Leasing agent/property manager for rental house recommendation
Hello All, I am a new investor to Tulsa rental house market and live in Tulsa as well.
We purchased a single family house near tulsa/bixby that could be rented at $1200 monthly and are considering either managing it ourselves or hiring a property management company.
After some research online:
1. Here are some PM companies with good reviews I find : renter places, PMI management and Property framework. Any recommendation for property management companies?
2. Is that common here for investors to manage rental property by themselves？Is it easy to manage a SFH rental property here by yourself considering the risk of delayed rent, eviction possibility and ect?
We are considering to hire a reliable leasing agent at least for tenant screening, house showing and ect. Any recommendation? I couldn't find many reference online for leasing agents. Not sure if that is because many investors here have their house managed by property management companies instead of themselves. Any advice will be appreciated!
Most people I know self manage at first until they get enough properties that its to much for them to do, unless they are to busy to do it or live too far away and make more for their time then it cost. With only one property, its not that big a deal and on 1200mo would save you $100-120mo. As long as you pre-screen tenants well, most of the time there's not a lot of time involved unless you own a property in bad condition or get the wrong tenants. Also, if you do it yourself and it becomes too much, you can hire a PM at anytime.
Thanks a lot for your advice! @Jeff Filali We are leaning towards managing it ourselves as well. And your advice definitely help us gain more confidence to do it ourselves. We would pay more attention to screen tenants.
In 2013 I needed to learn how to be a landlord and https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/27/tenant-screening/
is what led me to Biggerpockets. Screening the tenant is one of the most important decisions in renting your house. They can make you a profit or destroy your place. If you have a nice place in a good neighborhood and get the right tenant, then it won't take much of your time. I have a great tenant, she takes care of the house, sends the rent on time or early each month. I talk to her once a year to renew the lease and maybe inspect the house once more during the year. Not much time involved after you get that right tenant. Getting that right tenant may take a dozen times screening phone calls by potential tenants and showing the house half a dozen times, or more.
Now if you have an older house in not great shape, then you may get several maintenance calls throughout the year and need a network of people to repair your property. If you don't have the time to find repair people or the network, then a property management company will have people they can get out to repair the property probably quicker than an individual can get the repair people to respond and maybe at less costs since they deal in volume.
If your property is local, I recommend doing it yourself to learn what is involved before hiring a property management company. But the learning process may take time away from your life that you would rather spend doing something else.
@Todd Willhoite Thanks a lot for sharing the information and the advice! That's really helpful! We are pretty much convinced to manage it by ourselves and view it as a great opportunity to learn. You all have a good weekend!
Mat Zalk @ key renter is the best in the biz!