Marietta, GA · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 0 votes
Hello, I have been a landlord for many years now and I've been managing my properties myself, which means - finding and screening tenants, managing all the repairs etc. I also have friends who are also landlords who tried to hire a manager or a company to manage their rentals for them and they all feel that managing your rentals yourself is the only way to go. But i am curious - does anyone on here have a good experience with a property manager/management company? What sort of services do they offer? How much were these services? Are there any good ones? How do you find them?
I also self managed for quite a few years, but we knew we wanted a property manager at a certain point so we would have more free time etc. We have had our properties managed by the same company and person for about 8 years. It has been going very well for us and we are happy with our decision.
That being said I took my time to find a good fit with a management company. Anytime I was in the area of my rentals and saw a for rent sign I made note of it. I looked on Zillow for rentals in my area and noted who was managing the properties. I looked online for reviews of companies. Then I started to call the ones I was interested in to discuss how they managed the properties, policies etc. Finally I met with just a few of them with prepared questions to see if it was a fit.
I was not interested in the flat fee companies, they did not work for me. My mgmt. co. charges 10% per month for my first rental, 9% for my others. No charge to renew a tenants lease. 300.00 for a new tenant (My tenants have all been with me for at least 3 years).
Some of the services they provide that are important to me are:
Property inspections every 6 months, detailed with photos posted to the portal, no charge
Very good attorney when necessary ( No I have not had any evictions) but we had a tenant pass away, and between the attorney who advised the property manager, they handled everything in a prompt and professional manner, at no cost to me.
Also very good procedures for move-in and move-outs.