What is the hardest part of DIY management?

[Nathan Gesner]

There are pros and cons to self-management. Some landlords are very successful. Some lose their shirts, destroy their health, and even ruin relationships. Most land somewhere in the middle.

If you have experience as a DIY landlord, what has been most challenging about it? What hard lessons did you learn that you could share with readers?

[Joe S.]

Quote from @Allan C.:

@Mike Dymski I double-vote this one as well. I always find them eventually, but it takes some trial and error. And single-owner trades-people don’t work forever, so I’ve had to find new folks a number of times after a trusted sub retires. I can always go with a larger outfit, but that’s more overhead that come at higher costs.

I self-manage in 3 different markets so it seems I’m always looking for a new sub every couple of year.

 How do you go about finding your new sub?

[Allan C.]

Quote from @Joe S.:

Quote from @Allan C.:

@Mike Dymski I double-vote this one as well. I always find them eventually, but it takes some trial and error. And single-owner trades-people don’t work forever, so I’ve had to find new folks a number of times after a trusted sub retires. I can always go with a larger outfit, but that’s more overhead that come at higher costs.

I self-manage in 3 different markets so it seems I’m always looking for a new sub every couple of year.

 How do you go about finding your new sub?

Good question.  I used to use Angie's List, Taskrabbit, Thumbtack, etc... but these days they seem less reliable. I haven't been successful with FB groups in my markets either. I tend to rely on Yelp over the past couple of years. 

Yelp seems to work for my style because I primarily communicate through text and emails, so providers that are using Yelp seem to be more versed in technology.  

[Jim K.]

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Nathan Gesner

For years, I thought that anyone could do DIY property rental management like us, it wasn't particularly difficult to learn how to self-manage. I was wrong.

Not everyone is cut out for managing their own rentals. However, everyone can make huge improvements by educating themselves. I hope to help with that in the near future!

Absolutely, Nathan. I fully agree with that, and I fully agree that everyone should at least try. It's just I came into this with a background as a classroom teacher and high-stakes language exam coach and I really didn't understand the immense help that my experience managing the student-teacher relationship has given me in learning how to manage the landlord-tenant relationship.

I also had no clue how much of a leg up that same experience had taught me to deal on a personal basis with public officials such as magistrates, code enforcement officials, court clerks, and of course law enforcement officials, here in PA most notably our state constables.

The last thing that really helped has nothing to do with me. My wife handles all the bookkeeping, and she is damned good at money.

All in all, I just took it for granted that everyone came into the game with more or less the same tools and abilities, and that's just not true. All you have to do is spend a year or two reading some of the horror stories on this website and you understand, at some point, that a lot of people who get into rental properties simply have no business managing anyone's rental property, least of all, their own.