HOW TO HIRE THE RIGHT PROPERTY MANAGER

Hiring someone to take responsibility to care for and overseeing the management of your investment rental property is a major decision. Getting the right property manager is essential for both your financial bottom line as well as your peace of mind. Choosing the wrong property manager can cost you tens of thousands of dollars and not all property managers are equal in knowledge and experience. 

While you are going through the process of selecting a property manager, keep the following points in mind:

• All property management companies in California are required to be supervised by a licensed real estate broker in California. Your goal is to find a property manager who is also a licensed real estate broker who does nothing other than manage properties.
• Always ask to communicate with the broker directly to find out about the services offered. Ask the broker about his or her specialty. Make sure it is property management and nothing else.
• Ask the broker how long he or she has been managing properties from that office or area. Your goal is to find out how long has that individual or that independent office has been in the property management business in your area and how familiar they are with local laws. You can easily find that out by contacting the CA Department of Real Estate.
• Ask the broker for the number of tenancies he or she has independently assisted from the local office, rather than the nationwide combined number listed from a national franchise. What you are trying to determine here is the experience of the broker who is running the office at a certain location.
• Ask the broker for the amount of trusted local contractors on their vendor list used for assisting owners with repairs and maintenance. Visit them at their offices to verify and examine the list.
• Ask the broker for a breakdown of all fees. Most property managers in our service area charge between 6% to 10% of the monthly rent to manage your rental properties.

It is difficult to tell when you are a new landlord seeking to find an experienced real estate broker specializing in property management. Hopefully, these quick tips shall facilitate and assist you to investigate and select the right property manager for your rental property. We are here to answer all of your questions about our property management services. Please call us at (510) 487-2583.

A WORD OF WARNING

Many property management companies are not actually operated by a broker. Many companies are hiring a broker of record and pay a fee to use a broker license to run the company. This practice is notorious and is very common with national property management franchises. Also, keep in mind that not all property managers are brokers. In our service area, we noticed a couple national property management franchises which were opened recently but claimed that they have been in business for 25 to 35 years. This is misleading. They are actually advertising how long their national corporate offices have been in business and not the local independent office. Visit this link at http://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp to examine how long the sales agent or broker has been managing properties. The department website lists the year and the name of all the real estate businesses they have affiliated with since they were licensed in California.