How many units can one person manage?

Question

Background: I currently have 30 SFH. 8 of these are model homes that I lease back to a builder NNN (minimual management) with the other 22 units being new construction (less than 5 years old). I currently have my personal assistant doubling as a property manager. I am growing this business and plan on building (My other business is a production home builder) another 15 - 20 units this year.

Question: How many SFH units do I need to keep a full time property manager busy? In my head I always thought 60 units.

Put another way: How many SFH did you have when you hired your first full time employee to manage property?

Thanks in advance!

Doug French · Answer

Thanks for the feedback. Although they are SFH they tend to be grouped in the same developments and they are new units. So there is some efficiency. I will see how it feels this year going from 30 to 45 units. I should know quickly if we can scale with current staffing. Just do not want to learn the hard way.

Samantha Klein · Answer

I plan on managing 32-36 units when I'm out of the accumulation phase. I think one person can manage more but it depends if those units are all separate properties or if you have 8 units here, 10 here, 9 over there, you know, just a couple buildings with that many units shouldn't be that difficult but seeing that you have all SFH, I personally wouldn't want to manage many of those, too many locations to keep track of.

Doug French · Answer

Thanks for the response. This maybe one of those times trial and error work best. I was hoping there would be a rule of thumb. Thanks again.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

In reality it would depend greatly on location of the units and what duties the PM would be required to do.

Newer units fairly limited in maintenance issues, I would think once all are up and running would be fairly easy to paperwork manage, it's the visual routine drive by's and showings that are going to be logistic issues if the properties are spread out and not easy for one person to get to on a daily basis for showings, which should be expected.