An Owner's Checklist of Issues to Consider

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1 Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to Dawn D. Fleming

2 Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to 1. Financially, is managing property the best use of your time? Smart investors will consider and compare the opportunity cost of both self managing and outsourcing property management, based on their unique circumstances. There are a number of factors that go into that analysis, some of which are described below. 2. Do you want to be on call 24/7/365? Hopefully emergencies aren t a regular occurrence. When they do happen, they need to be dealt with immediately. Just because you have other matters to handle, that doesn t mean you can ignore the problem. How excited are you about being contacted at 4 am about a broken pipe or overflowing toilet? 3. Do you live close to the rental property and is it feasible to be at the property on a regular basis? If you live close by, then regular maintenance and inspection visits may be relatively easy for you. If you live far away, your expenses will be greater and it will take longer to get there. Can you get to your property easily to do a good job of self-managing it? 4. Do you have an easy going personality? How well do you handle stress? Everyone likes to believe they are easy going and handle stress well. In reality there are always going to be challenges in the vacation rental market. Guests who complain for no reason, host all night parties, have extra people or animals, damage things, want a discount for no reason, etc. The list goes on, patience is a virtue in real property management. Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to

3 Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to 5. Are things currently out of control? Even experienced real property investors can get overwhelmed, especially when there are multiple properties to manage. Hiring a property manager offers stability and a way to get control of your properties - and your life! 6. How many rental properties do you own? As your real property portfolio grows, so will the property management challenges you ll face. It can be easy for issues to fall through the cracks. Investors with multiple properties can experience significant benefits by leveraging the services a property management company can provide. 7. How proficient are you at managing maintenance and repairs? If you live close by, then regular maintenance and inspection visits may be relatively easy for you. If you live far away, your expenses will be greater and it will take you longer to get there. Can you get to your property with ease to do a good job self managing it? Few investors have the skill sets to do it all themselves. Smart ones know who to call. If you can't fix everything yourself, do you know who to call? Finding reliable contractors and service providers can take a while. The last thing you want is to waste valuable resources by hiring unethical, incompetent or unreliable workers. Maintenance and repairs are a critical component to increased profitability. You may consider hiring a property management company to be sure you stay ahead of the curve. Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to

4 Self Manage or Hire? An Owner Checklist of Issues to 8. How proficient are you at getting your property rented? Marketing, advertising, responding to inquiries and closing the deal takes a considerable amount of skill, time and effort. Low occupancy rates can decimate your profit margins. If you have doubts about whether you are cut out for this aspect of the business, hiring a property management company may be the smartest move you can make. 9. Do you have competent control of accounting and record keeping for your property? From profit and loss statements to tax filings, this area is absolutely critical. You can t manage what you can t measure, and this area becomes increasingly important with the more properties in your portfolio. Even those with a back ground in accounting or finance may chose to utilize the services of an accountant. This is especially important if you are not familiar with the accounting and tax rules in a foreign country. 10. Do you have the resources to generate necessary systems, procedures and forms to manage your property? Many investors want everyone to be happy, which is an admirable goal. The problem is a laid back approach is likely to come back to haunt. A well drafted Rental Agreement, together with clear property rules also spelled out in an Awesome Welcome Book make things crystal clear. You ll also need pre-stay/reservation confirmation and thank you/review request templates, check-in and check-out procedures, cleaning checklist, maintenance checklist, a system for managing vendor duties and schedules along with managing reservations across multiple listing platforms. Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to

5 Self Manage or Hire? An Owner Checklist of Issues to We'd love to help you! The first step in the process is to schedule an appointment to meet or a conference call to discuss your property, rental history and your goals to see if we are a good fit for each other. There is no charge for a consultation. Contact us at info@integrityvpm.com for more info or to schedule an appointment! Self Manage or Hire? An Owner's Checklist of Issues to