Property Manager styles

[Eric Furst]

I'm under contract on an out of state property, so I'm looking into property managers in the area. The companies I'm looking into seem to have three different ways of addressing maintenance issues. 

1- Some of the companies employ the entire maintenance staff, from handy men to electricians plumbers and contractors. When an issue comes up, they send down the appropriate member of the staff to take care of it. 

2- Other companies have a sister company that does the work. They take the calls, and then tell the sister company which professional to send down to the property.

3- A couple of companies have relationships with various professionals, but no staff or sister company. When a job needs to be done they presumably pull out their roladex and go down the list until someone is available. When a bigger job comes up these companies have the flexibility to have a number of contractors come out to provide estimates, and while this allows them to get a better rate they also take a finders fee.

I can crunch the basic numbers myself. But I'm wondering if the members of the forum (this is my first property) can shed some light on what I should expect from these different styles? Should I expect more delays when the company has to work around the availability of their sister company? Should I expect shoddy work if they are just calling around to find an available electrician? And should I expect the companies in the first category to send out plumbers when a handyman would suffice in order to justify having the more expensive professional on staff? If you have answers to any of these questions, or can share any other pro's or con's of these models that would be very helpful.