Mid Term Rental Management

[Jonathan Styer]

What is most important to you when looking for a mid term management company? 

Our management company here in Columbus is rapidly growing, but I'm always looking to build proper foundations and would love to hear from investors on what they value. I'm of the opinion that service, communication, and hospitality are the most important piece of what we do. 

[Don Konipol]

Quote from @Jonathan Styer:

What is most important to you when looking for a mid term management company? 

Our management company here in Columbus is rapidly growing, but I'm always looking to build proper foundations and would love to hear from investors on what they value. I'm of the opinion that service, communication, and hospitality are the most important piece of what we do. 

In my experience, the big mistake many property managers make is that they do not charge enough; and as a result provide below par services in an attempt to not lose money on the contract.  To a great degree this is the result of the flat percentage fee quoting.  Many property managers quote something like 8% of revenues for all properties; or if they do charge more for smaller units it’s across the board.  Some properties require a whole lot more management time, effort, energy and brain power than others.  I believe the manager needs to evaluate anticipated cost of doing business for a particular property and quote accordingly.  This may leave the property owner with no or limited cash flow or even operate at a loss.  This is a reality check for the property owner- you can’t just plug in 8% or 10% across the board for all properties and decide that the Class D will be more profitable than the Class B.  There’s a real management cost to manage a D property well over and above the cost of managing a B property.  

At one time I owned a 12 unit apartment building in a low income/ high crime area of Arlington Texas and a 48 unit complex in a very nice up and coming area of Ft Worth.  I has\d the same manager for both properties, and they were 2 of a total of 3 properties he managed.  I had him book his hours.  He spent twice as much time on he 12 unit  as on the 48 unit.  The 12 unit had almost all Sec 8 tenants, and the manager was forever dealing with Sec 8 officials examining repairs, certifying improvements; dealing with tenant damage, tenant fights, evictions, drug sales, water damage by tenants, etc.  compared to the 12 unit the 48 unit ran smooth as silk.