Property management companies perform a variety of tasks involved with keeping your properties profitable. First, they market the properties. If you’re going to rent out properties then it makes sense that you’d want someone to get tenants into them as quickly as possible. Property management companies also screen tenants. This gives you peace of mind that every possible step has been taken to ensure that you get good tenants who aren’t going to cost you more money in the long run. They can also advise you on where you should set your rent. While this figure may seem obvious to you, there are sometimes factors like neighborhood demographics which impact how much you can realistically charge in rent.

Second, they collect the rent. In the normal course of things they’re simply going to get the tenant’s rent squared away on the first and that will be all there is to it. Occasionally, someone’s going to pay late, or they’re not going to pay at all. The property management company engages in the collection procedures that get you your money, or they engage in the legal proceedings that get the bad tenant out so that they can hurry up and get a new tenant in there.

Third, they respond to tenant complaints. They take all the tenant phone calls. If the garbage disposal isn’t working, they send out maintenance. If there’s an emergency, they do that too. If the groundskeepers didn’t come cut the grass, they also handle this problem. A good property management company can keep you on great terms with your primary customers: the tenants.

Fourth, they get the rentals ready for new tenants. For example, once the old tenant moves out, they call in the contractors who clean the unit, repair the unit, and repaint the unit. They then repeat the process of marketing and tenant screening. They increase the chances that your rental will get a tenant quickly instead of sitting vacant for months at a time, costing you money.

Finally, property management companies help mitigate the threat of lawsuits by bringing all of their knowledge of landlord-tenant and Fair Housing law to bear. A good company handles everything in a manner that is consistent with the law so that you don’t end up sued. Since, as a property owner, you now have an asset in the form of your property, this kind of preventative asset protection can well prove invaluable to helping you build the kind of financial future you initially saw when you bought the property.