Time required to be a landlord

[Emir O'Hara]

My partner and I are starting the process of buying a multi-family unit with the intention of renting out two of the units but are unsure as to whether we should hire a property manager or do the "landlord-ing" ourselves. To those of you managing your properties directly, how much given time in a month do you spend taking care of your property or dealing with tenants? 

thanks!

-emir

[Cara Lonsdale]

If you put the time/work into the front end of it in the way of prep, it could be reasonable to expect that you would not have to invest alot of time into managing the units from a daily standpoint.  This will include properly screening the Tenants, having a solid security deposit, and having a home warranty and/or handyman contact at the ready, for repairs that come along throughout the month. 
I often encourage investors who want to try self-management, to create a property binder for Tenants that live in each property with "How To" instructions for submitting claims into the home warranty, and contacting the handyman directly for small repairs.  I would also suggest vetting an emergency plumber for those midnight leaks that always seem to happen at some point in an investor's ownership of real estate.  You don't want to get that call at 2am, however, you don't want the tenant calling just anyone either.  Better to manage the points of contact than to allow the Tenants to run up charges for you to deal with because they couldn't get ahold of you in the middle of the night.
For submitting rent payments, there are many electronic and/or automatic options so that you don't have to collect rent checks.  
Everything is smooth as long as the Tenant pays rent.  IF the Tenant fails to pay rent, be sure to have an attorney who handles evictions on your vendor list so that they are on the ready to process any of those needed evictions.
Of course, if there is any damage to the units upon move-out, that would take up time.
Mostly, the time consuming items occur when things go sideways.  Again, I would refer to my first paragraph about getting set up for success so that you can avoid the negative side of management.