Researching property management New Haven/Hamden

[Jack D.]

Hi all,   New investor in New Haven area.  Wanted to ask if anyone can recommend a Property Manager in New Haven/Hamden area for Multi families and/or Single Family homes?  Do you find that you need a certain amount of properties before a  property manager will take you on as a client?  Thank you in advance for any feedback.

[Max Householder]

A property management company will work with you even on one property, however, some PMs are better for small/new investors and some cater more toward the big commercial properties or landlords with large portfolios. It's likely both would happily take your business, but a small company might feel more like a partnership while a large company managing 2,000 units might make you feel like just another number in their system. You'll have to feel them out.

Call up at least 2 or 3 in your area and schedule a sit down meeting/interview and ask them every question from this blog post that's relevant to your property: 80 Smart Questions to Ask BEFORE Hiring Your Next Property Management Company

That's exactly what we did and it helped us have confidence we were choosing the right company. The best two PMs we interviewed were happy to meet and talk shop for over an hour and both said that we were the first people to actually want to meet and interview them! They said most just call and talk for 5 minutes about their rate and then say okay. No wonder so many people end up hating their PM!

We ended up going with a smaller company at a slightly higher price than the other because we felt the working relationship would be best with them and their fee structure aligned their goals with ours: they make money when we're making money and they make more when we make more. Others felt like just a list of fees that we'd be nickel-and-dimed over every month. 

Definitely do an interview (remember that you're interviewing them) and try to meet/speak with the person who will actually be managing your property and not just the office/backroom manager. Know who you'll be interacting with on a weekly/monthly basis and make sure it's a fit. Anyways, that should get your started. Don't be embarrassed to ask a lot of questions and dig in on this stuff. This person or company will be managing your most important assets, so make them show you they're worth that trust. If they seem annoyed by it, don't bother.