Become a landlord or hire a property manager?

[Account Closed]

I plan on investing in rental properties and I've never had landlord experience before. Would it be wise to hire a property manager? What are the costs?

[Harry M.]

A property manager will typically charge you around 8-10% of gross rents, and around 1/2 a months rent to fill a vacancy. Another option is to hire a property manager just to fill vacancies - that will cover advertising, tenant screening, and lease writing - and manage the property yourself the rest of the time. That will typically cost about a month's rent.
I believe a good property manager can be a valuable asset, but I have heard stories of not so good ones. In the end no one is going to care about your property/tenants as much as you do, but a good property manager will bring experience, knowledge, contacts (e.g. contractors they've worked with a long time and trust to fix problems) to the table and save you time.
Regardless of which way you go, you should always factor the cost of PM into your number crunching to make sure a deal works for you - if you decide to manage it yourself, think of it as paying yourself to do the PM.