Interviewing Property managers. Please share your recommendations
Looking for recommendations on great property managers for small multi unit 1-2 in the Charleston,SC.
Thanks.
Most Popular Reply
@Francisca Mac
You will inevitably run into Tenants who cannot pay for some reason or another, as “life happens” in real time. You want to develop a plan for how to handle that in advance.
In our book, payment history & longevity play a “first factor” in how we respond. So if “they are never late” and they are late, we will tend to roll with them to try to help them out if the reasoning makes sense. We may waive the late fee to try to help them etc.
If they are “always late” we'll let the late fees stick to compensate us for having to put up with their inability to manage their finances.
But at the end of the day you need “outer boundaries” that you stick to. There is a slippery slope syndrome that can occur. Maybe they lose job and they tried to pay but couldn’t pay everything this month, so they are behind by say $500, but the next month it continues and now they are behind by $1,000. Two things need to happen… one, get caught up, and two, get back on track with the upcoming rent as well. It’s hard to do for paycheck to paycheck people.
You have choices though… from being the butthole landlord who tolerates no being behind… files eviction at the first drop of the hat, to the softy that gets exploited. We have ended up being the latter a couple of times in 7 years because we started off trying to be helpful, but have put policies in place to avoid it:
Our rule of thumb is that you can’t be behind by more than your security deposit. Obviously the security deposit is meant for a different purpose (towards damages and repairs)… but it acts as a goal post for us.
Once you are behind, we require forward progress towards catching up - which looks like this;
Let’s say you are behind $750. We will advise the tenant that in the coming month we need rent paid on time and within the month we need 1/2 of the back rent paid as well. If it has slipped too much, we may make it 1/3 of the back rent paid. And if this is not accomplished and they exceed their security deposit we will advise them we will have to file for eviction.
The secret is that you can’t continue to let it slip further and further behind. Where we have gotten busted in this is that they set a payment, then 4 days late it bounced, so they say, “Oh, so sorry I’ll set a new payment” and then that one bounces too. That is the slippery slope to watch out for.
So develop your policy, whatever it is up front, and stick to it. We try to be flexible, but firm, because no one really likes a butthole landlord.
All the best!
Randy
My question to you would be “are you sure you want to do that?” PM services often come at a pretty hefty price as to your net profit. It looks like you live close to your rental… I would say, “why not manage it yourself?”
We managed 20 rentals while working full time corporate jobs. Most issues are solved with a phone call… plumber, AC issues, etc. Filling the property is easier than you would think. We use a cloud based program(rentecdirect.com) that automates many tasks including collecting rent, screening tenants , broadcasting our vacancy listings, accounting, etc). There are dozens of those types of programs out there. You will be surprised how easy it is! Why give away your profits to someone who will not care about it as much as you will!
All the best!
Randy
I did consider it but wasn’t sure if I wanted to deal with it. I will totally look into that website you suggested. Thanks.
@Francisca Mac, take a look at NARPM.org, Property Managers that are members of NARPM generally have higher standards of professionalism and ethics.
Best of luck!
Ayelet
Thanks. I think we have decided to self manage as @Randall Alan suggested. After looking into the software it looks like it will be ok especially since we only have 4 doors right now and are local.
There are many ways you can adjust all the settings… but the short “as it comes setup out of the box” answer is that there is no charge to a tenant to make a payment using a routing number and account number to post a payment.
If the tenant opts use a credit / debit card, there is a convenience fee charged for the use of the card. The landlord can decide on what percentage is charged the tenant … but the charge from rentec direct is about 2.95%. So the landlord could charge (say) 3.5% and choose to make money on accepting cards… but rentec direct’s charge 2.95%.
You are allowed control over who pays what costs through control panels within the program… so you can control who pays the fee to screen a tenant and how much you charge for that service as well.
One cool thing is that while ACH transactions take about 4 days to fully settle, rentec direct’s payment processor gives you next day credit for those funds. Should a payment later bounce, they debut the amount back from your account,
Randy
I think you will find once you get over the initial “doing something for the first time” jitters that managing your own properties is pretty easy overall.
If I had to guess, I would say maybe we have 1-2 contacts with a tenant in a given year… on average… meaning for 4 tenants… you might have 8-10 interactions in a year for a ballpark “amount of effort it takes”. Usually when something quits working. Sometimes you will have “frequent flyers” who like to bring up every little thing and seem to have more issues… but they are more the exception.
I would also suggest to you that you search up your state’s landlord “rules” where they spell out your responsibilities. In Florida this is about 3 pages in the state code. You can literally google “your state” and “landlord statutes” and it should take you right to it. It’s good to familiarize yourself with your state’s legal obligations.
All the best!
Randy
Thank you so much for all the advice! I had actually already done that but now that we have decided to actually run it ourselves I’ll read over it again. Any other suggestions or advice is very appreciated and feel free to message me directly. Thank you again for helping me to make the decision.
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Hey Francisca, I have a great PM. Sending you a dm!
@Francisca Mac
You will inevitably run into Tenants who cannot pay for some reason or another, as “life happens” in real time. You want to develop a plan for how to handle that in advance.
In our book, payment history & longevity play a “first factor” in how we respond. So if “they are never late” and they are late, we will tend to roll with them to try to help them out if the reasoning makes sense. We may waive the late fee to try to help them etc.
If they are “always late” we'll let the late fees stick to compensate us for having to put up with their inability to manage their finances.
But at the end of the day you need “outer boundaries” that you stick to. There is a slippery slope syndrome that can occur. Maybe they lose job and they tried to pay but couldn’t pay everything this month, so they are behind by say $500, but the next month it continues and now they are behind by $1,000. Two things need to happen… one, get caught up, and two, get back on track with the upcoming rent as well. It’s hard to do for paycheck to paycheck people.
You have choices though… from being the butthole landlord who tolerates no being behind… files eviction at the first drop of the hat, to the softy that gets exploited. We have ended up being the latter a couple of times in 7 years because we started off trying to be helpful, but have put policies in place to avoid it:
Our rule of thumb is that you can’t be behind by more than your security deposit. Obviously the security deposit is meant for a different purpose (towards damages and repairs)… but it acts as a goal post for us.
Once you are behind, we require forward progress towards catching up - which looks like this;
Let’s say you are behind $750. We will advise the tenant that in the coming month we need rent paid on time and within the month we need 1/2 of the back rent paid as well. If it has slipped too much, we may make it 1/3 of the back rent paid. And if this is not accomplished and they exceed their security deposit we will advise them we will have to file for eviction.
The secret is that you can’t continue to let it slip further and further behind. Where we have gotten busted in this is that they set a payment, then 4 days late it bounced, so they say, “Oh, so sorry I’ll set a new payment” and then that one bounces too. That is the slippery slope to watch out for.
So develop your policy, whatever it is up front, and stick to it. We try to be flexible, but firm, because no one really likes a butthole landlord.
All the best!
Randy
Thanks!! Will definitely be firm but fair.
@Francisca Mac we get a lot of great feedback from our customers on the property managers they work with. Happy to provide a unbiased recommendation on PM in Charleston,SC.
