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Should You Manage Your New Orleans Rental Property Yourself?

By Satsuma Property Management

Take the stress out of property ownership by delegating day-to-day management to Satsuma Property Management.

Maybe — unless you lack the time or expertise to do so. Life is short, and often you’re better off working with a professional property manager.

Once upon a time, we were told that earning revenue from real estate was a piece of cake.

All you needed was a little information and inspiration in the form of slickly packaged and expensive weekend seminars at which a real-estate guru would explain the secret formula. That, plus a few audio tapes and books, and you’d be all set to collect the “passive” income provided by real estate holdings. Anybody could do it.

And we’re still told such things. Get-rich-quick schemes never die.

For some reason, we don’t get quite the same frequency of infomercials about how to get rich quick as a professional in industries like medicine, construction, botany, or accounting. When it comes to most specialized professions, we tend to recognize that hard-won knowledge and experience and continuing conscientious effort are required to get solid results. And we have no problem enlisting the services of qualified and dedicated professionals when we need their specialized know-how.

Manage your New Orleans property yourself?

You also often need professionals when it comes to managing property of any great extent, such as rental properties. Maintenance and repairs, compliance with relevant laws and regulations, advertising and showing vacancies, performing background and credit checks, collecting rent, dealing with complaints, evicting a bad tenant, supervising any employees or contractors, keeping detailed and easily accessible records — none of it happens automatically.

All such tasks must be performed efficiently and on a daily basis if you want your investment to be consistently profitable.

Sometimes it makes sense to manage a property yourself. Perhaps only one house or apartment is involved, you live next door, you have the time and skills to handle repairs, and so forth.

But often it’s best to delegate pricing or properties. When that’s the case, hire a well-qualified property manager. Here are a few of the considerations that may tip the balance in favor of doing so.

You Lack Time to Learn the Law

To manage a money-making rental property legally and effectively, you need to understand relevant laws and regulations, and you need to stay up to date when the rules change. You may not have the time to acquire this expertise and stay on top of things.

If you don’t, though, you may end up making mistakes. Bad mistakes. You may even end up breaking the law. And chances are, a bureaucrat or judge won’t accept “I was learning on the fly as best I could and there’s only so many hours in a day” as an excuse.

An experienced and reliable property management company manages the property in a way that complies with all relevant laws and regulations. That’s just part of the job.

Good Tenants Aren’t Always Easy to Find

Perhaps you’re a people person, and you’re ready to do your due diligence. Even so, finding and keeping good tenants isn’t easy. You want to protect your property, and you also want any vacancies to be filled as quickly as possible. How do you find the right tenants and find them quickly? How do you do it again and again?

Even a low vacancy rate means recurring vacancies if you have more than a few rental units. Even a single problem tenant can make your property less profitable and less inviting for other tenants, current or prospective.

Our dedicated team thoroughly vets every applicant so that the tenants we find for you are reliable.

We do what’s necessary to ensure that you receive continuous rental income for your property and that your property maintains its value with the lowest possible costs of ownership. This means finding tenants who meet our standards: tenants who respect your property and your other tenants, let you know when unscheduled repairs and maintenance are necessary, pay the rent on time, and plan to be your tenant for the long run.

You Don’t Live Near Your New Orleans Rental

You need someone on the ground who knows the local market and won’t set the rent either too high or too low. A local company like Satsuma Property Management schedules repairs quickly, including emergency repairs, and maintains your property efficiently.

Our top-rated servicemen and contractors expertly tackle everything from small service problems to large repairs and property improvements. And the costs are reasonable. We have negotiated the best possible rates with some of the top providers in New Orleans, and we pass the savings on to you.

You’re Expanding Your Investment Portfolio

How many properties do you already own here in New Orleans? Are you planning to buy more?

As the number of properties you own grows, so does the number of the tasks and obligations you must juggle if you are managing the properties yourself. It’s a full-time job — fine, if you have the time and energy to do it. But if you do have another full-time job, you can easily spread yourself too thin. Even if you have no competing work obligations, doing everything required to keep your properties running smoothly (sometimes in the middle of the night) means a lot less time for other things, including family and scouting out other investments.

No matter how many properties you may have, Satsuma Property Management has the skills, experience, and resources to manage them effectively. And we’ll keep you thoroughly informed as we perform all of the everyday tasks required to manage your rental or commercial property.

To learn more, contact us with questions with your rental property management questions or call (504) 621-5400

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