrangement to broker the property?
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- How much notice will you give before terminating a contract?
Additionally you can always be on the watch out for the easy tell-tales signs of expertise, or lack thereof, things like:
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- A manager with a messy office.
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- Managers who are hard to connect with by phone or email.
I always believe that how you do anything is how you do everything.
About the Author:
Larry Arth is a landlord and the founder and CEO of Equity Builders Group, a Florida based Real Estate investment Group. As a 36 year veteran to real estate investing, Larry understands that we are now in a global economy and as times have changed, investment strategies must change as well. Larry is an international recognized consultant and speaker and assists hundreds of investors per year, both foreign and domestic to realize their investment potential. He analyzes locations across the country for economic strength and the locations that yield the largest most sustainable return on investment. Within these locations he seeks out and gathers the best teams to deliver sound, high performing and most importantly sustainable turnkey investment. He works with investors to ride the wave of each area-specific market surge. Larry’s primary focus is offering (Non Listed) safe and sustainable turnkey investments to the passive investor.
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