Self-managing rental properties don’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, it can be quite easy to do if you follow some simple guidelines. By taking control of your own property management, you’ll enjoy an easier scaling process that can help your business grow. We’ll go over some tips for self-management in this blog post, so read on to learn more!
Why is scalability important when it comes to self-managing rental properties? Most real estate investors did not start out full-time. Instead, they often have a full-time job, which helps them to fund their real estate investing venture, and only becomes full-time once their portfolio has reached a certain size. To reach this critical portfolio size, it’s important to manage in a scalable way.
Scalable rental management starts with finding good tenants. By taking the time to screen potential renters carefully, you can avoid many of the headaches that come with problem tenants. It’s often suggested to do some background checks before signing the lease. However, I’ll go a step further by running a preliminary screening even before the showing. This way, if the tenant were not qualified or has a move-in date that doesn’t work for you, you don’t even have to spend time showing the property. So, before accepting any showing request, it’s a good idea to get some basic information about the prospect and run a search in the state’s court record, which is free for most states.
Having good tenants is half of the work to have a scalable portfolio. The other half is to have a system in place so you’re not wasting time on small tasks. You can do this by automating and outsourcing whenever possible. There are many software programs available that make it easy to automate the rent collection process, which leads to our next tip.
Another important tip for self-managing your rental property is to accept electronic rent payments. This will not only make it easier for you to keep track of rent payments, but it will also allow tenants to pay their rent from anywhere in the world. Additionally, by using online payment, any late fee policy is automatically enforced, therefore encouraging on-time payment. You can also set up recurring payments, so you don’t have to worry about rent coming in late every month.
The third tip is to use something better than excel for tracking income and expenses. There are plenty of software programs and apps that will allow you to keep track of your rental property finances with ease. This is important because it will help you stay on top of your expenses, as well as help you when it comes time to file taxes. By using better software, you can easily see where your money is going and make changes accordingly.
Last but not least, always be prepared for the unexpected. Things happen, and sometimes they’re out of your control. Whether it’s a pipe burst or a broken window, being prepared for the unexpected will help you manage any situation that may come up. I suggest setting aside some money each month into a reserve fund to cover these types. And don’t let the worries get in the way of scaling your portfolio, because often, it’s just a matter of a few phone calls and some repair expense to get the issue resolved.
By following these simple tips, you can easily self-manage your rental properties for easy scalability. When it comes to the website for self-managing rental properties, PortfolioBay is the best option for self-managing landlords. The landlord can receive ACH rent payments online, manage leads and showing requests from Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, and Apartment.com, and track income and expenses. And to make it even better for self-managing landlords, the website is completely free.
In the end, regardless what’s your exact process of managing rental properties, the key to scalability is to just reduce wasteful time spent. Showing your property to an unqualified prospect is a waste of time, signing and processing paper checks is a waste of time, and manual income and expense tracking is a waste of time. If we can identify all those waste, and build a process or use a tool, such as PortfolioBay, to minimize them, self-managing rental properties will become a lot more scalable and easier.
So there you have it, some tips to help you self-manage your rental properties for easy scalability. If you’re looking for a website that can help make self-managing your rental properties easier, be sure to check out PortfolioBay. It’s the best website for self-managing landlords and it’s completely free.
