Having a Good Relationship With Your Property Manager

Landlords are typically used to doing everything themselves. After all, you own the rental property. It’s fairly likely that you have at least a bit of experience with common tasks such as marketing, tenant screening, and rent collection. Your investment wouldn’t be worth much without a basic understanding of how these things work.

Things may become a little tricky when a landlord decides to bring in a property manager. Adding a third party to the equation can be difficult for some investors to wrap their heads around. With that in mind, Talley Properties has compiled a list of ways that you can build and maintain a successful relationship with your property investor.

1. Practice Effective Communication. Communication is the key to any successful relationship, professional or otherwise. When partnering with a property management agency, it’s essential that you maintain open lines of communication. Be it phone, text, email, or some other instant messaging platform, choose whatever works best for you. Just be sure that either party can quickly and easily reach the other for any reason, especially in the case of an emergency.
2. Establish Predetermined Roles & Responsibilities. From the very beginning, it’s important to decide who will be doing what. How much responsibility are you giving your property manager? Which things would you prefer to handle yourself? Make sure the roles are clear-cut so that there’s no misunderstanding down the road. The last thing you want is to waste time and money by repeating completed tasks.
3. Relinquish Control. Building off the previous point, you must relinquish control over any aspects that do not fall within your predetermined roles and responsibilities. When you hire a property manager, you’ll need to trust that they can get the job done. Periodic check-ins and regular reports are okay, but no one likes a micromanager.
4. Centralize Information & Data. There should be a single, centralized point of access for you and your property manager to find significant property details and tenant information. If you’re old-school, you may choose to keep everything neatly organized in a filing cabinet. We recommend a more high-tech approach. Digitizing your data and keeping it securely locked away on a shared network will make it easier to access anywhere at any time.

In the end, property management is all about partnership. Make sure everyone has access to everything they need, and trust that the agency will uphold their end of the bargain. If you’re looking to work with a property manager, Talley Properties has been Charlotte’s best for over 40 years. Contact us today to learn more about our services!