When homeowners decide to rent out their home or purchase a rental property, one common expense is overlooked during the process. This expense when not addressed properly can cost the owner hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. We overlook this expense regularly because it hides behind many other expenses such as cleaning your home, painting the walls, carpet cleaning, fixing repairs, etc. This is expense is VACANCY.
How does vacancy affect your income when owning a property? Let me explain in simple numbers. Let’s say your home rents out for $1000 a month. For simple math purposes, divide 1000 by 4, which means each week you will be paid $250 when you have a tenant in. So when your home sits vacant for 2 weeks, you are missing out on $500, or if you home rents out for $1500, you are missing out on $750. Some investors are in different circumstances which allow a little more grace when it comes to collecting rent, but money is money, especially in an investment. Many of you might have a mortgage on your property which means when the home is not rented, you are paying out of pocket to cover the mortgage. Others own their rentals completely so they might not be as motivated to rent as quickly, but like I said, money is money and you own this investment to make it.
So how can a property management company harm your investment? Many companies in the industry, if not all charge some sort of leasing fee to fill your home with a tenant. This may be full months rent, half months rent, a flat fee or a percentage of the gross lease, which means there is a monetary interest when leasing your home. If a company has your best interest in mind, wouldn’t you think their #1 goal would be to fill your home with a tenant and sign them to a long term lease? That’s what you would hope for, but many times that is not the case. If they fill your home with a short term tenant, then a year later they will be able to fill your home again and make another commission from you. Not all companies do this, but many do which is unfortunate. Many companies also have in house maintenance companies and make their money off of the repairs of the home. This can be dangerous not only because they sky rocket their prices, but because they may neglect routine inspections or offering tips to the tenant and make sure they are taking care of your home properly. They know when the tenant is out of there, they can go in and make an extra hundred dollars from repairs.
The One Way Homes Property Management structure was built by asking this one simple question, “What can we do to eliminate all unnecessary costs that owners are charged, and what can we do to make sure they receive the highest return on investment?” We took each industry necessity and evaluated it, starting with the monthly service fee all the way to how we treat your tenant. This is how we do it, starting with the leasing process. We have set up all the tools to make sure we rent your home out as soon as possible, such as proper lead collection, making sure your home is marketed on the right websites and offering marketing reports for full transparency. We show all your homes personally, so you won’t have to worry about any strangers coming through your doors. Also this gives us the opportunity to meet with them in person and go over expectations and leasing guidelines to make sure they take care of your home. At move in, we will never charge additional admin fees or monthly charges on your tenants. That is our promise to you. One Way Homes Property Management is here to help you with your investment. We take care of everything for you and we offer a more personable service to you and your tenant, guaranteed. We are confident you won’t find a more convenient, relaxing service out there. Experience the difference yourself.
