Managing Your Property Manager - making $1000/hr

[Bryan L.]

I believe in using a good property manager - and I have one.  But you still have to be involved.  I've recently saved $1500 on one of my houses with about 1.5 hours of my time - that's $1000/hr.  First, one of my houses needed a new roof.  I called up the roofer who had given my PM a quote.  It was a good quote to begin with.  But, while I was on the phone with him discussing options (shingle vs metal), he lowered his quote verbally by $500.  I didn't even really ask for a discount.  Then, a few months later, the PM said that I needed to re-carpet 3 bedrooms.  The quote was $1260.  I thought it was a bit high, so I went to the carpet store and shopped around and met the carpet installer (a different one) at the house to get measurements.  As we looked at it, we decided to just stretch the carpet and do some minor repairs instead of replacing it - for a savings of $1000.