Property Management Blog

There are many different property management companies out there. There is half a dozen just in my small town of Chico, CA. Not every property management company will offer the same services so you’re going to want to check and see what exactly will be the scope of services that will be included in your management contract.

I’ve recently been a go-to source of information for friends looking into investment property. There are so many options. How do you know which one is right for you? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type of property? What are the long term issues that are going to spring up now that you have this property long term? 

These are all great questions, so let’s go through the strengths and weaknesses of each type of property.

As a professional property manager, I speak to investment real estate owners every day. Most are calling because they are tired of managing their own property. Sometimes I get calls for advice about how to handle a situation. The benefit of being in my position is that I get a broad perspective of what it takes to self-manage your own property. I also see the other side of having a property management company manage your property. Today, I am compiling a list of the pros and cons of managing your own property.

I work in the world of property management and my job is to interact with real estate investors all day.  It’s a great job. I have many rental property owners who call me not only to ask for quotes on services, but also to ask advice on the local market and decisions they need to make. I get to hear all kinds of stories.  Some are great the others and terrible. Here’s a compilation of the most common horror stories I hear in my position.

You have probably heard that there are three rules to real estate: Location, Location, Location. The same is true with where you buy your Chico rental property real estate. When deciding how much to charge for rent or where you can buy a great rental property you need to first look at location. 

Turning over a rental property is probably one of the trickiest parts of rental property management. You need to coordinate move-out dates, maintenance, marketing, cleaning, inspections, possibly remodeling and a whole host of other variables. No doubt this takes skill and finesse to nail down a fool proof strategy to turning over rentals. In this blog I’m going to talk to you about developing an excellent strategy that works for your Chico rental property. 

Stuff happens, and unfortunately if you have a Chico rental property, this “stuff” will happen to your property. Your lawn will die, your parking area will need to be resealed, gutters will need to be replaced, exterior paint will need to be freshened up, and there’s a winter storm coming where you’ll inevitably receive calls saying that the roof is leaking. This stuff is going to happen. It’s not a matter of if, but when. So, what can you do about it? In a world of deferred maintenance how do you keep your investment looking good and staying profitable? 

In the late 1980s there was an amazing TV show called MacGyver. MacGyver was a secret agent that would solve all kinds of problems using random things he had around him. He would start car engines using a bubble gum wrapper and some duct tape. It was fantastic to see his creative solutions to save the day. 

Sometimes Chico rental property owners can be a bit like MacGyver. Instead of calling a plumber to fix a leaky pipe, they will instead use some duct tape and bubble gum to save the day. The problem is that when maintenance work needs to be done, you need to do it right and do it quickly. Many properties have what we call deferred maintenance which are maintenance issues that are left undone. 

Much of successful property management is getting qualified residents to rent out your property. But even when you get the sense that you are getting the best residents to move in, you still need to cover your bases when it comes to move-in and move-out paper work. 

In my small town of Chico, as well as all over California, the rental property market has been on fire.  Currently we have never seen such high rents with such low vacancies. As a matter of fact, I’d be willing to say in our 60-year history, it’s never been quite as good as it is now. Rents are up and vacancies are very low. At the moment, the vacancy rate over our 1,500 local units sits at .56%, and this is after we raised all our rents and built 56 brand new apartments. Pretty amazing!