What do you like about your property manager?

Question

Just curious what you look for in a property manager. Some of the factors I can think of are:

Reputation, Competence, Cost, visibility and transparency, response time, passiveness, professionalism, size

What do you look for? Would you change the order of this list? Why?

Michael Ealy · Answer

After acquiring over 1,000 apartment units over the years, my favorite property managers I hire are those who are:

1. Strict to the point they're scary (even I feel scared of them sometimes - LOL)

2. Not gullible and don't believe in tenants' sad story and excuses as to why they can't pay rent

3. Stickler to the rules (they don't feel guilty evicting even their own 98-yr old grandmother if she can't pay the rent!)

4. Attentive to details and communicates issues fast and concisely

5. Have an ownership mentality (they feel they own the building they manage to the point that they're willing to work weekends or Christmas Eve if needed)

and most important...

6. HONEST - does not lie, does not cheat, nor steal and even admits mistakes they've made and owns up to them

Once you find property managers with the above criteria, pay them better than what everyone pays. This is why, in the Property Management part of my business, we charge property owners 11%  of the rents - yes it's higher than what the "typical" property management companies charge but my property managers are anything but typical and they deserve the premium.

Alan Grobmeier · Answer

In MY case I AM my favorite property manager.  I have a number of places in AZ and can't see paying 9-11% for something I can (and should) do myself.

If you are too scared to PM it, maybe you shouldn't buy it!  Buy & Hold is an extremely simple game.  Especially in landlord friendly states.

The rest of it is simple math.

No one will treat your place like you would.  Remember that.

"Scale", after about 20 places is a different story.  I'm not there yet.  ;-)

Brad Larsen · Answer

@Alan Grobmeier  That is the reason to find and hire a good Property Manager.  You are wasting your time doing $20 / hour tasks when you should be doing $2,000 / hour tasks in finding the next 10,20,30 deals.  First, get out of the mindset that no one does it better than you and then accept the fact that everyone else will perform what you do to only 80% of your standard.  Read the book 40 Hour Work Year by Scott Fritz to gain some insight on letting go of that mindset.

Mark Fries · Answer

@Timothy VanWingerden

@Alan Grobmeier

I agree 100% with Alan,  build an in-house team of people that you can trust and do the property management yourself. Save all the money.

People will always say it cant be done and you cant scale...that's incorrect, just an agenda usually pushed by PM's. Just like saying you need a realtor to buy a house...

I am scaling just fine with 50 SFR and doing it all in house and keeping my 10-15%.

Clark Harris · Answer

For me, I'll say the response time comes first, then transparency, competence, professionalism.

Timothy VanWingerden · Answer

@Michael Ealy Thanks for the information - this is very helpful!

@Alan Grobmeier, @Clark Harris, @Jonathan Watt, @Brad Larsen, @Mark Fries, @Frank Wong Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm actually planning on doing the PM in-house, but also entertaining the possibility of doing this for other investors. It would help me scale a lot faster.

I'm gathering intel on what I should focus on as a PM and use that to better serve my clients.

Alan Grobmeier · Answer

@Brad Larsen, I am not doing $20 an hour jobs.  All my places have home warranties on them.  I’m not called unless it is something beyond a first level call out.  That would be the same w a PM company.

True, I do collect rent.  That takes about 10 minutes a month.  I spend more time w my cpa, not my rentals.  The only exception is moveouts, but I don’t have many of those.

I don’t really want or need 100 doors.  7-10 low LTV properties = financial freedom.  I’m at 6 now.  ;-)

Frank Wong · Answer

If you have the time and willingness to put in the extra work managing it yourself is always the better alternative.  No one will care more about your properties than yourself.  If you are investing OOS then get a PM no way you can have it done effectively without boots on the ground.

Jonathan W. · Answer

@Timothy VanWingerden  competence and profressionalism

I had a buddy whose dryer wasn’t working and they just told him to check the lint filter...multiple times...

Needless to say he did not renew the lease

Transparency is important but most policies are the same, fees and what not and I can always say no before signing the lease.

I did leave a place where my dog did minor damage. I didn’t like that the bill they sent me a bill that was very unspecific. But I just requested the specifics

I do hate liars though!

I was once told the pool was heated at an apartment. Then later no they don’t, the summer it gets hot enough

Like are you kidding me!!!!

What do you like about your property manager?

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