While plenty of rental property owners have the time and the expertise to keep track of their business, not all have the luxury to do the same. Sometimes, a landlord would not have enough time to devote to their rental property business due to being busy with another business or a day job. If you belong to that group, the best course of action for you to ensure success for the business is to hire a manager or a management firm to handle the bulk of landlord duties.

Before you go and hire a rental property manager, you have to make sure that you are going to be working with a responsible one. To help you make sure, you have to spend some time examining the rental property management agreement that you need to sign. By doing so, you can see if the management company has your best interest in mind and they are not just out to make a quick buck.

Obviously, you have to heck check the services that would be rendered by the manager and their rate. Check for hidden fees so always check the fine print. You would not want to end up being trapped in an agreement which would require you to pay for services that are next to being useless. It would also show you a good comparison point between management companies.

The agreement should also include the responsibilities for the landlord and the manager. This part of the agreement should list down the things you would be responsible for. Also, it would sometimes contain limitations for the landlord like not being able to bring just any tenant in as every tenant should go through the screening guidelines formulated and set in place by the property manager.

The agreement should also state that the manager would support Equal Housing Opportunity. This also means that the management firm would follow the fair housing laws being enforced in your local area by local and federal agencies. This should be included in the agreement.

Another thing to look for in the document is the liability of the property manager. Make sure that they would be required to answer to issues arising from their negligence. There should be no loophole for them to use to deflect any liability to you as a result of their inability to perform their job properly.

You should also check for an early termination clause so that you can get out of the agreement if you can quantify and prove that the property manager is not doing the job properly.

Elaine Salt invites you to visit Salt Lake Property Management to learn more information about property management and how to grow your rental property business.