Despite the massive financial advantage owning real estate gives, being a landlord can become unexpectedly overwhelming. Whether it's a challenging new tenant or the advent of becoming an accidental landlord, what once seemed simple got tough somewhere along the way.
Mounting landlord stress is not uncommon, and the good news is that there are services and resources aplenty for you to tap into. If you're wondering if this applies to you, look for one of these four leading indicators that signal the need for landlord rescue and how they get fixed.
1. Systemic Time Crunch
People don't always know a lack of time when they see it, so describing some related behaviors can help better identify it. If you're constantly annoyed and rushing between events, the slightest delay provokes a response, or you're just not getting to what you truly enjoy, you've "run out" of time.
Full-service property management can streamline some of your landlord duties. This is an amazing time-saver for people with full-time jobs or landlords with multiple properties.
2. Mounting Maintenance Issues
Landlords should never ignore property maintenance issues. Small problems can grow and compound into big, expensive catastrophes. However, if your maintenance issues seem to increase faster than you can deal with them, the temptation is to start ignoring a few.
Property management firms follow the best practices in property maintenance. They can coordinate maintenance crews and negotiate better rates with contractors because of their position in the industry. This takes many time-consuming tasks off a landlord's shoulders.
3. Beligerent Tenants
Having trouble with tenants is another sign that landlord rescue can improve your life. This may have come from renting to bad tenants out of desperation or necessity, or it could come from decent tenants slowly turning sour.
Property management and leasing management are two tools that can help in this area. If you have multiple properties, which means you aren't getting to all your tenants' concerns, either option is useful. Leasing management focuses only on lease admin tasks, whereas the full-service option is a more comprehensive solution.
4. Increasing Fuel or Travel Costs
Your travel expense is one of the best ways to monitor your business management practices. It may even be useful during tax season but can become a liability if it becomes too large.
The main thing you want to avoid is monthly travel costs rising higher than the rent you're able to collect. Even before that happens, the opportunity cost of the time spent traveling may also equal hundreds of dollars. Getting help for the furthest-away properties can result in massive long-term savings.
Find Industry-Leading Landlord Rescue
There are many signs that landlord stress is beginning to overtake a person. Losing time, avoiding maintenance duties, tenant frustration, and an escalating fuel bill are some of the earliest warning signs that a landlord needs help.
Landlord rescue can come in many forms. It can be as simple as taking over lease admin or as comprehensive as full-service property management. The main goal is to eliminate cumbersome landlord blues to allow you to flourish.
At PMI Great Lakes, we can handle any problem, big or small. Get two decades' worth of experience by letting us help you today.
