Growing Pains From Self Managing To Using Property Mgmt Company

[Jennifer Ward]

I recently transitioned my buy and hold portfolio from Denver where I self managed my properties, to out of state where I am now relying on a property management company. With my first purchase OOS I attempted the BRRRR strategy. I hired the property management company to manage the repairs. I wasn't sure if this would be a good idea or not but I figured I would give them a try. I would say they did an overall good job on the rehab. However after the rehab was finished and now in the first month of my new tenant, I keep seeing a number of maintenance costs being charged. Some of them needed to be addressed immediately such as leaks, however some of them were not necessary in my opinion to be fixed right away. For example, straightening the mailbox and putting new numbers or fixing the latch on the side gate. I contacted my PM and requested if any other maintenance issues come up that are not at the risk of my tenant's safety and health, can we hold off on a few months until I start generating some income. I have seen and heard from others that Property Managers do generate a lot of their money from maintenance. This company has an in house crew that does the work.

I guess my question is how do you moderate maintenance costs with your property management company?  The contract mentions I will be notified in advance if the cost is more than $250, however most of these are below $250, but when you add them up they are costing me well over $250 in a single month.  How do you determine a fair cost for certain maintenance items?  

I do know the maintenance costs are usually more initially when a tenant moves in as that is when problems are most noticeable.  Hopefully the worst is behind me but I still want to get the BP community opinions on negotiating maintenance costs with a PM in general.

Thanks for your insight!