How to create your own property management company

Question

Does anyone here have experience owning their own property management company? I have a few single family homes and am working on my first multifamily.  It was suggested to me to start my own property managment company so I could also earn income from that end of my own properties rather than hire it out.  Would love to connect with someone who has experience doing this.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Jake Peetz

I would strongly recommend against it unless you have considerable scale  and growth in near future. Management is an activity that can be a huge time suck and end of costing you $ as it truly needs to be done at scale.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Jake, I will be happy to answer any questions.

Property Management can be very profitable but it's a job. I worked long, hard weeks. When I reached 150 units, I hired an assistant. As the door count grew, so did my staff and expenses. I made a good living, but I wasn't really turning a profit until I hit 300+ doors. I am around 400 doors and 300 storage units with myself, my wife, and six full-time employees.

Interesting enough, I recently found my first post on BiggerPockets. It was almost 12 years ago and I asked the same question you are asking today.

Darin Mann · Answer

I currently manage 30 of my own properties I am buying a portfolio of 17 more properties. I currently have a book keeper and accountant Im looking for software to help does anyone recommend a software specif to rentals

Brett Deas · Answer

First consider where you are at. Here in CO to manage properties you are supposed to have a RE license, I know other states have the same rules. Then find a great lawyer as they are knew in setting up the company in a way where liability is limited. Also find someone who has done this sort of thing before. If you do not want to hire an experienced property manager to work at your new company find a mentor who has built a PM company and can teach you what you don't know yet.

Samuel Eddinger · Answer

@Jake Peetz

As all the others have said, don't take lightly into starting a PM business.  I find the best PM have the following characteristics; a heart to serve, analytical skills, elite organization, elite communication, understanding of psychology, process focus.  Many people burn out because PM is a job, not a hobby.

I own a growing PM company and would be happy to have a conversation.

Nathan A. · Answer

At the risk of stating the obvious, you can self-manage a property without forming a company and hiring employees to do it. Whether or not to self-manage depends how you value your time, but why even think about starting a company before you know whether you like managing?

JD Martin · Answer

+1. It will never make sense unless you plan to scale up to a level that makes sense, meaning you're going to go recruit a lot of customers besides yourself. I plan on doing this same thing here in the next year or two, but not particularly to make money for myself but to put all of my properties into PM before I get too old as there's no good PM companies where I live and where my properties are (I've already got someone picked out to train and bring into my brokerage), and I don't have enough properties of my own to make starting my own company make sense. I've run numbers and you can't even reasonably afford to have a staff member with less than 100 properties, so think about whether you really want to do it as a business model.

Drew Sygit · Answer

@JD Martin contact us with any questions you have about your quest:)

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Darin Mann you have  Pro membership which allows you to use Rent Redi for free.

There are better software options, but they all cost money.

With only 47 units Buildium would also be a good choice.

Olivia Grabka · Answer

@Jake Peetz

We have a property management side of our business.  We own 24 units & manage another dozen.  Message me.

How to create your own property management company

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