Apartment Security: 5 Reasons to Hire a Security Company Instead of Relying on Tenants
Securing an apartment complex is an important aspect of owning and managing apartments. Keeping the tenants (and their property) safe keeps them happy. Happy tenants lead to keeping apartments occupied, and occupied apartments lead to more money. If an apartment complex wishes to employee security officers, they have a couple different options. One option is to rely on tenants that have law enforcement or security experience to do the job in exchange for free or deeply discounted rent. The other option is to hire a security company to monitor the premises for a fee.
There are a few disadvantages of hiring tenants to do security for you.
- Instead of paying someone to do the job for you, when you use tenants you just lose out on rent. This could seem like a great deal. However, in order to get the kind of security you want you will likely have to hire multiple tenants. This can result in a loss of income from rent, especially if you would be able to fill all your apartments to capacity with paying tenants. Although you will have to pay a security company for the use of their officers, it could actually save you money.
- Hiring tenants to do security for your apartment complex can backfire on you. There are likely to be times when a situation arises and there is no "security officer" there to attend to it. This is particularly likely when you only hire one or two individuals to do the job and don't give them set hours. Since many tenant-turned-security-officers have other obligations and no set hours, your complex is left vulnerable. With a security company, you are guaranteed to have someone there when you need them to be.
- Tenants aren't always monitoring the premises, even when they are home. They are sleeping during some of the most likely times for suspicious activity. Although they may be available to call when situations come up, they likely won't catch suspicious activity before it is reported. A security company can patrol the property during the hours that you need them to. They may be monitoring multiple properties nearby, but they are still out and about during prime times and are likely to catch problems as they arise.
- Using tenants to secure your property means entrusting them with access to locations that most tenants don't have access to. They can be given keys to places like offices and swimming pools so that they can monitor them during hours those locations are typically closed. This means that they, and their families and friends, have access to these places. This could lead to trouble. A security company will be given access to these areas, but since they are overseen by an outside company they are less likely to abuse these privileges.
- Hiring tenants can leave you in a difficult situation when they leave. Since they are likely to develop relationships with other tenants, if they have to be asked to step down they may talk to other tenants. Their relocation may not be a big deal, since they are possibly paying less in rent. However, this could result in the loss of business from faithful friends in the complex. If they didn't pay a deposit, you are out that amount of money if they leave the apartment in bad condition. In contrast, cutting ties with a security company shouldn't have much backlash.
If you're looking for security company for your apartment complex, consider getting in touch with a company like Intellex Security.