Is it time to hire in house support?

[L. Matthew Perry]

Good Day All,

I have a question relating to bring Property management and/or maintenance in house vs using a 3rd party manager.

Some Background:

I have about 135 units in my portfolio - ranging from SFH - Apartment buildings mainly in Rochester, with 10 in Buffalo. Currently, I have a property management company that covers both cities. As you can imagine, as my portfolio has grown so have my maintenance costs and property management fees. This year, I will spend approximately $90k in property management/Leasing fees and another $275K in maintenance (this is material and labor combined). I am in out of town investor.

I think it is time to move operations in house  and hire people as there is some opportunity to save money (I think).  So I wanted to get some advice on if my logic is sound and if so, how do I go about getting started.  Here are some specific questions:

- Outside of the obvious cost savings, are there other considerations to bringing operations in house or or not to evaluate?

- What's the best way to identify people with the right skills to hire?  Do you know of anyone is looking for a job in this space in Rochester?

- There are a number of added expenses with NY State when you start hiring full time employees. Anyone has experience in how much those costs might be?

- Suggestions on safeguards I should put in place since I am an out of town investor.  Note, I do go to Rochester/Buffalo for at least a week a month

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Cheers!

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