You're asking yourself, should you hire a property manager? You're trying to decide if you should manage your own property or hire a professional property manager to do it for you. Some people are not that good at managing properties. That's a pretty common problem. They put the property on Craig's List and Facebook. They're not getting quality leads. Your tenants are constantly paying late and giving you every excuse on the book for why they can't make their rent payments on time.
Many seasoned investors would never manage their own properties. They don't want to take phone calls at 2:00 AM about an overflowed toilet. They may not know about vacancy rates in a certain location. They may not know why you should charge $1,350 a month instead of $1,300 because they may not be aware of what the local market conditions are doing. Professional property management companies can handle the marketing and screening, collect the rent, deal with the tenant issues, repair issues. Tenants don't even know how to reach you as the owner. That's one of the benefits of hiring a professional to do the job for you.
Many landlords will do it themselves to save a couple bucks but may find out in the end it ends up costing them a lot more in vacancy time and advertising expenses, repairs and maintenance costs. Managing your own property can easily become another full time job. You are responsible for the marketing, screening, rent collection, hiring handymen, accounting, staying compliant with the homeowner's association, and the city rental license requirements if there are any. When you hire a professional property management company, they handle all of that for you. Why do you want to take on the role of a full time property manager? You're just creating another job for yourself. Think about the lifestyle you want to live and find out how a professional property management company can help you achieve your goals.
