Bringing property management in house : what do you think?

[Dan K.]

I've been using professional property managers for the last 10 years but last year I made the leap of bringing self management in house. I was deliberating on this decision for a couple of years but I'm so glad I made this decision. 

I'm in a couple of markets in Texas and I've had mixed experience with property managers. I realized however that even the honest made it difficult to cash flow and it was not because of their management fees but more because they didn't keep maintenance costs low.  They hired contractors to do make readies and repair work but they rarely challenged these contractors on the costs. I just got a bill, usually after the repair was made and the money was disbursed , and these costs were eating up all my profits. 

I made a goal that once I hit critical mass of a certain number of rental was that I was going to do two things

1.  Hire employees who work directly for me to manage my properties. I don't mean hiring a property manager because property managers are working for themselves and not necessarily for you. I mean hiring players and paying them an hourly salary. These people have many years of property management experience but some want to work only part time or they just want to make a little extra money on top of their current property management job. 

2.  Bring in a couple of handymen to take care of ALL my make readies and maintenance issues. Because I am giving them steady work they are giving it just a discount but they do a great job because they know where their next big job is coming from. 

It's been month 8 of self managing or rather overseeing my property management employees and the results have been extraordinary. I don't get calls from tenants or anything or tracking down delinquent rents-- however I am overseeing the people who are doing this work. It was difficult the first 3-4 months in finding the right people but it was worth it. Maintenance costs have gone down, vacancy rates have come down, etc. probably the biggest benefit was that I have peace of mind knowing that that my employees doing a better job than before. 

I realize that bringing property management ( not necessarily do it your self landlordinf) in house isn't for everyone but I was wondering if others have done this and what you're experience has been.