Should you hire a property manager?
Gone are the wild west days of simply listing a property on Airbnb and watching the money roll in. (Those were nice days, though.)
If you want to be successful as a short-term rental investor, you’ve got to be willing to put in the time, money, energy, and research to do it successfully. You’ll be competing against folks who’ve been doing this awhile, not to mention hotels (hotels hate us, by the way).
If real estate investing is a side-gig for you, you’ll need to carve out time to track the market trends, watch your market pricing for nightly rentals, and communicate with guests day in and day out. Are you able to commit to that?
If real estate investing is your full-time operation and you have a portfolio of properties, is it cost-effective for you to be managing your properties yourself? What is your time worth to you? What if you could get your time back and, instead, invest that time in growing your portfolio or, better yet, spend that time with family and friends?
This is where property management comes in.
A top-notch property management firm will free up your time, maximize your profits, and help you make the most of your real estate investment.
To help you decide if you need a property management company, ask yourself the questions below:
Do I have the skills needed to manage income-producing real estate?
Have I carefully considered the time and money needed to make my property short-term-rental-ready, or am I investing in a turnkey rental property?
Can I communicate with (and relate to) the guest demographic that I’ll be renting to?
Am I able to handle guest conflict without getting emotionally involved?
Do I have a network of handymen and contractors in the market I’ll be investing in who can reliably make repairs quickly and cost-effectively?
Will managing my own property negatively affect my normal day-job and family life?
Is the property within a 30 minute drive of where I live, or will I invest in real estate from a distance?
Will travel time affect how quickly I can address guest issues?
Do I plan on growing my investment portfolio, or will I only own one nightly rental property?
Is my time worth less than the management fees I would pay a good property manager?
If you have good answers to these questions, then you should self-manage! Maybe you’re single with no kids and all the time in the world. Self-managing a short-term rental can give you a lot of experience and help you learn the ropes of the industry.
But if you’re ready to offload the managing of your short-term or vacation rentals, then it’s time to start hunting for the right property manager for your properties.
While you’re on the hunt, we invite you to consider Nightly as your top choice for property management. We handle everything needed to make a short-term rental successful. From managing cleaners to revenue management, we cover it all from top to bottom.
Give us a call if you’d like to learn more!