How expensive is your PM company?

[Jane A.]

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I have a question:

Does PM decrease the efficiency of your Rental business?

I mean, additional expenses connected with PM company?

Like longer vacancies, longer renovations, higher expenses for renovations, etc.

By the way, how do you measure the efficiency of your rental property management and how big is the difference between self-management and using the PM company in terms of money.

What are your key criteria for choosing the PM company?

Thank you!

J

[Account Closed]

A thread like this will invite some person to give a boiler plate response like "Your property management should make you more money" (which they're probably parroting from some podcast they just listened to).

There are a minority of stellar property managers, but the vast majority are either 'meh' or major sources of incompetence and liability. 

'Efficiency' - depends on what areas. I dont have the time/patience/willingness to face a difficult tenant or deal with maintenance logistics - those things I gladly hand over to management. However, there is a lot of 'Hey, did you do this____'  ...' 'Hows it going with ____'   That is inefficient, but one thing to keep on mind is that the squeaky wheel ge td s the attention. When there are 400+ units a management team is stewarding, then you need to work at getting on their radar. This isn't at all ideal or efficient, but c'est la vie.  In the market I invest in (Chicago), it would be foolish and a gamble to trade a decent property manager (who is very $ reasonable) for some on ne you take a chance with by transferring management in order to achieve greater efficiency.