New to Real Estate · Iselin, NJ · Member since 2022 · 67 posts · 22 votes
Hi folks, I am thinking about a property purchase through Awning.com. They are property management company. Not sure if anyone has experience working through them. Please share.
Update on my experience with Awning - I fired them effective 10/31/23, and since 11/1 I have been managing the property myself. I'm now kicking myself for paying Awning so much money for doing very little work (on top of creating a list of additional problems that otherwise wouldn't have existed). If you have just a single property, it is very, very easy to manage yourself and you'll save a ton of money by not paying a property manager (thousands of dollars).
AirBnb already has all the tools you need to automate messaging. I also have PriceLabs and Turno to automate pricing and housekeeping/maintenance. I spend literally just minutes each week between communicating with guests and my cleaning/maintenance team, as well as ordering more items that the cleaner says we need to stock up on for the property.
I can see the need for property management services if/when you have a larger portfolio of properties, but for a single property I highly recommend doing it yourself and saving the money. I thought I wanted to be entirely hands off as well, but the amount of actual work is so small day-to-day, and property managers charge so much, that it is worth being hands on right now.
I can assure you of this - it is NOT worth 25% of your revenue to pay a property manager when they literally spend a minute or two each day thinking about your property. I now know this after managing myself for a couple months.
I've been using Awning now since April, and I DO NOT recommend them. It has been a horrible experience for me so far. Their communication is horrid (and sometimes non-existent), they are extremely unorganized, and I've had to be pretty hands on with my STR property (even though I told them from the beginning I wanted to be hands-off).
My housekeeper/maintenance team also hates working with them.
Newark NJ · Member since 2019 · 23 posts · 3 votes
2y
@Jason O'Day thanks so much for your advice, just bought a single fam in upstate NY , and I am considering doing STR at least until the spring when it is a better time of flipping, i am looking for an STR managing company to do it A-Z, and i stumbled into awning I will be cautious now.
Update on my experience with Awning - I fired them effective 10/31/23, and since 11/1 I have been managing the property myself. I'm now kicking myself for paying Awning so much money for doing very little work (on top of creating a list of additional problems that otherwise wouldn't have existed). If you have just a single property, it is very, very easy to manage yourself and you'll save a ton of money by not paying a property manager (thousands of dollars).
AirBnb already has all the tools you need to automate messaging. I also have PriceLabs and Turno to automate pricing and housekeeping/maintenance. I spend literally just minutes each week between communicating with guests and my cleaning/maintenance team, as well as ordering more items that the cleaner says we need to stock up on for the property.
I can see the need for property management services if/when you have a larger portfolio of properties, but for a single property I highly recommend doing it yourself and saving the money. I thought I wanted to be entirely hands off as well, but the amount of actual work is so small day-to-day, and property managers charge so much, that it is worth being hands on right now.
I can assure you of this - it is NOT worth 25% of your revenue to pay a property manager when they literally spend a minute or two each day thinking about your property. I now know this after managing myself for a couple months.