When hiring a property manager in Orlando for your rental home, make sure you select someone who can effectively manage and protect your investment. Not all property management companies are created equal. To get the best return on your investment, we’ve created a list of questions to ask when interviewing property management companies.
Property Management Basics
- What Areas Do You Serve?
Will they manage properties where your investment is located? More importantly, how much experience do they have in the general area? Will they make recommendations on how to maximize rent rates for your area? When hiring a property manager in Central Florida, you want someone familiar with the local market. Overpricing your rental property not only cost you money, but extended vacancy periods make potential residents wary of your property and may skip it based on that factor alone.
- How Many Doors Do You Manage?
Larger companies may not provide personalized support you may want. Meanwhile, smaller (or younger) companies may not have the experience necessary to handle every rental property need. Smaller companies are not inherently bad, but as they scale if they do not have the systems and processes in place the service will suffer.
- What’s Your Staff Size?
The ratio of staff to the number of doors the company manages can tell you whether they have enough people to be responsive to tenant and owner requests. A larger staff allows team members to specialize in one area as opposed to juggling many tasks.
- Will I Have One Source Contact?
Some companies will assign owners to one property manager contact who is responsible for addressing every possible issue in their portfolio. This can sometimes cause bottlenecks if multiple issues happen at once within that property manager’s portfolio. Other companies operate in departments of specialists with one dedicated call number to route owner inquiries to speak to a member of a team of experts.
- How Do You Conduct Move-in and Move-out Inspections?
Some property managers conduct a quick walk-through with the tenants and hand them the keys. Only when the tenants move out (sometimes years later) does this become a problem. Trying to prove a tenant caused damage above and beyond normal wear and tear is nearly impossible without quality move-in and move-out inspections that include detailed photographs. Likewise, tenants feel protected from unfair security deposit deductions when they complete move-in checklists.
Leasing and Tenant Relationships
- How Long Does a Typical Unit Turn Take?
You want to minimize downtime between tenants to maximize your ROI. What’s their average time to market and place tenants in a vacant property? Hiring a property manager in Orlando means you need someone who can minimize these gaps.
- How Do You Market Rental Properties?
Will they take professional photographs? Which rental sites do they advertise on? You want to make sure your property sees the widest possible audience of qualified tenants.
- How Do You Conduct Background Checks?
Likewise, you want to ensure the property managers screen applicants to accept only the most qualified tenants. What background checks do they conduct to protect your investment by weeding out unqualified tenants? What process do they have, and software are they utilizing to detect and identify fraudulent documents or applicants?
- How Do You Handle Leasing?
Will they handle all tenant relations from showings and move-in to move-out? If there are non-payment issues, will they handle evictions?
Owner Fees and Contracts
- What is Your Price Structure? Do You Have Any Additional Fees?
Property management fees should be clearly spelled out for services rendered. However, it helps to ask about any additional fees, including reserve escrow accounts or other funding you need to be prepared to pay. Many companies will advertise one price but then have additional fees for common management services which results in a higher overall cost.
- What Are Your Investment Property Selling/Purchasing Requirements?
If you want to sell your investment property one day, are you required to list through their realtor? Some will offer their services at a discount, but not require you to use them. The same goes for buying new investment property. If you buy new property through them, are you required to use their property management services?
- What Are Your Cancellation Policies?
What happens in 6 months if you’re not happy with their services? What’s the process to cancel? Do they have cancellation fees? Are you stuck for a full year? Do you have to continue paying them management fees until the tenants move out if you cancel management? (Yes, that is a real policy for a company in Lake Mary). These are essential to know when hiring a property manager in Orlando.
- Do You Require Owners to Use Your Vendors?
Some companies require owners to use their vendors for maintenance and repair work. Others offer the services of their dedicated vendors at their discounted rates but ultimately allow owners to choose who they want to do the work. Regardless, any vendors the company uses should be licensed and insured.
Owner Support
- What Software Do You Use?
You want to make sure your property management company is investing in technology. The software they use should provide real-time access to your information, rather than relying on outdated programs that compromise your data security. When hiring a property manager in Orlando, technology should be a top priority.
- What Are Your Policies and Procedures and How Do You Communicate Them to Owners?
Before you sign a property management agreement, you should have a clear understanding of all their policies and procedures, including expectations of owners. If they don’t have clearly documented processes or they give you a runaround, consider this a red flag.
- How Do You Handle Financial Statements?
Will they proactively send you regular financial statements or updates about your property? Or will you have to hound them for information? Will they make information available through their software programs, where, again, is your information protected?
Golden Ticket Questions
- What Sets You Apart from Other Property Management Companies?
What can this property management company say they do better than anyone else in their area? Why should you choose them over Company B?
- Are You Investors, Too?
When the owners and ideally other staff members are property investors, they understand your point of view. They’ll also know which neighborhoods, properties, and amenities will get the best ROIs for you.
- Is Your Company Owned by a Rocket Scientist?
Trick question! The Realty Medics is the only company owned by a literal NASA scientist. President Ben Sencenbaugh designed advanced technology to enhance your property management experience.
Find out how The Realty Medics combine technology and customer service to take your investment property ROI to new heights. Call our office at 321- 947-7653 or complete our form for a free rental analysis.
