Five Things to Look for When choosing a Portland Property Management Team

Are you planning on hiring a Portland property management team to professionally manage your rental property? If so, you come to the right place!

Hiring a property manager is smart because property managers have specialized experience that saves owners the time, money, and hassle of managing their rental properties themselves.

In today’s world, it’s more important to have a property manager than ever before, especially if you live out of town, or out of state, you want to have a trusted professional managing your rental properties for you.

Having a property management team on your side will save you the hassle of having to drive out, or file to rental property, on a regular basis to meet with tenants, or contractors, and doing everything yourself.

Finding the right Portland property management team can be a lot of work because you’re trusting your investment property in someone else’s hands. Therefore, in this article, we’ll provide you with 5 things that you should look for when choosing a property management company.

#1 – They Must Have a Proven Track Record of Experience

The first thing to look for when hiring a Portland Oregon property management company is experience.

The property management company that you hire should have at least five years of experience managing rental properties in the PDX area.

Once you find an experienced property manager, it’s also important to verify that they have experience managing residential rental properties, instead of commercial properties. This is essential because companies that focus solely on managing commercial properties may not be equipped to properly manage Portland Oregon Residential Properties.

You should also verify that the property management company isn’t just a real estate agent who moonlights as a property manager in the PDX area. This is important because, if you own more than one rental property, you want to have peace of mind knowing that your property management company will be equipped to handle the needs of your tenants.

Thankfully, the internet gives every owner the ability to thoroughly research a Portland Property Management Team before hiring them because it’s never been easier than to use Google to look up a company name and their company reviews online.

If they have a good reputation in the community or a bad reputation, you’re going to know just by doing a few minutes of online research.

Questions To Ask a Portland Property Management Team 

• How long have you been managing rental properties in the Portland Oregon area?
• How many rentals do you currently manage?
• What is your average vacancy rate?
• Do you work with a team in-house? Or do you outsource maintenance to contractors in the area?

#2 – Verify Their License and Property Management Certifications

Another important thing to do when interviewing a Portland Oregon property management company is to review their license and Property Management certifications.

A competent property manager will be licensed in the Portland Oregon area, and they should also be a member of associations like the National Association of Residential Property Managers as well.

#3 – Tips for Checking Company Reviews and References 

As we mentioned earlier in this article, the most important thing to do when searching for a Portland property management team is to check their company reviews and references online.

This can be done by searching on websites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook.

Keep in mind that when researching property management companies online it’s quite possible that you will encounter negative reviews about companies.

During the process of reading reviews and references, keep in mind that you may encounter negative reviews about certain companies.

Sadly, some negative reviews may have been written by former tenants that had an axe to grind, or competitors of that Property Management Portland company, and those reviews ultimately have no bearing on the quality of the services that the property manager can offer you.

Keeping this in mind, it’s important to search for reviews for a Property Management Portland Oregon company on a variety of different websites because you will get a greater perspective about that company by using more than one website to research them.

You should also check for reviews on websites like the Better Business Bureau because traditional sources for company information often provide good, better information about a company without fake reviews.

#4 – Review Their Property Management Agreement

Another important thing to do before hiring a Portland Property Management Team is to review their property management agreement.

Specifically, you want to have confidence that they will be able to provide you with all the services that you need including maintenance, property marketing, tenant placement, rent collection, and more.

Most important of all, you want to confirm the fees that they are going to be charging you and, you also want to verify that they won’t be charging you additional fees for services that should be included in their monthly services.

Also, while you’re reading their property management agreement, confirm if the contract will be a month-to-month contract, or if you’re locked in with them for one year.

#5 – Verify Their Insurance

Last of all, but most important, another key thing that you want to do before hiring a property management company is to verify their insurance.

Every property manager should have general liability insurance and property Casualty Insurance, as well as (E&O) Errors and Omissions policies.

Contact Rent Portland Homes – Professionals 

At Rent Portland Homes – Professionals, we have decades of experience managing single-family and multi-family rental properties in the Portland Oregon area.

Our Portland Property Management Team will save you the time and hassle of managing a rental property yourself.

You can count on us to offer you a full suite of property management services including property marking, tenant selection, placement, customer service, rent collection, maintenance, and more.

For more information about our services or a Property Management quote, contact us today by calling (503) 447-7745 or click here.