Self Management Vs Professional Property Management In Denver

Hey, everybody, should I self-manage or should I use property management in Denver for my rental house - Self Management Vs Professional Property Management In Denver What Should I Do?

That's the question I'm going to answer right here right now. My name is Matthew Whitaker.

I am doing Questions Owners Ask in Denver, and we're gonna talk about the difference between self-management and using property management.

What are the questions you should be asking yourself? What are the things you should know?

I'm Biased Towards Property Management!

Now let me tell you, I'm a property manager. And obviously, I'm biased towards property management.

But this is not going to be written to make you do property management.

My mom actually owned a rental house for a long time, and did self-management and did it very successfully.

So There's A Lot Of People That Do It Very Successfully.

But I think you need to understand what all is involved in property management when you decide to do it yourself.

And again, there's a huge population out there that are doing self-management very successfully.

So let's dig into it.

The First Question I Want Would Say Is Do You Have The Time And The Energy To Market Your Home?

You know, you're going to have to list this house on websites, answer prospective resident phone calls, go show the house.

If you're a busy person, and it's hard for you to make time in your day for general things.

Then you definitely want to choose property management over self-management.

If you have a flexible schedule, and you feel like you can go show the house, you feel like you can talk to these residents.

Then self-management may be the best option for you.

The Second Question I Would Ask And You Can See Me Looking Down At My Notes Is, Do I Have The Ability To Screen Residents?

Do I know what I'm looking for? I think this is where self-management people get into the biggest trouble is the kind of rely on gut feel versus kind of hard data on whether an applicant's going to be good or not. If you're relying on hard data, generally, you're going to make over the course of time better decisions.

That Doesn't Mean You're Going To Be 100%.

But it does mean that you're going to make better decisions over the course of time. If you're relying on a gut feel, then that's going to be a problem. So if you don't have a good way to screen your applicants, then you're definitely going to want to choose property management because a property manager may actually pay for themselves in this instant.

The Next One Knows Fair Housing Laws And Know, You Know, When It's Important To Abide By Them.

Now, it's always important to abide by them. But there are actually some people that don't qualify for fair housing. As you don't want to get into an issue with fair housing. That is just a recipe for disaster. I would highly suggest that this is a fear of yours, choosing a property manager. Because we take classes on fair housing, we do a lot of fair housing training with our team members.

Our Whole Goal Is To Find The Best Most Qualified Resident!

And we certainly our whole goal is to find the best most qualified resident regardless of any outside factor, like race, religion, things like that. So we're looking for the absolute best resident, the best-qualified resident to put in your home.

The Next One I Would Say Is Once The Resident's Moved In, Is How Good Are You Are How Available Are You To Answer Repair Phone Calls?

This is the number one reason residents leave houses is that their repairs aren't being taken care of in a timely fashion. Property management companies are set up to take these phone calls. We actually have a 24/7 hotline that residents can call, they can also submit work orders online.

It Is Our Job To Make Sure That That House Is Being Taken Care Of

I would make sure that you have the ability much like when a resident prospect calls to kind of jump on these repairs. That you have a maintenance person handy that can go get on these. Generally, if it's an emergency in less than 24 hours. If it's not an emergency, somebody that can do it fairly quickly.

And Then The Last Thing, One Of The Things I Like About Being A Property Manager Is We Kind Of Insulate Our Owners In A Couple Of Different Areas.

The first one, I would say from a risk standpoint, we insulate you from risk. We kind of know what the landlord-tenant laws, local state landlord-tenant laws are. And in Colorado, those are changing a lot. And we're having to keep up with those. That's the kind of a hard thing to keep up with. Now, just because you don't know the law doesn't mean you don't have to abide by it. So if you from a risk standpoint, if you can't consistently keep up with the laws, then you might need to choose a property manager.

The Second Thing Is We Also Insulate You From The Emotion Of Conversations With A Resident

So think about like a resident calling you on the phone, telling you a sob story you know, "Why I wasn't unable to pay rent." If you can't have a difficult conversation with that resident, it is much easier to have that difficult conversation through us. So that's another thing that property managers do is we insulate you from those things.

So That's It. That Is Questions Owners Ask.

Today's question was should I self manage? Should I property manage? These are questions you need to know, questions you need to ask yourself as you're trying to decide on that. My name is Matthew Whitaker with Evernest. So excited to help you out. Our property managers in Denver will be happy to help you! Thanks so much.