Hiring a property manager?

Question

Hi! I'm new here and have a question for landlords... have you or would you hire a property management company? Why or why not?

Brian Burke · Answer

I wouldn't want to do it WITHOUT a property manager!  When I first started, I did it myself. After a while, I realized that life had a lot more to offer than managing tenants. If you have a small number of properties in your local area, you can likely handle it. If you want to grow larger, you'll want the help.

Tiger M. · Answer

Welcome! This should illicit a good response. Full disclosure, I'm a PM.

If you are physically close and can handle things, why pay? Just make sure you know the laws and prepare yourself for the unexpected.

One of my first clients, from 1992, was a local appraiser and just didn't want to deal with tenants. he simply wanted a check sent each month. Sadly, i listed the home last week as he past away 2 years ago and his widow needs the cash. For 20 years he paid me $75 a month but never worried about things. Pretty financially reasonable considering what a manager can accomplish.  If you consider a manger, vette well. As an investor i have both self managed and hired it out.

Lynn McGeein · Answer

Lauren, See the related discussions at the bottom, and you can also search the forums as I know there is great advice on older posts here on this same topic.  I still manage my first property as it is in an area I know and I have established connections so easy for me to handle even from out of state, and I visit there frequently due to family in the area.  The others, I have property managers as I'm too far away and don't have the same connections.  The key is to insure you are hiring a good professional firm as a bad property manager can really hurt your investment.    Even with the property managers, and we have great ones, we personally inspect occasionally, take a weekend and fix issues we find before they become problems that we'd be paying repairmen to handle.

Seth Williams · Answer

This boils down to my personal opinion...  but in my mind, ABSOLUTELY I would hire a management company.

Here are a few reasons why:
-	With a management company, I don’t have to deal with any of the tenant headaches. My management company screens each tenant and they are experts at this. They handle the time-consuming part of the job and send me a check in the mail every month. Showings, screenings, house visits and evictions are all handled by them while I am out living my life.
-	I don’t have to be a handyman (and believe me, I'm not). Management companies know who to call and how to fix things quickly and inexpensively (at least, mine does). Generally speaking, your management company will know more about these things than you will ever be able to learn on your own.
-	With a management company running your rental business, you can invest in properties anywhere in the world. Logistically speaking, if you live in New York, there is no reason you can’t buy a property in California and turn it into your own personal cash cow. Just because you can’t drive by and see it every day doesn’t mean it can’t produce a significant stream of income AND be managed better than you could ever do it by yourself. 
-	Management companies can bring a ton of value to the table and can actually help you make better investment decisions.  Every time I buy a new rental property, I have many ongoing conversations with my property manager, getting TONS of free consulting from an expert who knows the neighborhood better than I do. They tell me what kind of rent revenue I can realistically expect to make, what kinds of issues and costs I can expect to deal with, what the neighborhood is really like, and if they think I’m getting it for a reasonable deal. This information is a HUGE benefit that I wouldn’t have access to if I was trying to manage this whole operation on my own.

I'm in this business to grow it - not to screw around with tenant problems. The 10% fee I pay to them is absolutely worth the cost (in fact, I'd probably stick with them even if they jacked the price up).

Hiring a property manager?

Most Popular Reply