property management company

[Polat Caglayan]

How does working with a property management company work? If anyone has worked with one before, can they help me?

[Bill B.]

Can you ask a more specific question? What do you mean by working with them?

These days most PMs don’t involve their clients in Tennant selection.They’ll get photos taken. They’ll suggest how much rent they can get, they’ll do the advertising, they’ll do the screening. If there’s a repair needed usually they’ll just handle it if it’s under a certain financial threshold o ran emergency. If it’s over that amount they’ll send photos and quote that you can accept or shop around. 

You’ll get a statement around the 7th-10th of the month and a deposit the next day or two. At year end you’ll get a summary and a tax form. When a lease ends they’ll suggest new rents and if the tenant hold be offered a renewal. 
some will offer to transfer utilities for you when it goes vacant, all should handle the transfer when a tenant moves in  

With 10 properties I don’t “talk” to my PM more than 2-3 times a year. We probably text or email 6 times?

For me it’s been a blessing and money well spent. I’m not a “people person” so they handle screening. I don’t want to keep up on local, state and federal law changes so they keep me legal. They’re “meaner” than me so they charge late fees (I get 1/2), file pay or quits, and increase rents faster and further than I would. They have a list of vendors that want to keep them happy because of all the business they do. When a water heater breaks at 9pm on a Sunday I get an email saying it happened, it’s been fixed and it cost $1200 give or take. Who would I call? What would it cost? I also appreciate there aren’t any charges for estimates. I recently had to get some garage door springs fixed on my home and nobody would give me a quote or even  come look at it without charging me $75+.

For all this I pay 8% of rent collected, $300 to place the tenant and $150 for renewals. They also only charge 1.5% realtor commission for the selling side and obviously nothing for the buying side. (None of those BS $595 document fees.)