How do you manage Rental Properties?

[Noah Bacon]

Are you a self managing landlord or do you use a Property Manager? Or maybe you self manage some of your properties and use a Property Manager for the remaining?

Does the manager you hire do 100% of the work, or are you still responsible for certain areas as a landlord? What do you look for in a Property Manager?

I am very interested to see the results and hear you stories, please share some of the Do's and Don'ts that you have experienced managing your properties!

[Spencer Abeyta]

When you use a property manager you have a couple options. The most common are full service companies vs lease only. 

Lease only companies will handle the advertising of the property, tenant screening, and getting the tenants on a signed lease. They usually charge a large portion of one month's rent if not the full amount. After this, they hand the property back to the owner and the owner handles all the day to day. The benefit to this is that the owner gets more control and does not have to pay a monthly management fee. But the owner has to account for taxes for the property and handle all maintenance issues and tenant communication.

Full service management handles the full leasing process and then they handle the day to day of the property. The benefit is that the owner does not have to deal with the dreaded Christmas Eve toilet back ups and the owner can lean on the expertise of the PM for the full extent of the relationship. Full service PMs usually provide a 1099 and cashflow statement to make end of the year taxes easier. The downside is that you have to pay a PM a monthly management fee which could cut into your cashflow on the property.