It’s ten o’clock in the evening and the phone rings. It’s your tenant. She’s just gotten in, and the leak that she noticed in her water tank earlier has grown to a small flood. You’re tired, but you know you need to deal with this before tomorrow, or more damage will occur. You can’t get across town, so you call a maintenance company about the emergency. The cost is astronomical, and your tension builds. Being a landlord isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s rarely simple. Working with a property management company can help prevent you from falling into these property management nightmares.

Seattle property managementManaging Maintenance

When you own a property, those maintenance calls can be ongoing. Multiply the scenario above by ten or more, and you’ll understand the stress you’ll feel with a multi-family property. More properties or more families means more maintenance calls. Depending on your clientele, you may receive calls for many minor items. If you’re working with those who’ve just left home or seniors who are no longer able to work on their own property you’ll spend even more time responding to calls.

Working with a property management company means that your tenants will always have someone who’s on call to meet their needs. Your property management company will have a list of vendors and contractors who can perform routine and emergency maintenance, and they may have preferred customer discounts as well. Best of all, they’ll handle those late-night calls and take them off your hands.

Organizing Accounts

Accounting isn’t always simple, and it’s easy to fall behind. You’ve been keeping your receipts and you know when the rent is due. However, those receipts are in a shoebox, and come tax time it’s difficult to pick through the receipts to determine which one goes with which property. You decide to avoid the situation, but you know that you could have claimed more deductions. When your tenants call to see why your garden maintenance company hasn’t visited lately, it turns out that your credit card has expired. You’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the financial details of your property.

You purchased the property as an investment and as a tinkering project because you enjoy working to restore homes. It’s turned into a financial mess. When you’re feeling challenged by your rental property management, you can turn to a property management company. With established accounting processes, excellent tracking, and consistent relationships with maintenance companies, they’ll help you simplify your property’s finances.

Relating to Tenants

If you’re considering why you should partner with a Seattle property management company, think about tenant screening and relations. You want to make sure that all of your tenants have the best possible experience on your property, and you see yourself as a landlord who’s fair, honest, and reliable. However, tenants don’t always live up to their side of that bargain. Maybe a particular tenant has received numerous complaints from the neighbors. When you visit, you notice the signs: your tenant is a hoarder, and the property is falling into disrepair. You’re worried about speaking to your tenant, and even after you do, you’re not certain that the tenant will be able to clean up.

Can you evict your tenant? What if everything is left as it is: what about cleanup? Connecting with the appropriate tenants, screening tenants, and maintaining good relations is hard and ongoing work. You need the support of someone who knows how to bring you the right tenants and make sure that small problems don’t become larger ones.

When you’re looking for a property management company, contact Lori Gill and Associates. We’re experts in the Seattle property management market, and we can ensure that your experience as a property owner is an investment, not a painful experience. Contact us today to learn more about our services.