Small landlords with a PM: 2-minute survey on fees and repair estimates

New to Real Estate · Honolulu, HI · Member since 2019 · 9 posts · 3 votes

I own one rental and use a property manager. On the last big repair I couldn't tell which line items were fair and which were padded, and the percentage-of-project fee made it worse. Trying to find out whether that's just me.

Eight questions, anonymous, two minutes: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XLmNHbm-hrbAGWvS0oMVteskU2356PtDCIlAOm_F9Wo/edit

I'll post a summary of the answers back here. Not selling anything.

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Shaharyaar Erea
Rental Property Investor · Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Member since 2026 · 21 posts · 0 votes
1w
"Hi Patrick! This is a massive pain point for many small landlords using property managers. When repair estimates are tied to a project-fee percentage, it often creates a transparency issue. A great way to mitigate this is by establishing a clear approval threshold (e.g., any repair over $250 requires your direct sign-off or competitive bids) and requiring itemized receipts with supplier part numbers. Looking forward to the survey results!"
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Willson Dinayen
Investor · Member since 2026 · 13 posts · 5 votes
23h
Not just you. What made the biggest difference for me: require every repair quote to break out labor and materials separately, never a lump sum. A lump-sum line is where padding hides.
Second, get a written pre-approval threshold in your management agreement — anything over, say, $500 needs your sign-off before work starts, not an explanation after.
Percentage-of-project fees are common on big jobs, but ask for a cap or a flat coordination fee so the fee doesn't grow with the bill. And once a year, spot-check one job with an independent quote from your own contractor. That one habit keeps every other invoice honest.
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Pagan C.
Accountant · Albany, NY · Member since 2026 · 4 posts · 0 votes
16h
Hi @Patrick Eddy — it's not just you. Percentage-of-project fees quietly remove any incentive to keep the number low, so padded line items are a structural feature of that arrangement, not a coincidence.
Two things that help:
1) Ask your PM for line-item detail with vendor names and invoices attached, not summaries. If they can't produce them, that tells you something important.
2) Reconcile the repair against what actually hit the bank account. The invoice is a claim; the cleared transaction is the fact.
The reason this keeps biting people: Repairs usually get dumped into one big "maintenance" bucket. Keeping each property tagged separately means the history is already there when you need it.
Fair warning on scope: Don't build a system bigger than one rental needs. A simple per-property log plus monthly bank reconciliation will catch most of this without becoming a second job.
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Simon W.Business Member
Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 665 votes
15h
Not just you. Percentage-of-project fees make a soft estimate worse, because the fee grows with the bill.
What I'd want in the management agreement is a written approval threshold and a rule that big jobs break out labor and materials — not one lump sum. Anything that hits the owner statement should have the vendor invoice attached before it hits the payout. Once a year, get your own quote on one job just to keep the rest honest.
If you can't tell what you paid for, you can't tell whether the month was expensive or just opaque.
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