3 Things to Look For In A Property Manager

These are the 3 things to look for in a property manager.

1.  Systems

What type of systems does the property manager use.  Are they pen and paper or using a system like Appfolio, Buildium or Yardi. What systems do they use to market vacant units, photograph potential damage, or collect rent.  Depending on the size of your property you may need more sophisticated systems.

2.  Policies

It is important to vet a property managers policies and procedures.  For example, when a potential tenant calls about the listing what does your policy say when it comes to calling them back, showing them the unit.  I look for these policies to be written down and trained on.  

3.  The Secret Sauce

One thing that I try to evaluate a property manager on is if they will treat the building as if it were their business.  For example, if an unusually high water bill comes in will they act with a sense of urgency to make sure the root cause is determined and corrected.  This is the hardest one to judge but I like to ask about past examples of issue that have come up and how they were handled.