A guest post by Gabriel Knight, Mortgage Fit, Chicago, IL

While rental property investment might look like a rewarding and positive venture, managing both tenants and properties can be overwhelming. As such, you may need to hire a professional property manager to make your life easier. This is an especially good idea for rental property owners who have no experience or don't want to spend their time managing a rental property on their own. With a property manager, you’ll be able to ask mortgage questions if you run into any trouble with your property. Here are some reasons why you should hire a residential property manager to manage your residential property properly.

Set the right price – You can look online to see what the other landlords are charging for the same kind of property to get an idea of the rent you should charge, but a good property manager will do a complete analysis of the market to choose a rental sweet spot. You’ll have the right balance between increasing your monthly income and preserving low rents.

Search for the right tenants – An experienced property manager can help you find the right tenants. The property manager also takes care of all the details related to your property, like sorting through legal issues, evaluating credit reports, verifying employment, performing security checks, and checking references. You’ll wind up with the best fit between property and tenant.

Collect and deposit the rent payments – If you have any experience in billing, you know that collecting payments from customers is not an easy task. Property managers have efficient systems to collect monthly rent from tenants in a timely manner. This is important when you’ve reached the threshold of properties that makes collecting rent too time-consuming.

Proper marketing of your property – An experienced property manager knows exactly where and how to advertise and market your property. He also knows how to time advertisements so your property can be rented quickly, thus avoiding long-term vacancies.

Maximize profits – Hiring a property manager will help you maximize profits on your rental property. A property manager usually receives a percentage of your property’s monthly rent in return for their services. This rate ranges between 6% and 10%, which is usually less than what you’d pay to hire a team of professionals to handle the things the property manager will handle/streamline.

Landlord/Tenant Relations – In addition to finding good tenants, a property manager will stay on top of things to maintain a good relationship between the tenants and the landlord. The property manager takes care of routine inspections and deals with every situation that comes up.

By hiring a good residential property manager, you’ll successfully reduce the risks involved in the real estate game. This makes the things much simpler and more enjoyable for you.