Hiring a Property Manager is Not For Everyone

[Adam Bartomeo]

Having a property manager look after your property may not be right for you. You may be educated and passionate about managing your own properties. Here are some guidelines of when you should hire a PM based on units, location, and education.

I began my journey by house hacking and then began buying SFH to rent while at the same time I was working a full-time job. As my portfolio began to grow, I realized that I was going to be unable to manage the properties and keep a full-time job (we had 5 annual rentals). At the time I was married and my wife stepped in to help manage the properties. Our portfolio began to grow but at 10 we reached a barrier again. With both of us working FT, managing 10 rentals, and parenting our kids we could no longer grow unless one of us left our jobs or we hired a PM.

Managing one or two annual rentals is not difficult for most people, especially if you are local to the property. The further away you are the harder it gets and the more units you acquire the harder it gets. We bought a property out of state and that was extremely difficult to manage even with family and friends that were local and could help.

As a property manager, we had an investor bring us 50 properties that he was self-managing. At the same time his Full Time Job was flipping houses. The mess that we took over was substantial - no leases, little contact info, and no idea what the security deposits were. Handling 50 properties is extremely difficult especially if it is not your FT job.

Own of State Property = Property Manager

Own 5 Units and have a job = Property Manager

Own 10+ = Property Manager

If you are not interested in managing tenants = Property Manager

If you are uneducated in Tenant Law = Property Manager

[Peter Tverdov]

I actually cringe when we get property management leads and it's a big owner like that. They want to make you their puppet, they think they know it all and of course they want a volume discount. Then when they leave it is very volatile for your business. Learned lessons with that, we strongly prefer the 1-2 property owners who are accidental or don't really know what they're doing.