The Benefits of Hiring a Property Management Firm During COVID-19
The global pandemic has affected all industries and sustaining your rental business as a self-managing landlord can be daunting. The crisis forces you to adopt additional responsibilities as safety protocols. It also requires you to be in-tune with your tenants’ needs to reduce turnovers.
On your own, you are juggling marketing, tenant screening, rent collection and property upkeep. Moreover, you’re also doubling communication efforts to ease your tenants’ understandable worries.
If you find yourself overstretched and swamped with your responsibilities, it might be a good idea to hire a property management company. A professional firm must be able to provide excellent resources, professional staff and solid safety measures in the COVID-19 landscape. Think about the extra time and money that’s required to stock up on masks, gloves, disinfectants and hand sanitizers.
Also, you’re required to face tenants, especially during urgent matters. You might find that property management companies are advantageous as professional representatives in these dire times when you’re also focusing on your home safety.
Here are more benefits you can acquire from working with an excellent property management team that performs to your best interests:
Solid Knowledge when it comes to State Laws, Evictions and Landlord-Tenant Laws.
When it comes to State, local and federal housing laws and regulations, property management firms are updated and have more working knowledge. This may be attributed to their membership with professional organizations like NARPM. This is vital to be able to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
This means you are protected from any legal repercussions of being unaware of certain policies. You’re reassured that a professional team always has your back.
Few errors in a legal setting will save your financial resources. It also allows you to concentrate more on your investments and rest easy that your rental business operation is operating in compliance with the enacted laws.
Team of professionals who can cross-train and responsibly manage properties, especially during a pandemic.
One of the best resources you can take advantage of when hiring a professional property management firm is its human resources. Competent and skilled staff will manage your property. They’re experienced and can handle multiple tasks efficiently.
Being exposed to the property management industry, they’re also able to cross-train easily, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. They can easily exchange viable ways to handle your property and tenants with the least disruption. This cross-training means more flexibility and provides more reassurance to the tenants living in your rental unit.
When self-managing, a landlord will only have himself to rely on. He’s required to rapidly step up to all tasks and improve his skills.
If he falls sick or must be absent for various reasons, he will get even more stressed, as his tenants might be left to fend for themselves. This might be a reason for them not to renew and they may seek a property elsewhere that has a professional team on call, anytime.
Team of professional contractors and handymen who will follow protocols to ensure the safety of tenants.
If you hire contractors to perform property fixes, there might be lapses in the safety protocols. In a property management team, you can trust the strict enforcement of precautionary measures since they usually have their in-house maintenance staff. Otherwise, they work closely with their network, giving them the ability to request safety protocols to be complied with.
Safety must be prioritized in the COVID-19 era and having a professional team as a base of support will ensure that hygienic practices are adopted. This can refer to wearing masks and gloves, disinfecting critical areas of the property and frequent hand washing. Most importantly, property management firms usually have more stock resources of the required safety gears compared to a self-managing landlord.
At a time like this, you don’t want to worry about fixing minor repairs at a tenant’s residence.
Right now, it’s stressful to go out and interact with anyone. The COVID-19 situation continues to drive anxiety since there’s not yet a vaccine. The best protection is to stay home, but as a self-managing landlord, you’re not left with much choice.
You have to visit your tenant’s home if there are urgent matters to attend to. For example, if a password needs to be reset and the tenant is not able to follow the instructions well, then you have to visit their residence. It’s a minor issue that does not require hiring a contractor, but it’s also a source of inconvenience to the tenant, therefore this task cannot be deferred.
This wouldn’t be a source of stress for you if you hired a property management team to handle these details. You might not even learn about the tenant's complaint at all. This is one of the best benefits, as it reduces your stress during an already stressful, uncertain time.
Stay home and let a professional PM Company handle the hard work for you.
More personal interactions can lead to a higher probability of COVID-19 exposure. This can be eliminated if you have a professional property management team working for you.
You don’t have to conduct regular inspections that are required duties for a landlord. You don’t even have to meet the new tenants and welcome them to your rental unit.
A property management team will provide excellent customer service to your tenants. They’ll be responsive during emergencies and can act quickly, should a contagion occur in your rental property.
They have outstanding standards and capable staff to monitor and enforce safety protocols. As a landlord, all that’s expected of you is to stay home, wait for the rent payment to be deposited into your account and let them manage their duties as your professional representative.
Bottom Line
If you need a stellar and trusted property management team, contact Gifford Property Management and enjoy peace of mind in this challenging COVID-19 environment.
