Is a cancellation fee for property management normal?

[Sebastian Dombrowski]

Hi Bigger Pockets folks,

I'm in the process of getting ready to buy my first rental and I'm interviewing property management companies right now. One company that I was interviewing with is asking for a fee if I quit my contract with them before a tenant's lease is up. Essentially, they want whatever I would have paid them until the lease is up. So if they manage a unit with a tenant who's lease is up in 10 month and I quit my contract with that management company right now, I would have to pay them their monthly fee x 10. That amount might wipe out my whole cash flow for the year. That seems very strange to me and a lot of money for nothing in return. So my question is, is something like that normal or is that a red flag that they try that hard to disincentivize me to switch property managers? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Sebastian