Hey, everybody, this is Duncan Murphy and at evernest in Nashville, wanted to talk today about the topic on choosing self-management vs professional property management in Nashville.
Something that we learned as we are continuing to try to grow in the Nashville market is just how competitive it really is here.
When we first moved into Nashville, we thought, well, it is blowing up, all over Nashville, there’s, you know, 100 people a day moving to town.
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So it’s got to be easy to pick up a portfolio of homes and grow that business.
But what we’ve seen is, with everybody moving to town, it can make it a pretty tough choice for a homeowner whether they want to hire a property manager and pay a management fee, or if they should self-manage that property.
A few real topics that I think are helpful when you’re making this decision to start are whether you know you have that time to devote to, you know, listing, marketing your property, and then communicating and showing the property to prospective residents.
I met with a homeowner just a few weeks ago, who had his house listed, a beautiful home in Franklin, and of course, naturally got tons of attention from prospects.
I think he had it listed for maybe a couple of weeks and he called us and he said, “You know, I just…I don’t have the time to keep up with communication.
The random questions that I’ll get, and then the showings requested at all times of the day, while I’m trying to, you know, balance my own work schedule and life schedule.”
So, he wanted that relief, kind of the hands-off feeling of letting somebody professionally market and show his property. That’s one thing to consider as you’re getting into it.
A trend I typically see is when prospects are looking for a home, you know, if they are quite possibly a professional resident, you know, they might have kind of background to them.
They’re going to more flock towards the, you know, the one-off homeowner looking to rent their home because the screening might not be as thorough as what a professional property manager might be looking into.
You know, things like the statewide and nationwide background or criminal record checks.
There are tons of applications and systems online that you can kind of do a one-click screening for a resident.
But to be honest, you know, that one click, and that three-second decision on a person’s application, to me truly isn’t thorough enough.
You know, sure, they’re checking public record but there are other things that can really be out there, that these online systems might not be able to pull.
So, you definitely get a more thorough screening with professional property management.
But, you know, if that’s a risk you’re willing to take, it could work out in the long run for you.
You know, hopefully, the goal in this industry is always to have a great resident, you want a happy resident as your asset, making you a happy homeowner and it works for both sides.
But, you know, sometimes situations can go south and having a working knowledge and a great understanding of the rights of residents, the rights of landlords, and how fair housing is brought into both that is very important.
You know, we hear all the time kind of the reason, people, if they’ve been self-managing, or bringing it to a property manager.
Because they don’t want to, kind of have that fear each night that they go to sleep that they’re going to get that phone call for water backing up or a hot water heater is leaking all in the floor.
You know, those maintenance issues can really take away from, you know, from your time or from your workday.
Or if you’re on vacation, you know what can really affect you if you have to handle those yourself.
If you do have a great contact, you’ve got a good relationship with vendors, sure, that works out just fine.
You know, I tell our clients, as they’re coming on with me, sometimes there are those very difficult conversations.
Let me be the messenger, quite possibly the bad guy in some cases, if it’s not what a resident is hoping to hear but that is our job.
So, we want us to be their point of contact, we want you to know that we’re, you know, working for the owner’s best interest, we also are very much respecting the resident’s best interest and their rights in the home.
But we have to manage based on the golden rule that is landlord and resident law and that lease document.
And, having a great knowledge of those and then having the comfort to make those decisions and conversations based on that.
So, some quick topics to consider if you’re looking at self-managing a home or moving to a property manager in Nashville.
Always happy to answer any questions, you know, by email or by phone call if you want to reach out to us, our email address is [email protected] or our office line is 615-925-3880 and extension 3.
I’m happy to help and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
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