A property investor needs to treat his business as a serious business. You should therefore have several procedures and processes in place to ensure the efficient running of your business. Here, we will discuss several ideas on how to organize and manage a successful property business.
As a successful property entrepreneur, you need to consider outsourcing various jobs to specialist firms hence freeing up your time to manage your core business. For example, the management of your properties can be outsourced to a professional management company. You can hire a book keeper to file all your receipts for you. All forms and letter templates can be outsourced to a personal assistant. Jobs requiring specialist skills such as plumbing and electrical work can be outsourced to suitable contractors.
When choosing a property management company to manage your properties for you, you need to ensure that they are reputable operators. Ask other investors that you know for recommendations; this should apply whenever you are looking for outside skills to help you in your business. You could also ask other property management companies what they know about the one you are considering to use. You should also check that your property fits neatly into the management companys existing portfolio. It is important to also take any professional fees into consideration. Can you afford to pay out a chunk of your rental income every month to a third party?
As a property investor, you should employ strict procedures and processes in your office too. For example, letters, magazines, catalogs as well as bills must be properly organized or arranged. You should have filing cabinets for each set arranged according to certain criteria so as to prevent confusion. For example, bills and invoices can be arranged based on their due dates. Receipts evidencing payments can be arranged according to the month in which the bills were paid. Any bills which can be offset against profits for tax purposes should be filed separately in another folder. Paychecks and deposit slips should be arranged separately also.
You should also keep an appointment diary to ensure that you do not miss any important appointments. For example, meetings with solicitors, brokers, estate agents etc.
Furthermore, you should keep records of monthly mortgage payments, loan payment dates, gas safety due dates, buildings insurance renewal dates etc. These should all be filed in separate folders to ease administration.
Finally, it is always useful to have a key cupboard in your office. This will house all the keys to your properties. It would be wise to use some form of coding rather than the address of the property on each key stub to ensure the security of your properties and tenants.
