Rental real estate can be a great source of income if you make the right investment decisions.
A lot goes into managing a property, so you need to have a good understanding of what you're doing. Many landlords outsource certain tasks to professional property managers to make things easier for themselves. Both tenant placement and rental management are common examples of these.
In this guide, we'll look at these two services so you can decide which is right for you.
What Is Tenant Placement?
Finding tenants is essential for making an income from rental properties, but it can prove very challenging. Tenant placement will be able to help you do this more effectively.
The service starts with property marketing. Creating a quality property listing isn't easy, but they understand what renters are looking for. After this, they'll deal with any applications from interested parties.
Once they've checked the applications, they'll go through thorough tenant screening. This is done to check for any potential red flags such as a criminal background or false application information.
The tenant placement provider will determine the most suitable candidates, and then you can work with them to settle on the tenants you want. They'll help you draft a lease agreement that works well for both you and your new tenants. After the lease is signed, they'll move the tenants in and then hand things back to you.
Tenant placement services end here. You'll then be responsible for the day-to-day operations of your property.
What Is Rental Management?
Rental management is a more all-encompassing service. It typically covers everything involved in tenant placement along with various other aspects. It's an ongoing service in which a property manager will oversee the daily operations of your property so you won't have to worry so much about it.
For example, a rental property manager will take care of rent collection. They'll also handle tenant relations, so if your tenants have any issues, they can contact your property manager directly.
They'll oversee maintenance and repairs. Note, however, that they'll likely contact you for any significant work that's needed to make sure you're aware of what's going on.
They have an in-depth knowledge of housing laws and can offer you legal guidance if you need it. There may even come a time when you need to evict tenants, and your property manager can do this for you.
If your tenants leave for any reason, your property manager will help you find new tenants. They'll work quickly to keep vacancy periods to a minimum.
They can also help you with any accounting and reporting. This is ideal as it's one of the more complicated areas of property management that many landlords struggle with.
Which Is Best for You?
This ultimately comes down to your needs and goals. If you want to take on the general property management tasks yourself, you might be fine just with tenant placement. Alternatively, you can go with rental management if you want to leave things in the hands of professionals.
PMI Scenic City offers both of these types of services in Chattanooga and surrounding communities under the PMI brand which has been managing properties across the US for over 20 years. Check out our property management page to find out more about our services.
