Is 12% Management fee outrageous?

[Amanda Thompson]

I currently own a property management company (started it one year ago!) and personally manage our own 22 investment properties. 

We are in negotiations to sell a chunk of land that has 15 units on it.

The buyer "very much would like" me to continue managing them!!

Here's my pitch:

- Extremely convenient for the buyer to not have to shop around for a PM company

- all the infrastructure is in place (tenant accounts, payment portal, maintenance requests, leases, etc)

- I hand-picked these tenants. I have high qualifications, so none of them have been a problem at all. They're all on 12 month leases.

- My husband's company does maintenance, lawncare, etc so we would continue with that as well (although extra charges for the new owner as far as repair costs, etc).

- The tenants know me, they know the system, it is a smooth transition with nothing changing except the person ultimately calling the shots.

- I do all my own marketing, social media, listing vacancies on websites, etc (we are at 0% vacancy)

- I have intimate knowledge of all previous maintenance and the layouts/highlights of each unit, relationships with subcontractors, and honestly I have personal (PROFESSIONAL) relationships with each one of my tenants.

I'm sure I could think of some other benefits to hiring me. But, I think that based on all of those things, plus the pure convenience of having it already set up, is worth the higher end of the spectrum. I am thinking of asking for 12%. 

I value any input you have to gift me!!!

[Scott Trench]

If you include lawn maintenance and snow removal, and you handle vacancy professionally, I think this is great. 

I'd pay 12% for a property manager who kept my vacancy to an absolute minimum. I don't want to see units sitting, however, and would require that at 12%, if you let any unit sit vacant for more than 30 days, that I have the option to move that unit to a new PM with no termination fee, and no questions asked.