If you own a rental property in Boston, you’re enjoying high rental values, low vacancy rates, and increasing property values. It’s a great market for investors, even if you live outside of the city or the state. At Platinum Realty Group, we work with international investors who own property here and live out of the country.
Smart property management is even more important when you’re protecting your investment from out of state. When you’re not in the same location as your investment, it’s difficult to know whether the home is in good condition and if the residents living there are taking care of it.
You might worry about unreported maintenance or neighborhood nuisances. What if there’s a vacancy that stretches on longer than expected? You need to be sure it won’t be a target for criminals and thieves.
Look for a Boston property management company that’s local and experienced working with owners and investors who live out of the area. In addition to property management, here are a few excellent ways to protect your out-of-state investment.
How to Protect the Condition of your Boston Investment
As an out-of-state investor, you need to know your property is safe from deterioration and damage. Talk to your property manager about their plan for responding to emergencies 24 hours a day. You’ll want to know they have a plan in case a fire, flood, or any other disaster occurs at your investment property. These issues would require an immediate response, and you need an emergency plan that’s responsive and designed to mitigate further damage.
Emergencies should be rare. If your property manager is responding to routine repair requests and prioritizing preventative maintenance, there should be very few urgent situations at your property. Here’s what you need to protect your investment property:
- A team of vendors ready to protect your property. You need to know they’re licensed and insured.
- Routine inspections.
- Tenant accountability.
Talk to your property manager about their plan for inspecting your property and holding tenants accountable to the lease agreement. As an out-of-state owner, you need to know how often you can expect property condition reports with pictures.
Protect Your Investment with Well-Qualified Boston Tenants
Another important part of protecting your property is identifying and placing well-qualified tenants.
You can’t exactly accomplish this yourself when you live out of state. So, talk to your management company about their plan for tenant screening and placement. You want to be sure they have the skills and the systems to effectively screen all prospective tenants. They need to be thorough, fair, and compliant with all state and federal fair housing laws.
Since you cannot meet potential tenants or show your property, you need to know your property management partner is:
- Marketing your property online
- Facilitating convenient showings
- Offering online applications
- Conducting thorough screenings that include checking credit, verifying income, and reviewing prior rental experiences
- Discussing and signing the lease agreement once an approved tenant is identified
Talk with your management company about the tenant screening process so you know you’re getting residents who can be trusted to pay rent on time, take care of the property, and follow the lease terms.
Retaining residents is just as important as finding them. When you’re able to keep your good residents in place, you’re saving money on expensive turnover and vacancy costs.
Look for management partners who can take care of the entire tenant relationship. When property managers invest in good relationships with your renters, you can expect:
- Fewer late rental payments
- Less chance of eviction
- Good lease enforcement
- Limited property damage
- Long-term residents who renew their lease agreements
Talk about your property manager’s retention rate. You don’t want to worry about the vacancy and finding a new tenant every year, especially not when you’re investing from afar.
Protecting Your Investment from Damage
Even good tenants can become unpredictable. What if there’s property damage left behind after they move out? How can you possibly protect your home from that?
Property managers should be prepared to prevent it and respond to it.
While you’ll have to cover the cost of general wear and tear in your rental property after one tenant moves out and before another tenant moves in, excessive damage is the tenant’s responsibility entirely. You’ll need a management partner that can hold those tenants accountable.
It can be unnerving when you’re not local to inspect the damage or gather quotes and estimates from vendors. You cannot go to the property and see the problems for yourself.
Property damage often feels worse than it is when you’re not actually here.
That’s why inspection reports and constant communication are so important. We’re not only protecting your property from tenant damage – we’re talking you through any potential problems that come up.
Boston Property Management Technology
How will you stay up to date with the performance of your rental property? You need communication that’s driven by technology.
Your property manager will need to facilitate easy communication so you know how your property is performing. If there’s a major problem at the home or an expensive repair that needs to be made, you’ll want to know about it, and you’ll want to respond to it.
Find a management company with a great online software system so you can log in from any place in the world and at any time and see how your property and your tenants are performing. You should have access to accounting statements, repair records, leasing documents, and anything else you need to know that your property is in good condition and bringing in rental income.
These are a few things that long-distance landlords and investors must really think about when it comes to protecting their out-of-state investments. We want to provide you with peace of mind when you leave your Boston investment property in our capable and experienced hands. When we work together, we’ll talk about your unique needs and how we can meet them.
If you have any questions or need any help with your Boston rental property, please contact us at Platinum Realty Group.