Hi, I'm in the process of purchasing 2 investment properties in Austin.  I've read through a number of posts about self-management on biggerpockets and am leaning to go down that route (I'll be an out of city manager).

Out of the primary responsibilities as a self-managed owner, where do you typically see the most consistent pain and time spent?

- Rent Collection / Payments

- Accounting

- Fulfilling Maintenance

- Turns / Marketing / Showing

- Anything else that I'm missing?

I'm trying to get a better idea of which areas I should try to do myself vs. hiring help for.

Thanks!

@Zachary K. The biggest time and hassle drag is repairs. Especially when you are new. A tenant describes a problem and you don't know what to do about it. You don't know who to call. You go look at it and you still don't know the solution. Over time this become easier especially if you find a good and honest handyman. 

I automate as much as possible. I don't collect rent. Tenants go to my bank and deposit in my bank account. I have better things to do than chase tenants down for rent. They pay or they get an eviction filed. I try not to take phone calls. I train them to text me. If something needs to be fixed I text my handyman and he takes care of it. This cuts way down on drama.If you let them take advantage of you they will. They will pay all their Bill's and when there is not enough for the rent they will try and get away with paying late or not at all. You have to train them their are consequences to not paying their rent. Set the standard early and properly screen your tenants and it will be mostly on auto pilot.

Hi @Zachary K. congrats on the purchases! I own a 4-family which is roughly 30 minutes away from my Primary Residence and I am self managing. It has been 15 months now and I have certainly learned a lot.

The answer really comes down to what you plan on tackling yourself vs what you plan on hiring out.

Rent Collection can be a pain if you are waiting on a check to be mailed to you or if you go door to door collecting BUT there are several online options available now that make it much easier.

Accounting is not too bad, just make sure you are doing it regularly...I spend about 30 mins-1 hour per week and it is very doable...just make the time for it and stay consistent.

Maintenance is by far the most difficult aspect...if you are not a handy man then you will need to hire out the repair. At times it can be simple and easy but you will also find that even small maintenance repairs are costly and possibly challenging to have done in a timely manner. (i.e. Getting heating repair done in the winter when every company is booked...)

Turns are time consuming if done yourself, but save you money. If you hire it out time is not an issue but can be costly.

Marketing/Showing is time consuming unless you work around YOUR schedule and not everyone else...set appointments on Sunday from 2-3...don't go around tailoring your schedule for 6 PM on Monday for Joe...3 PM on Wednesday for Lisa...most won't show up anyways and those that do are only killing an hour of YOUR time.

One thing that you missed is just the general emails/calls/texts that you will consistently get from tenants...best way is to again work on YOUR schedule and not theirs...accept inquiries between business hours and leave after hours for emergencies only.

Best of luck...PM me with any questions!

@Steve DellaPelle , @John Underwood , @Ned Carey , you’ve all been amazingly helpful! Really appreciate the time you took to respond with such thought.

There are some free PM software options out there like Cozy and Tenant Cloud. Tenant Cloud specifically allows incoming maintenance requests to be submitted out into a vendor marketplace to be fulfilled (similar to Thumbtack). Have any of you tried something like this before? Seems like an interesting approach that could be helpful.

In the meantime, will definitely put some feelers out for local handymen which could come in handy in the future.