You’ve rented your condo unit for a few years, and so far, so good: the rent’s coming in, you’ve kept on top of repairs, and you’re pretty sure you’re doing this right. So why bring a property management company into the mix?

Even if you’re a few years into the landlording game, there are compelling reasons to bring in property management professionals to run your condo rental unit. While property management firms are most advertised for listing units, showing them, and vetting tenants through a thorough background check, the day-to-day services a property manager provides make it well worth it to make the switch, even if you’ve already rented your unit.

Today we’ll look at five great reasons it’s time to outsource your property management to a reputable company.

Interior of a Del Rental suite, image courtesy of Del Rentals

You’ve learned how to be a landlord—now get help keeping up

To say that renting, owning, and property in the City of Toronto is changing is…well, putting it mildly. With the year-old buying boom showing no sign of settling down, neighbourhoods gentrifying at the speed of light, and a whole generation looking to start families in the downtown core, knowledge about market trends has rarely changed so fast.

While most small landlords aren’t running their units full-time, property management firms are—which means a full-time and fully staffed commitment to knowing what’s current in your neighbourhood. Services like rent optimization ensure the rent you’re requesting from any new tenant is pegged to market trends. If you’ve set your rental rates according to 2012 or 2013 market standards, a property manager’s rent optimization service can potentially make you back their entire fee in rent adjustments.

What’s more, the legal landscape around condominiums is changing in Ontario. New regulations under the Condominium Act go into force in late 2016 or early 2017, and they don’t just affect the relationships between condo boards, builders, and owners: the right to quiet enjoyment of a unit is enshrined in law now, and will change how noise complaints are treated by condominium boards and the new Condo Authority.

An experienced property management company has a serious asset onside as the law evolves: a legal team.  As well as incorporating these changes into how they run each unit—and making sure everyone stays on the right side of the law even as it changes—a property manager’s in-house legal team can ensure the leases you offer are appropriate and stand up to the Residential Tenancies Act.

Earn the love of your condo board

It’s your job to keep up standards in your unit—and your condo board’s to keep up those standards in the entire building. Condo boards keep careful track of the percentage of rental units in their buildings, with some even requiring a written signoff from management to begin renting a unit out, and there’s a reason: they don’t know what kind of property manager you are, and there’s still a biased perception that tenants don’t care for their homes as well as owners will.

Condominiums, though, work with property management firms every day. And in the same way you and your co-workers use a common vocabulary, property management firms know how to address issues and proactively create solutions in a way that condominium boards—and their own property management firms—will understand.

The result? Everything gets done a little faster and easier, with more goodwill on all sides.

Interior of a Del Rental suite, image courtesy of Del Rentals

Stop problems before they start

As an independent landlord, you find out there’s a problem when you receive a tenant call—which means every issue is a race against the clock, and handling unit repairs means strategically having contractors researched and on hand well in advance.

With a professional property manager, you benefit from their liability assessment services: regular, top-to-bottom evaluation of what repairs and maintenance are needed before they become an issue. Since they also have a directory of trustworthy, affordable contractors, working with a property management firm lets you take a proactive approach to unit maintenance—which means happier tenants, lower repair bills, and an overall better-looking, better-working condo unit.

If something unexpected fails, however, property managers also have emergency services available: which means dealing with that burst pipe at midnight on the coldest night of the year doesn’t have to leave you spending the night on the phone to emergency plumbers.

It helps you grow your business

There’s a point in the life of every small business where it risks dying from its own success: your standards of service and professionalism are great, but the time required to keep up the good work becomes more than one person can handle, or takes up so much time that there’s none left to expand. If you’re the kind of landlord who’s enjoyed the renting experience and is thinking about acquiring another unit or two, it’s definitely the time to look into working with a property management firm.

As well as taking the day-to-day workload off your plate—and freeing up your time to concentrate on planning your business’s long-term growth—a property management firm has a full accounting team on staff. What that means to you? Your income and expenses are meticulously managed, the bills will always get paid on time, and you can work with them to gear your unit’s earning toward your next goal.

Once you’ve signed the papers on your next unit, you can skip the hard work of finding tenants and working out the bugs. Your property manager will already have a plan on file with you, and can fold the second unit in smoothly from Day One.

Don’t just get good tenants, keep them

While property management is known for working to get good tenants, less talked about are the efforts that go into keeping them. A property manager’s customer care team is a bridge between tenants and owners with one focus: to ensure good tenants have stable, long-term lease agreements—so both the tenants and landlords profit.

So if you’re moving into the next phase of renting property, take a second look at working with a property management firm. It might be the best decision you ever make for your time, your business goals, and your tenants.