A good property manager can significantly increase your return on investment. A lot of people ask “how can that be when they are costing me money?”. Honestly it’s simple to answer that question.
A good property manager can act as a mentor. They will actually help you be a better investor by giving you information from years of experience. Most property managers have the experience and knowledge of a VERY experienced landlord. One important thing to consider is that you cannot profit from their experience if you don’t ASK for their advice, and LISTEN to what they say!
There is value in having a disconnect between tenant and owner. One of the things I learned early on is to never let my tenants know I was the owner of the property. So long as they thought I worked for the owner and I was just “doing my job” they were easier to deal with and much more understanding. A good property manager can act as gate keeper and referee, saving you a lot of headache, and often times you may never even know they’re doing it.
A professional property manager does it full time, and should be much better at it than you are. Even if you’ve been investing in real estate for years I can tell you that a professional property manager has more and better experience in the field than you do.
Property management companies have better technology and better connections, they have more people contacting them looking for rentals, and all of that adds up to significantly decreased vacancies. Vacancies are your biggest expense as a real estate investor, so anytime vacancy rates go down, return on investment goes up!