Rookie advice for self managing?

Question

Good afternoon all,

Happy Friday everyone, as rookie in real estate one of the biggest question is should I self manage or hire a property manger.

Welp that question is hitting my wife and I straight in the face currently. We are ready to put our first SFH on the market, but we are unsure if we should self manage or hire and learn from a pro.

Of course each has their pro's and con's,but wanted to see if anyone could provide some insight or helpful tips if we where to pursue self managing. Thank you so much for any hints or tips provided.

Melvin Maxwell · Answer

Hey @Christian Olivo. I'm a military guy with 7 properties in 4 states. I started with management companies and now self-manage all my properties with the exception of one because I think it is really just so easy to do it yourself with all the tools and systems available to quickly screen tenants. #1 most important is to find the right tenant and the rest becomes pretty simple. Heather and Brandon Turner's book on Managing Rental Properties is great. I use Transunion SmartMove to do background checks--you can have the applicants pay the fee so it is free to you. I also use a free Survio survey tool for applicants to answer (what is your credit score, how much to you make, etc) to prescreen and cut down on how many people you have to show the property to.

Best of luck.

Mel

Best of luck.

Mel

Kenton LeVay · Answer

If you have absolutely 0 interest in self-managing I'd say you just hire it out. But if you're open minded about it (sounds like you are), I'd try to manage it yourself. There are hundreds of books written on the topic that could serve as education for ya. You can always try to do it yourself and if you end up not liking it you could hire it out or sell the property.

Anthony Vander Meer · Answer

@Christian Olivo

Find a good handyman and self manage. I have 14 units and the management part takes me about 2 hours a month.  Also by self managing you’ll learn what everything costs so you don’t get taken advantage of down the road by a PM. Once you get a few properties under your belt you could always turn them over to a PM. At that point you’ll know the right questions to ask. Good luck!!

Mel Hayes · Answer

@Christian Olivo You should start by self managing to establish your systems.  Its only one property and you will learn a lot.  IMO, Property management is for owners with multiple properties. When you only have one property, you account for such a small portion of their business that they pay very little attention to your property.

Que Tran · Answer

I used to think, self-manage - all the way (and I'm a property manager). But at some point, you won't want to deal with the BS that comes with direct tenant contact. I become too attached and too nice. Slowly, I've asked other agent friends to find tenants for me, of course the commission of 1 month's rent is lost, but knowing it was a prescreened qualified tenant helps me become detached. And am now having other PM take over.  Once you accumulate volume, it does become another job. So try to self manage on your first one to learn the ins and outs.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Christian Olivo I’ve got 6 units, soon to be 9 and I self-manage. The units are all in excellent shape so I have little to do in the way of maintenance requests.

If you feel up to it I’d highly recommend managing your own property if it’s feasible. You will care way more about your own building and your profit than a property management company will.

Unless you’re handy find a handyman, locate a plumber, scope out an electrician. My community has a local Facebook page that’s great for getting these types of recommendations from. Or you can ask people locally for recommendations, if you have a local banker or accountant they can be a great source of information.

Best of luck!

Cody Neumann · Answer

@Christian Olivo

If you are close the the property and have the time to do it and are willing to then I would say do it. Most property managers are 8% which isn’t necessarily worth it to me at least. I have a single family rental and as long as you fix a lot of issues prior to tenants moving in you should only have maintenance calls every once and a while which isn’t worth the 8% in my opinion.

Colleen F. · Answer

@Christian Olivo  are you local?   Do you have time to manage/field calls /emails,  and showings?   Do you know your states fair housing laws and any local regulations?  willing to learn them before placing any ads?  Do you have a good lease?    Do you want to do it?

Definitely go the PM route if you are not reasonably close, you don't have time, you don't know regulations and aren't willing to keep up with them or you don't want to deal with people.   Look for a good PM in the area, talk to a couple. Ask costa and how they handle screenings and repairs.

There are many ways to handle it. You can also choose to place a tenant yourself and let them manage the tenant. You can choose to let them screen and place the tenant and manage or you can just have them manage a tenant you place.

Know what works for you with your other job. Set your screening criteria  and always do pre-screening questions prior to showing, it cuts the

I

Christian Olivo · Answer

thank you so much for your feedback @Kenton LeVay, any books you would recommend?

Rookie advice for self managing?

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