Rental owners: do you care about property management fees?

[Jordan Meyer]

There are some new discount property management companies that charge 5-6% (instead of the more typical 9% in Utah or California) and have data showing that they keep vacancy and rents the same as the 9% alternatives.

I'm wondering why they haven't picked up more traction. For example, if you're interested in selling your apartment, you could switch to a discount property manager for a year (going from, say 9% to 6% of rents) and increase the value of your property by 3%, netting yourself thousands on the sale.

So, apartment owners, do you care about property management fees?

[Jaysen Medhurst]

It's not necessarily that easy, @Jordan Meyer. What are the other fees charged by the PM? How much are they padding maintenance? What are the lease-up and renewal fees? Personally, I want fees that align the PM's interest with the investor's. I'd happily pay a higher percentage, if it means lower (no) lease up fees. Why? Because I want great tenants for as long as possible. If a PM is making most of their money when a unit turns over, that's a problem.