Property Management Basics

[David Yee]

Hi. I am new to the property management space.  My interactions with my property manager have been much different from my expectations.  I think this gives me a good opportunity to learn more about the job to provide clearer instruction and set expectations.  Here are areas I'd like to understand.

- Rent Analysis: I have a lot of trouble trying to create a rent analysis.  It's hard to find comparable properties as quads are somewhat rare and my rental units are efficiencies of various sizes.  Is there some sort of industry standard for getting rough rental estimates?  It seems very paper nakpin-y to me. 

- Rent Collection:  What is the best software for rent collections?  How do you feel about autopay?  I was thinking I'd be happy to reduce rent a little bit in return for setting up autopay but this seemed like a foreign concept to my prop manager.  Is there a reason against it (outside of renters probably not wanting to do it)?

- Maintenance Checklist - Are there any industry standard maintenance lists?

- Value-Adds: What are the big value adds for property rentals?

- New Tenant Marketing: What are some of the best places to advertise for new tenants?  I think my property manager just created a sign outside the property.  This seems highly inefficient in 2021.