Should I hire a property manager?

Question

Hi all,

I’m going to be starting my real estate portfolio soon by purchasing a 2 unit multi family and living in the first unit for a while.

One thing I cant seem to decide on is should I hire property manager for a short time?

The reason I’m leaning towards it is I’m very new to this and a littler nervous to start so I feel they’d be able to help/ guide me in a-lot of different areas (Book-keeping, Finding good tenants, helping me find maintenance, rent collections etc)

Then after I start to understand  best ways to run it I could just get rid of the property manager, Thoughts?

Dennis Wayne · Answer

They are really expensive and will eat up your profits . The worst part is your cheating yourself out of learning how to manage people and your asset if you sub it out you’ll never gain the experience you need to be a good investor . It’s a learnable skill bro

Erik Spell · Answer

@Tyler Battaglia hey Tyler, I agree 100%. Self managing without experience is a lot of trial and error - lease agreements that may have holes, not having the right resources when a problem occurs, leniency on rent payments. I would recommend a PM but input this into your expenses. Call a few around the area before you buy. What are their rates? Then you can throw that into your expenses when you run a BP deal analyzer to really know your #s and determine a good deal.

And always vet your PMs. They are not created equal.

Julie Hartman · Answer

I would suggest hiring a PM to start out until you know and are comfortable with what you are doing. This is especially true if you will be living in the same complex as your tenants. A few questions to ponder: Do you know the landlord tenant laws of your state? Do you know the fair housing laws? Are you comfortable being firm with a tenant while living in the same building as they do? Do you understand the eviction moratorium? Do you know the process of evicting a tenant? Do you have a solid lease agreement? Do you understand the security deposit laws of your state? These are the issues that get most people into trouble when they self manage. Once you understand these things, then you should be able to go it alone.

Aaron K. · Answer

If you aren't comfortable managing and don't know the legalities then it may very well make sense to hire a PM, it could save you from a costly mistake if you are going from zero to one

Should I hire a property manager?

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