Is it dumb to hire a PM in a red hot rental market?

[Account Closed]

Portland's rents have been rising over 10% year over year.  There's a lot of political brew-ha-ha both locally and at the state level over tenant protections and increased housing costs, and local and state laws have been changing in favor of tenants over the past couple years ($4500 relocation fees for non-renewal of lease, 90 day notices for all rent increases, and rent control is working its way through the state legislature).  Vacancy rates are 3%.  

I've been a managing landlord for 5 years and currently own and manage 5 units.  I also do most of the repairs myself and have a half time job outside of landlording, plus I'm currently managing 2 rehabs.  

I recently gave a notice of a 5% rent increase, but my tenants came back and said they need 90 days (not the 30 days I gave them) as per a state law enacted last year.  This surprised me, because I'm usually on top of all the laws.  I had to rescind the notice.  

Now I'm considering hiring a property manager.  This is a B+ unit in a B+ neighborhood and these tenants have been in place 2 years with relatively few problems and no intention of moving out.  It's not hard to manage.  A 10% management fee would cost me almost $200/month for this one unit.  

Would hiring a PM be dumb?  I'm busy and could use help with my properties, but that's a huge cash flow suck for a relatively low maintenance property.  I've heard strong opinions both in favor of property management, and for managing your own properties, since management can eat up cashflow and no one cares about your asset as much as you.  (You can see where I'm leaning, but I'm also just tired and help would be nice.)

[Jason Hirko]

@Account Closed I agree with everything you said. I cut my teeth in Real Estate in Portland and all along the Willamette Valley. You are right - rentals are pretty easy to manage in most of those areas. However, you need to think about not how much the management of those units costs you, but how much your time is worth. I use a PM on all of my residential rentals, and not because I necessarily think that they are doing $75-$250 worth of work each month, but because I know I can make a heck of a lot more than $75 a month doing almost anything other than land lording. Even if it is just keeping up with the garbage  tenant protections they come up with at every city council meeting - to me it is a matter of how much my time is worth.