Self Storage Article Directory

Property Management

The current housing market has been surrounded by much controversy regarding the fluidity or stability of the market. Whether or not an unstable real estate and housing market is the direct cause, the apartment rental industry is now larger than it has formerly been.

Realestatejournal.com, affiliate to the Wall Street Journal, posted an article in October 2006 directly connecting “flattening home values” to the increase in property rental.

Because the demand for apartment, condo, townhome, duplex and home rental has gone up significantly; the temperature of the rental industry has increased accordingly. Would-be home owners apply the same bargaining and one-upping tactics as they would have to the home buying process to renting process.

In highly desirable areas such as Manhattan, potential tenants offer to begin paying rent months before their intended move-in date. Some tenants even offer to pay for a year in advance in hopes of gaining a lead over other renters in the area. Residents in extremely popular locations may even find themselves in a bidding war and willing to offer more than the asking monthly rent just to end their search for an apartment and have a place to call home.

The article posted by wsj.com goes on to say, “Rental landlords, who used to fret as prime would-be tenants jumped into the housing market instead, suddenly are in the driver’s seat.” Monthly rental rates for a standard 1,000 square foot apartment have jumped 3.7%, according to Property & Portfolio Research Inc and vacancy rates are at a low of 5.3 % and are speculated to drop as low as 5% according to Marcus & Millichap, a real estate and investment brokerage firm.

The lull in the housing market has definitely made it a landlord’s market. With low vacancy levels, perhaps a waiting list and more tenants to manage than ever before, property owners are looking to property management companies to take the burden off maintaining the details that come along with being a landlord.

Some of the major benefits of property management companies include taking the responsibility for accepting rent, addressing and servicing maintenance issues, marketing and advertising, and leasing new tenants after completing credit and background checks.

For a landlord, or property owner, the hassle of property management is well worth the associated fees to allow a team of professional staff at a local property management business handle the ins and outs.

Property management is ideal for real estate owners with a single property or property owners with quite a lot of rental properties.

Owners of a single or a few properties often have other employment that demands their attention. These proprietors don’t have time to answer every rental inquiry or make a trip to their rental property each time a drain is clogged. The benefit of allowing another team to take care of the small, everyday tasks of property management makes owning a property more enjoyable.

Another benefit that property management has for the owner of a small group of rental properties is that the property management company has the capacity to scope a wider marketing plan. A reputable property management firm has already built a solid core of leads, whereas newcomers to the apartment rental industry may find it hard to draw in the right kind of tenant.

This brings up another benefit of real estate property management. Most landlords don’t want just any Tom, Dick, or Harry living in their investment. Property management businesses should be equipped to conduct credit and background checks on each applicant. This process is important when determining the character of a would-be tenant and their financial responsibility.

Some property management companies may also initiate litigation with tenants with past due rent. However, litigation is often times considered a separate service and it the responsibility of an attorney or law firm.

Owners of a large group of rental property find property management a must have. The sheer size of owning and operating very large apartment complexes or several rental communities is more than an individual property owner can manage.

Logically, with an increase in the number of tenants comes an increase in the number of maintenance calls made to the landlord. A property management business would be able to field these calls and address them promptly. Property management teams usually have their own maintenance personnel who are qualified to repair a variety of routine issues.

Accepting monthly rent for landlords with numerous incomes coming in separately each month is also a daunting task that most real estate owners are glad to pass on to a well organized property management group. Most property management businesses also make collection calls to tenants falling behind on their monthly rent.

For owners of a large group of rental property, marketing and advertising may become chaotic. If a property owner wanted to advertise for each real estate property separately it could become costly and difficult to track. Property management companies often take care of advertisement and marketing and will be able to handle the constant ebb and flow of new tenants, former tenants and prospective tenants.  

Owners of large apartment rental properties can collect stacks of applications each month. A good property management company will be able to find desirable and trustworthy tenants by completing credit and background checks on qualified applicants.

Real estate owners with a large rental capacity may find it easier to manage their property within their own business by hiring a team of property managers, however most find that an established property management firm is less hassle and more efficient.

The housing market is in a lull, resulting in a lower amount of home sales. For current homeowners, the thought of moving or relocating is usually dampened by that stark reality that it is not a seller’s market. The common results are that homeowners decide not to put their house on the market, choose to remodel their home to stand out and draw a higher dollar on the market, or choose to renovate their home to accommodate their growing needs.

In an article written by Charles Ray Wilson, and published by Inside Self Storage, Mr. Wilson states that the self storage industry has continued to perform well in light of high foreclosure numbers and a soft housing market. In fact, the self storage industry demonstrated a 2 percent increase in rent collected per occupied square foot during the second quarter of 2007 versus the same quarter of 2006. This increase was not a result of the housing market, but rather a results of increased rental rates by nearly 8 percent.

Because homeowners may choose not to sell their home due to undesirable market variables, growing families are forced to take advantage of every square foot of space available to them. Converting an office into a nursery or finishing a basement are common occurrences. The fact is that the longer homeowners remain in one space, the more stuff they accumulate in it.

Self storage has become a hot commodity. Families find themselves in need of more closet space and the most economic alternative in today’s market isn’t selling a home, it’s renting a storage unit.

Storing boxes of baby clothes that might be needed later, the secretary desk inherited from Grandma, old couches and collections of vinyl records are a trend that’s sweeping across America.  The self storage industry offers many specialized storage options such as climate controlled storage, wine storage, boat storage, RV storage, drive up accessible storage and more to meet the specific needs of some items.

Homeowners looking to renovate in order to accommodate a growing family find that self storage makes the home improvement process much easier. Do it yourself weekend projects can turn into months of improvement and having the furniture safely out of harm’s way allow the homeowner to focus on the task at hand without the headache of removing stains and buffing scratches from the furniture.

The increased demand for self storage has self storage owners and operators finding a silver lining in an otherwise soft economy.  Self storage owners certainly don’t run the show alone, they employ the help of a trustworthy staff of store managers. The store manager is typically charged with taking care of the day to day tasks and property management.

A store manager may be responsible for leasing new tenants, accepting monthly rent, collecting overdue rent and filing legal actions and routine maintenance of the property. Self storage owners have come to appreciate the value of a reputable property management company.

Much like property management companies in the residential and commercial rental industry, self storage property management offers many benefits to self storage owners. Some of the services offered by self storage property management may include market analysis, rental pricing, overseeing daily operations, marketing and advertising, webhosting, human resources and recruiting, training, accounts payable and more.

For the owner of a single self storage facility, property management is a legitimate way to run a small business as part of a large corporation and gain many of the perks that the dominant self storage companies enjoy. Property management will also take a huge burden off the owner of a small operation.

Owners and partners of larger chains of self storage facilities find that property management is an ideal way to unify their facilities together. A self storage property management company will bring a team of professional property managers who can structure processes and chain of command within a larger corporation.

Self storage property management has gone beyond the routine and common services consumers have come to expect from a property management service. Self storage property management has developed specialized niche management companies that offer sales training specific to the industry so that self storage facility managers are able to rent more units. Services typical of such specialized sales management companies are call center, secret shopping, sales training, lead generation, online marketing and more.

To be sure, the soft housing market has brought an increase to the residential rental industry and has not adversely affected the self storage industry. The growth of each rental industry has brought more demand for strong, highly regarded property management companies.