Pros and Cons of Large vs Small PM Co

[Jules Aton]

Any insight into pros and cons of large management company and by large I mean local and well known in the area, definitely not like Vacasa vs small property managers? I wonder if a larger, more slick operation which I know would cost more on the front end would be worth it to streamline pricing, increase exposure and therefore occupancy.  

[Andrew Steffens]

Hi Jules,

Each company will have to be taken on their own merits but I will give some general points.  Also if you could quantify what a large local company is, 30 listing or 300 listings?

Smaller companies undoubtedly will give you more time and attention, but most small companies (I would say under 40 or so listings) are likely a single person or maybe an owner and 1-2 employees.  An operation this size requires all involved to wear a lot of hats at once and you may end up with the same person snaking slogged drains and answering guest inquiries, which is not ideal.  They also have less reach (I am partnered with Marriott Homes and Villas and other cool niche platforms and they only work with PM's managing 50+ units), and less overall resources.  They have to do more with less.  If they are successful at juggling this they will likely grow and along with growth comes new challenges that may not be appealing to you at that time.  If they fail, they take you down with them.

Larger companies (100+ listings I would say) have more reach and resources but will likely give you less attention.  You will be more like a number but if they have good systems in place this is not too bad of a situation.  To me the real bad experiences come from the mega companies i.e. Vacasa.

I do think the sweet spot is in the middle, 40-90 or so listings where you can sort of have the best of both worlds, but again this will always vary market to market and manager to manager.

Good luck!