No, You Don't Need a Property Manager if You House-Hack

[Scott Trench]

I was thinking about this the other day, and I got a question from a user about using a property manager to manage my house-hacked duplex.

It's my opinion that it would be quite silly to use a property manager as a house-hacker. Here's why:

First, most of the difficulty in managing a property comes from running it like a household. Landscaping, minor repairs, shoveling snow and fixing all the other little problems that come up as being a homeowner account for the vast majority of expenses and time commitments of house-hacking. Managing the tenants just isn't a huge added time commitment or expense on top of maintaining the entire property.

Second, unless you are a real pro (in which case, you are probably beyond needing to house-hack), it will be pretty darn difficult to hide that you are the owner of the property as you'll show an obvious interest in the maintenance and correct treatment of your home. Once the tenants realize that you are the decision maker, you will be contacted regardless.You will be disappointed if your goal in hiring a property manager is to avoid making decisions regarding the tenants.

Third, the economics of being your own property manager are incredibly in your favor as a house-hacker. Oh, the lawn needs some weeding? No problem, just do that after work. Oh, there's snow on the ground? No problem, just do it when you wake up. Oh, there's a leak under the tenant's sink? No problem, just call the plumber. Those economics are terrible for a property manager who will have to spend time commuting to your property, calling the right people to do the work, or do it him/herself, and will bill you for the entire operation. These economics are even more obvious in things like collecting rent (which can be done online at $0 transaction cost nowadays), showing the place, and making sure the tenants are treating the place right.

Anyways, I just want to throw this out there that if you are going to bother to house-hack and don't want to do the perhaps 5 hours of work per year that go along with managing the property yourself, you've probably missed the point..

You really don't need a property manager if you are house-hacking.