When Should a Commercial Property Owner Hire a Property Manager?

Many commercial landlords are reluctant to hire a property manager – they would rather manage their property themselves, or with the help of one or two employees. If you are the owner of a large commercial building you may be wondering whether property managers are worth it. To answer the question it is important to understand what commercial property managers do. A commercial property manager is tasked with dealing with all issues concerning a property. They prospect for tenants, do background checks, make sure that all tenancy agreements are in place, do the day-to-day management of your property, collect rents and even do all taxes related to a property. If you are going through any of the following situations you should seriously consider hiring a property manager:
If you have high vacancy rates
High vacancy rates means that you have lots of unoccupied units in your building for many months in a year. It is a sign that you are either not very good at retaining tenants, or you are not good at finding them in the first place. A good property manager’s chief responsibility is to make sure that vacancy rates are as low as possible. He is motivated by the fact that he makes money from each unit that is rented.
If you have several commercial properties
You may have started off with one or two commercial properties that you were able to manage yourself, but over time you have acquired more and they are becoming harder and harder for you to take care. It may be time for you to hire a commercial property manager – it will be their responsibility to make sure that each of your properties is occupied, managed and that all rents are collected. If they fail at these tasks you can fire them and hire a more effective property management company.
If you don’t have time to manage your property
Many landlords simply do not have the time to keep up with what is going on in their properties. Some have full time jobs or other businesses that take up most of their time. If you find that you don’t have time to manage your properties you should immediately hire a property manager to avoid losing money.
If your properties are becoming increasingly rundown
Smart landlords understand that they will only attract tenants if their buildings are properly maintained. Unfortunately, this is not very easy to do if you don’t have someone looking into your property on a regular basis. A commercial property manager will conduct spot checks on all rented and unoccupied units and they will supervise repairs so that your property remains attractive to tenants.
If you are losing rent to crooked tenants
Not all tenants will pay their rent on time, and some may not pay at all. This can lead to huge losses for the property owner especially if they are still servicing a mortgage. A property manager will collect rent from every unit that is occupied and deposit it in your bank account at the end of every month.
Lastly, if you want to portray a professional image to prospective tenants you should hire a property management company. It gives the impression that your building is properly maintained.