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Hey everybody!

Here is your weekly newsletter discussing all things real estate and financial freedom.

This week, I am discussing the topic of managing your rentals yourself vs. using professional property managers.

I believe I have discussed this topic previously, but wanted to talk about it again since it is such a big topic when it comes to owning real estate.

This is a common question most investors just starting out have to ask themselves.

Here are my thoughts:

When just getting started, I feel like it can be a good idea to manage the property yourself so you can understand the duties and responsibilities of the property manager.

-Leasing

-Tenant Screening

-Rent Collection

-Handling maintenance requests

However, I would also recommend as soon as possible to hire the management out to professionals in order to free up your time to help scale the business.

Most horror stories in real estate or getting burnt out usually consists of people trying to manage the properties themselves.

-Phone calls at all hours of the day

-Maintenance issues they don’t know how to fix themselves

-Tenant issues

What they don’t realize is that they can take advantage of systems and processes that the management company uses.

Of course, the property manager will be compensated for this work, which is usually an agreed upon percentage of the monthly rent. But I think they are totally worth it.

Plus, I always think it is a good idea to keep a distance between yourself and the tenants to help avoid them taking advantage of your kindness.

These are just my thoughts on property management.

Everybody tends to have a different opinion on this subject.

Some people don’t like giving up the small percentage of rental income each month.

Also, there are bad property managers out there just like there are bad employees in every industry. They may not care about the property as much as you do or do what they are supposed to be doing.

That is why it is so important to find the best property manager you can.

Ideally, they should:

-Be trustworthy

-Have good communication skills

-Be problem solvers

It also helps if they have been referred to you by somebody else who had a great experience.

Luckily, I met my property manager through a networking group and am able to see him weekly.

If investing in apartments and larger buildings, it is even more important to use a professional property management company.

Trying the manage a property that size by yourself can be very stressful, especially if you have a full-time job and other responsibilities.

Sometimes, when companies get large enough, they will bring property management in house, but many times, they start by using a 3rd party property management company.

In conclusion, I feel delegation and outsourcing can be one of the best moves to make when starting out. It allows you to free up your time to work “on the business” instead of “in the business”.

If anybody in the Kansas City MSA is in need of a great property manager, I feel I have the best one in the area and would recommend him to anybody.

Feel free to reach out and I can get you connected.

Have a good weekend everybody!