Are you planning on hiring a property management company to manage your portfolio of rental properties?

Hiring a property management company is a smart decision to make because it will save you the time, money, and hassle of managing your rental properties yourself. Before you hire just any company to work for you, you should ask them the right questions to confirm if they have the knowledge and experience needed to professionally manage your portfolio of rental properties.

How Long Have They Been In Business?

The first question to ask a property management company is how long have they’ve been in business? This question is important because obviously, the length of time in business does translate to experience and regardless if you own one or more rental properties, you owe it to yourself to hire the most experienced property management company possible.

Once you know how long they been in business, you should also verify how many properties a property management company is currently managing. This is another important question to ask because you want to have confidence that your property manager will be able to give your rental properties(s) their full attention on a monthly basis.

What Are Their Fees?

Another important question to ask before hiring a property management company is to learn more about their fees. Specifically, you should be asking them about the fees that they will ask you to pay to get started with their property management services and you should also verify if their monthly fee will still continue to be debited from your account while your property is vacant.

Do They Have A Team?

Besides confirming their time in business, and also the fees that you can expect to pay with a property management company, you should also be confirming if the property management company has a team that specializes in every aspect of property management including customer service and accounting.

As for maintenance, you want to pay close attention to how your rental property will be maintained and ask them specific questions regarding if they have an in-house maintenance department or if they outsource the maintenance of the rental properties that they currently manage.

If they currently are outsourcing maintenance, you should ask them how records are maintained, just so you can have confidence in knowing that should you require those records from them, they will be able to send you all the maintenance records for your rental property without fail.

How Do They Screen Potential Tenants?

Tenant screening is one of the keys to success with successfully owning a rental property and it’s no different if you hire a professional property management company to manage your rental properties for you.

When interviewing a property manager you should specifically ask how they screen potential tenants including if they run a background check, credit check (or do both) at the same time because their level of attentiveness when it comes to tenant screening will also show you what you can expect from them overall if you choose their company to manage rental properties for you.

 How Do They Collect Rent?

 The golden question to ask a property management company is how they collect rent. This question is vital because a property management companies rent collection method will provide you with a clear-cut answer in terms of if you can expect the rent to be paid consistently and on time on a monthly basis or not.

 When finding out how they expect rent to be paid, you should be asking them if they accept checks, money orders, or if they require all rent to be paid online.

 Do They Offer An Online Portal?

 In today’s world, just about everything is done over the Internet so another important question that you should ask a property management company is if they offer an online portal that you can use for checking maintenance reports, accounting, and other issues related to rental property.

 Ask To See Copies Of The Documents That They Use

 Last of all, but most important, another thing that you should ask for when hiring a property management company is to see copies of the forms that they use in the house.

 Specifically, you should be asking to see copies of rental applications, leases, owner reports and examples of correspondence that they’ve sent to owners in the past.

 Contact Us

 To learn more about the questions that you should ask when hiring a property management company. or to speak with us about the services that we can offer you, contact us today by calling (305) 428-3904 or click here to connect with us online.