What scale can you get to when you self manage?

Investor · Reseda, CA · Member since 2019 · 297 posts · 150 votes

Is there anyone that both manages their own properties, and has managed to acquire many properties? What systems do you use to achieve scale? Anyone still buying long term rentals at the moment? If so, where and how and can you achieve positive cash flow?

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Randall AlanPro Member

Investor · Lakeland, FL · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

11mo

@Austin Fowler

Hi Austin, we have 37 rentals we self manage. My best suggestion to you is to automate where you can. Our favorite automation tool is one of the cloud based Property Management systems out there. We use Rentec Direct, which costs us about $2 per door per month… but there are many out there and most offer a pretty comprehensive suite of features.
It collects our rent, deposits it to our bank account, applies late fees, allows for use of credit cards, screens our tenants, has a full accounting suite with reporting, broadcasts our vacancies on 20-30 websites, collects applications, lets our tenants report maintenance issues, and much more.

The 35-40 number has worked well for us. It’s not too busy, and we are able to travel regularly, including internationally.

We used traditional financing on almost all of our units. We had the advantage of buying between 2018-2021, when prices and interest rates were more favorable. It is just technically harder to achieve today if for no other reason the interest rates and run-up in prices from the Covid era. It has been getting better in my opinion recently. We didn’t buy any properties for about 2 years between 2021 and 2023, but have bought couple properties in the past 2 years.

All the best!

Randy

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Jonathan KlemmBusiness Member
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Contractor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
7mo
Hey @Austin Fowler - I've learned this the hard way that there is for sure a limit!
And more importantly, there is a limit when the majority of your focus is some where else.
There is ZERO DOUBT that you will have issues that pop up when you own rentals! And for me, they continually popped up at the worst times for 2 of my Southside Chicago properties! I am actually in the process of working to sell them now because the return isn't great and the stress has been horrible! Plus, this is after I switched to a property manager....my expenses honestly got worse.
How many properties do you have and what software are you using to manage them?
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Rachid AbadliBusiness Member
Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2024 · 129 posts · 36 votes
3mo
I think the ceiling depends entirely on whether you build systems or do everything manually.

Manual — texting tenants, tracking rent in a spreadsheet, and keeping maintenance notes in your head — you're probably capped at 5–10 units before things start falling through the cracks.

With real systems — automated rent collection, maintenance tracking with vendor coordination, compliance calendars, and proper documentation workflows — I've seen solo landlords manage 30+ units comfortably. It's not about working harder; it's about not reinventing the wheel every time someone's toilet runs.

The inflection point for me was around unit 4 or 5. That's when "I'll just remember" stopped working and I needed everything in one place. Especially in California, where compliance requirements alone — rent cap tracking, required notices, and security deposit timelines — can become a part-time job.

What's your current portfolio size, and where's the bottleneck?

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