Investor · Edgewater, MD · Member since 2015 · 2 posts · 0 votes
Hello All,
I am working on starting up a PM company serving residential properties in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, Calvert, Charles, Queen Annes, and Prince Georges counties in Maryland.
We will be using a team of licensed realtors to fill vacancies and can provide in-house handyman services for regular maintenance at a discount. For emergencies and we have a third party handyman lined up whose prices we do not intend to markup.
We are planning on charging 1 months rent to fill vacancies and our monthly maintenance fees start at 8%. As with the handyman we do not intend to markup any contractor/vendors costs.
I have joined IREM and have been lurking around these forums a while. If anyone has additional advice, suggestions, or resources I would love to talk to you.
Thanks, and I look forward to reading the community's replies.
If you will be managing single-family properties and duplexes, you should join your local NARPM chapter. As @Kayman Khaloughi stated above check out the www.NARPM.org website.
You will gain valuable insight and experience for your PM company.
I feel like we have a pretty good game plan, but I guess I was looking for some validation on if our model seems appropriate for the MD area. Also if there were any Maryland specific things I should be aware of outside of the standard landlord-tenant laws, fair housing, and EPA stuff.
Sohrab & Kevin,
At the moment, yes, all single-family and duplexes. I spent some time on the NARPM site last night and there is definitely a lot of useful information. I was originally turned off by the high membership fee and the requirements for certification. I will definitely work on joining the local chapter and taking a few of their courses. Thank you.
From a fee standpoint your model is in the norms within this area.
I would suggest you have all your documentation i.e. leases, management agreements, rental applications, etc if not prepared by at least reviewed by an attorney.
I am not sure how much or how little experience you have but getting together with an established property manager is never a bad idea just to ask questions or gather resources. I found that this worked best when I started out.