Property Management - Is 200 doors per PM a lot?

Question

We just vetted a company for property management that mentioned each PM has a book up to 200 doors. This seems like a LOT but I have no context.

Can BP provide any insights?

Nathan Gesner · Answer

200 is too many, but there are other factors to consider. Do they have a leasing agent handling marketing and screening? Do they have a maintenance coordinator handling all the maintenance calls? Do they have administrative support locally or through virtual assistants?

Generally, one PM can handle around 100 doors. But if they have support staff helping them, they can certainly handle more. I was running 150 doors before I hired an administrative assistant. When I hit 300, I had an administrative assistant and a second property manager. Now I'm at 400 doors and 350 storage units, but  have an administrative assistant and five property managers.

There are too many variables to answer the question.

Samuel Eddinger · Answer

The rule of thumb that I've heard from better Property Management Companies than mine is that for residential doors (not HOA communities), you should have 1 body for each 50 to 75 units.  For 200 doors, there should be about 3 staff supporting that.  The total number of people are responsible for all direct tasks (owner facing, vendor facing, tenant facing, accounting, leasing).

We have about 300 units and have 6 full time staff.  We just hired another staff and are working to reduce our backlog.  Especially right now, more staff is better as everything in property management is harder.  We also are a proactive property management company that does property reviews, lease renewals, and is proactive with raising rents, etc.  All of that takes additional support as opposed to reactive property managers that are just reacting to one emergency after another.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Matt Corso you're getting good feedback here!

Suggest you ask the PMC what their PM's specific responsibilities are. Then use the other answers here to make your own evaluation.

Louis P. · Answer

That's interesting Samuel - does leasing make up a large/meaningful percent of the PM revenue?  That's a good amount of staff per door IMO.  Would seem you're either getting very strong $ per door, substantial leasing income, or cost of staff is relatively low.

Just curious, and interesting to see the different ways people can structure the same business quite differently (even Nathan's evolution is a good example).

Josie Brown · Answer

Hi Matt! It depends on whether or not the PM has any tasks delegated to other team members within the company. I'd be happy to discuss this with you further so feel free to send me a message.

Es Stones · Answer

Matt,

Would you be willing to share how you vetted the PM company?

Thanks

Steve

Matt Corso · Answer

Thanks all! It does appear that there is some staff supporting each PM.

Leasing agent

Maintenance Coordinator/Maintenance Team

Underwriting Team

Samuel Eddinger · Answer

We manage basically class C properties and in Connecticut, there is a lot of old buildings that take a lot of attention. We also have been attracting owners with properties that need a lot of attention.  For well maintained SFR, I'd say I'm probably overstaffed but with us and the turnover we are experiencing with new owners and selling owners, I think we are staffed correctly.  We did recently update our lease and PMA to try to bring in more revenue to justify the increase in staff.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Louis P. we're setup by departments as PM's didn't work for us.

It does make giving owners QUICK answers challenging at times, but they do get GREAT answers from our specialists.

Property Management - Is 200 doors per PM a lot?

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