Time commitment for an SFR?

Question

I am really interested in real estate and want to get started and I’m wondering about how much time a week managing an SFR would take as a beginner. I definitely want to take this seriously and put all the work necessary into this, so I want to know if I can make the time commitment to effectively run a rental property at peak efficiency.

Rick Albert · Answer

Of course the basic answer is, "it all depends."

The rentals that I self manage now and in the past I remodeled. This made managing so much easier.

Assuming the house is in good shape, the biggest time suck is finding tenants. The showings, vetting, and get leases sign take up the most amount of time. After that, a few minutes here and there for accounting.

What I've noticed with investors is once they hit the 5-7 unit mark, it starts to get more complicated. Addressing a small issue is easy (call the handyman and move on). But if you have 7 small issues at 7 different properties, that's where it starts to take up more time.

The best advice I could give is do the right remodels and update systems up front. It saves you a lot of time and headache later on.

John Morgan · Answer

@Jackson Spiggle

I have 18 SFR and spend maybe 20 min a week on averaging self managing them. Maybe less? Something breaks, I text a handyman to go fix it. Then zelle the handyman the money. That’s a typical week for me. Lol. Happened yesterday when an AC went down. Not a big deal. I keep my tenants under market rate and treat them well. Therefore, I have almost no turnovers which keeps the hassle factor down.

Bob Lachance · Answer

If real estate is something you really wanna get into, it's good to start by learning all the ins and outs of the business and work your way up. You gotta make sure to stay motivated and committed. In your journey, you'll come across a lot of challenges, errors, sleepless nights, and of course, a lot of wins too!

Eventually, you'll expand your company and with that expansion comes expanding your people. There are several administrative services that you can globally outsource for a fraction of the local cost.

Good luck and don't hesitate to shoot me a message if you have questions about scaling up!

Michael Dumler · Answer

@Jackson Spiggle, all the above comments just about sum it up. If you have the correct systems in place, one single-family rental with long-term tenants should hardly take up any of your time. The majority of your time and energy will be utilized in the initial phases of marketing the property and screening prospective tenants. After that, if the property is updated and rent ready, you should hardly be hearing from your tenants. As an investor-focused real estate agent in the Atlanta market, if you have any additional questions/concerns I'd be more than happy to help. Feel free to shoot me an email or text to connect (contact info is listed in my bio).

Jackson Spiggle · Answer

@Konstantin Ginzburg

After seeing your response, I did a few quick searches on home warranties and am very intrigued. I could definitely see myself adopting that system. Thanks for the idea.

Lindsay Davis · Answer

@Jackson Spiggle,

Your time commitment will vary based on the stage of the tenant lifecycle that you’re contending with.

For instance, are you trying to get a vacant unit leased? Have tenants already occupied the property? Are you dealing with eviction and turnover? Typically, the middle of a lease cycle (i.e. when a unit is occupied) is less time-intensive than the beginning or end of a cycle.

As a ballpark estimate, I’d say you can expect between one to five hours of work per week in the ordinary course of events. If you’re dealing with emergencies or a string of maintenance issues, however, expect this number to increase significantly.

Michael Smythe · Answer

Depends on many factors, chief among them - what Class of property/tenant?

Class A are relatively easy to manage and can be mostly hands-off

Class B requires more time

Class C even more

Class D good luck!

Jackson Spiggle · Answer

@John Morgan

That’s very impressive and it sounds like you know what you’re doing. Around what percent do you rent under market and what other tricks do you employ to keep your tenants easy to manage?

Jackson Spiggle · Answer

@Scott E.

Sorry, I should've been more clear. I'm referring to Single Family Residences. Thank you for the detailed answer.

Konstantin Ginzburg · Answer

@Jackson Spiggle

A lot of the time commitment will depend on you and the systems you have setup to run this business. If systems and quality control for tenants is not applied, than being a landlord can easily wind up taking hours per day. If you have good systems in place, than you could easily go months without needing to put in any time personally. One large factor is tenant quality and screening. A good tenant will take good care of your property and are capable of taking care of themselves and the rental unit (within reason). This requires doing more work up front such as background checks and active screening to ensure you find a high quality tenant. There are other methods to reduce total time required. One strategy I use is having a home warranty for each rental property. When there is a major appliance failure in the rental, I am able to use the warranty to acquire a technician quickly through their network and make the repairs. This minimizes my time commitment since all I need to do is spend a few minutes making calls to schedule the repairs. By spending time up front to create systems such as this to use; you are able to minimize the time you will need afterwards for your rental. This saved time, will both help maintain your quality of life as well as allow for quicker scaling of the business.

Time commitment for an SFR?

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