Personal Assistant instead of Property Manaement Company?

Question

I am a traveling consultant.
I think I am having some tenants move out in the future and I need someone to show the place and be there when the cleaning crew is there.
The Property Management firms cost way to much for what they do and they always do it wrong or make errors.
I have a problem trusting people i dont know.
I was thinking about hiring a Personal Assistant for these duties.
It would cost me less and they would need the extra $ and I would kinda trust them more since I would interview then etc..

Do you have a P.A. for these type of tasks if your not around?

J Scott · Answer

Hiring an employee to handle all these kinds of day-to-day tasks is the best way to provide you the extra time necessary to scale your business.

Think about it:  The types of tasks you're talking about are the types of tasks you can pay someone $10-15 per hour to do -- should you be doing $10-15 per hour tasks yourself?

Of course not!  As an investor, your time is better spent focusing on the $100 per hour tasks (or the $1000 per hour tasks).  You should be focused on finding your next deal, networking with potential partners, creating marketing/sales strategies, etc.

These are the tasks that are going to be worth the big money to you and your business, so focus on them; don't spend your time on those tasks that you can hire out cheaply.

At $10/hour, you can hire someone half-time (20 hours/week) for $10K per year.  Even after you add in FICA taxes and insurance, that's less than $15K per year...use that employee to handle all your day-to-day tasks and if there's time left over, have him help you find deals.  If you use your freed up time wisely and use your employee's time wisely, you shouldn't have any problems recouping that $15K (and hopefully MUCH more) with the deals you find and the strategies you implement.

If you don't treat your investing like a business, it never will become a business...

Rich Weese · Answer

good and property mgmt, shouldn't be used in the same sentence,imo!! I like the idea of personal assistant, but you need a LOT of properties or other things for the PA to do. I'm trying to determine the same thing at present and am considering a PA, but he would do a lot of other things. Rich

Syed Lateef · Answer

A great post right here @j scott ... even if its 7 years old

Account Closed · Answer

[[[[......It sad to hear so many negative things about PMs because Im starting up my own company now....]]]

Gamal, there are so many bad property managers out there that if you do a good and thorough job, word will get around and you will have more business than you can handle.

Screen the tenants thoroughly, do repairs immediately, and shop for reasonable repair costs. Make the tenants behave and be strict but fair with them. Get the owners accounts to them every month in a timely manner.

Have a very secure system for holding the deposits (I know 2 management companies where a clerk stole the deposit money).

And here is the important one: once your business prospers don't get lazy and start taking shortcuts to reduce your work load.

Account Closed · Answer

I like the idea of a personal assistant.

You'd have to have either a lot of rentals or else a bunch of other work they could do.

You should be able to get a much better quality person because "personal assistant" to an investor is a much higher status job than "property manager".  Some eager young college graduate might very well jump on the job.

Another benefit: a personal asistant will do a much broader range of tasks. You can send them to tote and fetch, look at properties for you, run figures, do the mail, manage appointments, etc.

Gamal R. · Answer

If you dont want to keep someone "on staff" maybe you can pay someone you know do those tasks. I basically do that for my brother for a couple hundred bucks. Im sure someone can use a little extra money.

It sad to hear so many negative things about PMs because Im starting up my own company now.

Justin Case · Answer

I think a person wanting to learn about real estate investing would be interested. They would make a little $ and learn first hand.

I would jump on this if I could. lol

I just have troubling trusting people and I am very particular how I want everything done.  Earlier in the year I had been flying back myself to show the place.

Jim Wineinger · Answer

Sounds like you need a good PM company.

To hire someone just for when you are not around would probably not be in that persons interest. You would really have to make them an employee of yours and make that one of their duties.

How would their wages compare to the cost of a good PM company?, not the bad PM companies that you have been using.

Personal Assistant instead of Property Manaement Company?

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