How to reach out to property managers for informations

[Xin Peng]

Hi, as a new investor on rental properties, I've heard one could leverage property managers as resources for: 1. information of the local market, 2. driving around and get an overview of a certain property and probably also a rough estimation of rental, renovation cost etc., and this sounds super helpful.
However, I'm wondering:
1. Why a property manager would help me on those things.
2. If the advice is one should build the relationship first, how I should go about it. Shall I just call their office or just walk in or make an appointment in their spare time and buy a cup of coffee for them? Are there any things to pay attention to?
Thanks!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Xin Peng:

Hi, as a new investor on rental properties, I've heard one could leverage property managers as resources for: 1. information of the local market, 2. driving around and get an overview of a certain property and probably also a rough estimation of rental, renovation cost etc., and this sounds super helpful.
However, I'm wondering:
1. Why a property manager would help me on those things.
2. If the advice is one should build the relationship first, how I should go about it. Shall I just call their office or just walk in or make an appointment in their spare time and buy a cup of coffee for them? Are there any things to pay attention to?
Thanks!

 Property managers may help you with these things, but they probably won't spend a lot of time on you until you become an actual client. I'm an experienced guy looking to buy in another market. I found a PM and they offered to cross-check properties for me. So far, it's taken them about 48 hours to respond to my requests to check a particular property, which is too slow for me. Once I become an actual client, I would expect them to be more responsive.