Management Co -- How much work do I do?

[Dan Griffin]

Assuming I hire a management company to handle property, how much work will my property be? How often will I have to be involved with issues?

In addition to the property management fee, what have you folks found is a good number to estimate for monthly maintenance expenses?

Do any of you handle tenant screening yourself, but allow someone else to run the day-to-day operations?

Just looking for experiences. (We are not yet landlords, but strongly considering it.)

[Paul Falbo]

Can you give more specifics about the property, such as type, size, distance from you, age,, etc?

If you decide to hire a management company, I would recommend interviewing two or three management companies. Ask for a copy of their contract, a list of business references, samples of their forms, costs for specific services, reporting frequency, etc. Make sure any contract you enter into prohibits expenditures beyond a certain amount, without your written authorization.

As with any new relationship, the amount of time you spend as an owner will probably be directly proportionate to your comfort level with the manager and management company. I've had commercial owners who are involved in numerous decisions, and owners that have trusted our company to make many decisions within the limits of the approved operating budgets. I had one owner who did not visit the property for four years. He has been a client for 12 years.

With today's technology, a manager can film, video, text, email you in seconds. Do what you are comfortable with. The squeaky wheel may get the grease;but, real squeaky wheels can become annoying.

If the manager collects rents, make sure that you monitor deposits and financial statements monthly. It also helps if the management company maintains E&O insurance, and employee theft insurance.

A good manager should make a fair profit.. A good, and reputable, manager can save you money due to their experience and insights.

Operating costs are proportionate to age of the asset, your desires concerning deferred maintenance, or improvement issues, and keeping up with the market and competition.

We offer tenant credit screenings through third party services upon request and pass on the cost of the screenings to our clients, without markup.