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Updated 9 months ago, 03/24/2024
Property management lease only service?
I'm 25 and just closed on my 2nd property that I will be owner occupying / house hacking and moving out of my current house hack to rent out to a family/tenant. It's a 4 bed 2 bath house. I found a local property management company that offers a "lease only service" meaning that they will take pics, market/list the property for rent, handle showings, screenings, and paperwork to onboard the tenant and then hand it over to me to manage. I've decided that I want to manage it myself for at least a year to not only save costs but because the property is local to my next one, I've lived in it for over a year so I know the maintenance of the home, and I'm a PM for a home builder so I have all the handyman/tradesmen relationships that I can use for any repairs. The PM company charges a fee equal to first months rent for this lease only service. I would rent the property for $2000. Do you think it's worth $2000 to have a company handle the full tenant onboarding process?
Since I'm young and haven't done this leasing/renting out process before (my house hack roomates have been friends), I'm afraid of onboarding the wrong tenant or drafting up paperwork/leases that doesn't fully protect me as a landlord. Plus doing a bunch of showings and processing applications doesn't sound too fun either. Is the tenant onboarding process really that difficult or strenuous to where it's worth utilizing this lease only service despite the fairly hefty fee for a process that will probably take the PM company roughly 2-3 weeks to do?