Investment Property Management: The Tips and Tricks

Handling investment property management seems daunting without the right tricks up your sleeve. Many investors may even give up after a few attempts because let’s face it, it can be tedious. However, a good place to start is by taking time to research and understand your market. Who are you working with? What are your goals? How can you juggle all of these goals? By asking yourself these questions, you can simplify the process and become a better property manager before tackling your next project.

MyHouseDeals specializes in transforming your investment dreams into reality, and this blog post will give you insight into just how tangible your investment property management goals really are. Keep reading for some of our favorite tips and tricks to get started!

Stay Organized

This one’s a no-brainer, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, this is one of the biggest mistakes that many investors make at the beginning of their careers. We suggest that the first thing you do is create a shared document or database with step-by-step instructions for handling tasks of a repetitive nature. By documenting a routine procedure for common questions and tasks to be handled on a daily basis, you can save time answering employee’s questions and encourage consistency in your business operations.

Below are a few examples of information we suggest implementing into this document:

1. Rent Collection Process: Detail your company’s preferred method of collecting rent from tenants. Will you collect rent online or collect cash in person? How will you encourage timely payments? How will you enforce late fees and lease terms? These are a few basic, yet essential questions you should have answered to ensure rent collection is handled efficiently.
   
   
2. Handling Renewals: Communication between owners and tenants is vital when it comes to handling renewals, but what exactly does this entail? You probably want to start by outlining components such as raising rent, lease agreement terms, and negotiation strategies. This process should be concise and simple for tenants to renew (that is if the property owner wants to offer the tenant a renewal) so that they feel confident in their decision to renew. 
   
   
3. Maintenance Tasks and Requests: Keep a list of routine maintenance tasks handy, especially those that include sprucing up property in-between tenants. These tasks don’t have to break your budget and can be as simple as touching up paint, tidying the lawn, deep cleaning floors (especially carpet), and updating appliances as needed. As for maintenance requests, make sure these requests are addressed and resolved quickly. We recommend implementing a system that notifies you immediately when a request is placed so that you can implement a solution as soon as possible.
   
   
4. Marketing: Stay consistent with your marketing! This includes staying active and updated on all of the social platforms you can handle. An example of this might look like updating your Facebook page regularly and responding quickly to messages and posts. Consistency is key—don’t neglect your social platforms for a duration of time because it can cause followers to grow frustrated by your lack of activity. Many people might mistake this inactivity as rude or unprofessional, and this is the last interpretation you want of your brand. To avoid this, make a posting schedule calendar and assign at least one person to every post, perhaps a backup, too, just to be safe.
   
   
5. Recruiting: Set aside a chunk of time to figure out your recruiting strategy and have your team review it. Good strategies focus on multiple aspects and continually investing in the company’s brand to attract the best agents for the job. If you’re looking for a good place to start, you should invest in SEO tactics that increase traffic to your company’s site and other social media pages long-term.
   

Another big tip we have for maintaining organization is connecting with your staff. Ever heard the phrase “Teamwork makes the dream work?” Well, it applies to investing too! Encouraging communication with your team and facilitating a scheduled time each week to ask questions and share concerns saves time and increase productivity in the long run. Consider holding a short weekly meeting where the team can come together and discuss goals for that week and clarify what is expected of them.

Invest in New Technology

Technology can be used to help assist you with just about anything these days, including qualifying leads, assessing a property’s market value, and finding quality tenants. However, if your routine technology just doesn’t seem to be cutting it anymore, consider investing in newer, more efficient technology. Upgrading to Premium is a great way that you can access hot deals and game-changing resources to enhance your real estate investing business. As a premium member, you’ll have unlimited access to deals and exclusive offers from vendors (this only scratches the surface), putting you steps ahead of your competitors.

Additionally, utilizing the newest technology and staying up-to-date on marketing and market trends are great ways to establish trust with clients who are allowing you to handle their investment properties. We recommend setting aside some time to research digital property management tools that you believe might be helpful for achieving your particular goals. We’ll go into more detail in the next section to help you begin your research.

Run Your Numbers, Then Run Them Again

As a property manager, you already know how important it is to check, double-check, and triple-check your numbers, but are you checking every one? There’s a lot that goes into investment properties, and each one has its own expenses that are equally important. Pay close attention to both the obvious and not so obvious expenses such as advertising, marketing, property management, and other miscellaneous fees that are sure to pop up often. There are dozens of free resources on the Internet that will help you estimate cash flow, capitalization rate, ROI, rental income, etc. at the click of a button. We also recommend confiding in local property management companies that you trust to make sure the numbers are on track with your market. These tips will help you handle investment property management more cost-effectively.

Still need some help? Check out these free tools to help you with tricky calculations:

1. Deal Check
   
2. BiggerPockets
   
3. Niche Tools

Invest Time to Attend Real Estate Investor Association (REIA) Meetings

Real estate investor meetings are a fantastic way to meet other investors in your area and learn about new financing options, deals, and opportunities local to you. By networking with local investors, you can gain new ideas and resources on how to do property management efficiently. These investors have been in your shoes before and are a great resource to lean on every so often.

There are hundreds of meetings every month in every state, both in-person and virtually that you can attend for free or at a small cost, depending on the organization. Either way, we highly suggest checking some of these meetings out if you want to up your real estate investment game to the next level. MyHouseDeals compiles a list of these meetings in every state each month and includes all of the information you need to get started including links, dates, and information about what the meeting will cover. Check out our latest post from June of 2021 (or visit our blog for other posts) and keep an eye out for new blog posts monthly.

Be Confident

As cheesy as this sounds, confidence and continuous improvement are the keys to becoming a great investment property manager. You have all of the best practices to get started or take things to the next level, so what’s stopping you? Check back soon for more articles to aid you in this exciting journey. Happy (and profitable) investing!