Does property management blow the budget for small MFAs?
I'm a new investor living in/looking in the Cleveland market, interested in cutting my teeth on small multi-family apartment buildings (<10 units). I've been crunching numbers on some of the deals I've seen offered here just to get confident with the relationships between purchase price, NOI, CAP, and cash-on-cash returns - to begin to understand what I could afford and what it might result in for me. Everything makes sense until I add in a line item for property management. Then, the budget is blown, dropping any cash-on-cash return into the 0-2% range. With Cleveland CAPs hanging around 8% in the ideal investment neighborhoods, is it reasonable to think professional property management is even an option on a small apartment building? Or am I missing something in the math? Curious for the experience of others...
Thanks for any insights!