Hello BP members, just starting to learn about investing in real estate so my question is what should one expect from property management company. What are their roles and responsibilities and how would that help me?

There are generally three facets of property management: tenant management, maintenance/facility management and financial management. The standard 10% usually covers tenant management and some book keeping - advertising, screening tenants, preparing leases and renewals, fielding phone calls from tenants, collecting rent and conducting evictions.  If you want maintenance, you will probably have to pay a flat hourly fee for in-house maintenance technicians, and pay a higher rate for specialized technicians that the property management company has to outsource (i.e. HVAC contractor to change out a furnace).  

If you didn't want to manage the property yourself, you could hire a PM so that you could either free up your time to do activities that will bring you more income, or allow you to purchase and manage properties, when you otherwise couldn't if you were working a full time job or weren't in the same geographical location as your properties.  

If you do get a PM to assist you, don't assume they they will always be 100% on top of things...generally, only you will treat your assets with a highly focused level of care.  PM's are great and can help you optimize your time, but you always want to do random checks to see how your properties are functioning and maintained once they are under a PM.  If the PM proves themselves very capable and you are happy with the service, you can reduce your random checks, and if you aren't happy with the service after your checks, you can begin to look for a PM who will meet your standards.  

thank you for a great reply. I’ve read your intro and you seem to be doing great things. Do you have any favorite books or good habits that will helpful for a newbie.