In April 2023, the vacancy rate of rental properties was 5.09%. As a landlord, your vacancy rate is a metric you use to measure your property's success. When it's low, you make more money.
When you struggle to find tenants, you might need assistance with tenant placement. However, you might also need help with rental management.
What is the difference between tenant placement and rental management? You should learn this if you're a landlord. So keep reading to determine the differences to ensure you hire the right services.
Basics of Rental Management
Owning rental property requires managing the properties. Rental management describes the duties these properties need on a day-to-day basis.
Management duties include performing routine maintenance and repairs. It also involves handling emergency repairs. Managing properties also involves preparing units for tenants.
Additionally, it requires handling property evaluations and inspections. You complete these to learn what the properties need and how much to charge for rent.
Rental management also involves tenant duties. This includes collecting rent and enforcing lease rules.
The amount of time you spend performing these management duties depends on how many properties you own. You could spend 40 hours a week handling them if you own dozens of units.
Basics of Tenant Placement
Regarding tenant placement, the focus is on finding tenants for unoccupied units. Therefore, tenant placement services involve:
- Marketing available units
- Accepting applications for the units
- Performing tenant screenings
- Choosing tenants based on the screening information
- Signing leases
- Showing units
A company that offers tenant placement management handles these tasks. They're good at finding and placing the best tenants in your units.
After placing them in the units, the property manager hands the work to you. The company does nothing else, leaving you responsible for the above rental property management duties.
Factors to Consider When Deciding
A property management company offers both services. You can hire one service or both, but you must decide which services you need.
First, consider how involved you want to be in your business. Do you enjoy handling the daily tasks of the units? Do you enjoy interacting with the tenants?
For example, you could continue handling the rental management duties. This option is great if you enjoy the daily tasks and tenant interaction.
Secondly, consider your vacancy rate and tenant quality. Hiring a company for tenant placement is helpful for finding better tenants. It's also helpful if you struggle with high vacancy rates.
A tenant placement company will help you decrease your vacancy rate. They may also help you reduce your tenant turnover rate.
Your business might excel when you let experts handle this aspect.
Seek Advice From a Property Manager
As you can see, tenant placement is different than rental management. Both services are helpful and vital for landlords, but you might need one and not the other. You might also need both.
You can learn more about both services by speaking with a property management firm in Portland, OR. Call us at PMI Bridgetown for more information about our services.
