Hiring our VS in house property management

[Jeff Exline]

I was lured into using a property management company for two properties I purchased for rent. I was initially worried about moving further away from the real estate and managing from afar so I felt obligated to hire a property management company. I thought I was getting a good deal when they offered 6% of income and I negotiated down to 5%. Now I am being nickeled and dimed to death, dealing with a very disorganized company, terrible marketing strategy which result in 5 months (cumulatively between teo properties) and poor decisions being made from the property management company to solve tenants problems costing more money than it should. Needless to say, very poor experience and I am less than pleased. Before hiring this company I was managing them myself from in the area and didn't have many issues other than dealing with an older home with the occasional call to the handyman when my time was spread thin and honestly felt like it was possible to do from afar but didn't want to risk issues down the road and wanted a TRULY passive experience. Here is my current situation: I live in chicago Two single family rentals in Wisconsin One condo rental in chicago One single family rental in Louisville KY Working on another rental in chicago currently Is it worth it to hire someone near me to manage from afar and develop contacts such as a handy man in the respective areas to manage?

[Brie Schmidt]

1. I would only hire a local operator.  I live in Chicago and invest in Milwaukee, I had my own in house PM to manage my 18 properties there and it require too much of my time to go back and forth.  

2.  You will always have a problem because you don't have scale.  If you have a vacant unit and I have a vacant unit, but they manage 75 units for me, guess who is getting leased out first?

3. Depending on where in WI, you may have to use a PM.  I  know in Milwaukee I am required to have a local operator on file with the city and DNS.