When you have a second property, the first thing that comes to mind is renting out your condo so that it yields some income for you. But going solo on the effort is much like starting a new business. There are legal issues, tenants to screen, rentals to collect, and there’s the inevitable property maintenance that even your best tenants will expect from you. As for the worst tenants, they can be an absolute nightmare. Here’s what you need to know when putting your condo to work for you.
You Can Make it Easy and Profitable
Running a condo like a small business can be time-intensive unless you have experts to help you out. Condo property management companies in Scarborough say it’s well worth the investment, and you’re likely to find that this applies no matter where your condo is situated.
They’ll handle a lot of things that would otherwise be problematic for you: marketing your property, screening tenants, seeing to maintenance needs, collecting rents, insurance, and handling any contract defaults or disputes. Getting income from rentals isn’t the passive income stream many people think it is – unless you get experts to manage the business side of things on your behalf.
Good Tenants are Worth Keeping
In any business, customer retention is an important consideration. Excellent tenants are worth retaining, but they’ll expect excellent service in return. In theory, keeping them happy isn’t too difficult. Simply attend to maintenance needs and make sure that any issues are corrected fast. In practice, you might find yourself struggling to secure the right artisans at the right price and at short notice
Once again professional property managers step into the breach. They’ll have a database of contractors ranging from plumbers to electricians, painters, builders and more. And as bulk clients, they should be able to secure priority service at discounted rates – all of this without you having to lift a finger or field calls from worried tenants. Is renting out your property more trouble than it’s worth? Not if you have the right property managers to help!
Limit “Downtime”
A condo that’s standing empty isn’t productive – in fact, it costs you money. Knowing how to market properties to rent so that downtime is kept to an absolute minimum and having a good reputation as a landlord, helps to limit this. Many tenants are cautious of renting directly from property owners. Most of the stereotypical stories about nosy landlords on one end of the scale, and landlords who don’t live up to their responsibilities on the other, come from this type of arrangement.
With a reputable property management company on your side, you can be sure that your property will be on prospective tenants’ radar, and that they’ll have greater confidence in the way that the condo is managed based on that firm’s reputation in the property market.
Renting Out Your Property Doesn’t Have to Be Onerous
Property is an illiquid asset, and without rentals, it becomes a “lazy” investment in which money that doesn’t “work” for you is tied up. It’s certainly true that renting out your property without professional help can be very onerous indeed. But it doesn’t have to be. You can make a profit without the hassle, and considering all the things that can go wrong when you rent out a property, having experts to handle it limits your risk and could ultimately earn you better profits.
