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Should I Hire a Property Manager or Do It Myself?

Should I Hire A Property Manager or Do It Myself? – Ask A Real Estate Attorney Ep. 2

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Disclaimer! This is legal information, not legal advice. For legal advice contact an experienced real estate attorney in your jurisdiction.

Should I hire a property manager or do it myself? For most of us, I think the answer is to hire a manager. For me personally, I don’t have time to run a law practice and manage properties. My time is better spent doing other things. What I’m good at. Drafting good deeds and evicting bad tenants. Your time is best spent doing whatever you’re best at too. Complying with local landlord-tenant laws, housing codes, and unruly tenants is a job in and of itself. In my opinion, most people are not suited for doing it. In my eviction lawyer practice, I have had to help many landlords that could have greatly benefitted from hiring a property manager. However, feel free to manage your properties yourself it is is something that you love to do.

That said, there’s plenty of landlords that have contacted me that want to sue their property managers because they were unhappy with their services.

Although no wisdom from me can stop bad property managers from being a bad property manager. My suggestion is that landlords need to realize that property management contracts are negotiable. I’ve seen property management contracts where property managers are only obligated to do an annual inspection. Well, a lot can happen in a year. More mandatory inspections will be helpful to landlord.

Property management contracts tend to hold property managers harmless for the tenant’s negligence, as they should if the property manager is prudent. However, a landlord should have some recourse if their property manager is not doing their duties.

So in short. Yes, I think property managers are great. I think property managers are worth it and it’s worth the expense to have an attorney review or amend your property management contract. Unless, you absolutely love property management, then, by all means, do what you love!

If the property management company is not willing to allow you to throw in some terms, then you’ve found the wrong property manager

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