To self manage or hire a PM...that is the question

[Kayla Elliott]

I manage my parents rental portfolio which consists of 1 mobile home park (20 units), and about 15 other houses. A lot of them are in poor shape and I am slowly trying to fix them up one by one. However, I don't have time to do the PM side anymore. I reached out to a friend who has a PM company, but they require all contractors be insured. The problem, is that we have a full time maintenance guy that has worked for us for 25+ years and I can't let him go.  I tried to get a policy where we insured him, but since we OWN the properties and the MAINTENANCE company. So because of the conflict, I can't insure the maintenance company. Which causes me to not be able to hire a PM, because they all want him insured. Even though he doesn't do anything that requires a license. 

So would it be smarted to hire more of an "assistant" to manage everything and be a little more in control of the process and procedures? I just don't have time for maintenance calls, filling vacancies, wiring leases, etc. 

What would you do?