It is important to understand that a company that you hire to manage your Waikiki rental property units can either make you, or break you. And since you as a property owner have a direct control over choosing a property management firm to work with, the success of your rental property depends 100 % on the decisions you make.
This article helps you learn about things you need to ask a management company before commercial inspections.
Check their references
You want to ensure that this company is good at what they claim to be good and one of the best ways to do this is by asking for references from their clients (other rental property owners, like yourself). Don’t be shy to place a few calls before hiring them.
Here is a sound piece of advice. In the list of their clients try to get in touch with people who have rental property of the same size and type as yours. So if your property consists of vacation rentals, make sure you speak to people who also rent vacation rentals. The reason why you need this is because you want to find a property manager who would be familiar with the type of rental property you have. It would not make much sense to work with a company who specializes in commercial real estate, while what you offer is residential one.
Before making any conclusion, ensure that a person you speak on the phone has been using this property management company long enough to make a reasonable assessment of their service.
Ensure the company you want to hire does not specialize in selling property
The reason why I mention this is because there are companies who specialize in selling real estate, and also provide property management services. There are a few problems in working with such companies:
They make much more money from selling a property, than from providing property management services. Such a company might not care enough to make your rental property business a success hoping that you might decide to sell it.
Often, the skills requires to manage rental property are very different from skills needed to sell it. Also, a “property for sale” company might not have good connections when it comes to property maintenance. Therefore, they will not be able to save your dollar by bringing in a contractor who charges reasonably.
Ask if they comply with state laws
They will obviously say “yes, we do”, but do they? Really? To comply with state laws a property management company must have one or two of the following licenses:
A real estate license
A property manager’s license
Request to have their license’s number and use the Internet to check if it is valid and current. Having a property manager’s license does not yet give any guarantee that the company will actually provide a good service. Nevertheless, it will at least demonstrate you that this company cared enough to get it.
Ask if they carry insurance
It is best if a property management company you work with carry the following list of insurances:
General liability
Worker’s compensation insurance
Professional liability insurance
One last thing that you might want to do is to check their credentials with an association of real estate property management professionals. It provides professional designation that mean the excellence of provided service.