Online property management tools vs local property management

[Jonathan Oh]

If you invest long enough, chances are you have had frustrations with property management. But, I recently had a talk with an agent that told me that most of his investors saw better results by self-managing. They used PM software like Buildium, Appfolio, etc. I was wondering if any BP members have or still uses these software instead of a local pm company? What are the pros and cons? Do you believe this is where the industry is going to begin to move towards?

[Mark Ainley]

@Jonathan Oh Self management is a good option for many investors but you have to weigh the options.  How much do you feel your property(s) under-perform if at all using this PM?  (might be a PM issue).  Then how much will you have to pay in fixed costs to manage yourself vs costs you have with a PM.  A PM uses many platforms but is able to reduce average costs per unit based on scale.  Then there is your time.  

I own a management company but I write this post from the direction of an investor or an individual that tries to leverage his time as much as possible since life is short.  I value my time at $200 per hour when I need to make a decision like yours.  If I can pay someone else less then $200 per hour with 80% of the result I would get if I did it myself then I will delegate it.   In the case of property management for a single property you will spend about 18-25 hours per year handling all of the items required from routine maintenance, new maintenance, collections, banking, renewals, tenant issues, accounting, city requirements, and that is if there is no turnover with comes with an entire new other list of items to address(Add another 10-15 hours).  

Opportunity costs - What can you be doing with your time to that will help you work towards accomplishing other goals or a better life including time with your family which you can never go back and redo.  

If you are a single man, limited family around, unemployed, and this is your only source of income then i might take back all of the above.  LOL

What is your time worth.