All Forum Posts by: Shane Waller

While I'm with some of the others that it isn't worth messing around with if you are violating licensing law or taking on someone else's headache there are things you can potentially do.

Both locally and for some out of state properties I have done a "boots on the ground" a la carte type arrangement with people.

Locally I have some places that are about 40min (no traffic) from my house that are close to where I grew up, and about 15min from where I used to work.  When I had that J.O.B. and no kids it wasn't a big deal to show those places and deal with some of the minor things.  Now it is totally unappealing to take 2+ hours out of my day to open a door.  I have some people up there that I pay to open said door when needed and if there is a decent tenant I give them the paperwork to collect signatures and checks and stuff like that.  They don't get a percentage they get a flat fee per time out to the apartment and a per hour rate after the first 30min.  Then a flat fee to deal with those logistics.  

In this case I was doing all the advertising (Which was 100% posting Craigslist ads) and did the initial intake calls/emails.  Each week I would ask for his availability and when talking with the potential tenants I would set the first appointment in one of his windows and steer everyone else to that and then the first 1 that couldn't do it set the 2nd time window (We agreed that even though he gave me 4-6 two hour time windows that I wouldn't do more than 2 without talking to him again).  It was something like $25/showing and like $40/hour after the 1st 30min in 15min chunks and $50 to do the paperwork.  This was a friend of mind so it was extra cheap, but I would have gladly paid double all these figures and since we found people pretty fast even at twice what I paid it would have been less than half a typical manager in this case (If they do enough showings they will make more so it is a crap shoot for both parties).

For the out of state they do more.  In this case I pay a flat advertising fee per month which includes them putting out a sign, posting ads in local stores and bulletin boards, posting on their own website and social media and doing the local Craigslist (If I want anything beyond free advertising I need to pay for it).  They charge $25/showing up to 15min and $50/hour after that in 15min chunks.  They are $120 to do the lease and they have the same one that I have since we use the same attorney, but otherwise I would supply my own lease if I didn't want to use the that one or the standard state one.  In this case they also do maintenance, turnovers and up to mid level rehabs, which is one of the main profit centers, and charge for those accordingly.  Works for them since as long as they don't gouge me why and I going to try to find another contractor to do the work right?

In this case they also will go over there when I need someone to, will post notices if I need that, will file court paperwork and actually attend the hearings for an eviction and arrange any of the other stuff if it comes up.  All of these things are a flat fee or hourly rate.  

We have no contract and I don't pay anything when they don't do anything.  So any individual incident can cost a lot since none of it is bundled into a management fee.  However for all those months with no issues and I just get mailbox money I don't pay anything for management so that is nice.

Sorry this got long winded but the point is if you want to be the point person you can charge a lot do to anything but not have to be responsible the rest of the time which can possibly work out well for everyone (and not really violate licensing law since you aren't REALLY a property manager).