REALTORS® Should Consider Property Management

Usually my posts are geared to Landlords and Tenants, however, I’d like to change it up and have a heart-to-heart chat with real estate agents about offering property management services.  Wait a minute… I don’t know why I make such absolute statements like that, my posts are also geared to fashionistas who love shoes and those who have the suga’.  Nonetheless, I digress.

I have been a REALTOR® for 12 years now listing and selling conventional residential properties, in addition to managing rentals here in Springfield, Missouri.  Often my colleagues ask me a question along the lines of “Why in the world do you do that? There is no money in property management.”  I beg to differ as property management has worked very well to my advantage as a REALTOR®.

1. It has been that steady stream of income (the monthly management fees) for when sales have hit a lull and income has not been consistent.
2. I (together with my business partner which is what I mean when I say the word “I”) have built a strong base of repeat investors who have used our real estate services to find and purchase good deals as rental properties.  Usually, they want the good rental investment, but don’t want to deal with management of the Tenants.
3. I have put together an in-house maintenance team, which consists of a mixture of employees and sub-contractors that can do a complete maintenance overhaul on a home that could easily rival that of an Extreme Home Makeover team (okay… almost.) I give my crew a guaranteed 40 hours Monday-Friday and pay them a salary.  Then I bill the hours, and my time to coordinate the crew, to the investor/owner.  This results in receiving income that is nice to have when my real estate commission checks are less frequent.
4. I get a lot of good credit card points for when we purchase supplies for home repairs (that we bill out to our investors/owners).  These points have sent me and the hubs on a cruise or two when I’ve desperately needed a vacation.
5. I create my “farm area” with my 600+ Tenants who eventually turn out to be homebuyers or at least refer me to their contacts who are buying homes.  The trick to this is to let your Tenants know that you are a REALTOR® who is not just managing property, but also selling houses, because they often don’t know how the process works.

So before you start judging me, thinking “I could never do property management” then let me say “yeah, you’re right, you could never do that.” <insert sarcasm here>

Think of me when I’m on my next cruise.

Tagged as: Dizmang Properties, getpaul, jessica hickok, make money, mo, property management, realtor, rentals, springfield, tenants