Do you own property that you’re considering turning into a rental income investment? Well, there are numerous checklist items to do before putting your property on the market, including getting the interior in good shape and up-to-code, doing some exterior work to increase your curb appeal to lure the best potential tenants, getting paperwork ready to approve a tenant, strategizing how you will advertise your property for lease, and even more.
Some property investors do indeed do their own property management, but for most, they look to real estate professionals to help them get all the moving parts in place. But who can legally provide the service to lease residential property for you?
The top 2 sectors of complaints to the Texas Real Estate Commission are Leasing/Property Management and Leasing/Property Management. No that’s not a typo. It refers to different types of violations. If your real estate agent (or the person who helped you purchase your property) does not have their brokers written authorization to lease residential real estate then they are not legally permitted to engage in this activity. Now the question is how many brokers are specific enough to detail the differences between leasing and property management activities?
So as an investor in the Austin Rental Market why does this matter to you? You can handle this on your own, right? You get it leased….then what? Who handles the keys, rekeying, and to what standards? Do you know what the property code is on keys and locks? How about smoke detectors? Who documents the condition at move-in? Who accepts payment for rent? We could go on but you get the point.
If you expect your agent to advise you on any of these you may be asking them to go beyond the scope of what they can legally do and they could lose their license. Do you want someone to help you that doesn’t know the difference? Let salespeople or your trusted real estate agent sell you your dream investment, and enlist a reliable and highly experienced Austin property management team to help you manage and lease that investment. Mix up the two and you might find yourself getting a call from the Texas Real Estate Commission regarding your activities and asking for a little bit of your time.
To stay out of trouble and on track to finding the right tenants and in-line with your investing goals, call us. We specialize in investment properties and investors and can lease your property knowing the answers to all of these questions and more.
By: Mathew Leschber, 1836 Property Management Founder and Kayla Gonzales, Marketing Manager
