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Updated about 1 year ago,

User Stats

19
Posts
14
Votes
Ryan Duphorn
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Richmond, VA
14
Votes |
19
Posts

How soon do Property Managers realistically onboard a new tenant?

Ryan Duphorn
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Richmond, VA
Posted

I'm having trouble deciding on whether to hire a PM for rental 1.

I close on my 2nd house with owner occupied loan next week. I've been house hacking rental 1 and will be moving into rental 2 with my tenant/roomate (cool dude). Rental 2 will need a few weeks to renovate before fully moving in (paint, cabinets, flooring, tile). I will be doing all that work myself then using plumbers & electricians to trim out the house. My fear is losing money in vacancy and regretting not just hiring a PM to quickly onboard and screen a tenant properly. A good PM around me charges 30% of rent to onboard then manage it for 10% / mo (only 1 unit to manage). My payment is $980 and market rent for my neighborhood is $2000 (per multiple PM's, 4 bed 2 bath). So roughly $3k a year expense for PM minus any maintenance costs. There's room there to pay a PM but I also work in construction in homebuilding so I have a team of trades/punch guys to manage repairs. 

But if I end up eating monthly vacancy expenses at rental 1 because I can't efficiently onboard a tenant for applications, screenings, showings, etc while renovating / moving into rental 2, than that $600 onboard fee would sound nice to pay for assuming they can get me a good tenant within a few weeks. But I know I can easily manage just 1 rental myself since it's local and I lived in it and renovated it myself and know the ins and outs of the home. 

Tried to keep this short as possible while still providing as much info as possible given my situation. Thanks

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