Did you know that, according to Suburban Stats, the total population for Delaware in 2019-2020 was 897,934 people? Considering how many people live in Delaware, you may be thinking, as a property owner or landlord, of renting your property to one of these residents.
Whether you want to rent your apartment, townhouse, condo, or home, you might be wondering how to manage your real estate property in the state of Delaware (especially closer to Newark, Delaware, not Newark, New Jersey).
If you don’t know how, this can be stressful. This is where property managers come in. But what does a property manager do, exactly? That’s what we’ll review in this article.
Finally, you can find out how a property manager can help you manage all the ins and outs of renting your property, making your job less stressful while you earn money from rent. Read on to learn more.
Setting the Rent
When you work with a property manager or a property management company, one of their responsibilities is setting the rent of your property. Because this is one of the most basic jobs a landlord has to do, it’s something that many landlords ask a property management organization to do.
How does this work? The property manager will set a rent price that’s competitive so that potential tenants will be interested in renting the property.
To come up with this price, the property manager will likely conduct a survey where they consider the prices of comparable properties in the same local area. Their experience with setting rent prices will also help them do this.
If you’ve recently been looking up “property management near me,” then you should look for a property manager who does this—and who does this yearly.
This is because the rent should be set annually so your property continues to be attractive to tenants.
Screening Tenants
When it comes to property management jobs and tasks, one of these is screening tenants. They might be involved in finding potential tenants and screening them to decide if they’re the right fit for your property. They also might deal with tenant management.
Tenant management involves responsibilities such as managing maintenance issues and daily complaints.
Additionally, they might hand out any evictions and move-out notices to your tenants.
Collecting the Rent
Another responsibility property managers have is collecting the rent. It’s likely that they’ll set up an entire system for doing this, making it more effective (and more likely that you’ll get your rent paid and on time from your tenants).
To ensure that cash flow is optimal, they’ll set the collection date to ensure that the tenants pay their monthly expenses when they’re supposed to. They’ll also strictly enforce any late fee policies.
Considering that you won’t make any money if you aren’t able to collect your rent from your tenants, this is one of the many tasks that you benefit from when you have a professional property manager do it for you.
Management of the Property
A property manager will also handle the management of the property itself. By definition, this means ensuring that the property’s condition is habitable and safe. In practice, this means managing the property in terms of its physical elements.
This physical management includes both emergency repairs and regular maintenance.
Additionally, if anyone comes to your property to make any repairs, installations, or renovations, the property manager should supervise what they do.
This way, they can sure that the work is completed in a manner that’s timely and up to the proper standards.
If you have a property you want to rent but you’re out of town a lot of the time, then a property manager will save you a lot of hassle by being around to take care of your property while you’re away.
Management of the Budget
Property managers can also be in charge of budget management, as well as the management of additional important records. When it comes to budget management, the property manager will, for the building, set a budget.
They will also be in charge of deciding if, in certain situations, they should order repairs without considering the budget.
These situations might include ones where the physical building is in danger or where the tenants inside it are in danger.
When choosing the right property manager, if you want one who’ll manage your budget, you need to make sure they have the right education and experience.
They should know accounting practices that are accepted in the property management industry so that their bookkeeping is accurate for investment, tax, and income purposes.
This is also why it makes sense to hire a property manager who is good at record-keeping. Thorough records are key to accounting practices.
When it comes to the records the property manager might handle, these might include a record of insurance costs and rent collection, maintenance costs, costs of repairs, records of repairs, complaints, and maintenance requests.
They might also include signed leases, a list of all inspections, expenses, and income.
Looking for Property Managers?
Now that you’ve learned about the many roles and responsibilities of property managers, you might be looking for property managers in the Delaware area. In this case, you should look no further than Delaware Realty Management.
We’re experts when it comes to property management, and we can manage tenant screening, rent accounting, leasing, and management. We also offer all of these combined as a full service option.
We offer some of the best property management services in the state of Delaware. To learn more about how we can help you, learn more now.