Oct. 7, 2011
Before I bought my first home, I rented this great little 1950s cottage. The owner was a nice guy who could handle all the repairs and maintenance himself. He had a full-time job but often came over on weekends or evenings to work on his investment property.
Then, something changed: He and his wife had a baby.
We hardly saw him again. Projects on his to-do list never got underway … at least not by the time we moved out. The home certainly could have used more attention. He also let a lease renewal slide by for several months before cluing in that we were now leasing month-to-month.
I wondered at the time why he didn’t hire a property manager. Sure, there’s a cost involved, but also great value in having someone take care of the details required to run a rental property … not only maintenance and repairs, but finding new tenants, collecting rent, and dealing with deposits, etc.
I drove by that rental house a few years after moving out. The house was gone. On the property was a new but not nearly as attractive home.
I have no idea how the owner made out on his investment, or whether perhaps he owned the new home. To this day, though, I wonder what might have been had he hired a Texas REALTOR® to manage his property.
