Upland, CA · Member since 2015 · 31 posts · 13 votes
Hi team. I'm looking for a good PM in the Cincinnati, OH area with good referrals, good communication skills, and clear accounting systems. Any good or bad suggestions? Thank you.
I self-manage, so I can't refer anyone in Cincinnati, but I handle my own books and I know what I'd demand from a PM. You want a monthly owner statement that ties out: rent collected, management fees, and every expense broken out per property, with the numbers matching actual bank deposits. Ask for an owner portal, year-end 1099s, and Schedule E-ready totals in January, not March. Red flags: lumped or vague expenses, statements that arrive late, and anyone who gets defensive when you ask to see underlying receipts. In the interview, ask how they do trust accounting, how fast statements go out, and whether you can see the ledger in real time. Also check Ohio's licensing rules for property managers before you sign anything. A PM who is sloppy with accounting will be sloppy with your money, so this is the right thing to screen on.
I cannot recommend a Cincinnati firm, but I would ask each candidate to show you a sample owner statement and how they track unpaid rent and tenant promises. Have them walk through who answers a tenant call and how that issue gets back to you. The references matter more if you ask about those exact things, not just whether the owner likes them.
@Dion Rivera One question I’d definitely ask is what property management software they use. We use AppFolio, but there are several solid purpose-built property management systems out there.
I would not accept “QuickBooks” as the answer. QuickBooks is great accounting software, but property management has too many moving pieces—work orders, owner/tenant charges, management fees, leasing fees, security deposits, miscellaneous income, vendor bills, and property-level reporting. A good PM should have a purpose-built system that ties the accounting to the actual operations of managing your property.
I self-manage, so I can't refer anyone in Cincinnati, but I handle my own books and I know what I'd demand from a PM. You want a monthly owner statement that ties out: rent collected, management fees, and every expense broken out per property, with the numbers matching actual bank deposits. Ask for an owner portal, year-end 1099s, and Schedule E-ready totals in January, not March. Red flags: lumped or vague expenses, statements that arrive late, and anyone who gets defensive when you ask to see underlying receipts. In the interview, ask how they do trust accounting, how fast statements go out, and whether you can see the ledger in real time. Also check Ohio's licensing rules for property managers before you sign anything. A PM who is sloppy with accounting will be sloppy with your money, so this is the right thing to screen on.
For Cincinnati I'd care more about how they do the books than how nice the website looks. When we help owners pick a PM, clear accounting means you can see rent, fees, repairs, reserves, and the net deposit separately — and those numbers tie to the bank. Not one mystery payout line.
Ask for a sample owner statement. Ask how they hold and report security deposits. Ask if big repairs need your okay with invoices attached. Ask what happens in a month where expenses beat rent. And ask who codes the bills and how often they reconcile to cash.
Referrals help, but a friendly PM with messy books still turns into a tax-time mess. If they can't walk you through one recent month without pointing at "the portal," keep looking.
I have a couple different PM contacts, they all have their different strengths. It has been difficult to find a PM that meets expectations but those expectations are different for everyone.
Dion, since late ledger postings are the issue, I’d ask who owns a correction after you flag it. Is there one person who confirms it was fixed, and who covers that person when they’re away? I’d ask a reference about the last time something went wrong and how long they had to chase an answer. That would tell me more about communication than a promised response time.
Ming's list is solid. One test I'd add in interviews: ask each PM for a redacted owner statement plus the matching deposit for the same month, and have them walk you from gross rent to net payout line by line.
Also ask what day statements close and what day owner draws go out, and get both written into the management agreement.
Sloppy accounting usually shows up first as late statements and lump-sum maintenance lines with no invoice attached, so ask whether every expense in the owner portal has its invoice attached.
We’re a Property Management Company (PMC) in Metro Detroit ONLY, with 25+ years of experience, and we’ve seen owners make the same mistakes, over & over again when looking to hire a PMC – which drives us nuts!.
In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make is ASSUMING all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.
So, owners mistakenly think price is the only differentiator – and look for a PMC like they’d shop for groceries☹
We encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others by reading posts here on BiggerPockets from owners that picked a PMC solely by price and regretted it.
We recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.
Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (), etc.
Even if someone gives you a referral, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that just because a PMC met their expectations, they’ll meet your expectations. We all have our own expectations and what works for someone else, may not work for you.
If you’re new to all of this, it's often a case of not doing enough research, as you don't know what you don't know!
So, ask more questions!
EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean? What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.? You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!
This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.
The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!
A well written management contract should clearly spell out what is expected of both the PMC and the owner, to PROTECT both and avoid misunderstandings. Why do you think purchase contracts are so long and have such small print?
We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.
EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!
P.S. If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general. Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊
Here’s some articles we’ve contributed to BiggerPockets about screening a PMC BETTER than you would a tenant!
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