Being a landlord or landlady means that you have a steady stream of income. Unfortunately, it also means that you have to deal with a lot of issues with tenants, too. When you know you simply do not have what it takes to be "the bad guy" when you have to be, you can outsource all of the following "bad guy" tasks to property management, who will perform these tasks for you (for a fee).

Post-Rental Clean-outs

It makes you squirm, does it not? Previous tenants who chose not to clean out their apartments before leaving them behind tend to leave them in the worse states possible. Even worse are the tenants who ignored the "no smoking," "no pets," and/or the "no redecorating" rules. 

When you cannot bring yourself to do the cleaning and repainting, or you live too far away to do it, you definitely need a property manager. There are actually LOTS of rental properties owned by proprietors who do not reside in the same city or state as their properties and tenants! If you are not there, you cannot do the upkeep, cleaning or maintenance. Yet, it has to be done, which is why so many proprietors hire property managers.

Verbal and Written Warnings

If you own an apartment complex, there is always going to be that one tenant that makes too much noise, listens to music too loudly, or parties too much. While you can establish rules for the building that forbid such behavior and/or establish a noise ordinance in the building that all tenants must follow, you can have a property manager be the one to hand out punitive measures to that one tenant. Usually, the punitive measures are verbal or written warnings that allow the tenant to clean up his or her act and be respectful of others in the building. If he/she does not comply, your property manager can also do the eviction notice and eviction procedure. 

Evictions

Evictions are the hardest thing you ever have to do as a proprietor. You know that you are making someone homeless, unless that someone can find a place to stay within the time it takes to exert the full eviction of his/her stuff and his/her person from the apartment. Since evictions are a major confrontational thing, and you do not want a confrontation with your tenants, property managers can act as your eviction muscle in your place.