Property Managers: How do you pay your leasing agents?

Question

In my area it is common for larger property management companies to have leasing agents on staff and pay them either hourly/salary or commission or both.  I am curious how you, as a property manager or owner of a management company, compensate your leasing agents.

William Robison · Answer

Chris DeTreville

What did you ever decide to do for leasing agent pay?  Im in the same dilemma.

Zoran M. · Answer

For lower-rent properties (<$900/mo), a number of large PM firms in Cleveland charge a $500 per unit lease-up fee.  10% of collected rents is standard for ongoing management.

Chris DeTreville · Answer

I know what property managers usually charge owners, but my question is how you as a business owner/property manager pay your agents.  I am a leasing agent for a property management company and I am paid an hourly wage plus 30% of the leasing fee which varies, but our fees are low compared to other companies.  For example, many of our properties have a $150 flat leasing fee when the unit is rented.  I am wondering if it is better as the owner of the company to not pay the leasing agent an hourly wage and pay them larger commissions instead.  There are benefits to having a full time employee do the leasing because we can do a lot of other stuff.  Just looking to see what the alternatives are out there compared to how we do things.

Christopher B. · Answer

I worked as an agent for a large mgt. company here in TN and received about 10%-15% of 1 months rent , sometimes a bit more or less depending on the length of lease term and concessions given to the tenant. There were other bonuses tied to the performance of our team. James is correct that you can expect to pay 1 months rent plus 10% if you're paying a mgmt. company to manager your apartment building.

James Wise · Answer

As a p.m. A common pay scale is about 1 months rent to place a tenant and 10% of monthly gross rents to continue managing the properties.

Chris DeTreville · Answer

So one months rent plus salary/hourly wage or is it 100% commission based?

James Wise · Answer

1 months rent is pretty common