Benefits of Rent Collection from a Company, as Opposed to an Individual

Today we are discussing rent collection. This is often a difficult thing for individual landlords to do, and in order to illustrate how it can be different when a company collects rent, I’m going to tell you a personal story. We met a property owner who had a four-plex. He lived in one unit and then he had tenants in the other three units. He came to us and explained that he was having a hard time collecting rent from the other three tenants. They were always late and he had to make several requests before payment was made. He asked for our help, and we took over the management of that entire property. We gave the tenants notice when we took over, to let them know that we would be representing the property owner, and thus would be responsible for collecting rent going forward. When the first of the month came around, none of those tenants paid their rent. So, we did what we had to do. We posted Three Day Notice forms for all those tenants. They paid their rent immediately and from that day forward began paying rent on time every month. They knew they were dealing with a business and not an individual. It made a big difference. It can be very easy for people to avoid paying an individual, but it’s a little harder avoiding a company. A property management company knows the rules and regulations and we know how to get things done to protect the owner and the owner’s investment. Tenants will be hesitant to pay rent late when it’s a company and not just your neighbor. This is one of the major benefits to working with a property manager; we are able to keep the relationship between landlords and tenants professional and not personal. When you are trying to decide whether to be a property manager or hire a property manager, consider that the tenants will respect a company more than a person when it comes to paying rent. You have mortgage payments due on a monthly basis, so getting the rent in on time is important to your own financial health. You also don’t want to waste your time having to chase tenants around. If you have any questions about what we’ve discussed, or you’d like more information on how to successfully collect rent from tenants, please contact us at Key West Residential Property Management.