How to Self-Manage from A Distance

[Dalton Dellinger]

Hello BP!

I own a Fourplex that is about 50 minutes from where I live. The property management company that I have had in charge is terrible.

I am considering managing it myself until I get it 100% occupied.

My questions are:

How do you show the property? Do you have a handyman do it or some other "boots on the ground"?

How do you pay them for their time?

Other than that I think we could self manage easily. We have online payments set up with our closer properties and have handymen in place to handle maintenance.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Thank you

[Syed H.]

Originally posted by @Dalton Dellinger:

Hello BP!

I own a Fourplex that is about 50 minutes from where I live. The property management company that I have had in charge is terrible.

I am considering managing it myself until I get it 100% occupied.

My questions are:

How do you show the property? Do you have a handyman do it or some other "boots on the ground"?

How do you pay them for their time?

Other than that I think we could self manage easily. We have online payments set up with our closer properties and have handymen in place to handle maintenance.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Thank you

 Only 50 minutes? That's close! lol 

I self-manage from 2 hours away. 

How do you show the property? 

Either me or my partner show the units. But we group all showings around the same time. We have 0 vacant units out of 18 though. Last vacancy, it took 3 showings in 2 weeks to find a tenant. We just sucked it up and went. 

Do you have a handyman do it or some other "boots on the ground"?

Yes. Our logic is we are ok with paying our handyman a little more to keep him happy and handle some of the grunt work. If there is a quick leak, backed up main line, or a breaker trips, he runs over. This is MUCH cheaper than a PM. I'm saving 7-9% on mgmt, 50% leasing fee, and the up-charges on maintenance. 

How do you pay them for their time?

We pay him by job. We are flippers, we know what certain jobs should cost. If it's just a simple circuit breaker I still give him $20 for a 1 minute job just because he saved me a 4 hour round trip and $40 in tolls. 

Self-managing isn't too hard, but it requires flexibility & systems in place. We go 2-3x/month for a full day to collect rent from our PO Box, deal with maintenance issues, and look at new acquisitions. Most people can't do that if they have a 9-5. Also, have a google voice number to give to your tenants, a PO Box for rent, and a system to keep track of rents/inspections/etc etc etc.